Biomedical Awardees on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Response
"We realized the role of these proteins...[and] were in a good position to start to investigate which cells this virus might target."
"We realized the role of these proteins...[and] were in a good position to start to investigate which cells this virus might target."
Several of our biomedical research awardees have found their work unlocking critical questions on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response.
- Excellence Awardee Melissa Moore (1994) helped lead the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine as Chief Science Officer at Moderna.
- Excellence Awardee Jose Ordovas-Montanes (2019) of MIT and now Boston Children’s Hospital identified specific cells in the body targeted by the coronavirus.
- Excellence Awardee Yonatan Grad (2015) of Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health was cited in the Boston Globe for his work to estimate the optimal social distancing time to both flatten the curve and reduce overall disease burden. CNN’s Anderson Cooper picked up the story in this interview with Grad.
- Odyssey Awardee Lydia Bourouiba (2019) of MIT was featured in the Boston Globe for her research on the fluid dynamics of sneezes which suggested a 6-foot berth may not be sufficient to prevent transmission.
- Food Allergy Science Initiative researchers Aviv Regev and Ramnik Xavier of The Broad Institute are measuring viral loads and profiling immune cells and responses to infection in an effort to answer some of the basic questions about COVID-19—particularly why some patients get so much sicker than others—and identify antibodies for therapeutic use.
