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Director's Corner
Welcome to the special COVID-19 edition of the UNYTE newsletter. Research institutions across New York State are answering the challenges of COVID-19. In this issue, we’re focusing on connecting you to 1) national platforms for COVID-19 data, and 2) each other, with “COVID Classifieds” – giving UNYTE members an opportunity to seek collaborative partners for COVID-19 research. 

There are a lot of exciting things happening inside the UNYTE Network. If you have collaborations you’d like to share with the UNYTE team, let us know at UNYTE@urmc.rochester.edu
Cornell-UR Collaboration finds that social distancing has stabilized, but failed to reverse, the spread of COVID-19
 
As policymakers try to restart the economy but also control COVID-19, data scientists at Cornell University and the University of Rochester are studying the impacts of social distancing. While social distancing has effectively slowed the rate at which COVID-19, the measures have not caused the total number of daily new cases to decrease significantly since social distancing was imposed. 

“The effect is not as large as one would have hoped for going in,” says lead author Aaron Wagner, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University. As a result, he says, the states now reopening businesses and relaxing restrictions “do not have much headroom” for error. “You’re right on the edge of it starting to blow up again.”

“Policy makers need to be aware of this,” says co-author Elaine Hill, assistant professor of public health sciences at the University of Rochester. “We need more studies to identify the practices that can move us to a place where COVID-19 is actually contracting.”

Click Here for More
 
National Platforms for COVID-19 Research

 

COVID-19 Collaboration Platform (http://covidcp.org/#about)

We can find effective treatments for COVID-19 much faster by sharing protocols for randomized clinical trials. This platform is a home for RCT protocols that are available for collaboration. Contact:  contact@covidcp.org

National COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative (N3C)  (https://ncats.nih.gov/n3c)

The N3C represents a collaborative vision for a national data resource that will turn data into the knowledge that is urgently needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The N3C will systematically and regularly collect data derived from electronic health records (EHRs) from different institutions and harmonize these data in the NCATS N3C Data Enclave, a centralized resource made available for collaborative research. It may be open to institutions who are not a Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA) Hub. Contact: NCATS_N3C@nih.gov
UNYTE Members Seeking Collaborative Partners for
COVID-19 Research
COVID MED Trial
Bassett Healthcare Network
Contact: daniel.freilich@bassett.org

 Our pragmatic adaptive trial is designed to be a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blinded RCT comparing efficacy and safety in four groups of hospitalized COVID-19 patients:
  • Standard care AND lopinavir/ritonavir for 5-14 days
  • Standard care AND hydroxychloroquine for 5-14 days
  • Standard care AND losartan for 5-14 days
  • Standard care AND placebo for 5-14 days
Genetic and Immune Determinants of Adverse Clinical Outcomes
in COVID-19
Wadsworth Center (DOH)
Contact: Klemen.Strle@health.ny.gov

We are seeking ~500 Serum (~250ul) for immunological analyses, and whole blood (~2ml; purple top, EDTA, or pax gene tube) for genetic studies are needed from COVID-19 patients with a range of disease severity. The goal of this proposal is to
  • identify host genetic risk loci associated with severe COVID-19 by determining the frequency of ~250,000 SNPs in patients with mild or severe disease using GWAS-based ImmunoArray; and 
  • assess the functional consequence of implicated SNPs in dysregulated immune responses by assessing their effect on cytokine and chemokine levels, CoV19 antibody responses, and other markers of immune activation in patients.
Antiviral Mask with Aromatherapy (US Patented)
Albany College of Pharmacy
Contact: Shaker.Mousa@acphs.edu

We need help to partner on the manufacturing side.

Antiviral/Heparin Inhalation for COVID-19 and Other Upper Respiratory Tract Infectious Diseases (US Patented)
Contact: Shaker.Mousa@acphs.edu

We are looking for collaborative partners.
 
Farmworker Survey about the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic
Bassett Healthcare Network
Contact: julie.sorensen@bassett.org

We are conducting a survey based needs assessment of farmworkers to better understand what issues farmworkers are facing during the COVID pandemic.The survey can be self-administered (a Spanish version is available) or it can administered by outreach workers, nurses, students etc. who speak to the farm workers by phone.
Eracication of SARS-cov-2 Using UVC Irradiation
University at Binghamton, SUNY
Contact: kye@binghamton.edu

We need access to a BSL3 Lab. In early days when the pandemic erupted, we helped build a number of UVC sterilization bath stations for local hospitals to disinfect and reuse N95 respirators. We intend to determine which dose is needed to completely eradicate SARS-cov-2 using UVC irradiation, i.e. we want to establish a UVC virus killing curve. We have designed a device for these studies. 
Incentivizing Capacity Investment for COVID-19 Therapy and Vaccine Manufacturing
Syracuse University
Contact: bkazaz@syr.edu

What is the best way to incentivize manufacturers to build capacity to treat 1 billion people? We are seeking partnership from private companies that manufacture COVID therapies and vaccine. We are interested in collaborating in estimating the population needs for such therapies. We are also interested in virology and immunology scholars to participate in our analysis.
The UNYTE Translational Research Network (UNYTE) is a consortium of 20 biomedical research institutions from across New York State.  UNYTE fosters transdisciplinary and trans-institutional research collaborations and engages community and regional partners to demonstrate and disseminate methods and approaches to advance translational research.
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