Penn State College of Medicine joins global research efforts against COVID-19

Faculty and staff at Penn State College of Medicine are leading or represented on more than one-third of COVID-19 research proposals awarded funding by Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. The institutes awarded a total of $2.25 million to 47 teams of researchers at all Penn State campuses.

• Nikolay Dokholyan, PhD, is using state-of-the-art computational and protein engineering methods to develop a vaccine for SARS-COV-2.
• Ping Du, MD, PhD, and Li Wang, PhD, are part of a team that is developing models to evaluate whether a range of potential control measures intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 will be effective and to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on population health.
• Jessica Ericson, MD, and collaborators Catharine Paules, MD, and Patrick Gavigan, MD, are seeking to understand public health messaging perceptions among patients who are seeking evaluation or testing for COVID-19 at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
• Susan Hafenstein, PhD, will examine the structure of the spike proteins from different coronaviruses and how they interact with different cells and structures.
• Scott Halstead, MD, PhD, is working with a team that includes James Adair, PhD, and Gail Matters, PhD, to use therapeutics to combat secondary bacterial infections and inflammation in the lungs of patients with COVID-19.
• Steven Hicks, MD, PhD, is working with Scott Halstead, MD, PhD, and Judie Ann Howrylak, MD, PhD, to determine if biomarkers in saliva can be used to predict prognosis in patients with COVID-19.
• Jennifer Kraschnewski, MD, is teaming up with Deepa Sekhar, MD, and William Calo, PhD, JD, to evaluate how Project ECHO, a series of online learning sessions taught by and intended for health care providers, can be adapted to address the COVID-19 pandemic and disseminate critical information to providers and members of the community.
• Eugene Lengerich, VMD, and other Penn State collaborators are developing and testing online learning tools of COVID-19 preparedness for science teachers and community leaders.
• Robert Lennon, MD, JD, is working with Aleksandra Zgierska, MD, PhD; Bethany Snyder; Courtney Lennon, MD; David Rabago, MD; Emily Wasserman; Erin McGinley; Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD; Mack Ruffin, MD; and Vernon Chinchilli, PhD, to evaluate health messaging efficacy for COVID-19 and how it affects public perceptions, anxiety and behavior.
• Craig Meyers, PhD, is working with David Goldenberg, MD; Rena Kass, MD; and Samina Alam, PhD, to determine if certain disinfectants or rinses can inactivate or hinder transmission of COVID-19.
• David Rabago, MD, is investigating whether osteopathic manipulation therapy holds promise for COVID-19 related respiratory problems with Robert Lennon, MD, JD; Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD; Judie Ann Howrylak, MD, PhD; Jason Croad, DO; Anne Darby, DO; and Erin McGinley.
• Steven Schiff, MD, PhD, is part of a team that seeks to inform decision-making to combat the spread of COVID-19 by assessing optimal intervention strategies in real-time using computational disease dynamic models and data.
• Joel Segel, PhD, and team members, including interim dean Kevin Black, MD, and William Bird, DO, are examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused reductions in necessary medical care.
• Kristin Sznajder, PhD, and collaborators Jaimey Pauli, MD; Jaimie Maines, MD; Kristen Kjerulff, PhD; Ping Du, MD, PhD; Wenke Hwang, PhD; Carrie Daymont, MD; Jeffrey Kaiser, MD; Ming Wang, PhD; and Cynthia Chuang, MD, are developing a registry of pregnant women with COVID-19 and are studying how the disease is affecting the health of women and their babies.
• Pak Kin Wong, PhD, is collaborating with a colleague from University Park to develop a self-healing liquid film for rapid disinfection.
• Aleksandra Zgierska, MD, PhD, is working with Robert Lennon, MD, JD; Danielle Symons Downs, PhD; Timothy Deimling, MD; Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, MD, and Erin McGinley to identify the immediate needs of pregnant patients in rural Pennsylvania and rapidly connect the most vulnerable patients to their needed resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Yusheng Zhu, PhD, is collaborating with an investigator at University Park to develop a portable, disposable device that can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in biological samples.

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