COVID-19

Developing new therapies and getting them to patients is long and difficult. During public health emergencies, such as the Covid-19 Pandemic, science must move faster than ever. That is where translational science comes in. Translational science is focused on streamlining the process of moving (“translating”) lab findings into medical practice and treatments to improve health and well-being.

NCATS is supporting research activities spanning the translational science spectrum to address the novel coronavirus 2019 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes (COVID-19). To accelerate translational research, NCATS has developed research tools, technologies, expertise and collaborative networks that can quickly pivot to address urgent public health issues.

Coronavirus Disease 2019

  • Columbia University

    The mission of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is to advance discoveries, knowledge, and innovation to improve human health across the lifespan for diverse populations in upper Manhattan and around the world. By mobilizing and connecting Columbia University’s researchers, we aim to create a seamless integration of community and academic partnerships. Our commitment to train a multi-faceted workforce, provide vital resources to researchers, and improve the efficiency of research processes, promotes the collaborative team science framework needed to translate research discoveries into effective interventions that address current and future health concerns.

    We provide over 70 different services and programs focused on education and training, seed funding, bioinformatics, biostatistics, clinical research, lifespan research and special populations, regulatory knowledge and bioethics, an off-site community facility and health informatics websites.
  • Nathan Berger, MD, 2021 & 2016 Core Utilization Pilot Primary Investigator, 2017, 2015, & 2011 Core Utilization Pilot Co-Investigator Epigenetic effects of high-fat diet on intestinal tumorigenesis in C57BL/6J-ApcMin/+ mice Pamela Davis, MD, PhD, CTSC Associate PI and former Principal Investigator Drug use and COVID-19 is an especially dangerous combination for the heart, study finds Mahmoud
  • COVID-19 plus drug use can increase chance of sometimes fatal heart infection, new study shows Rong Xu, PhD, 2012 Themed Pilot Primary Investigator, 2011 Annual Pilot Co-Investigator People who take opioids or cocaine are more susceptible to developing endocarditis, a life-threatening condition where the inner lining of the heart's chambers and valves becomes inflamed, new research from Case
  • A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) research team’s article on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been recognized by the publisher of Clinical and Translational Science for having its top-cited article in 2022 and the most downloaded paper since its publication in 2021. The article, “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Race/Ethnicity, Trust and Fear,” resulted from a study conducted by

  • Penn State TSS Seminar: Translating COVID Science into School Policy - Insights from School Health Administra
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    Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr
    This talk will summarize one independent school's experiences with developing and operationalizing COVID-19 school policies with a quickly-evolving virus, mounting evidence, and shifting objectives and recommendations. Three public health advisors have helped develop and implement the pandemic response for an independent school. Their aim has been to translate evidence of epidemiologic and
  • Penn State CTSI BERD Seminar: Tracking and prediction of the early COVID-19 pandemic across Africa
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    Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr
    Penn State's multinational team created a strategy for understanding the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the African continent. Because high-quality mobility data are challenging to obtain across Africa, the endemic-epidemic framework used provides the ability to distinguish cases arising from within a country or from its neighbors. Based on prior evidence, the model incorporated
  • The findings that appear in Lancet Infectious Diseases are from one of the first studies to examine the effectiveness of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) in non-hospitalized patients during an Omicron period of the COVID-19 pandemic that includes BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. Though many Coloradans are proceeding as though the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the virus continues to circulate, evolve and

  • iTHRIV_VOICES_Eyo
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    University of Virginia

    Dear Colleagues, Please join us for the second of the 2023 Voices in Clinical and Translational Science seminar series presented by iTHRIV, Tuesday June 20, 2023 at Noon. The Voices in Clinical & Translational Science Seminar series serves as a platform to lift underrepresented voices in research across the iTHRIV partnership with a focus on promoting dialogue and encouraging team science. This

  • Light bulbs CWRU
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    Case Western Reserve University
    Sparking Conversation to Enhance Health Equity Research According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. Racial and ethnic health disparities related to COVID-19 put many Black and Brown
  • The contributions of Dr. Grace McComsey, Dr. Darcy Freedman, Dr. Pamela Davis, Dr. Fabio Cominelli, Dr. Rong Xu, and Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum were among the top research discoveries and observations in 2022. "As 2022 comes to a close, we are looking back at some of the top research highlights in the School of Medicine—including discoveries that will lead to paradigm-shifting, practice and policy
  • Malnutrition significantly increased the risk of mortality and adverse hospital events in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In the United States, current estimates suggest that 20-50% of hospitalized patients have malnutrition. Malnutrition is a condition that develops when the body lacks sufficient vitamins, minerals and other nutrients needed to maintain healthy tissues and organ function. In

  • Check out events and publications from CTSC groups in our December 2022 Newsletter: Dr. Jaclene Zauszniewski, an internationally recognized nurse-scientist and Distinguished Faculty Researcher Award recipient of Case Western Reserve University, and her research team, have learned from caregivers and for caregivers. Editorial: Emotionally intelligent leadership in medicine from Philip A. Cola, PhD
  • Here are some research highlights that were published in the CTSC's December 2022 Newsletter: CTSC PI, Dr. Grace McComsey, explains how the RECOVER cohort of University Hospitals of Cleveland and Metrohealth is at the forefront of the national Long COVID initiative Type 2 Diabetes problem growing rapidly in U.S. from Betul Hatipoglu, MD, Medical Director, University Hospitals Diabetes & Obesity
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    University of Virginia

    While much effort has gone into building predictive models of the COVID-19 pandemic, some have argued that early exponential growth combined with the stochastic nature of epidemics make the long-term prediction of contagion trajectories impossible. We conduct two complementary studies to assess model features supporting better long-term predictions. First, we leverage the diverse models

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    University of Virginia

    Excess cognitive dysfunction has been identified in older adult survivors of COVID-19, compared to other respiratory infections. SARS-CoV-2 may thus adversely impact the brain beyond what the cases of acute stroke, etc. suggest. Unrecognized brain effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection may impact current brain functioning and presage future neurodegeneration and overt neurologic dysfunction. However

  • Melissa Haendel, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and her team of data scientists have been working at a lightning-fast pace for two years, unlocking some of the mysteries of long COVID. Not only have they been instrumental in the development of the largest national, publicly available HIPAA-limited dataset in

  • UVA-iTHRIV Brain Institute
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    University of Virginia

    APPLICATIONS DUE January 8th The global COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years has upset our lives in ways unimaginable before we took to wearing masks, isolating at home, and avoiding contact with family, friends, and colleagues.  We are only now, just contending with the secondary effects of COVID exposures – so-called ‘long-haul COVID’ – but also the effects of deferred regular health check

  • Georgetown University
    Howard University
    MedStar Washington Hospital Center
    George Washington University

    Session recordings are now available from the DC CTSA Consortium's 2022 DC CTSA Spring Regulatory Update & Hot Topics in Clinical and Translational Research. DAY 1 - LASTING IMPACTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC (APRIL 28, 2022) - Keynote Address - Transcriptome profiling of human blood as a platform for diagnostic biomarker development: Measure broadly, listen carefully - Panel 1: Long-term COVID-19

  • Emory University
    Morehouse School of Medicine

    Racial health disparities impact Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and fatality rates. Hospitalization rates due to the pandemic among African Americans/Latinx/Hispanics in Georgia have been among the highest in the nation. Sociopolitical determinants, also termed Social Vulnerability (SV), have been identified as central among factors helping to explain the root causes associated with the

  • National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C)
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    Center for Data to Health
    The N3Community Forum is a place to learn about new COVID-related studies, papers, and opportunities. This event is held on a weekly basis and features one to two presentations from members of the N3C community on selected topics regarding their work with N3C. Each presentation is followed by a discussion session open to participants. Monday, November 14, 2022 at 2pm-3pm PT / 5pm-6pm ET with Sula
  • CLIC

    CLIC has had the honor of serving the CTSA Consortium as your Coordinating Center for the past 5+ years as we transformed the Consortium together. With Consortium members, CLIC launched innovative team science activities – non-traditional Un-meetings and cross-hub, cross-translational level Synergy Papers that have become part of the fabric of the CTSA Program. All hubs participated in one or more

  • CTSC resources have greatly benefitted the ability of many groups to inform policy and medical practice during the COVID pandemic. One example is the highly collaborative interdisciplinary team of Rong Xu, PhD, Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Drug Discovery, David Kaelber, MD, MPH, lead of the CTSC Informatics module and Chief Medical Information Officer in the MetroHealth
  • Re-examining Our Approach to Research: Translational Science Lessons from the Pandemic
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    Boston University Medical Campus

    Re-examining Our Approach to Research: Translational Science Lessons from the Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the urgent need to employ research methodologies better suited to more effectively, efficiently and equitably move therapeutics, vaccines and other interventions from bench to bedside to community. Reflecting on lessons learned, this conference will focus on successes and

  • As we head into our third fall of the COVID pandemic, nearly one-third of the U.S. population is still not fully vaccinated, likely due in part to vaccine hesitancy. An Arts and Medicine article recently published in JAMA describes a UR CTSI-supported program that turned to improv theater for help addressing vaccine hesitancy. The program, called the Theater for Vaccine Hesitancy, combined improv
  • CTSI KL2 scholar Carolyn Bramante, MD, MPH, led the nation’s first study on whether metformin, fluvoxamine, and ivermectin, or their combinations could serve as possible treatments to prevent ER visits or hospitalization, as well as Long-COVID. Yesterday, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of the clinical trial. “Our trial suggests that metformin may reduce the likelihood of

  • Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

    Rapid development and deployment of diagnostic testing for COVID-19 have been a key component of the public health response to the pandemic. Out of necessity, academic and other clinical laboratories developed laboratory testing innovations for COVID-19 to meet clinical testing demands.

  • Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

    Introduction:
    Prior to the COVID pandemic, many CTSAs employed face-to-face interactions to conduct most of their community engagement (CE) activities. During the COVID pandemic, such engagement had to be curtailed and alternatives needed to be formulated. In addition, Community Engaged Research (CEnR) teams refocused their efforts to address this public health crisis.

  • Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

    Introduction:
    COVID-19 altered research in Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs in an unprecedented manner, leading to adjustments for COVID-19 research.

  • Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

    Introduction:
    The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the development and implementation of hundreds of clinical trials across the USA. The Trial Innovation Network (TIN), funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, was an established clinical research network that pivoted to respond to the pandemic.

  • Patients previously hospitalized with COVID-19 had a 45% higher risk of heart failure than other hospitalized patients, according to the first national study of its kind, which was co-authored by a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher. Lead author Husam M. Salah, M.D., at UAMS said the findings reported in Nature Communications also revealed an even higher risk of heart