COVID-19 Research Response

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ATTENTION ALL HUCK RESEARCH PERSONNEL:

Please view our latest Return to Research Instructions hereThank you!

As Penn State’s cross-cutting, interdisciplinary life sciences research hub, the Huck engages hundreds of faculty researchers with expertise relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On March 3, we launched a rapid-response internal call-for-proposals across the university to address the emerging outbreak. Over the course of several weeks, more than 110 applications were submitted, and 48 faculty research teams from across 10 Penn State colleges were granted seed-funding. 

The projects span six core areas: Diagnostics and Detection, Therapeutics and Vaccines, Transmission-blocking Interventions, Social Sciences, Cohort Studies, and Predictive Modeling & Computational Data Sciences. 

View the projects here.

Our Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) is comprised of more than 50 faculty experts in infectious disease, including many scientists that are modeling the pandemic, studying virus transmission, advising governments and the health industry, and developing diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Additionally, CIDD members have launched an effort to answer the public's questions about the pandemic, which they answer in brief daily videos

Penn State’s COVID-19 Research Infrastructure is formidable, and includes the Pell Lab, a BSL3 facility where we are working with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in-culture. Additionally, our Core Facilities are up and running, empowering our teams with access to the state-of-the-art tools of Cryo-EM microscopy, genomics, metabolomics, and fermentation, among other relevant areas of research. 

Public Health Education Efforts: In accordance with Penn State's status as a land grant institution and its mission of service to the commonwealth, the Huck Institutes supports multiple projects to inform the University community and the wider public with the best current scientific information about the coronavirus pandemic. These include both communication initiatives and public survey & cohort testing studies currently in development. Learn more here.

To learn how you can lend support to Penn State’s COVID-19 initiatives, including research projects, please visit this site. Inquiries about partnering with the Huck Institutes in our ongoing efforts to confront this pandemic should be addressed to our director:

Andrew Read

Interim Senior Vice President for Research; Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Entomology; Eberly Professor of Biotechnology