COVID-19 Phase 2 Awards

Tufts Medical Center/Tufts University COVID-19     Seed Funding Program – Phase 2 Awards 

Award Announcement

Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center are pleased to announce the recipients of the Tufts Medical Center/Tufts University COVID-19 Seed Funding Program  Phase 2 Awards.  This program is intended to move innovative research relevant to the multifactorial aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic to the next stage and focused on transdisciplinary research that addresses the complex ways the pandemic has revealed a number of inequities across society. Furthermore, these proposals capture strengths in three key areas across Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center: Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Social Impact and Public Health, and Long-term Clinical Impacts.

Please join us in congratulating the following teams and their projects:

I. Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Optimization of a golden hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection to facilitate investigation of viral pathogenesis and transmission and evaluate therapeutics and vaccines
Team Lead: Sally Robinson (Cummings)
Team Members: Saul Tzipori (Cummings) and Amanda Martinot (Cummings)

Evaluation of a bench-side molecular assay for SARS-CoV-2 in dental patients
Team Lead: Athena Papas (TUSDM)
Team Member: Charles Mace (A&S)

II. Social Impact and Public Health

Building trust in a Covid-19 vaccine among Brazilian immigrant and Asian immigrant communities through dialogue
Team Lead: Jonathan Garlick (TUSDM)
Team Member: Jennifer Allen (A&S)

Changes in perceptions, utilization, and the role of palliative care in a healthcare system among community hospital critical care physicians and their leaders and healthcare system leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic
Team Lead: Tamara Vesel (Tufts Medical Center)
Team members: Thomas Stopka (TUSM) and Emma Ernst (TUSM)

III. Long-term Clinical Impacts

The effect of abnormal liver function test on the prognostic outcomes of patients admitted with COVID-19 infection as stratified by race and socioeconomic status
Team Lead: Raza Malik (Tufts Medical Center)
Team Members: David Lee (Tufts Medical Center), Gregory Fan (Tufts Medical Center), David Hastie (Tufts Medical Center)

Digital pathology for assessing modulation of myeloid mediated lung injury during acute SARS CoV-2 Infection in hamsters
Team Lead: Amanda Martinot (Cummings)
Team Members: Saul Tzipori (Cummings), Sally Robinson (Cummings), and Cesar Piedra-Mora (Cummings)

Role of angiogenin in regulating cytokine storm and lymphopenia in COVID-19
Team Lead: Guo-fu Hu (Tufts Medical Center)
Team Member: Michael Jordan (Tufts)

Autologous NK killing as a driver of lymphopenia in COVID-19
Team Lead: Stephen Bunnell (TUSM)
Team Members:  Albert Tai (TUSM), Alexander Poltorak (TUSM), and Shruti Sharma (TUSM)