COVID-19: Rapid Response Seed Funding Program
The Rapid Response Seed Funding Program is a new funding program intended to fast track innovative research proposals that directly address the urgent needs of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center are pleased to announce the recipients of the COVID-19 Rapid Response Seed Funding Program.
The eight projects selected show a high probability of generating new knowledge and/or changing clinical practice (access to treatment and diagnosis) by building on the strengths of diverse and interdisciplinary teams of three or more researchers. Furthermore, these proposals capture strengths in four key areas across Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center.
Please join us in congratulating the following individuals and their projects:
I. Immunity & Disease
Alexander Poltorak (Tufts University School of Medicine) and a team including investigators from Tufts University School of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center, and the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.
Identify immune signatures of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and define which responses determine mild versus severe and fatal outcomes. Ultimately, our findings will provide much needed information for the development of informed containment, therapeutic approaches and vaccination strategies.
The Team:
Alexander Poltorak, Professor of Immunology, TUSM
Pilar Alcaide, Associate Professor of Immunology and the Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor, TUSM
Marta Rodriguez-Garcia, Assistant Professor of Immunology, TUSM
Paola Massari, Research Associate Professor of Immunology, TUSM
Xudong Li, Assistant Professor of Immunology, TUSM
Shruti Sharma, Assistant Professor of Immunology, TUSM
Alexander Panda, Scientist II, HNRCA
Robert Blanton, Cardiologist, TMC; Associate Professor of Medicine, TUSM
Alexei Degterev, Associate Professor of Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology, TUSM
Rebecca Batorsky, Statistician and Computational Biologist, Tufts
Gary Horowitz (Tufts Medical Center) and a team from Tufts Medical Center.
Understanding antibody responses in COVID-19 patients with reference to viral load and disease course to help pathologists validate the antibody test in a clinically meaningful way and combine it with RT-PCR to improve the diagnostic sensitivity.
The Team:
Gary Horowitz, Professor of Anatomic & Clinical Pathology, TUSM; Director of Informatics, Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, TMC
Ming Zhou, Professor of Pathology and Chair, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, TMC
Helen Whamond Boucher, Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Chief, Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, TMC
II. Public Health & Social Impacts
Laura Corlin (Tufts University School of Medicine) and a team including investigators from Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center.
Perform the first nationwide study accounting for key confounding factors, multi-pollutant mixture effects, and the socio-behavioral context in the transmission and progression of COVID-19. Critically, this project will have an immediate impact on clinical practice by providing a robust basis for warnings when air pollution and weather favor disease transmission.
The Team:
Laura Corlin, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, TUSM
Thomas Stopka, Associate Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, TUSM
Jeffrey Griffiths, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, TUSM
Ramnath Subbaraman, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, TUSM; Attending Physician, Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, TMC
Alice Tang, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, TUSM
Hellen Amuguni (Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine) and a team including investigators from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and Tufts Medical Center.
Ascertain the sex and gender-based differences, risks, disparities, impacts and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, men and non-binary LGBTQ folks to assist clinicians, policy makers and the public to develop the most efficacious interventions for this emerging pandemic.
The Team:
Hellen Amuguni, Associate Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings
Michael Jordan, Attending Physician, Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Disease, TMC; Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM
Marieke Rosenbaum, Research Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings
Tess Gannaway, Veterinarian and PhD Student, Infectious and Global Health, Cummings
Alysse Wurcel (Tufts Medical Center) and a team from Tufts Medical Center.
Investigate the impact of socio demographics on 1) COVID-19 testing and 2) diagnosis with COVID-19 among healthcare workers. Results from this study will to inform hospital-based policies and procedures for staffing requirements in future pandemics, increasing access to equitable care by all employees of the hospital.
The Team:
Alysse Wurcel, Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Attending Physician, Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, TMC
Karen Freund, Professor and Vice Chair of Medicine for Faculty Affairs and Quality Improvement, TMC
Amy LeClair, Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM
Jana C Leary, Pediatrics, TMC
Elena Byhoff, Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM, Attending Physician, TMC
III. Clinical Practice & Telemedicine
Michael House (Tufts Medical Center) and a team including investigators from Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine.
Transition traditional in-person aspects of prenatal care such as non-stress tests to a home-based environment in order to 1) determine the proportion of patients who warrant immediate clinical intervention after routine scheduled non-stress tests in the outpatient setting and 2) evaluate patients’ perspective on the possibility of performing routine scheduled antenatal testing with non-stress tests in a non-clinical environment.
The Team:
Michael House, Maternal Fetal Medicine Physician, TMC; Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, TMC
Alissa Dangel, TL1 Clinical Research Fellow, Tufts CTSI
Andrew Polio, OB/GYN Resident Physician, TMC
Sucharita Kher (Tufts Medical Center) and a team including investigators from Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine.
Conduct a formal implementation evaluation of a hospital-at-home program in order to 1) Assess the clinical outcomes of hospital-at-home compared to traditional inpatient care and 2) evaluate stakeholder perspectives on implementation of hospital-at-home. Assessing the implementation of hospital at home in the current setting will allow us to make adaptations to the current intervention and provide information for potential expansion into additional settings.
The Team:
Sucharita Kher, Director for Inpatient Services, Dept of Medicine; Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Karen Freund, Professor and Vice Chair of Medicine for Faculty Affairs and Quality Improvement, TMC
Amy LeClair, Assistant Professor of Medicine, TUSM
Dineli Ahearn, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, TUSM; Attending Physician, TMC
IV. Technology
Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University School of Engineering) and a team including investigators from Tufts University School of Engineering and Tufts Medical Center.
Develop an inexpensive autonomous robot platform together with the necessary control algorithms and user interfaces to autonomously disinfect rooms contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 using UVC light.
The Team:
Matthias Scheutz, Professor of Computer Science, SOE
Diane Souvaine, Professor of Computer Science, SOE
Matias Korman, Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science, SOE
Hearty congratulations to the teams for their ingenuity and their alacrity during these most challenging times!