As the disease COVID-19 spreads across the planet, scientists continue to combat the novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) on all fronts. But viruses are fickle, mutating to ensure their survival as they hop hosts. Genomic mutations and natural selection could reduce the effectiveness of a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus, and different sequence variations and strains of the virus are continuously being reported in databases like GISAID.

(SACRAMENTO) — Scientists around the globe are working to identify approved and investigational drugs that can be repurposed to treat COVID-19.

UC Davis Health researchers provided one of those repurposed drugs, senicapoc, to launch a clinical trial at Aarhus University in Denmark. The study will assess whether the drug can mitigate lung damage in patients with COVID-19.

By AJ Cheline on April 29, 2020 in Human & Animal Health

Verndari Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it will begin preclinical testing this week at UC Davis’ Mouse Biology Program to evaluate a potential vaccine and delivery system for COVID-19.

Engineers at the University of California, Davis, are working with clinicians to create a simple, inexpensive ventilator. They have developed a prototype and plan to make plans freely available online. Versions could be in clinical use in about six months.

“This is a critical device to have. It provides the vital functions of a ventilator while being completely portable,” said Andrew Li, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at UC Davis Health.

(SACRAMENTO) — Close to 1,000 people tuned in live last Friday to a COVID-19 symposium featuring experts in immunology, infectious diseases, pathology and emergency medicine who presented the latest research and insights on coronavirus.

Thanks to the assistance of Moon Chen, Jr. a professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Health and Life Organization (HALO) in Sacramento have secured a $20,000 grant from the Bristol Meyers Squibb Foundation to purchase much-needed telemedicine equipment to care for patients

In its second and final round of funding, the UC Davis Office of Research has awarded ten additional COVID-19 Research Accelerator Funding Track (CRAFT) grants to campus researchers who are developing projects in response to the pandemic. Funding is provided by the Office of Research and the Provost's office with matching support from schools and colleges.

(SACRAMENTO) — UC Davis experts share their expertise nationally and internationally in the care of pregnant mothers and newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some examples:

(SACRAMENTO) — Nearly two thirds of severely ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who received remdesivir on a compassionate-use basis improved, with no new concerns about safety reported during the short clinical study. 

Traffic accidents and crash-related injuries and deaths were reduced by half during the first three weeks of California’s shelter-in-place order, which began March 20. The reductions save the state an estimated $40 million per day — about $1 billion over the time period — according to an updated special report released this week from the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis.