Irving Institute Announces New Pilot Awards to Fund COVID-19 Research

May 26, 2020

The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, home to Columbia University’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)(link is external and opens in a new window) Program hub, announces the winners of two rapid response pilot programs to fund COVID-19 research.

The Irving Institute Translational Therapeutics (TRx) Accelerator, the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Accelerating Cancer Therapeutics (ACT) and Biomedical Engineering’s BiomedX(link is external and opens in a new window) launched a special pilot program to support projects focused on translating a therapeutic for treatment of COVID-19 toward commercialization. The 2020 TRx COVID-19 pilot awardees are:

Development of Cidofiovir Prodrugs as Potential Orally Available Medication for COVID-19

  • Jingyue Ju, PhD, Chemical Engineering

Rapid Development of SARS-CoV-2 3CL Protease Inhibitors for treatment of COVID-19

  • Brent Stockwell, PhD, Biological Sciences

Adoptive Transfer of Coronavirus-specific T Cells for Prophylaxis and Immunotherapy of COVID-19

  • Pawel Muranski, MD, Medicine

In partnership with the HICCC, the Irving Institute is also supporting the following SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Research pilot grantees:

Identification of adverse SARS-CoV-2 infection outcome determinants

  • Sagi Shapira, PhD, Systems Biology (in Microbiology and Immunology)

Novel technologies to identify SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics

  • Hee Yang, PhD, Pathology & Cell Biology

Smartphone-enabled home serology tests for large-scale, accurate, and trackable, COVID-19 testing and surveillance

  • Samuel K. Sia, PhD, Biomedical Engineering

 

We congratulate the awardees and are proud to support this timely research. View the Irving Institute's COVID-19 Research Initiative to learn more about how we are addressing the pandemic. 

Tags

Infectious Diseases, Campus News, Research, NIH/NCATS, Funding, COVID-19, Pilot Awards, Translational Therapeutics