ON THE FRONT LINES OF COVID-19 RESEARCH AND OUTREACH By Crystal Valencia
When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country last spring, the UMass Boston community was full of individuals who sprang into action, looking for ways to help put a stop to the deadly virus. Nursing and health sciences students were on the front lines in the hospitals and clinics treating sick patients and are now volunteering their time to administer life-saving vaccines. Several of the university’s scientists quickly pivoted their research to aid in creating COVID-19 tests and vaccines. UMass Boston researchers are in the community, conducting studies and analyzing data in an effort to understand the current pandemic and develop better strategies and policy for dealing with future public health crises. Others are focused on community outreach, fighting misinformation and encouraging the most vulnerable populations to get vaccinated. They did this all while adhering to strict public health regulations. “The pandemic has exacted enormous suffering, death, and economic loss for our communities,” Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said. “UMass Boston stands with our city. We are proud of the work we are doing in serving our communities during this time.” Here are some of the scientists, professors, students, and staff who are helping to put a stop to the pandemic.
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UMass Boston Spring 2021
Making More Effective Coronavirus Vaccines When it comes to vaccines, one size does not fit all. Professor of Chemistry Wei Zhang and his lab are working on a critical part of vaccine development—boosting the COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness in older populations who are at greater risk from the virus. Zhang and his team are collaborating with Ofer Levy and David Dowling of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School’s Precision Vaccines Program on an Adjuvant Discovery Program. Adjuvants are small molecules added to a vaccine to boost the recipient’s immune response. “They approached us because we have a better capacity to make compounds than in the hospital setting. We synthesize new compounds for them to develop as adjuvant for the vaccine,” Zhang said. “We submit compounds to be tested, and based on test results, we can modify. There are many rounds of this, and if everything works well, you end up with a patent and then a drug.” Zhang had first started working on this project in 2019, but at the onset of COVID-19, efforts quickly shifted, making his team’s work more meaningful for the current pandemic.
