A new serological test in which an NAU professor played a pivotal role in developing can not only help humanity prepare for and respond to the next pandemic, but it also can be pivotal in the search for viral triggers of diseases like diabetes and celiac disease.
Jason Ladner, an assistant professor… Read more
COVID-19 vaccination activates antibodies targeting parts of virus spike protein shared between coronaviruses
Could the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine reawaken previous antibody responses and point the way to a universal coronavirus vaccine? A new analysis of the antibody response to a COVID-19 vaccine suggests the immune system’s history with other coronaviruses, including those behind the common cold, shapes the patient’s response, according to a study published… Read more
NAU-TGen study results show COVID-19 virus triggers antibodies from previous coronavirus infections
The results of a study led by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest the immune systems of people infected with COVID-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses to help fight the disease.
COVID-19 isn’t humanity’s first encounter with a coronavirus, so named because… Read more
Two NAU research centers receive Flinn Foundation funding to support COVID-19 response
Scientists at two Northern Arizona University research centers—the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) and the Center for Health Equity Research (CHER)—recently received grants totaling $175,000 from the Flinn Foundation in support of projects directed at responding to the COVID-19 threat.
Researchers in PMI are internationally recognized for their… Read more
NAU pathogen scientist collaborating on vaccine that could prevent and treat COVID-19
C. Todd French, assistant professor of biology and leader of Northern Arizona University’s new COVID-19 Testing Service Center (CTSC), is working with scientists at Vault Pharma, an emerging biotechnology company, to test candidate vaccines against the novel coronavirus. Through a multi-institutional public-private partnership linking the company with UCLA, NAU and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, French is… Read more
NAU researchers testing northern Arizona wastewater for early warning of COVID-19 outbreaks
With the ongoing challenges associated with large-scale testing for COVID-19—including test kit shortages, stringent testing criteria and the inherent limitations of current tracking systems on mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic populations, scientists are looking for alternate methods to boost testing in order to predict the spread of the disease. Crystal Hepp, an assistant professor in NAU’s School of Informatics, Computing, and… Read more