Coronavirus Research

Penn Medicine launches COVID-19 convalescent plasma study

A two-part research initiative using plasma from people who’ve recovered from the virus will investigate how the therapy works for moderately and severely ill patients.

Hundreds receive plasma from recovered coronavirus patients in national study

Holly Fernandez Lynch of the Perelman School of Medicine said it’s worth studying the results of experimental therapies for treating COVID-19. “If we keep acting like we can’t study the interventions, then we will be in the same position next time and still not know how to effectively treat people,” she said.

Antibody test, seen as key to reopening country, does not yet deliver

Scott Hensley of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the need for coronavirus antibody tests. “As many scientific challenges as there are right now,” he said, “there’s an equally large engineering challenge and scalability challenge to get these on the market.”

Penn labs get creative to stay productive, connected

In the face of a pandemic that has shuttered most physical laboratories across campus, researchers have shifted gears, maintaining work and social ties through grant- and manuscript-writing, virtual journal clubs, online coffee breaks, and more.

closeup of prescription pills on a surface beside a stethoscope and blood pressure gauge

Commonly used blood pressure meds may affect outcomes on COVID-19

Penn Medicine launches an international trial to study whether the medications are beneficial or harmful in the treatment of hospitalized patients.

closeup of doctor’s hands intubating a patient

Measuring the risk among clinicians who intubate patients with COVID-19

Penn launches a national component of global registry to track exposures and outcomes among providers who perform airway management procedures.

Penn researchers analyze Twitter to track changing perceptions of coronavirus

Researchers at Penn, led by Raina Merchant of the Perelman School of Medicine, have built a tool that collects and maps COVID-19 related tweets to track perceptions of the coronavirus pandemic. “People are using social media as a way to communicate and share information organically, so we want to learn from that,” Merchant said.

Person wearing full protective gear including latex gloves, goggles, hood and full protective medical gown.

COVID-19 and lessons for public health

Six lessons for public health in the U.S. during the fight against COVID-19.

Bike food delivery courier wearing a protective face mask while riding through NYC empty streets

Is the U.S. winning the war against COVID-19?

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives, gave a sobering update on how the United States is doing in the fight against COVID-19, saying the country needs to be prepared to battle the new coronavirus for about 18 months.

DIY origami face masks for COVID-19

The professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering is leading an effort to design an effective face mask that can be made at home.

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