Tag: COVID-19

The original aim of this project was to address the health inequities of lead exposure and lead poisoning in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood in Milwaukee. However, the grant was reallocated to respond to the immediate needs of the community during the COVID-19 crisis.

This project aimed to address the unmet needs of current COVID-19 testing by developing novel molecules called monoclonal antibodies that act to restore, enhance, or mimic the immune system’s attack on the COVID-19 virus. The researchers successfully developed monoclonal antibodies that block viral entry into cells. In the future, these molecules can be incorporated into tests and contribute to therapies for COVID-19.

When this project began, the COVID-19 pandemic required the development of vaccines to mitigate the impact of this virus. Whole inactivated vaccines are easy to produce and have been shown to be effective for several viruses including corona, influenza, and Ebola. Thus, the research team proposed to generate a whole inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine virus and test its ability to protect against COVID-19 in an animal model of Syrian hamsters. The research team determined that the inactivated vaccine virus elicited a protective immune response in a hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The vaccine alone without Quil-A® gave protection two weeks after a second vaccination, even against emerging variants. Although the durability of this inactivated vaccine is currently unknown, the addition of an immune response enhancing substance like Quil-A may extend its protective efficacy.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges across communities, and transmission among underserved communities, such as people experiencing homelessness added complexity to the response. The goal of this project was to reduce the spread of COVID-19 at Porchlight Men’s Emergency Shelter by using an innovative technology-enabled solution of virtual volunteer nurses from Nurse Disrupted, LLC to screen all guests safely and accurately each day prior to admission to the homeless shelter sites. This project was successfully completed as the technology was developed and implemented. The technology solution had a 100 percent adoption rate, and surveys of guests and staff demonstrated high satisfaction with the telehealth service.

Urban Triage has received an award for a project to support Black youth who have been disproportionality impacted during the pandemic. Their project will expand its transformative educational workgroup model to include access to telehealth resources and establish a youth-centered Hip Hop Based Educational (HHBE) workgroup to promote healing, resilience, self-esteem and connection. It will also support Black youth by providing training for existing social and emotional healthcare providers in the community through its Co-Conspirator workgroups. The partners will evaluate the impacts of services on adolescent mental health and well-being to inform sustainability and replication of workgroups.

Carey Gleason, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, and co-principal investigators Maria Mora Pinzon, MD, MS, assistant scientist, Department of Medicine, and Melissa Metoxen, senior student services coordinator at the Native American Center for Health Professions were awarded a COVID-19 Response grant for utilizing social media and community advocates to address health consequences of COVID-19 in Black, Latinx and American Indian communities. The overarching goal of this project is to continue disseminating accurate information created by community advocates through social media about COVID-19 and evaluate the effectiveness of social media messages on changing beliefs, attitudes, and adoption of behaviors related to COVID-19 and vaccination.

Karla Ausderau, PhD, assistant professor, UW–Madison School of Education, Department of Kinesiology is using a COVID-19 Response grant to address significant health disparities and marginalization experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will elucidate the impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of people with IDD, evaluate current responses to address this impact and provide recommendations to guide service delivery to better meet the needs of this often-underserved population.

Menikanaehkem, a grassroots organization based on the Menominee Reservation in Northeast Wisconsin, will use its grant to help build behavioral, social and hands-on skills for youth as they learn about their native language and cultures, and nature-based healing and resilience. This project promotes mental, physical, spiritual and emotional wellness through practices that are traditional to the Menominee tribal people.

Dr. Michael Fiore, professor of medicine and UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI) director, and researchers at UW-CTRI are using a $300,000 COVID-19 Response Grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program to better understand the course, treatments and outcomes of COVID-19 and provide insights to improve the monitoring and treatment of future novel disease outbreaks. UW-CTRI has been leading the COVID Electronic Health Records (EHR) Cohort at the University of Wisconsin (CEC-UW). CEC-UW is using de-identified EHR data from COVID-19 patients across 21 participating health systems across the country, enabling the project to link demographic, medical history, and clinical data to COVID-19 severity and outcomes. A grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program supports the analysis of data, including the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among racial and ethnic minorities and vulnerable populations, comparing Wisconsin to the rest of the nation, including African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and patients diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

Filiz Yesilkoy, PhD, assistant professor, UW–Madison College of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and co-principal investigators Irene Ong, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Miriam Shelef, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine are developing a user-friendly, cost-effective, point-of-care serology test for monitoring protective immunity against COVID-19. By developing this biosensor platform, investigators will be able to assess vaccination status, past-infection status and protective immunity to inform communities in Wisconsin of the risk of COVID-19.