Tulane researchers developed a 15-minute saliva-based COVID-19 test that is read by a smartphone. The assay platform developed by Tony Hu, Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation at the School of Medicine, and associates can detect very small amounts of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA in saliva by leveraging CRISPR, the revolutionary gene editing technology.

A study led by Monica Vaccari, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane National Primate Research Center, suggests that in the early weeks of post-infection of COVID-19, the stronger the initial host immune response, the worse the disease outcome. While the body mounts a pro-inflammatory “innate” immune response as a first line of defense to protect against the spread of infection and heal damaged tissue, it is a dysregulated or over-reactive immune response that can cause severe damage, Vaccari’s study explains.

According to a new study by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice at Tulane, reopening K-12 schools in the U.S. did not result in an increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Co-authors Douglas Harris, chair of the Department of Economics, and Engy Ziedan, assistant professor of economics, found no evidence that reopening schools in-person or in a hybrid form increased COVID-19 hospitalizations in the 75 percent of counties that had low hospitalization rates during the summer prior to reopening schools.

Tulane will launch an outreach initiative to reach ethnic and racial minority communities in Louisiana that are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Louisiana Community Engagement Alliance, of which Tulane is a part, is working with residents, community leaders, health centers, faith-based organizations, pharmacies and the Louisiana Department of Health. The work is being funded by a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Work on a new COVID-19 drug by a Tulane researcher is getting fast-tracked. Dr. Jay Kolls, a professor of medicine and pediatrics, the John W. Deming Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine, and director of the Center for Translational Research in Infection and Inflammation, has received a $100,000 Fast Grant for his research to create a drug that prevents the COVID-19 virus from entering healthy cells.

Researchers at Tulane, Harvard, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have learned that subjects who were older with higher body mass indexes and an increasing degree of COVID-19 infection had three times the number of exhaled respiratory droplets — key spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — as others in the study groups. The increase in exhaled aerosols occurred even among those with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, said Chad Roy, corresponding author and director of infectious disease aerobiology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center.

Tulane Dining Services donated $8,000 in nutritious bars, cookies and snacks to Second Harvest, a food bank that fights hunger in South Louisiana. During the last hurricane season, Tulane Dining had purchased these shelf-stable foods for students so they could shelter in place during the storms. Second Harvest provides food and support to over 700 community partners and programs across 23 parishes. Its staff and volunteers distribute the equivalent of more than 32 million meals to over 210,000 people a year.

The Tulane University Center for Brain Health is a new program created to address the unique medical needs of members of the armed forces. The center, housed in the Tulane Medical Center, will specialize in the care of military veterans of any discharge status and specialize in the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Tulane will recruit and train community health workers to implement a comprehensive health and lifestyle coaching program for congregants in predominantly African American churches in New Orleans and Bogalusa, Louisiana, to help eliminate cardiovascular health disparities among African Americans. This work will be funded by a $8.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The program will focus on healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, improving cholesterol numbers, addressing high blood pressure and controlling other risk factors.

“I completely understand the mistrust. But you have to consider the risk of COVID versus the risk of the vaccine. This is a devastating disease and it has disproportionately impacted Black Americans. That is what we do know.”