Microbiologist Lisa Morici and immunologist James McLachlan at the School of Medicine were awarded a $150,000 Fast Grant for a project to make next-generation COVID-19 vaccines more effective. The team will test whether they can produce a better immune response in tissues most vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection by adding bacteria-based adjuvants to vaccines in development. Fast Grants are awarded within 48 hours of researchers applying.

Samendra Sherchan, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, is lead investigator of a study that revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in Louisiana. Scientists collected wastewater samples in Southern Louisiana over a period of four months and monitored SARS-CoV-2 using an ultrafiltration method.

School of Medicine researchers have designed a synthetic protein against COVID-19. Dr. Jay Kolls, John W. Deming Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine and lead author of the research, said the engineered protein, called MDR504, is designed to go to the lungs to neutralize the virus before it can infect lung cells. In addition to a treatment, the protein could be used as a pre- or post-exposure therapy for healthcare workers, first responders and vulnerable populations at high risk.

Dr. Richard Oberhelman and others at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine have partnered with local healthcare providers for a COVID-19 study of patients and healthcare workers in New Orleans as part of a larger Centers for Disease Control and Prevention effort to better understand the virus. The study will provide estimates of how many people in a given area have COVID-19 and overall infection rates over time. It will also examine geographic, demographic and clinical trends.

A team of researchers is studying how the coronavirus works and where and when it is shed through a $700,000 grant by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What researchers find could help explain why COVID-19 is causing higher death rates among Black and Hispanic residents of New Orleans. Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Dahlene Fusco, who is part of the team, said researchers want to learn whether specific factors related to the virus or something within the host contribute to the higher fatality rate.

Tulane has joined other institutions across the globe in a trial of a drug, TL-895, to treat severe COVID-19 in hospitalized cancer patients. Dr. Nakhle Saba, associate professor of clinical medicine at the School of Medicine, is principal investigator of the trial. Saba said that data show 40% of COVID-19 patients with cancer required hospitalization, 20% developed severe respiratory illness, and 12% died within 30 days.

“The still-unfolding crisis ... will be the defining moment for the current generation of college and high-school-aged students, the way WWII was for those we now call the ‘greatest generation.’ ... I think of this as the fractured generation.”

Nora Lustig, the Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and director of the Commitment to Equity Institute at Tulane, organized networks of economists and researchers to examine Latin American countries’ COVID-19 situation and policy responses. One group’s work resulted in a partnership with the United Nations Development Program that focused on actionable items for governments, individuals and organizations to support countries’ populations.

With COVID-19 restrictions in place, an in-person commencement ceremony was postponed for the Class of 2020. But that didn’t stop Tulane from celebrating the academic achievements of the class with a virtual celebration on May 16. “TUgether — Connecting the Class of 2020” featured Ellen DeGeneres, Madeleine Albright, Drew Brees, Hoda Kotb, Kelly Ripa, Apple CEO Tim Cook and many others who saluted the graduates.

The Grolier Club, the oldest and most prestigious bibliophilic society in America, welcomed Tulane’s Dean of Libraries and Academic Information Resources David Banush as a member this summer. The club consists of nearly 800 book collectors, scholars, librarians, printers and bibliophiles and fosters the study, collecting and appreciation of books and works on paper.