COVID-19 Research Heroes

UNC School of Medicine researchers are working tirelessly to provide knowledge that can impact the current COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

“UNC [School of Medicine] is home to many world-renowned experts on infectious disease and virology,” said Blossom Damania, Boshamer Distinguished Professor and vice dean for research at UNC Medicine. “We are very appreciative of their collective ongoing clinical efforts and … we are extremely grateful to the many clinicians that are working with patients on the frontline of this epidemic.”

The expertise of the faculty at Carolina spans many disciplines. 

For example, assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases in the Department of Medicine, Jessica Lin, is working with colleagues to launch a trial that focuses on limiting both the acceleration of COVID-19 in individuals and the spread of it to household members. Researchers David Wohl, professor of medicine, and Natalie Bowman, assistant professor of medicine, are using their extensive knowledge of viral infections, epidemiology and critical care medicine to track COVID-19 patients in the hospital and local community to help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection as much as possible. A team led by coronavirus expert Ralph Baric, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor at the UNC Gillings School of Public Health and professor in the UNC Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the UNC School of Medicine, is working to develop an antiviral drug that will prevent viral replication of COVID-19. The drug, NHC/EIDD-2801, has shown promising results and is progressing to human clinical trials.

With researchers like these coming together from different fields, Carolina is well-equipped to tackle COVID-19.

Read the complete Carolina Story to get to know each of the researchers…

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