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Coronavirus: 18 research projects supported by ULB, including 2 at the BioPark!

May 28th 2020

Communication Recherche ULB

Among the 18 projects selected as part of ULB’s call for projects related to COVID-19, two are on the Gosselies campus. They will help improve our understanding of the clinical response to infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, design innovative treatments, develop new screening tests and determine how the lockdown has impacted our society.

Many research teams have stepped up to face the COVID-19 pandemic, but also many donors. ULB, Fondation ULB, Fonds Erasme, Hôpital Erasme, designer Charles Kaisin, alumni association UAE and Fonds Emile Defay have helped bring together researchers and donors: the University has launched a call for projects related to COVID-19, resulting in 18 selected projects receiving a total of 838,267 euros in funding.

The research projects will explore a variety of topics in the fields of medicine, biology, chemistry, law, economics, etc., in order to better understand the pandemic and its impact on our health and society. They will also contribute to ending the lockdown by helping evaluate the immunity that certain individuals have developed, design a patient-friendly saliva test, monitor the virus and study how it attacks certain organs, test innovative treatments, and so on. In addition, several projects will help decision-making for matters related to public health and the economy.
 

The projects were selected by a pluridisciplinary committee of ULB experts headed by Oberdan Leo, the University’s vice-rector in charge of research.

Two projects are based in the BioPark, and will be carried out in partnership with a number of hospitals:

  • Defining the immunological bases of SARS-CoV-2 infection severity using molecular approaches
  • Developing a saliva test for SARS-CoV-2

 

At the same time, two other projects will be carried out in partnership with teams at the BioPark:

  • Post-mortem organ distribution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in correlation with anatomo-clinical evaluation: towards new biomarkers for COVID-19 patients
  • Inactivating coronaviruses in plasma

 

-> More information about the 18 research projects selected.

 

Source: Communication Recherche ULB