The Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging at Colorado State University has amassed one of the largest archives of longitudinally collected human samples of COVID-19 through their research in skilled nursing facilities.
Sept. 29: Moderated by professor emerita Carol Blair, CSU scientists with diverse expertise will provide their perspectives on a broad array of topics regarding COVID-19. The conversation will stretch from thoughts about the origin and transmission of corona viruses, testing strategies, human and community health impacts, and behavior changes noted during the pandemic.
Women lead two of CSU’s four COVID-19 vaccine projects, both built on centuries-old solutions to ruinous infectious disease and both certain to advance knowledge, regardless of which international laboratory gets to the vaccine finish line first.
“It’s now more important than ever that we’re training the next generation of scientists to be prepared for the next pandemic.” -Josh Schaeffer, assistant professor of occupational and environmental health
The data will be cross-referenced with existing data on cases and outbreaks in a specific area to try to glean more information about the prevalence of the virus – even, possibly, down to specific buildings, officials said.
CSU’s contributions to developing solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic have earned it a spot on a ranking of the top 10 universities engaged in this important research, according to the website successfulstudent.org.
Carol Wilusz said wastewater has been key in demonstrating that the virus was infecting people in early hot spots much earlier than the first cases showed up at hospitals. "The virus has been circulating a long time before we knew about it," Wilusz said, "and the evidence is all in the wastewater."
8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 3: Brian Foy, PhD, and Tony Schountz, PhD, Professors in the CSU Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University will discuss the science behind animal-to-human transmission and how COVID-19 has played out thus far, followed by a live Q&A session.