Brandon DeKosky Joins American Lung Association COVID-19 ACTION Initiative


-from the ALA press release linked below-

"As the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, the American Lung Association announced the COVID-19 Action Initiative, designed to accelerate the search for COVID-19 solutions. Through this initiative, the organization announced a new research award, immediately expanded its existing research clinical trial infrastructure to include COVID-19 research and placed an urgent call for applications for the most promising research studies on COVID-19. Today, the American Lung Association announced the 12 new COVID-19 research award recipients.

The awardees for the inaugural COVID-19 and Respiratory Virus Research Award are funded at $100,000 a year for two years. This award explores important avenues to find better treatments to reduce the burden we have experienced due this virus:

  • Tishra Beeson, DrPH, MPH, Central Washington University: Keys to prevention – reducing community spread of COVID-19 in vulnerable communities
  • Stephen Chan, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh: NCOA7 as a novel therapeutic and genetic diagnostic target in SARS-CoV-2 infection
  • *Brandon DeKosky, Ph.D., University of Kansas: Molecular analysis of antibody responses associated with COVID-19 respiratory distress*
  • Marta Maria Gaglia, Ph.D., Tufts University: Control of innate immune responses by SARS-CoV-2
  • Marcia Goldberg, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital: High resolution definition of the pathogenic immune response in ARDS during COVID-19 infection
  • Dan Jane-Wit, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University: The role of ZFYVE21 in COVID-19 respiratory complications
  • Sharon Morley, M.D., Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis: COVID-19 infection, NLRP3 inflammasome activation and therapeutic trials to treats ARDS in mouse model
  • Irina Petrache, M.D., National Jewish Health: Novel risk factors for severe COVID-19 lung disease
  • Kurt Randall Stenmark, M.D., University of Colorado: Role of hypoxia and complement in lung endothelial cell injury in COVID-19
  • Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., University of Vermont: Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 induced type 2 alveolar epithelial cell pathogenesis
  • Andrew A. Wilson, M.D., Boston University: Defining the alveolar epithelial response to SARS-CoV-2 and additional risk of cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor exposure
  • Gary A. Weisman, Ph.D., University of Missouri: P2Y2 receptor-integrin interactions in Spike- and ACE2-mediated SARS-CoV-2 entry in lung alveolar epithelial cells"

Read the full press release

We wish Dr. DeKosky and the team all the best as they work to develop solutions to this crazy pandemic!