When the job announcement first popped up in Barb Hooper’s email inbox, she didn’t bother to open it. She was an associate professor at Colorado State, and as director of the Center for Occupational Therapy Education her focus was on the educational component of occupational therapy. The email announcement was for a position to develop a new occupational therapy program at Duke, and Hooper presumed she wouldn’t be quite what they were looking for.
Years in the Making: Duke Human Vaccine Institute Researchers Attack COVID-19
When the novel coronavirus began to spread across China, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) sprang into action and they haven’t slowed down since. They are collaborating with each other and with other institutions to unlock the secrets of the virus that causes COVID-19 and to develop tests, vaccines, and treatments.
Clinical Researchers Seek Ways to Lessen the Severity of COVID-19
New studies are underway at Duke to test treatments that could help people with COVID-19 recover faster and avoid being hospitalized.
“The goal of interventional outpatient studies is to see if we can prevent people from developing more severe COVID disease requiring hospitalization,” says Susanna Naggie, MD, associate professor of medicine (Infectious Diseases) and vice dean for clinical research in the Duke University School of Medicine.
The Right Environment
New faculty recruit Opeyemi Olabisi is on a mission to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of kidney disease
Opeyemi Olabisi, MD, PhD, learned to ride a bicycle when he was 12 years old. He was living in Nigeria in a city called Ilorin, and a friend’s older brother, Yemi, showed him how to keep the wheels moving and the bike upright. That made Yemi an indelible part of Olabisi’s life.
“Everybody remembers who taught them how to ride a bicycle,” he says.
Prepping for a Pandemic: Duke’s Long History of RNA-based Vaccine Development
As researchers around the world race to build a vaccine that can protect people from COVID-19, many of the frontrunners entering the final stretch—including those developed by biotechnology companies Moderna and BioNtech—are RNA-based vaccines.