Live Coronavirus Research Gets Underway at BU NEIDL

Scientists at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), led by microbiologist Robert Davey, this week started suiting up to conduct research on live samples of the novel coronavirus, the first team in Boston to start such work on the global pandemic.

This type of emergency—a fast-spreading virus outbreak—is precisely what the NEIDL, now in its second year of full operation, was made for, Davey says. NEIDL’s work will involve a number of studies scientists are planning related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease called COVID-19.

“As part of the Greater Boston Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (GBCPR), we have already started collaborating with teams of researchers in the Greater Boston area to better understand the way the novel coronavirus infects cells and leads to COVID-19, toward identifying effective treatments and vaccine candidates,” says Ronald Corley, NEIDL’s director.

Davey’s team specializes in pitting thousands upon thousands of drugs—small molecules made of different chemical concoctions—against lab cultures of cells infected with contagions, allowing them to rapidly detect which drugs are most effective at halting or reducing infection.