NEIDL in the News
After 30 years of decline, tuberculosis is rising in the U.S. again. How did we get here?
After declining for three decades, tuberculosis (TB) rates in the U.S. have been increasing steadily since 2020. More
Is COVID-19 Still a Pandemic?
The Brink asked three Boston University researchers—a virologist, an epidemiologist, and an emergency room physician—to explain the shifting status of COVID, how to decide when a virus has gone from a pandemic to endemic, how much people should protect themselves and others, and why language matters. More
Novel compound protects against infection by virus that causes COVID-19, preliminary studies show.
Compounds that obstruct the “landing gear” of a range of harmful viruses can successfully protect against infection by the virus that causes COVID-19 finds a new study from NEIDL researchers and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. More
Virology, Immunology & Microbiology Professor Robert Davey awarded $3.3M per year for five years.
The NIH National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases awarded $3.3M per year for five years to a Washington University-led team that includes Professor Robert Davey, Virology, Immunology & Microbiology (Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, BU National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories), to explore the molecular mechanisms by which filoviral-host... More
It’s good to feel bad after your COVID shot
New research suggests that the worse your symptoms are after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the better. Here’s why. PUBLISHED OCTOBER 12, 2023 • 8 MIN READ Jeremy Warner has had six shots of the COVID vaccines. He’s an oncologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he treats immunocompromised patients... More
Preventing the Next Pandemic
Original article from The Brink by Jessica Colarossi. November 15, 2023. New Zealand’s former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern joins the world’s leading infectious disease scientists and experts at BU to discuss how to prepare for future outbreaks “Next to climate change, I can’t think of a more important task,” Kenneth W. More
Researchers Find Potential Way to Tweak Immune System to Help It Fight Tuberculosis
Original article from The Brink by Andrew Thurston. September 27, 2023. TB is the world’s second-deadliest infectious disease, behind COVID-19. A new BU-led study shows how to turn TB-susceptible immune cells into TB-resistant ones. More than a million people around the world still die from TB every year. Now, a Boston University–led research... More
After White House Stint, BU Infectious Diseases Expert Shares Pandemic Lessons
Original article from The Brink by Andrew Thurston. August 1, 2023 Nahid Bhadelia has returned to BU after helping lead the Biden administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response Having a desk in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building—part of the White House complex—guarantees some high-caliber coworkers. Vice President Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan... More
Inside Omicron with Mohsan Saeed
Mohsan Saeed joins This Week in Virology to discuss the work of his laboratory showing that spike and nsp6 are determinants of Omicron attenuation, and why the work was widely misinterpreted by the press and the public. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eciWFYH3wiI
New Marburg Outbreaks in Africa Raise Alarm About the Deadly Virus’s Spread
Original article from the New York Times by Stephanie Nolen. April 3, 2023 The spread of the Ebola-like virus has claimed lives but could be a crucial chance to test a vaccine — if supplies and researchers are mobilized in time. Two concurrent outbreaks of the Marburg virus, a close cousin of... More
Marburg virus outbreaks are increasing in frequency and geographic spread – three virologists explain
Original article from The Conversation by Adam Hume, Elke Mühlberger, and Judith Olejnik. March 13, 2023 The World Health Organization confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease in the central African country of Equatorial Guinea on Feb. 13, 2023. To date, there have been 11 deaths suspected to be caused by the... More
BU Researchers Join $100 Million Effort to Fight Future Deadly Pathogens
Original article from The Brink by Andrew Thurston. February 17, 2023 Scientists from NEIDL and medical and dental schools part of Howard Hughes Medical Institute push to get ahead of pandemics like COVID-19 The next pandemic could already be lurking somewhere, and scientists want to make sure the world is ready when it springs. More
A rare Marburg outbreak sparks a race against time to test vaccines and drugs
Original article from STAT by Helen Branswell. February 14, 2023 A Marburg fever outbreak in Equatorial Guinea is galvanizing efforts to test drugs and vaccines for a virus that currently has none. But every day counts, warned experts who gathered virtually on Tuesday to try to chart a course for the work. The... More
WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation
Original article from Nature by Smriti Mallapaty. February 14, 2023 Sensitive studies in China were intended to pinpoint the source of the pandemic virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly shelved the second phase of its much-anticipated scientific investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing ongoing challenges over attempts... More
Lab-leak fears are putting virologists under scrutiny
Original article from the Washington Post by Joel Achenbach. January 18, 2023 BOSTON — The experiment probed a coronavirus mystery: Why is the omicron variant apparently less deadly than the original Wuhan strain? The researchers at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories (the NEIDL, pronounced like “the needle”) created a new... More
Coronavirus ‘chimera’ made in lab shows what makes omicron seemingly less deadly
Original article from the Washington Post by Joel Achenbach. January 11, 2023 A controversial coronavirus experiment at Boston University has identified a mutation in the omicron variant that might help explain why it doesn't appear to be as likely to sicken or kill as the original strain that emerged in China. The finding... More
NEIDL Researchers Discover New SARS-CoV-2 Weak Spot—Which Could Inspire Improved Vaccines
Original article from The Brink by The Brink Staff. January 11, 2023 Nature publishes BU-led COVID study that made international headlines; scientists find viral protein called NSP6, not just spike, responsible for making Omicron less dangerous than past variants After three years of infections, lockdowns, and vaccinations, we know a lot about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19—but... More
BU Responds to NIH Funding Clarification Request after False Stories about NEIDL’s COVID Work
Original article from The Brink by The Brink Staff. November 4, 2022 Confirms University did fund headline-making study and that researchers will update paper citations Boston University has responded to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) request for more information about how researchers cited funding in a COVID-19 study paper that sparked international... More
Fact Check-Boston University hybrid COVID virus kills 80% of mice, not people
Original article from Reuters by Reuters Fact Check. October 25, 2022 Social media users have claimed that researchers at Boston University created a new strain of COVID-19 (Omi-S) that can kill 80% of people it infects. While the researchers said in a preprint study that they created a virus combining the spike protein of... More
Lab Manipulations of Covid Virus Fall Under Murky Government Rules
Original article from the New York Times by Carl Zimmer and Benjamin Mueller. October 22, 2022 Mouse experiments at Boston University have spotlighted an ambiguous U.S. policy for research on potentially dangerous pathogens. Scientists at Boston University came under fire this week for an experiment in which they tinkered with the Covid virus. Breathless headlines claimed they had... More