blog posts UIC leads new collaborative to reduce COVID-19 disparities May 24, 2021 8:15 am The University of Illinois Chicago has been selected by the National Institutes of Health as the principal site of a multi-center collaborative in the Chicago area that will bolster research and outreach to help communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19. UIUC receives APLU award for COVID-19 testing program Jul 6, 2021 8:00 am The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has received the inaugural Research Response to Community Crisis Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for its COVID-19 testing program. In survey, COVID-19 vaccine recipients report changes in menstrual bleeding Jul 22, 2022 9:45 am In a survey of more than 35,000 people, UIUC anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy and her colleagues collected evidence that many individuals experience menstrual changes after COVID-19 vaccination. Illinois K-12 public schools can access free SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 testing Aug 5, 2021 12:45 pm The llinois Department of Public Health announced that it has expanded access to free COVID-19 testing to al K-12 public schools across Illinois outside of Chicago, which received its own funding. Schools can choose to utilize the SHIELD Illinois saliva-based test developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Paper: Perception of COVID-19 vulnerability hurts job prospects Sep 15, 2021 9:30 am Job seekers’ perceived risk of contracting and falling seriously ill from COVID-19 may take a significant mental health toll and ultimately affect their ability to secure employment, says new research co-written by Yihao Liu, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois. Antibodies from original strain COVID-19 infection don't bind to variants, study finds Sep 22, 2021 8:30 am People infected with the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 produced a consistent antibody response. However, those antibodies don’t bind well to new variants, according to a new UIUC study. Citizen COVID-19 blogging project Oct 21, 2020 2:15 pm Ruby Mendenhall and Robin Wilson at the University of Illinois have come together to lead a blogging project on COVID-19 throughout Illinois. They've signed-up citizen scientists to share their perspectives. Detecting outbreaks through wastewater Oct 27, 2020 1:45 pm The Walder Foundation has awarded a Discovery Partners Institute science team led by UIC $1.25 million to develop a prototype capability for detecting COVID-19 outbreaks and trends in Chicago’s wastewater. New mobile COVID-19 lab prototype Nov 6, 2020 1:00 pm The Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC has completed the prototype for a mobile laboratory designed to demonstrate a way to rapidly deploy the saliva-based test for COVID-19 developed at the university. Early, mid-career women experienced higher stress than other academics during pandemic Dec 13, 2021 12:30 pm The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women who are early and mid-career academic faculty members, according to a recent study by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. Shield T3 & DPI announce commercialization of COVID-19 wastewater monitoring Feb 2, 2022 9:45 am Shield T3 and the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) today announced a new service to state and local governments outside of Illinois: Testing COVID-19 and its variants in sewage. UIC nursing students help with vaccine effort in Urbana Feb 9, 2021 8:00 am UIC Nursing students in Urbana are gaining valuable clinical skills and providing a critical service to the community by helping local public health departments administer the COVID-19 vaccine. Discovery Partners Institute receives $2.36M disease-control contract from CDPH Feb 21, 2023 10:30 am The Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) is expanding its wastewater surveillance in Chicago beyond the virus that causes COVID-19 under a Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) agreement that extends their disease-control efforts into mid-2024. The DPI-led scientific team is now also analyzing wastewater for evidence of influenza A and B. The new agreement permits this search to grow to include other pathogens, such as the polio or monkeypox viruses, should they emerge as public health concerns. UIC Urban Forum to focus on inclusive post-pandemic recovery Apr 7, 2022 9:30 am The University of Illinois Chicago’s 2022 Urban Forum will bring together civic leaders, public health professionals and economic development experts to discuss new ideas to create an inclusive and enduring pandemic recovery. K-12 Shield Playbook offers guidance for reopening schools Apr 15, 2021 12:15 pm A new resource is available to help guide teachers and school administrators as they reopen schools amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, assembled by researchers and experts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. UIC to participate in NIH phase two clinical trial on additional boosters Apr 18, 2022 3:30 pm The University of Illinois Chicago will participate in a National Institutes of Health phase two clinical trial evaluating additional COVID-19 booster shots for adults. UIS now offering testing to public May 17, 2021 2:45 pm The University of Illinois Springfield, in partnership with SHIELD Illinois, is now offering free COVID-19 saliva testing to the public. New tool providing solid clues to COVID-19's resurgence Jun 9, 2022 8:00 am University of Illinois at Chicago associate professor Rachel Poretsky is doing sewage surveillance through the University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute. Poretsky is co-leading a team with computer scientist Charlie Catlett that’s using Chicago wastewater to identify viral hot spots. UIC conducting community research on emerging variants Jun 28, 2021 2:15 pm Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago are offering free rapid diagnostic testing for COVID-19 in vulnerable Chicago communities and performing genomic sequencing on the samples to identify variants as part of a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative called RADx-UP. COVID-19 virus spike protein flexibility improved by human cell's own modifications Jul 15, 2022 10:45 am University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers created atomic-level models of the spike protein that plays a key role in COVID-19 infection and immunity, revealing how the protein bends and moves as it seeks to engage receptors. Illinois Extension contributes to vaccination awareness effort in state Jul 16, 2021 2:45 pm A new partnership between Cooperative Extension, the Extension Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is empowering land-grant universities across the country to strengthen immunization education with a special focus on adult vaccine hesitancy around both COVID-19 and other adult vaccines. The environmental lessons of COVID-19 Jul 23, 2021 3:15 pm Atmospheric scientists at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign emphasize that the drop in carbon dioxide emissions during the pandemic needs more effort to be sustained. Sampling sewer water for COVID-19 in the C-U community Aug 9, 2021 11:45 am Illinois State Water Survey researchers have been sampling sewer water to look for traces of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at the neighborhood level in Champaign-Urbana to help monitor the spread of infection. Study: Domestic control of COVID-19 takes priority over international travel bans Aug 13, 2021 11:00 am According to a new paper co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign urban and environmental economics expert, taming domestic transmission of the novel coronavirus ought to be prioritized over international travel bans DNA nets capture COVID-19 virus in low-cost rapid-testing platform Sep 29, 2022 3:45 pm Tiny nets woven from DNA strands can ensnare the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19, lighting up the virus for a fast-yet-sensitive diagnostic test – and also impeding the virus from infecting cells, opening a new possible route to antiviral treatment, according to a new study. IDPH, DPI, Shield T3 to expand wastewater monitoring to schools Sep 29, 2022 3:45 pm The state of Illinois announced it is launching an innovative pilot program to protect school children from COVID-19 and reduce its spread through classrooms by analyzing school wastewater for the coronavirus, an expansion of the partnership between IDPH, the Discovery Partners Institute and Shield T3. Mitigating lung damage, mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 Oct 5, 2021 11:45 am In a new paper, researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago report that a drug approved for treating patients with autoimmune disease helped to prevent lung damage and death in mice infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 in humans. UIS to co-host webinar on overcoming misinformation during the pandemic Nov 18, 2021 2:15 pm The UIS Springfield Center for State Policy and Leadership and the Community Health Roundtable are partnering to host a free virtual public webinar, “Overcoming Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mainstream and Social Media, Public Health, and Outreach to the General Public and Disadvantaged Populations.” Report explores how public policies failed Black, Latino Chicagoans during COVID-19 Dec 2, 2021 1:00 pm A new report issued today from the UIC Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy analyzes how national and local policies related to health care, mental health care, housing, child care and education, and social assistance failed to meet the needs of Chicago’s Black and Latino residents and contributed to the health disparities in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Pandemic impact on waste Dec 3, 2020 1:45 pm Anne-Marie Hanson, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Illinois Springfield takes a look at the impact of COVID-19 on waste patterns, waste workers, and waste habits. Pandemic-stressors' impact on STIs in young Kenyan women Dec 6, 2021 3:15 pm UIC researchers have been awarded $2.6 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health to study how pandemic-related stressors influence sexual behavior and risk of sexually transmitted infections among girls and young women in Kenya. Adapting HIV/AIDS interventions Dec 8, 2020 3:30 pm A research project being co-led by a UIUC social work professor is exploring whether interventions that have been effective at engaging high-risk populations in HIV/AIDS testing and treatment can be adapted to achieve similar effects in mitigating COVID-19. CDC endorses Test to Stay strategy piloted by IDPH, SHIELD Illinois Dec 20, 2021 8:15 am A new CDC report published today confirms that the Test to Stay program, created locally by IDPH and operated by SHIELD Illinois, can help keep kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) students in the classroom. Does our place in society influence how we respond to COVID-19 protocol? Jan 5, 2022 1:30 pm University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign electrical and computer engineering professor Lav Varshney is a co-author of a new study that explores how social capital influences choices regarding COVID-19 mitigation compliance. At-home COVID-19 test in development potentially as good as lab PCR tests Jan 5, 2022 1:45 pm UIC researchers have designed a high-quality assay that can be used in at-home tests for rapid COVID-19 screening. Results from an early preclinical study suggest that tests with the new assay may be just as reliable as lab-based PCR tests. DPI & IDPH launch online COVID-19 tracker Jan 10, 2023 1:30 pm The Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced today a new website that tracks the levels of COVID-19 in wastewater samples in Chicago and other cities across Illinois. ‘Decoy’ protein works against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants Jan 20, 2022 1:15 pm A drug treatment that acts as a decoy against SARS-CoV-2 was highly effective at preventing death and lung damage in humanized animal models of severe COVID-19 disease, according to a Nature Chemical Biology study from researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago. New study reports mask-wearing experiences of adults with asthma Jan 20, 2022 1:15 pm Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago conducted an online survey of 501 adults with asthma to better understand the extent of, and the problems related to, mask use in the era of COVID-19. Online smell, taste challenge offered as early detection tool Jan 26, 2021 12:45 pm A brief smell and taste challenge, developed by the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, is a web-based tool people can use to easily monitor changes in these senses using their favorite morning beverage. COVID-19 cases, deaths in U.S. increase with higher income inequality Jan 26, 2021 9:15 am U.S. counties with higher income inequality faced higher rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the first 200 days of the pandemic, according to a new study led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Tim Liao. Precarious employment on the rise long before COVID-19 Jan 27, 2021 9:00 am A study led by a University of Illinois Chicago researcher uses a new approach to measure precarious, or low-quality, employment in the United States. And, according to those findings, precarious employment has increased 9% between 1988 and 2016. New technique digitally counts intact SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in saliva Jan 28, 2022 9:30 am The new approach to COVID detection uses a specially designed nucleic acid molecule, called an “aptamer” attached to a biosensor that selectively recognizes one of the proteins on the virus outer surface, and captures it in a single step at room temperature, with no other reagents required. Caregivers often left out of telehealth services during pandemic Jan 28, 2022 9:30 am Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Minakshi Raj led a study that found many family caregivers who would have been involved in in-person care were left out of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Illinois public universities seek additional COVID-19 relief Jan 29, 2021 3:30 pm Presidents of the state's public universities sent a letter to Illinois federal legislators today seeking additional relief from increasing costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative mental health effects of pandemic fade over time Jan 30, 2021 10:15 am Social distancing policies correlated with immediate increases in interest in information about “isolation” and “worry” – but those effects tapered off two to four weeks after their respective peaks, says a new UIUC study. Retrained generic antibodies can recognize SARS-CoV-2 Feb 3, 2021 8:30 am Researchers at UIC and California State University at Sacramento have developed a novel strategy to train the immunity response to COVID-19. Professor wins grant to fund flu, COVID-19 antibody research Feb 9, 2022 8:30 am UIUC biochemistry professor Nicholas Wu was recently chosen to receive a $150,000 next generation grant to fund his flu and COVID-19 antibody research. Cleaning product use affecting asthma more during pandemic Feb 10, 2021 12:30 pm Those with asthma are experiencing less asthma control related to an increase in using household disinfectants — known asthma triggers — because of COVID-19, according to a survey co-conducted by UIC researchers. UI Health leads Chicago in providing vaccines for phase 1B Feb 12, 2021 12:30 pm On the first day it opened a community COVID-19 vaccination site, UIC and UI Health administered more than 1,600 shots to phase 1A and phase 1B eligible people, representing nearly a quarter of all vaccine doses (23%) distributed in Chicago on that day. UIC vaccinating thousands at mass site, students pitch in Feb 19, 2021 8:30 am An expansive stadium at the UIC campus is serving a new purpose during the pandemic: The Credit Union 1 Arena now operates as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site, offering about 1,000 coveted doses to eligible residents every day. (Chicago Tribune)
