Note: The NPRCs will update this blog with our latest COVID-19 news.

Since beginning COVID-19 research in early 2020, NPRC researchers have made encouraging progress in efforts to better understand, diagnose, prevent and treat this novel disease. We’re committed to conducting and enabling research to end this global pandemic and to providing information so the public has ready access to our scientific results.

Our most recent COVID-19 news includes: 

• April 1, 2022: Tulane NPRC researchers show COVID-19’s lingering impacts on the brain
• March 17, 2022: SNPRC, Texas Biomed and research partners discover new, potent COVID-19 antibody cocktail

Below is even more information about our extensive and collaborative COVID-19 research:

Diagnostics:

• April 13, 2021: Wisconsin NPRC scientists explore the shifts in the genetic material of COVID-19 to expand the viral genome sequence
• February 25, 2021: Southwest NPRC helps people understand COVID-19 variants in this TX Biobytes podcast with virologist Dr. Jean Patterson
• February 9, 2021: Tulane NPRC unravels what makes people COVID-19 super-spreaders
• August 6, 2020: Yerkes NPRC awarded $4.1 million National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to help predict COVID-19 disease severity and inform treatment decisions
• August 6, 2020: Wisconsin NPRC is collaborating on a simpler COVID-19 saliva-based test that could provide results in hours
• May 12, 2020: A Tulane NPRC study shows the virus can live in the air for more than 16 hours
• February 24, 2020: Scientists at Southwest NPRC organize a team of leading virologists, microbiologists, high containment lab experts and animal modeling researchers to study the virus 
• February 11, 2020: Wisconsin NPRC researchers form a coalition with interdisciplinary teams for the sole purpose of COVID-19 studies

Prevention:

• July 15, 2021: Yerkes NPRC researchers help produce COVID-19 vaccine that is easy to produce and cost-effective
• July 1, 2021: Yerkes NPRC researchers develop low-cost, low-dose COVID-19 vaccine candidate
• June 9, 2021: Wisconsin NPRC researchers will participate in a new pandemic prevention institute
• February 4, 2021: Yerkes NPRC researchers developed a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe and effective in animals models, easily adaptable to address variants and may be equally effective with a single dose. Hear directly from the lead researcher here (beginning at 23:03) and watch the latest update here.
• February 3, 2021: Tulane NPRC leads national research partnership to speed up COVID-19 vaccines and drug discoveries
• January 21, 2021: Wisconsin NPRC leads the call to thank researchers and animal care experts for making COVID-19 vaccines safe and effective
• December 19, 2020: California NPRC’s research shows “promising” results to develop a COVID-19 vaccine suitable for children
• November 24, 2020: Learn about the monkeys behind COVID-19 vaccines and how the NPRCs accelerated the pace of discovery based on their HIV/AIDS expertise
• November 9, 2020: Southwest NPRC researchers help Pfizer test COVID-19 vaccine in monkeys
• October 19, 2020: California NPRC researchers begin only established U.S. trial of a COVID-19 immunization for children
• September 9, 2020: Yerkes NPRC researcher discusses his COVID-19 vaccine work on the season 2 opener of “Your Fantastic Mind”
• July 21, 2020: California NPRC monkey study on early immune response to SAS-CoV-2 guides vaccine development
• July 20, 2020: Washington NPRC COVID-19 replicating RNA vaccine in development has advantages of safety, cost, scalability and storage
• July 6, 2020: California NPRC researcher awarded funding to optimize vaccines for most susceptible populations
• June 9, 2020: Wisconsin NPRC’s gene sequencing leads to insights on transmission and vaccine development
• May 18, 2020: Yerkes NPRC awarded a two-year, $582,000 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to develop a vaccine
• April 6, 2020: Tulane NPRC scientists are awarded $10.3 million to test therapeutics and vaccines 
• April 2, 2020: Wisconsin NPRC partners with FluGen and Bharat Biotech to develop CoroFlu, a coronavirus vaccine

Treatments:

• November 3, 2021: California NPRC researchers show antibody treatment prevents inflammation in lungs and nervous system in macaques with SARS-CoV-2
• January 19, 2021: Tulane NPRC researchers identify potential animal model for studying severe COVID-19 infections
• December 10, 2020: Yerkes NPRC researchers show a well-known anti-inflammatory medication is remarkably effective in reducing the lung inflammation COVID-19 causes
• December 1, 2020: Tulane NPRC researchers say that while having a robust immune response to coronavirus may sound helpful, the opposite may be true
• November 19, 2020: Southwest NPRC receives Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to test the effectiveness of human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection
• April 20, 2020: Tulane NPRC director, selected to serve on new National Institutes of Health (NIH) public-private collaboration in the fight against COVID-19
• March 26, 2020: Southwest NPRC researchers launch comprehensive research initiative to support drug development efforts by investigating multiple animal species and their responses to COVID-19

Additional NPRC COVID-19 News:

• November 10, 2021: California NPRC researchers suggest SARS-CoV-2 can enter the brain through the nose and affect neurons, potentially offering clues to Long COVID
• November 9, 2021: Tulane NPRC researchers help identify gaps in current knowledge and suggest opportunities for future SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 research
• February 23, 2021: The New York Times features NPRC COVID-19 research in this story (Note: may require log in)
• January 6, 2021: This conversation with a California NPRC infectious disease researcher provides information about the center’s COVID-19 research
• October 15, 2020: Texas Biomed faculty members appointed to national COVID-19 committees
• July 6, 2020: Tulane NPRC researchers find coronavirus can survive in air for hours
• June 2, 2020: Southwest NPRC researchers release study on animal models that best reflects the impact of COVID-19 on humans 
• May 18, 2020: A researcher at the Southwest NPRC writes a book to help kids understand COVID-19

Bookmark this page so you can easily return here for the latest NPRC COVID-19 research information. We’ve also compiled a list of resources here and provided links to previous NPRC COVID-19 news and national media stories here.