Trudeau Institute researchers played a key role in confirming the effectiveness of two approaches to fighting the novel coronavirus, according to a pair of papers published this winter.
Both projects relied on pre-clinical studies carried out at Trudeau on behalf of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), which developed the vaccine and treatment. One, which tested a new COVID-19 vaccine, was published in Cell Reports. The other, which tested a monoclonal antibody treatment aimed at infected individuals, was published in Nature Immunology.
WRAIR is a leading researcher of diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and dengue. It relied on Trudeau’s laboratory expertise to verify the effectiveness of the vaccine and treatment before moving to clinical trials.
“We have really extensive experience and knowledge of how to work with pathogens,” said William Reiley, Ph.D., head of research services at Trudeau. “Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, we’ve been developing models to conduct preclinical, early developmental stage testing of vaccines, therapeutics and monoclonal antibodies.”
Spring hikes for older legs
For decades editors have told me not to use the word “elderly,” because it is both subjective and derogatory, an edict that I have afforded the same bland indifference with which I semi-acknowledge a dental hygienist who has just pressured me to floss.
But at a public hearing over a Ticonderoga public works project this week, a young woman was decrying new curbing that had facilitated the formation of ice and caused her to fall. She was OK because she was young, she said, but — and here she pointed to her neighbor, not much older than me — “this elderly gentleman” might not be as lucky.
He gave her a look, but didn’t say anything. I got to admit, though, that kind of stung. Still, the Adirondacks is filled with little hikes suitable for us elderly folk.
I used to think some of these short but interesting jaunts like Essex Quarry or Cathedral Pines as beneath my dignity, but now that I’m elderly I revel in these, and other perks of the infirm.
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