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Saranac Lake, NY —Trudeau Institute will continue work to help its global partners develop vaccines and treatments for future COVID-19 variants, as well as prepare for outbreaks of other pandemics, through a grant funded by the F.M. Kirby Foundation.
The $45,000 grant has been awarded to Dr. William Reiley’s group to further characterize a recently identified mouse strain in his lab which is highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. While existing mouse models have aided scientists in the development of vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, those models do not accurately depict acute life threatening COVID-19 disease as seen in humans, nor lasting effects seen in COVID-19 “long-haulers”.
“Our existing model is just too limited,” Dr. Reiley said. “Because of this, researchers have been hampered in their ability to understand the immune responses as they relate to control of virus replication, the viral dysregulation of the immune response, identify biomarkers of disease, and interrogate novel therapeutic targets.”
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.
In order to help support small business during the COVID-19 pandemic, up to $3,000,000 in reimbursement grants at $5,000 per business is being offered to eligible applicants. This program, lead by “Raising the NYS Bar Restaurant Recovery Fund” was created in support of full-service restaurants, arguably the industry hit the hardest by the pandemic, during the winter months where temperature and weather prevents outdoor dining.
This New Year’s Day, the 10th anniversary of First Day Hikes is taking place in New York State parks, historic sites, wildlife areas, trails, and public lands across the North Country (With some minor limitations for COVID-19).
The 2021 Decentralization (DEC) Grant application process is now open for eligible arts organizations and individual artists residing in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, and Hamilton Counties. Artists may submit up to three direct requests of up to $5000 in any combination of two categories: Community Arts and Arts Education projects.
The Oswegatchie Educational Center on Long Pond Road in Croghan, NY will be offering its first Mega Duck Dash & Dining Hall Fundraiser, to take place at noon on Sunday, October 25.
This week it began. We have initiated the economic “phase-in” period of our return to normalcy, a studied collection of charts, graphs and data which, if all goes well, will allow us by mid-June to sit down in public and eat a cheeseburger.
Saranac Lake’s Adirondack Health Center has finalized their mobile COVID-19 testing locations throughout Essex and Franklin counties for the week.
The 
Adirondack Health has developed a plan to increase testing throughout the region after receiving 2,000 COVID-19 testing kits. Standing provider orders have been given throughout all Adirondack Health testing sites, and no one will be denied a test if they do not have a doctor’s orders. Individuals may still opt to have their testing done through primary care providers as well.
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New Research Suggests White-Tailed Deer May Be Highly Susceptible to COVID-19
The bioRxiv-published report details a study conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Penn State University (PSU) scientists. The team examined 131 free-ranging white-tailed deer, all living on Staten Island, the most suburban of the 5 New York City boroughs. Nineteen tested positive for COVID antibodies, indicating that the deer had prior exposure to the virus and, according to the researchers, implying that they are vulnerable to repeated re-infections with new variants.
The report has not yet been certified by peer review, but has been published as a pre-print because of the significance of the findings, according to Suresh Kuchipudi, an American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM) board-certified specialist in virology and immunology at the Department of Veterinary and Biological Sciences at PSU. He serves as associate director of PSU’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory where, as head of microbiology, he oversees the University’s bacteriology, virology, serology, and molecular diagnostic units. Kuchipudi has expressed concern that spillover of omicron from humans to deer could result in new and possibly vaccine-resistant mutations of the virus evolving undetected in non-human hosts and noted that one of the infected deer in the study had antibodies from a previous COVID-19 infection; indicating that deer, like humans, can experience breakthrough cases.
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