Princeton researchers are applying their skills and abilities to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in a variety of ways. See some of the many ways that the campus has responded.
One of the essential factors the COVID-19 virus needs to enter a host is a receptor on a human cell — a place where the universally recognized spike protein can latch onto the cell surface, pierce it, disgorge its infectious contents, and replicate.
Without a receptor, there is no replication. Without replication, there is no infection…
More than two years into the pandemic, the virus that causes COVID—SARS-CoV-2—continues to spread worldwide. Testing for the virus and its variants can help limit transmission and inform treatment decisions, and is therefore an important pillar of the public health response.
Now, a team of researchers from…
It might not look like much — a plastic box that fits in the hand, with tiny tubes jutting out the top and bottom. Too simple to be cutting edge. Too humble to save so many lives.
But for 20 years, researchers in Robert Prud’homme’s lab have fine-tuned this little box that has revolutionized drug manufacturing, enabling everything…
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), visited Princeton March 24 to tour the University’s COVID-19 testing laboratory and speak about her public health career during a lecture organized by members of the Class of 2022.
Walensky said there is still a lot of work needed to fight the…
In the face of a global pandemic, with more than 200 million global infections and 4 million deaths, and despite unprecedented efforts by public health officials, celebrities and influencers to convince everyone to wear masks and get vaccinated as soon possible, the results are mixed.
Now, two Princeton researchers have discovered an…
The allocation of COVID-19 vaccine between countries has thus far tended toward vaccine nationalism, wherein countries stockpile vaccines to prioritize access for their citizenry over equitable vaccine sharing.
The extent of vaccine nationalism, however, may strongly impact global trajectories of COVID-19 case numbers and increase the…
A new survey of Princeton researchers has found strong compliance with the University’s guidelines designed to protect health and safety during the pandemic.
Acknowledging the tremendous efforts of on-campus researchers and the resulting low case counts, the University continues to emphasize continued vigilance and adherence to
COVID-19 has been associated with increases in opioid overdose deaths, which may be in part because the pandemic limited access to buprenorphine, a treatment used for opioid dependency, according to a new study led by Princeton University researchers.
A new technology being developed by Princeton University researchers and alumni could offer a more effective and robust delivery method for COVID-19 vaccines.
Compared to current vaccines, the technology, which relies on a new type of nanoparticle, could introduce five times as much of the vaccine’s active ingredient, mRNA, into…
COVID-19 can be thought of as a game of chicken, except instead of driving head-on towards each other and betting the other person will swerve at the last minute, we’re going out when we should be staying home and foregoing social distancing, masks and hygiene measures.
“If we can rely on other people to follow the rules, we can get…
One early feature of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic was the perception that sub-Saharan Africa was largely being spared the skyrocketing infection and death rates that were disrupting nations around the world.
While still seemingly mild, the true toll of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, on the countries of sub-Saharan Africa…
Wintertime outbreaks of COVID-19 have been largely driven by whether people adhere to control measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, according to a study published Feb. 8 in Nature Communications by Princeton University researchers. Climate and population immunity…
On April 1, 2020, as the pandemic threatened to overwhelm area hospitals, Andrew Leifer was looking for a way to help. The Princeton University physicist connected with doctors at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia who were working to prevent a looming shortage in machines used to keep patients…
Spurred by the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at Princeton and Google are applying mechanical engineering and artificial intelligence to increase the availability and effectiveness of ventilation treatments worldwide.
Ventilators and their support equipment are expensive and complex devices that require expert attention…
Within days of shutting down their laboratories in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Princeton researchers were asking how they could help.
“Many members of the Princeton faculty reached out with requests for opportunities to use their knowledge, ideas and skills to assist in combating the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dean…
The Covid-19 pandemic, which claimed more than 336,000 lives in the United States in 2020, has significantly affected life expectancy, University of Southern California (USC) and Princeton University…
Princeton disease ecologist C. Jessica Metcalf and Harvard physician and epidemiologist Michael Mina say that predicting disease could become as commonplace as predicting the weather. The Global Immunological Observatory, like a weather center forecasting a tornado or hurricane, would…
When a local hospital experienced a surge in coronavirus patients last spring, it tapped Princeton University researchers for urgent solutions to help protect its healthcare workers.
Since then, University labs have delivered more than 3,000 reusable face shields to hospital staff in the emergency department and other areas of Penn…
The alarming rate at which COVID-19 has killed Black Americans has highlighted the deeply embedded racial disparities in the U.S. health care system.
Princeton researchers now report that low-income Black households also experienced greater job loss, more food and medicine insecurity, and higher indebtedness in the early months of the…
Measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as mask wearing and social distancing are a key tool in combatting the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. These actions also have greatly reduced incidence of many other diseases, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
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An invention to apply plasma to frequently touched items for continuous disinfection could provide a safe and effective, non-chemical way to reduce pathogens on various surfaces such as keypads, escalator handrails and other high-touch surfaces, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) inventors say.
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For the first time, researchers have directly visualized how speaking produces and expels droplets of saliva into the air. The smallest droplets can be inhaled by other people and are a primary way that respiratory infections like COVID-19 spread from person to person.
Using high-speed imaging, the researchers showed that when our…
With implications for the transmission of diseases like COVID-19, researchers have found that ordinary conversation creates a conical, "jet-like" airflow that quickly carries a spray of tiny droplets from a speaker’s mouth across meters of an interior space.
“People should recognize that they have an effect around them,” said…
A study of more than a half-million people in India who were exposed to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 suggests that the virus’ continued spread is driven by only a small percentage of those who become infected.
Furthermore, children and young adults were found to be potentially much more important to transmitting the virus —…
A survey of Princeton researchers who returned this summer to on-campus laboratory-based activities found a high level of compliance with the University's health and safety protocols.
The anonymous survey, conducted in late July, asked researchers to report how often they and their colleagues adhered to University guidelines on mask…
New research suggests that the impact of natural and vaccine-induced immunity will be key factors in shaping the future trajectory of the global coronavirus pandemic, known as COVID-19. In particular, a vaccine capable of eliciting a strong immune response could substantially reduce the future burden of infection,…
Vaccines are one of the most important tools we have in our defense against infectious diseases, but not everyone responds to vaccination in the same way. Parasites such as worms and viruses change the way a person or animal’s immune system functions, and this can affect their ability to respond to vaccines.
Since the 1960s, a steady…
A Policy Forum article published today in Science shows that an annual investment of $30 billion should be enough to offset the costs of preventing another global pandemic such as COVID-19.
Thus far, COVID has cost at least $2.6 trillion and may cost 10 times this amount. It is the…
Travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are transforming, with pluses and minuses, scientific conferences around the world. Take the Coordinated Working Group Meeting (CWGM), an international event cohosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) that typically draws 30 or 40 participants…
Most people only hear about seismometers in the context of big earthquakes or volcanoes, but the sensitive instruments detect much gentler movements as well.
“They can pick up people moving, or public transportation,” said Yuri Tamama of the Class of 2022, who is analyzing data from campus…
The C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute has awarded $5.4 million to 26 projects to accelerate artificial intelligence research to mitigate COVID-19 and future pandemics. Princeton faculty members Matthew Desmond, Simon Levin, Stefana Parascho, H. Vincent Poor, Corina Tarnita and Mengdi Wang are among researchers to receive funding for their…
In the latest episode of the “We Roar” podcast,…
Statement from President Eisgruber on the killing of George Floyd and the importance of confronting racism
In my Commencement address for today’s virtual ceremony, I say that members of the Class of 2020 graduate into hard times, and…
In the latest episode of the “We Roar” podcast, a vaccine expert describes what it will take to produce a coronavirus vaccine in less than two years — and why that timeline is already “miraculously fast.”
Local variations in climate are not likely to dominate the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Princeton University study published May 18 in the journal Science.
The researchers found that the vast number of people still vulnerable…
A National Science Foundation grant will support Princeton researchers studying how COVID-19 may be spread by people without symptoms through everyday social interactions involving breathing and speaking.
Led by Howard Stone,…
Catching COVID-19 isn’t all-or-nothing, says virus researcher Caroline Bartman in the latest episode of Princeton University’s “We Roar” podcast. Instead, it’s more like a poison: while a tiny amount of most toxins might just make…
Millions of tiny creatures — and the scientific discoveries that they make possible — depend on one of the essential workers reporting to campus during the pandemic.
Gordon Gray is “chef de cuisine” at Princeton’s fly kitchen, where he brews a rich and hearty concoction for the roughly 2 million fruit flies that call Princeton…
COVID-19's rapid spread throughout the world has been fueled in part by the virus' ability to be transmitted by people who are not showing symptoms of infection.
Now, a study by researchers at Princeton has found that this silent phase of transmission can be a successful evolutionary strategy for pathogens such as viruses like the one…
“When this all started, COVID-19 was touted as the great equalizer,” said Glenn Wakam, a surgical resident currently volunteering in a Detroit-area hospital. “Officials said it didn't matter your race, your religion, your socioeconomic status, that this would affect us all the same. That's just not true.”
“It's one of the million…
In just six weeks, from March 19 to May 1, an international team of physicists and engineers led by Princeton’s Cristian Galbiati brought a ventilator from concept to FDA approval.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Sunday, May 3, that the…
Even as about 90% of Princeton’s research labs are shuttered, care for research animals continues uninterrupted under the direction of Laura Conour, the University’s attending veterinarian and the director of Lab Animal Resources.
Her 26 team members, including veterinarians, administrators and animal care technicians, provide daily…
Responding to a challenge that tragic necessity has thrown to countless research labs around the world, a team from the Princeton Department of Chemistry will deploy its new cell mapping technology to shed light on the molecular interplay between COVID-19 and its host. The team is collaborating…
Access to comprehensive, quality health care is critical for promoting and maintaining health and well-being. Yet, under normal circumstances, health care accessibility is an issue for many in the United States. Covid-19 brings new challenges for low-income families, expecting mothers, and others at higher risk for serious illness.
We…
As the rest of the world struggles to combat Covid-19, China, where the virus originated in late 2019, appears to have made significant strides to quell the virus. As a result, researchers, health care professionals, and policymakers around the world are looking for the lessons learned from China’s experience.
We asked faculty…
During any crisis, timely, and sometimes life-altering, decisions must be made, requiring an extreme amount of sound judgment under uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different.
Open Facebook or Twitter on any given day during the Covid-19 global pandemic, and it takes just moments before a questionable claim about the coronavirus appears — 5G technology causes people to succumb to the virus; inhaling steam will cure it; the virus is a bioweapon gone wrong. From the origins of the virus or potential treatments to what…