December 2024 CIC Webinar Recap
The thirty-first session of the COVID Information Commons (CIC) webinar series was held on December 9, 2024. In this forum, leading COVID-19 scientists presented their current research on the global pandemic.
Event moderators included Lauren Close, Operations & Communications Manager of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University, Florence Hudson, Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University and COVID Information Commons Principal Investigator (PI) and Emily Rothenberg, National Student Data Corps (NSDC) Program Manager.
The researchers presented various topics, including maternal and neonatal health, coronavirus spike inhibition and signaling, family support systems during pandemics, and health outcomes for underserved populations. Each touched on broader themes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The session’s first speaker was Harvey Pollard from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine. He presented his team’s research on COVID-19 airway inflammation is due to Spike inhibition of CFTR signaling. This project was funded by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Pollard’s talk explored the role of CFTR (Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator) in promoting the inflammatory response prompted by COVID-19. Dr. Pollard’s study found that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reduces CFTR levels, which in turn activates pro-inflammatory pathways, which then triggers a greater level of COVID-19 inflammation. His team discovered that cardiac glycosides, such as digitoxin and digoxin, can block the spike protein’s interaction with ACE-2, preventing infection and reducing inflammation by mimicking CFTR. These findings suggest that cardiac glycosides may offer a dual therapeutic approach for COVID-19 by both inhibiting the virus and modulating inflammation. The research highlights the potential for these drugs to alleviate the effects of COVID-19, offering a promising treatment avenue for the future.
A video of Dr. Pollard’s presentation can be found on the CIC website.
Next, Emily Wiemers from Syracuse University, presented her research: Tracing the Health Consequences of Family Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This project was funded by NIH National Institute on Aging.
In this talk, Dr. Wiemers shared some details about her research at Syracuse University on trends in family care dynamics as measured throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Her team found that older adults’ increased needs (financial or time-based) during the pandemic were met by their family members with a high level of consistency. From a sample population of 6,000+ adults aged 55 and over, they found that a significant number were experiencing either financial hardship (13%) or were having difficulty accessing goods and services they required during the early months of the pandemic (14%). Dr. Wiemers’ team surveyed those individuals and found that they were more likely to receive financial or time-based support from their families, suggesting that American adults learned quickly to be flexible with their time and caregiving responsibilities early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.
A video of Dr. Wiemers’ presentation can be found on the CIC website.
Next, Gabriela Wilson of the University of Louisiana, shared her research: National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities. This project was funded by the Deparmtent of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Wilson shared her team’s insights on developing effective and community-driven public health campaigns in northern Texas in the months following the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Their research was focused on COVID-19 vaccination rates in Tarrant County, and in particular, how scientific communications could be refined to combat miscommunication. An important finding from this research was the importance of trust and cultural sensitivity when developing scientific communications for a lay audience. The team’s hope is that their insights can be used to increase community participation rates in future public health campaigns.
A video of Dr. Wilson’s presentation can be found on the CIC website.
Finally, Dr. Dani Dumitriu of Columbia University presented her team’s research on COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcomes (COMBO): brain-behavior functioning. This research was funded by the NIH National Institute of Mental Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Dumitriu closed out our afternoon of presentations with a discussion of her team’s “COMBO: COVID-19 Mother-Baby Outcomes Initiative” at Columbia University. Dr. Dumitriu is a neuroscientist who began working with families who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Her team works with families and follows their children throughout their postnatal journeys. One important paper developed as a result of the COMBO Initiative’s research focuses on vertical transmission of the COVID-19 virus between mothers and infants - the researchers found no ill-effects from COVID exposure in these infants, but observed some small decrements in pandemic-born children overall. Dr. Dumitriu’s team is also studying rates of autism among infants born during the COVID-19 pandemic and has happily found no evidence that the pandemic environment increased infant autism rates.
A video of Dr. Dumitriu’s presentation can be found on the CIC website.
Following the presentations, Florence Hudson hosted a Q&A session to answer audience questions and discuss insights.
A recording of this event is available on the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub’s YouTube Channel and the COVID Information Commons website. The COVID Information Commons is an NSF-funded project brought to you by the Big Data Innovation Hubs, led by the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University.
We look forward to welcoming you to future CIC webinars and programs! Please sign up for the CIC newsletter to be informed of future CIC events.