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Known as Serologic Testing to Accelerate Recovery and Transition (START), the study focuses on antibody testing to begin understanding how many people in the region may have already contracted and recovered from COVID-19.

UK researchers across many disciplines are addressing COVID-19’s medical challenges and beyond — including developing new PPE materials, designing testing and diagnostic equipment, and examining the wider societal, economic and legal implications of the pandemic.

Researchers at UK are exploring the use of an antiseptic nasal spray and gargle to prevent transmission and infection of the virus among healthcare workers and non-COVID patients.

“The virus is about 120 nanometers in size — in the world of membranes, that's large. Even more so, it's not going to come as a virus by itself, flying in the air. It's going to come in the saliva, so it's going to be a much larger particle. A large particle is just not going through (this filter).”

A group of UK professors and scientists efforts to identify possible direct therapeutic approaches to treat COVID-19 was published in the Perspectives section of the most recent issue of Science, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

UK researchers have launched antibody testing that will help to understand what immunity to COVID-19 really means. The research is part of UK’s CURE Alliance team, which is uniting UK researchers across disciplines in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

“We are pleased to be able to offer this clinical trial to patients with COVID-19 in Kentucky. While there is no standard treatment for COVID-19, this trial gives us the ability to test multiple therapies rapidly in order to identify the most promising agents.”

According to the report, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Commonwealth would have reached a staggering 45,000 by April 25 without any state-imposed measures. For comparison, the current total of confirmed COVID-19 cases is fewer than 4,000.

The UK CURE Alliance, in collaboration with the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science, has issued RFAs for COVID-19 funding in three categories: health, materials and methods and social sciences. Full-time UK faculty in all title series are eligible to apply.

John Thelin is a leading authority on the history of American higher education. Today, he answers some of our questions, bringing historical knowledge to contemporary discussions around COVID-19’s impact on higher education.