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UK College of Medicine researchers are using the special antibodies made by alpacas, called nanobodies, to help understand the novel coronavirus and potentially develop a treatment that could protect people from being infected. 

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.

“The aim of these fellowships is to cultivate future leaders who are able to solve emerging agricultural challenges of the 21st century,” said Robert Houtz, UK associate dean for research and director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station.

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.

The study seeks to answer how sectors of local and regional food systems are responding to COVID-19, what successful adaptations have been implemented, what obstacles the various arms of local food systems have encountered and the economic and value-chain impacts.

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.

A new pilot funding program for multidisciplinary COVID-19 research at the University of Kentucky has launched in record time and funded 12 pilot projects in as many weeks.

“Parental memories of environmental stresses such as drought and extreme temperatures can influence the growth and yield of its offspring. We can now start understanding how plants control such epigenetic memory reprogramming."

“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).”

The University of Kentucky Resumption of Research Phased Plan was approved last week through the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and senior leadership.