/ As Scientists Turn Their Attention To COVID-19, Other Research Is Not Getting Done – and That Can Have Lasting Consequences
As Scientists Turn Their Attention To COVID-19, Other Research Is Not Getting Done – and That Can Have Lasting Consequences
A molecular biologist at the University Clinical Research Center in Mali works in a COVID-19 testing lab.
For many researchers, the choice to spend decades working in a lab or in the field comes from a desire to help – to expand understanding of how life works or to improve human health. So when COVID-19 emerged, many scientists dropped what they were doing and switched their focus to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the pandemic.
Dr. Terence S. Dermody is the Vira I. Heinz Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief and Scientific Director at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Dermody received his B.S. degree from Cornell University and his M.D. degree from Columbia University. He completed an internal medicine residency at Presbyterian Hospital in New York and fellowships in infectious diseases and molecular virology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh in 2016, Dr. Dermody was Dorothy Overall Wells Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program and Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.