Vice chancellor: Performing together, CU Anschutz researchers accelerated SARS-CoV-2 discovery
Working amid laboratory shutdowns and strict COVID-19 protocols, the medical scientists on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus responded to a global pandemic in 2020 in groundbreaking fashion.
Rapidly joining an effort to understand and battle SARS-CoV-2, CU Anschutz researchers created an antibody test, advanced novel therapies, guided a state public-health response and launched a database that can accelerate discoveries in laboratories around the world.
And that’s just a fraction of the research community’s accomplishments during a time of need.
“We’ve gone through a tumultuous few months to be sure,” said Thomas Flaig, MD, who took the reins as vice chancellor for research just as the pandemic struck in March. But it brought the campus together in unprecedented ways, Flaig said, during the inaugural State of Research address on Dec. 8.
and last updated 2020-12-11 00:57:15-05
DENVER â In late March, Raul Pero was told he was positive for COVID-19. At 39 years old, Pero had no pre-existing conditions, and told Denver7 he thought his touch with COVID-19 would be like the flu. It wasn t. They told me they had to put me on a ventilator and put me in a coma when I was like, OK, this is serious, Pero said.
He spent the next month on a ventilator. Two months after being admitted he was finally released, losing 50 pounds during his time at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
His only human interaction was with frontline workers.