COVID-19 Research at the Morgridge Institute
Areas of Expertise
- Molecular mechanisms of viral replication
- Virus-host interactions and oncogenesis
- Mass spectrometry
- Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM) analytics and technology development
- High-throughput computing
- Novel tools in machine learning and bioinformatics
- Advanced fabrication facilities
- Bioethics consultation
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic forced biomedical labs around the nation to scale down, many investigators at Morgridge have taken on new research challenges to help understand the novel coronavirus and defeat the viral outbreak.
The John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Center for Research in Virology has contributed to a fundamental understanding of how viruses work for decades, and its expertise and technologies are uniquely suited to accelerate discovery related to coronaviruses.
Other Morgridge research teams in metabolism, regenerative biology and biomedical imaging have also made important contributions.
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In the News
Morgridge scientists take on new research challenges
Cryo-EM Explained: Visualizing Life’s Machinery
The world of the super-small — of proteins, ribosomes, bacteria, viruses, and other biomolecules — is perpetually abuzz inside of us. A powerful structural biology technique called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) gives scientists a new window into the machinery of life. Here’s a look at how the technology works.
Stunningly detailed blueprint revealed of viral genome replication machinery
Morgridge virologists have outlined in atomic detail the intricate RNA replication machines that coronaviruses create inside infected cells, giving rise to potential new strategies to fight disease.
How COVID-19 shaped the evolution of a collaborative manuscript writing tool
The COVID-19 pandemic and our tech-driven world have highlighted the need for accessibility of research and efficiency of science publishing. Manubot is one tool that could change the game.
COVID-19: Next steps to normalcy
What is the future outlook of the COVID-19 pandemic? Experts discussed where we are and the path forward on February 17, 2022 in a Fearless Science Speaker Series webinar.
Morgridge, UW alum ‘diving into the deep end’ of vaccine development
After years of sharpening her knowledge of mass spectrometry in the Josh Coon Lab, chemistry PhD alumna Anji Trujillo landed her dream job of working on the front lines of drug development at Pfizer in St. Louis.
Giving middle school students a glimpse into the ‘invisible world’ of viruses
A new digital learning resource developed by PBS Wisconsin called “Meet the Lab,” which gives middle school-aged students a glimpse into high-powered research labs and the scientists who run them, highlights the Morgridge Institute virology research team.
COVID-19 Resources
The global outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its associated disease COVID-19 is rapidly evolving and has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Since the situation is highly dynamic, frequent consultation of these sources is recommended.
Morgridge Experts
Paul Ahlquist
Director of the Morgridge Institute’s John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Center for Research in Virology
Viruses not only block host defense genes, but actively exploit many other host gene functions to replicate. The Ahlquist Lab is defining virus-host interactions to shed light on infection and to develop broad-spectrum antivirals.
The lab also investigates the connections between viruses and cancer. Roughly 15 percent of human cancers are caused by specific tumor viruses. The team is deciphering how such tumor viruses infect and drive tumor development, and how to prevent or treat these cancers.
Biology can’t be understood by studying single genes any more than a novel could be understood by studying single words. The team uses systematic, genome-wide analyses to increase understanding of virus infection and control.
Josh Coon
Morgridge metabolism investigator and professor of biomolecular chemistry, UW–Madison
The Coon Lab develops and applies mass spectrometric technology to study human health. They use these tools to answer fundamental questions in cell biology and to study human diseases including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart failure, viral infection, cancer, obesity and asthma, among several others.
In April 2020, the Coon Lab launched a project with Dr. Ariel Jaitovich, physician at Albany Medical Center, to analyze plasma samples from approximately 150 COVID-19 patients and a control group. They are using mass spectrometry to find differences in the metabolic signatures of these cases between people who experienced a wide range of symptoms, from minimal to severe. It may provide promising targets for treatment and help predict severity.
Anthony Gitter
Morgridge investigator in virology and assistant professor of biostatistics and medical informatics, UW–Madison
Research in the Gitter Lab involves designing algorithms that leverage biological networks to connect different types of experimental data and detect surprising relationships among them. They use such techniques to study human disease, in particular cancer and viral infection.
The Gitter Lab co-developed a software tool called Manubot to orchestrate a rapid expert assessment of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. The tool is contributing to an international collaborative effort to organize and consolidate the rapidly emerging scientific literature related to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
Pilar Ossorio
Morgridge bioethicist in residence and professor of law and bioethics, UW–Madison
Ossorio’s research interests include governance of large-scale biosciences research, protections for people who participate in research, data sharing, ethics of “big data” science and uses of race in research and medicine.
She also serves as a consultant to major pharmaceutical companies and has helped provide direction on potential candidates for drugs that could be repurposed to help COVID-19 patients, while addressing some of the downstream ethical issues those decisions can cause. Additionally, she has been providing expertise on the ethical application of scarce medical resources during the pandemic, as well as the need for sound clinical trials that may help end the pandemic.
Ron Stewart
Morgridge associate director of bioinformatics
The Stewart Bioinformatics Group at Morgridge develops algorithms and performs analysis of several types of big biomedical data. This includes RNA sequencing data to evaluate the genes expressed in a cell or tissue, genome sequencing data, other forms of sequencing data, and text. We apply these questions primarily to address questions about regenerative biology and cancer, but they are applicable to a wide range of biomedical inquiries.
In April 2020, Stewart and bioinformatics colleague Scott Swanson joined the partnership with Albany Medical Center to provide RNA-seq analysis of more than 150 plasma samples from patients who are recovering from COVID-19 infection. The goal is to identify particular gene or protein signatures representing pathophysiological states such as coagulation, inflammation, and cell death that correlate with disease severity.
The Stewart group has developed algorithms for mining information from text. Stewart’s team is applying text mining algorithms and other methods to evaluate all 30 million papers in the PubMed biomedical database to find drugs that may be potentially repurposed for treating COVID-19 patients.
Miron Livny and Brian Bockelman
Morgridge investigators in core research computing
Livny and Bockelman lead the Center for High-Throughput Computing (CHTC), which brings together a unique ensemble of scientists whose goals are to stimulate new discoveries by providing scientists with effective and dependable access to a broad range of state-of-the-art computing capabilities. By dramatically increasing their computing throughput, scientists who use CHTC have greatly increased the size and complexity of the problems they study.
High-throughput computing may prove valuable to understanding the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The center has a project supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for data mining and extraction from publication documents related to COVID-19. The team has currently accumulated 12 million documents in its data center relevant to coronaviruses.
Kevin Eliceiri and Brandon Walker
Morgridge Institute Fab Lab
The Morgridge Fab Lab collaborates with inventors on computer-aided design, prototyping, 3D printing, microfluidics and fabrication, from conception to completion. The campus-wide facility can assist with the more experimental phases of a research effort by generating early-stage prototypes and novel research tools.
One positive of COVID-19 relief work has been the overwhelming community effort to develop and source personal protective equipment (PPE) to area hospitals and medical workers. This effort was initiated and managed by the UW–Madison Makerspace, and includes staff and faculty from many UW–Madison departments, community makerspaces, and industrial partners, both small and large. Staff members of the Morgridge Fab Lab are proud to aid in this effort by sharing their expertise, helping build the community, and making industry connections. Additionally, the team has contributed during the design phase when possible for a variety of PPE projects. The team hopes the efforts of the Madison area maker community will help alleviate or even prevent PPE shortages being felt locally.