Valentin is walking the team through the results of phantom studies conducted in his basement during our weekly ZOOM meeting.
It has been an atypical spring term to say the least! Mindful of the growing risk of COVID-19 to our colleagues and community, the DS-GL group started working off-site at the end of February and has been doing so ever since. Nevertheless we have maintained a fairly high level of productivity, and are thankful to have jobs that we can continue to do at a high level during this unprecedented economic slowdown.
The main impact we have felt to date is in our ability to perform experiments in the lab. We have several critical animal experiments on hold that we are looking forward to resuming as soon as we can do so responsibly, while maintaining physical distancing. We have also had to put a hold on important clinical trials, since our studies are mainly observational ⟨not interventional, and therefore, not providing patients with possible life-saving treatment as is the case for many cancer drug trials⟩. As non-emergent surgeries have ramped back up at DH, we have received a go-ahead to resume these clinical trials and look forward to continuing our important studies in orthopaedic surgery and cancer resection.
On a positive note, we have successfully responded to a notice of special interest to develop biomedical technologies for Coronavirus Disease, submitting an NIBIB grant this month. We have also submitted a handful of manuscripts and had significant breakthroughs on the analysis of data we had accumulated from projects. Finally, Scott Sottosanti has moved the needle on new prototype near-infrared spectroscopy systems that will be implimented into a new clinical study as soon as patient acrual can begin.
All-in-all, it has been a time to clear the desk of data that needed analyzing, papers that needed writing, while pausing to enjoy some fresh air and physical activity. We wish everyone good health and a rekindled prosperity as we cautiously move into a new phase in the battle against COVID-19
