Gift helps fund USC coronavirus research

A gift to the Keck School of Medicine from the W.M. Keck Foundation is helping fund researchers conducting studies to further the medical field’s understanding of the coronavirus. The school has since awarded a total of more than $5 million to 28 various research applications from the USC COVID-19 Research Fund. These studies aim to advance scientific research and public health collaborations on the coronavirus.

“The Keck Foundation made a very wise and fruitful decision to give money to the Keck School of Medicine to do many things around COVID-19,” said Dr. Thomas A. Buchanan, vice dean of research and professor of medicine at Keck. “[The donation is meant] to help us be set up to do research more effectively, to help with some of our basic sciences, actually do research that lead to possible new treatments for COVID-19 and to do a lot with the communities.”

The majority of the research fund has been put toward community research studies, with a total of 13 funded projects that study the impact of the coronavirus on communities in a variety of areas, including vaccination, food security and home acceptance. 

Eight preclinical and four clinical research study grants were provided as well. Preclinical research studies are expected to study the biology of the coronavirus in relation to potential new treatments, while clinical research studies relate to particular preclinical research to support outcomes of that research as well as possible treatments. 

The remaining three funded grants were put toward expanding shareable resources, one of which is a biosafety level three lab. The funding for the facility enabled researchers to study highly infectious viruses. Earlier on during the pandemic, Keck invested in equipment for the lab and in helping the researchers secure coronavirus particles in animal models, from which they can study the virus. 

“The facility allows the researchers to order tests and use live viruses,” said Dr. Amy Lee, a professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine and the Judy and Larry Freeman Chair in Basic Science Cancer Research. “You can really study the effect of your project using live viruses in a very safe environment. Without this funding, this would not be possible.” 

Lee’s research — combating the coronavirus infection through targeting cell surface GRP78 with monoclonal antibody MAb159 — was one of the 28 research studies funded through the research grant program. The project aims to discover new targets and therapeutic ways to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.

Other shareable resources funding went toward starting a biorepository, as well as the Population Health Sciences COVID-19 Pandemic Research Center. The CPRC promotes research in different areas of study to help better understand and alleviate the impact of the  coronavirus on residents of the Los Angeles area.  The program also initiated a partnership between the University and the L.A. County Department of Public Health to work together on studying the coronavirus in addition to other viral infections. 

The research fund has been able to easily provide grant money to research study applications, Lee said. 

“This money is invariable in the sense that because the application process is very streamlined, we can get an answer, ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ in a very fast manner,” Lee said. “It allows us to carry out the research without much delay because, usually, applying for grant funding takes a long time. This is a very efficiently run program with the resources available right away.”