“This model that has been developed with our collaborators will fill an important gap for current and future drug screening efforts for the upper or lower airways using human airway cells”, says Sinem Tas, associate researcher.
The most recent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak is deadly. Even now that vaccines have been approved and the first patients have received them around the world, concerns remain with administering a vaccine to the world population and technologies to ramp up production are still needed.
The long-term efficacy of these vaccines also remains unknown. During this time, it is critical to identify additional approaches to protect vulnerable patient populations so that society can begin to return to near normal.
Developing new drugs from scratch is a lengthy process. Thus, repurposing drugs, which are already tested and have known safety profiles in humans, is a promising strategy to develop therapies for COVID-19. However, current lab models that are used for virus infection do not mimic the human respiratory tract, which is thought to be one of the first sites of coronavirus entry.
