impacts
When COVID-19 brought the tourism industry to a crashing halt this spring, farmers around the state quickly pivoted to sell the bounty of fruit and vegetables that were at peak harvest.
The technique uses a harmless virus to help fight a harmful virus. In this case, the harmless virus is used to package and deliver a gene from SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The gene therapy vaccine can’t replicate on its own but is potent enough to trigger a beneficial, antivirus response from the immune system.
David P. Norton, Ph.D., has spent nearly a decade building a collaborative, leading-edge research environment at the University of Florida. But as the number of coronavirus cases began to swell in Florida this spring, Norton and his leadership colleagues faced a daunting challenge: how to pause — and then restart — research at UF’s 16 colleges in Gainesville and dozens of facilities statewide.