Miller has shown that NK cell therapy can induce remission in leukemia patients who didn’t respond to standard treatment. The two main invaders they’re after: cancer and viruses. NK cells are components of the immune system that seek out and destroy harmful cells in the body. Miller is known internationally for his work using natural killer (NK) cell therapy to fight cancer. What if a cancer treatment pioneered at the U also could be used to treat COVID-19? SEARCH AND DESTROYĭivision of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation
Here are just a few examples of the quick-thinking experts at the U who turned their attention toward a challenge far outside their usual scope. “We used our vast imagination and knowledge and crystallized it into action.
“We have always looked at our people as the best asset we have,” Tolar says. Much of their work has been powered by the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs’ CO:VID (Collaborative Outcomes: Visionary Innovation & Discovery) grant program, created to support promising COVID-19-related research ideas and funded in part by philanthropy. In the months since, many more have joined them.
And at that point, he knew the University would need an all-hands-on-deck effort to respond to an emerging global pandemic.īy the time the virus breached the borders of Minnesota, several U researchers had redeployed their expertise in a united front against the pandemic. That’s when he realized COVID-19 was unlike anything he’d seen before. “There was very little black on this scan.”
“Black means you have air in your lungs,” Tolar says. The patient’s lungs had been overtaken by SARS-CoV-2-the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Tolar, the dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School and vice president for clinical affairs, was examining a CT scan from one of the earliest known COVID-19 cases in Asia. 29, 2019, and Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D., was alarmed.
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