Coronavirus research funding announced

The NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID), a multi-state Australian research program led by Professor Tania Sorrell, Director of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, has announced funding of more than $700,000 will be directed at coronavirus-related projects.

CREID has announced it is directing almost $300,000 in research funding to tackle the emergence of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. By joining forces with the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE), a total of more than $700,000 has been made available for research into the virus SARS-CoV-2, and the resultant disease COVID-19.

Projects led by the University of Sydney range from infection prevention to social media and misinformation.

The new projects are:

• Deep sequencing to better understand the dynamics of within-host viral diversity during prolonged, severe SARS-CoV-2 infection – John-Sebastian Eden.
• Diagnosis of COVID-19 (evaluation of nucleic acid testing and viral culture, in-house and commercial) – Jen Kok, David Smith, John-Sebastian Eden
• COVID-19 infection prevention & control – Lyn Gilbert, Chris Degeling 
• Serology of Australian healthcare workers caring for individuals exposed to or diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 – Matthew O’Sullivan 
• Understanding host response of severe viral pneumonitis – Ben Tang 
• Community awareness, perceptions and behaviour about COVID-19, its prevention and management: informing risk communication – Julie Leask, Kerrie Wiley, Claire Hooker, Adam Dunn.- Infectious Diseases and “Infodemics” – The Role of Social Media in Individual and Collective Meaning Making – Christian Ehnis, Deborah Bunker.
• Biosecurity and biocontainment of high-consequence infections: Principles & practice – Gabriella Scandurra. 
• The role of bad information and flawed cognition in the spread of disease: the case of COVID-19 – Nick Enfield.