Tonko spotlights local research supporting COVID-19 response
CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. » U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko recently highlighted research institutions in the Capital Region that have joined in the federal response to combat COVID-19 during a recent bipartisan roundtable held by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
The committee examined agencies and authorities within its jurisdiction that could advance science and technologybased solutions to better identify, understand, track, treat, and contain COVID-19 and other emergent infectious diseases.
“Research institutions across our nation are hard at work developing innovative solutions to address this public health crisis, including several right here in upstate New York,” Tonko said in a news release. “I am particularly proud that a number of incredible minds in our very own Capital Region are at the forefront of this life-saving research into testing, contact tracing, treatment, and more.
“As Congress further develops and implements our COVID-19 response, my colleagues and I will continue collaborating with our scientists and deliver the resources they need to protect our communities.”
A number of Capital Region universities have received federally funded grants to tackle COVID-19. The University at Albany received an award from National Science Foundation (NSF) for more than $177,000 to conduct coronavirus RNA related research that would spur early and rapid detection of coronavirus cases.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was recently awarded $200,000 to address the shortage of masks by working to extend the usable live of N95 respirators and similar PPE.
Members discussed with the panelists the research and analysis capabilities most pertinent to the fight against COVID-19 within federal science and technology agencies; the barriers or resource inadequacies that may be preventing the federal research enterprise from fully and quickly mobilizing its capabilities to achieve timely outcomes on COVID-19; how federal agencies can collaborate more effectively to leverage their respective strengths to combat COVID-19; and how the federal research enterprise can do more to anticipate, understand, and mitigate emergent infectious diseases in the future.
The expert panelists who participated in the roundtable included Dr. Michelle Buchanan, Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory and the co-lead of DOE’s National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL) coordination team, which is tasked with identifying and coordinating capabilities related to COVID-19 within DOE Laboratories; Dr. Daniel Gerstein, Senior Policy Researcher for the RAND Corporation who previously served as the Department of Homeland Security’s Acting Under Secretary and Deputy Under Secretary in the Science & Technology Directorate from 2011-2014; Dr. Fleming Crim, Chief Operating Officer in the Office of the Director at the National Science Foundation; Dr. Joanne Tornow, Assistant Director of the Directorate for Biological Sciences at NSF; Dr. Arthur “Skip” Lupia, Assistant Director of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at NSF; and Dr. Marc Salit, Director of the Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology, a partnership between Stanford University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab.