The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
State colleges turning lights back on in research labs
Life is scheduled to come back to at least 10 research labs at the University of Connecticut as early as Wednesday and dozens more are in the process of getting clearance to open.
Studies into cancer, bone healing, nervous system disease, concrete and paving, material integrity and aquaculture, which all came to an abrupt halt in March when the state shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, have been approved to restart, all at the main campus at Storrs and the UConn Health Center.
Regional campuses, including Stamford, have had limited activities throughout the shutdown to maintain critical research infrastructure such as plants, cell lines and equipment, administrators said. Those activities are basically to ensure that no critical infrastructure is completely lost from inactivity.
At a virtual town hall Monday, UConn President Tom Katsouleas called the resumption of research a first step back to normal.
As questions flooded the town hall message board about the availability of personal protective equipment, testing and other safety precautions, UConn officials told staff there is not a one-size-fits-all plan.
“We have instituted a safety plan model in combination with guidelines from the state and CDC,” said Wesley Byerly, a UConn associate vice president for research integrity and regulatory affairs.
The plan requires labs and research programs to minimize personnel density and allow for distancing based on state and CDC guidelines and establish specific cleaning and disinfecting requirements in addition to what the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests.
Everyone returning to work in the lab must first complete an online COVID-19 safety training course. They must wear a cloth face covering or mask. Labs must keep logs documenting who is on the premises.
Byerly said he expects no compliance problems.
In all, about 60 projects are in the pipeline to reopen at UConn.
UConn research is a $260 million annual enterprise, according to the university.
During the town hall, attendees asked where the PPE was coming from and who was paying for it. The equipment will come from the university and not grants; the university intends to have enough masks so researchers can use a fresh one each weekday they are in the lab, they were told.
Some staff asked about testing for COVID-19. That is not part of the protocol, they were told.
To start, there will be staggered seating and staggered shifts.
Altogether, there are about 700 grant-funded researchers at UConn.
The reopening schedule is based largely on the project’s readiness to resume research, administrators said.
The research falls into three broad categories: lab, field and research involving human subjects.
Research related to COVID-19 that required lab access was never halted, Byerly said.
“The need to pause research activity has resulted in a significant disruption to many of our programs,” Byerly said. “Time-sensitive research like seasonal field work is particularly impacted.”
Downstate, at the University of
Bridgeport, research will also start to resume this week.
Khaled Elleithy, interim dean of the College of Engineering, Business and Education, said there are at least five research projects involving four faculty and half dozen Ph.D. and graduate candidates set to resume in his college.
“They were slowed down by the closure,” Elleithy said. “Students are very eager to get back and continue their work and finish their projects.”
One project, started during the pandemic, looks at how shopping cart handles can be made germ free between uses.
Others involve epilepsy seizure detection, HVAC cooling system design, robotics and object recognition to aid in security.
In Health Sciences at UB, a large proportion of research remained active despite the campus closure, according to Mark H. Pitcher, director of health sciences research.
“Only a few studies were delayed due to the pandemic,” Pitcher said.
Mostly delayed were projects that involved the recruitment of subjects from UB’s student population or clinic patients for in-person research. Those cannot resume until full access to campus is restored, he said.
“We expect that biomedical studies involving laboratory analysis of biological samples or access to electronic health records will resume shortly,” Pitcher said.
Overall, UB’s College of Health Sciences has about 40 active studies along with at least five biomedical research projects underway within Biomedical Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences.