SCIENTIST STUDIES FACETS OF COVID-19

SUMMER 2020

He believes our greatest hope is that the pandemic will one day end. Until then, Davis, a Rock Hill native, is among the scientists, medical professionals and public health experts working on the front lines, and behind the scenes, to battle the virus.

Davis began working in the biotech field in Califor- nia in the late 1990s after graduating from Winthrop. He went on to obtain his master’s degree in biology from Northern Arizona University. He eventually moved back to the East Coast and joined a research laboratory in the microbiology and immunology department at the University of Maryland, Balti- more. After returning to school and completing his master’s and doctorate degrees, he later became a postdoctoral scientist at George Washington Uni- versity School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.

Since the emergence of SARS-Cov-2, Davis has been actively engaged in both laboratory research and as a public health representative. Davis’ col- leagues in the school of public health conduct research on a variety of topics, ranging from envi- ronmental and occupational health, to microbiomics, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

Editor’s Note: The terms coronavirus, COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 are used in the following profile. Coronavirus refers to the family of viruses that can cause the common cold or more severe diseases. COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2.

“As COVID-19 began to spread to the D.C. Metro area, some of our labs have temporarily suspended their research, others had ongoing long-term stud- ies that have continued, and a couple of the labora- tories shifted their research focus to COVID-19.”

Scientist Gregg Davis ’92 is among the heroes who are up close and personal with the coronavirus.

A little too close, some might say. During the early stages of COVID-19, Davis was part of a research team that grew the new virus in a laboratory to study it more rigorously.

“During the early phase of the pandemic, our primary goal was to get the COVID-19 molecular

assay running and validated so that we could do testing. Simultaneously, we were working to grow the virus in our biosafety level 3 laboratory. This allowed us to generate reagents for the molecular assays, begin developing antibody tests to assess past exposure to COVID-19 and to initiate studies to advance our basic understanding of SARS- CoV-2,” explained Davis, director of Public Health Laboratories at George Washington University.

SCIENTIST STUDIES FACETS OF COVID-19

Urgency the Order of the Day

In the labs focusing on COVID-19, there has been a greater sense of urgency, Davis said. He added that early research was complicated by supply chain shortages among other challenges. Some investigators had to become inventive, Davis revealed, by going outside of the normal supply chains and having items, such as nasal swabs, produced on 3D printers.

He is more optimistic about a vaccine for COVID-19 rather than a cure. Although there are still many un- answered questions regarding immunity COVID-19, “the preliminary reports from the vaccine trials are definitely encouraging,” he said.

“The systems that we are developing and lessons that we are learning in response to COVID-19 will increase our ability to respond to future pandemics. Hopefully, as COVID-19 subsides, we will learn from our mistakes, as well as our victories,” Davis added.

One key to coping with the pandemic, Davis assert- ed, is to pay attention to your mental health, which is equally important as the directives to protect your physical well being.

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