Sheba Medical Center and the NIH are collaborating to study the virological and immunological aspects of COVID-19. This partnership is significant for helping to accelerate research and a more comprehensive understanding of the novel coronavirus.
Clinical and scientific research studies on COVID-19 will be applied toward the development of effective treatments and vaccines against the virus. Sheba will provide blood samples, plasma, and virus samples from infected patients in Israel to the Vaccine Research Center of the NIH.
Additionally, the hospital is currently performing a series of clinical trials with various experimental treatments of its own and treatments from international pharmaceutical companies. Sheba will provide the NIH with relevant information amassed from these trials.
“This collaboration brings together the outstanding clinical acumen of Sheba Medical Center with our state-of-the-art approaches to the scientific investigation of human infectious disease,” said Dr. Daniel Douek, senior investigator at the Human Immunology Section in the NIH Vaccine Research Center. “I am certain that we will be able to contribute much to the resolution not only of this current pandemic but also of emerging infections in the future.”
