COVID-19 Media
Print and Electronic Media
CFI is continuing the fight against COVID-19. Below is a collection of written articles that showcase CFI's efforts.
New test by Minnesota biotech firm can read COVID antibody levels
So, what’s your titer?
That question, still strange sounding, may soon become important as vaccines bring about the endgame for COVID-19. Dr. Marc Jenkins talks with Joe Carlson from the Star Tribune on December 7, 2020 about a newly developed blood test made by Imanis Life Sciences in Rochester, MN. The test will give consumers a quantitative measurement of their neutralizing antibody titers that will definitively provide the amount of virus-killing antibodies in their systems . Click here to read the full article.
Bold hopes for virus antibody tests still unfulfilled
“Everyone’s impatient and I can see why...But there’s no easy path to this knowledge” about immunity. Dr. Marc Jenkins talks with Matthew Perrone, AP news and published in The Washington Post on September 7, 2020 about the ongoing studies of vaccine production, antibody testing and the standard nasal swab tests that diagnose active infections. Click here to read the full article.
UMN research could help inform future COVID-19 vaccines
The Minnesota Daily's Madeline Deninger writes about how Dr. Marc Jenkins and other members of CFI have been working to understand how the body develops antibodies once it has been infected with COVID-19. Click here
Can I catch coronavirus again if I've had it? At least not right away. Later, who knows?
Dr. Marc Jenkins is quoted in an article by Elizabeth Weise published on May 8, 2020 in USA Today about whether it is possible to catch the coronavirus twice.
The Wall Street Journal answers Facts and Myths About Coronavirus Antibody Tests
Drs. Amy Karger and Marc Jenkins provided factual information to The Wall Street Journal about antibody tests—blood tests designed to detect who was previously infected with the new coronavirus and have developed antibodies to it. Click here
U-developed Antibody Test, Key Component in Reopening Minnesota
Combining a PCR test and an antibody test helps categorize those tested into four categories—information that will equip the state to confidently send Minnesotans back to work. The antibody test, known as an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), developed rapidly from the lab bench to the clinic with the help of a unique group of collaborators—Amy Karger, MD, PhD, Marc Jenkins, PhD, and Fang Li, PhD. Combined with the University’s diagnostic (PCR) test, labs will be able to categorize those tested into four categories—information that will equip the state to confidently send Minnesotans back to work. "Together, they are informative if you do them both in the same person,” said Amy Karger, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. She leads the team at the University’s Advanced Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ARDL) that brought the test from a research setting into clinical use. Click here
University of Minnesota launches COVID-19 antibody test
The lab of Marc Jenkins, Regents and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the Medical School and director of the Center for Immunology, has developed a COVID-19 antibody test that will be available first to frontline health care workers in M Health Fairview’s Bethesda Hospital. Fang Li, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was among the first to publish a peer-reviewed article in Nature detailing the underlying structure of COVID-19. On March 21, Li provided protein material to the Jenkins Lab, and work began. Click here
Minnesota readies antibody COVID-19 response
The University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic are now offering antibody tests to find out who has recovered from COVID-19. The antibody test which was developed by CFI Investigators under Dr. Marc Jenkins and the Mayo Clinic Clinical Microbiology Laboratory has been successful in identifying antibodies that produce an immune response to the COVID-19 virus. Full Star Tribune article from April 14, 2020 click here
UMN and Mayo researchers working on ELISA test to determine COVID-19 immunity
CFI director Dr. Marc Jenkins explains how the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic are close to unveiling antibody tests that can determine if people have already been infected by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and are no longer threats to get or spread the infection. To read the entire Star Tribune article from March 30, 2020 click here.
COVID-19 Vaccine on fast track
The Star Tribune's Christopher Snowbeck and CFI's Director Marc Jenkins talk about "a whole new approach to vaccines" using viral RNA instead of the way current vaccines are produced using a weakened or killed form of a virus to stimulate an immune system response that produces antibodies. To read the entire Star Tribune article click here.
Radio and TV
Local News and Seminars
KARE II Explain: Everything you need to know about vaccines
Chris Hrapsky from Kare11 and Dr. Marc Jenkins give a quick overview of the types of vaccines that are available and how they work to fight viruses. They also explain the new COVID-19 vaccine and how it is different yet more effective than the old vaccines.
Following text from the City of Richfield, MN website:
Some cities hand out Keys to the City like the practice is going out of style. The City of Richfield on the other hand only awards Keys to the City to individuals who have made a major impact in the community, State of Minnesota, nation, or in the case of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the world. This past June, the city council awarded Dr. Marc Jenkins with the key to the city to recognize his accomplishments in the field of immunology, recent election to the National Academy of Sciences and his work to better public education in Richfield.
On August 11, 2020 for the fifty-second episode of the That’s Rich(field) podcast, we sat down with Dr. Jenkins to discuss his career accomplishments, his research team's recent creation of a COVID-19 antibody test and what it is like being elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Marc Jenkins joined Fox9 Morning Buzz on 7-29-20 to answer questions about COVID-19 vaccines and how UMN is following less traveled roads to find a long term solution.
KARE-11 interview with Jennifer Austin on July 14, 2020.
Fox9 the Morning Buzz interview with Alex Kendall and Ryan Langlois
Department of Orthopedic Surgery Grand Rounds: 5-8-2020
KARE-11 interview with Chris Hrapsky on May 7, 2020
KARE-11 interview with Kent Erdahl on April 15, 2020 
KARE-11 (4/1/2020)
UMN articles
CFI and UMN Collaborators articles
From lab to community immunity
More than 100 vaccine projects in various stages across the globe take subtly different approaches to achieve the same goal: trigger the body’s immune response to COVID-19 before the virus has an opportunity to spread and cause harm. U of M experts explain three ways to create a COVID-19 vaccine and offer optimism about when we might have a viable option.
U of M Medical School selected as Capacity Building Center for National Lab Network
The Medical School’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology has been selected to participate in a new national network dedicated to serological sciences as one of four Capacity Building Centers in the country. As part of the Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet), the team received a five-year, $6.7 million grant to support their part of the network's research effort. Read more here at the UMN Med School news article.
18 ways the U of M is targeting the COVID-19 crisis
The University of Minnesota has been hard at work trying to end the COVID-19 pandemic and ease the impact on those affected by it. Read about all the ways that donors, researchers, colleges and students have stepped up to support research and innovation.
SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and serology testing of COVID-19 convalescent plasma from donors with non-severe disease
Dr. Tyler Bold led the collaboration of several CFI labs to study the neutralization activity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from convalescent plasma in donors with a history of non-severe disease.
U Medical School Studying How to Protect Against Current, Future Strains of the Coronavirus
A new vaccine development approach, now being studied at the University of Minnesota Medical School, hopes to protect against current and future strains of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Drs. Geoffrey Hart and Marco Pravetoni have partnered together to prove that a universal vaccine or antibodies are possible in the fight against future variants of SARS-CoV.
What do we know now about hydroxychloroquine?
Responses by Drs. Matt Pullen, MD- Infectious Diseases Fellow and David Boulware, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine- Infectious Diseases on current data, what are the recommendations for use of hydroxychloroquine in SARS-CoV-2 infection?
What role could convalescent sera play in the COVID-19 pandemic?
Dr. Tyler Bold explains how sera from patients who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection (convalescent sera) could be used immediately to provide protective immunity.
SEQUENCES OF THE SARS-COV-2 GENOME
What have we and what can we learn from the sequences of the SARS-Cov-2 genome as the viruse mutates and spreads around the world?
Amy Karger, MD, PhD, Positions U as Experts in COVID-19 Testing
Dr. Karger discusses the need to create and validate the UMN laboratory-developed tests for COVID-19. Marc Jenkins, PhD, and Fang Li, PhD, had laid the foundation for a new antibody (or serology) test but needed a leader and a lab to bring it up for clinical use. Dr. Karger stepped in.
COVID-19 Testing
Interview with Dr. Marc Jenkins on the Antibody Testing Capabilities Developed at the University of Minnesota for SARS-CoV2
SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Development
What vaccines are under development, and how would they work to prevent COVID-19 infection?
COVID-19 Scientific Update
What are the most promising drugs currently being tested against the COVID-19 coronavirus, and how do they work?
“Structural basis of receptor recognition by SARS-CoV-2" Nature, March 20, 2020.
This paper discuses the 3-dimensional structure determined by Dr. Fang Li in collaboration with Dr. Hideki Aihara.