Virus experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington are starting to explore new avenues of research focused on the anticipated transformation of COVID-19 from a fast-growing pandemic to a more stable, endemic disease.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which supports more than 250 “HHMI Investigators” at research institutions across the U.S., has awarded $15 million for a project involving eight of those investigators — four at Fred Hutch and four at UW.
Over the next three years, the team members will work on finding innovative approaches to tracking, preventing and treating the disease as it settles in among a global population that, immunologically speaking, is becoming more accustomed to this unwanted viral newcomer.
“People sometimes understand endemic to mean mild, and it doesn’t really mean that,” said Dr. Jesse Bloom, one of the four Hutch scientists sharing the HHMI grant. “People may think of the viruses that cause the common cold as endemic, but seasonal influenza is also an endemic virus that causes notable outbreaks every year.”
