Submit your expertise information
UofSC faculty researchers with expertise related to COVID-19 are encouraged to complete our COVID-19 Research Expertise Submission Form. The Office of the Vice President for Research will post faculty submissions to this form in the listing below on a regular basis as they are received, for easy access across the university.
The Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to share the below information on UofSC faculty researchers with expertise related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this listing is to help promote research collaborations across the university and to connect researchers with Prisma Health clinicians who are currently treating patients with COVID-19 in our state.
If you have any questions about this listing, please contact Elizabeth Renedo at RenedoE@mailbox.sc.edu.
UofSC Faculty COVID-19 Research Expertise Listing
Name, Affiliation and Contact Link | Area of Study | Description of COVID-19 Expertise | Keywords (hidden column) |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Information and Communications, School of Journalism and Mass Communication |
Health Communication, Health Disparities, Misinformation, Social Media | Asian Americans' COVID-19 related racial discrimination experience, communicative coping strategy, and activism on social media. COVID-19-related misinformation stereotyping and attacking Asian Americans on news and social media. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management |
Tourism | I am planning to do research focusing on: 1) The important topic of crisis communication management and the marketing strategies employed by stakeholders in the tourism sector in the wake of COVID-19; and 2) How consumers respond to these various messages, identifying those ‘crisis-resistant’ travelers who are most likely to travel once the crisis is over. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Information and Communications, Department of Journalism |
Ethics, Chinese government epidemic response, transparency and honesty in government | Able to comment on the ethical aspects of speedy and honest response, transparency,
and preparation of nation-states, specifically China. Conducting current study on
COVID-19 political aspects, ethical actions and beliefs. Rapid and honest disclosure
is ethically required of all nations, leaders, governments and health systems. Prior
publication in a similar area: Bowen, S. A., & Heath, R. L. (2007). Narratives of the SARS epidemic and ethical implications for public health crises. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 1(2), 73-91. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Chemical Engineering |
Protein drug formulation and targeting systems | Antibody drugs are a class of therapeutic proteins which are used to treat many diseases including treatment of patients with viral infections. Antiviral agents continue to evolve in order to improve safety profile and in order to find a universal target for antiviral treatment. There are many challenges to developing antiviral formulations and targeting systems. Jabbari's research laboratory is actively developing novel formulations to improve patient compliance and the drug dosage form and life-cycle. Jabbari's laboratory is also actively developing novel targeting systems to enhance pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic, shelf-life and dose of antiviral proteins. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology |
Neurovirology | Coronavirus effects on the brain, viral encephalopathy, alterations in smell and taste, antiviral drugs | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Pharmacy, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences |
Cancer Genetics |
PCR testing for SARS-COV-2 viral load. Using high throughput sequencing approaches to perform population scale RNA sequencing for screening and identifying asymptomatic infected people. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology |
Sociology; popular culture; celebrity studies |
I am a scholar of the sociological conditions and implications of celebrity culture. I have especially studied the development of celebrity activism concerning the manner in which celebrities in popular culture, such as music, movies and TV, engage with various activist causes and charities. Present research centers on the involvement of celebrities engaging themselves into the pandemic to form an important third party, besides government and health-care professionals, that communicates how the public at large receives information about various aspects of the dangers of the coronavirus and how the crisis should be dealt with. Whether appropriate or not, celebrities play an important part in the pandemic, a role that has to be studied and understood. |
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UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences |
Bioinformatics, Data science, Molecular Epidemiology |
Collaborating with professionals in South Carolina, Baylor College of Medicine and
Laval University (Canada), we are the first to identify smoking as a risk factor for
COVID-19 by affecting lung expression of ACE2, the receptor of SARS-CoV-2. This study
has been cited by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for risk
assessment. |
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University of South Carolina Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics |
Statistical Genetics, Bioinformatics |
I am interested in studying the genetic factors, pathways and disparities (such as smoking) involved in COVID-19 susceptibility using population genetics/genomics approaches. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering |
Machine learning; deep learning; bioinformatics; protein binding; sequence analysis |
With 15 years of research experience in machine learning, deep learning and their application in bioinformatics and health informatics, I have been actively working on many projects related to COVID-19 research. This includes DNA sequence analysis, protien-DNA/RNA/Peptide binding and protein protein interaction, protein docking, protein structure prediction, disease gene prediction, protein sorting signal analysis, DNA/protein motif discovery, text mining in health documents, deep learning based time series prediction, gene expression analysis, image processing and computer vision for diagnosis of COVID-19, nanopore sequencing signal analysis. More on this expertise is listed here: http://mleg.cse.sc.edu/collaboration.html. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Pharmacy, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences |
Genomics, Genetics Testing |
I am an expert in genomics, genetics testing and Artificial Intelligence-based literature mining and drug discovery. Also, as a director of Functional Genomics Core, I am an expert in PCR-based testing technologies. My expertise applies to testing of patients and health care professionals for COVID-19, analysis of COVID-19, of variation of COVID-19 genome, virus spreading and evolution. Additionally, in collaboration with a computer scientists group at Clemson University, I am developing AI-based system for the analysis of COVID-19-related scientific literature and drug repurposing for the treatment of COVID-19. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering |
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning |
Our work in the area of Causal Bayesian Networks and deep learning can bring expertise in learning explainable models that enable prediction of the infected patients based on their symptoms, considering that testing for severe respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is scarce and expensive. The model can also prioritize access to limited/expensive testing supplies to reduce the risk of fatality across suspected/infected patients. |
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Nag, Anita UofSC Upstate, Division of Natural Sciences and Engineering |
Biochemistry |
I am a biochemist. Over the past three years, my laboratory has been working on nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1) of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) which shows 79% sequence homology to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2). Nsp1 is a host shutoff protein that selectively triggers cleavage and degradation of host messenger RNAs, essentially blocking host protein synthesis. We have shown that this intrinsically disordered protein binds to several host proteins that aid the host shutoff, and especially disrupts nuclear-cytoplasmic trafficking. Currently, we are expanding our understanding of SARS-CoV nsp1 to COVID-19. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Computer Modeling |
I am using individual model to simulate the spread of COVID-19 across different length scales, such as campus- and state-wide. |
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UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics |
Bayesian spatio-temporal modeling |
I'm currently developing several models to predict the spread of COVID-19 in South Carolina, including the number of symptomatic cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions. These models help hospitals and other health-care providers predict demand for services. |
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UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, Department of Family Medicine |
Rural Health, Health Disparities, Health Care Systems |
I can speak to how rural areas, and rural communities, are responding to this crisis; how their health care systems are responding (and at risk for closure); and policy surrounding the response. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering |
Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering |
I have done research and received patents on new technology for sterilization, disinfection, and cleaning of biomedical materials. I am familiar with basics of hospital and medical sterilization processes. I am currently working with a national group that is seeing FDA EUA for industrial processes to clean and decontaminate N95 masks. |
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UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Center for Community Health Alignment |
Community health workers, community engagement |
Community Health Workers (CHWs) are trusted members of disadvantaged communities that help their peers navigate resources and respond to crises. CHWs have been determined as an essential workforce necessary for confronting COVID-19 by the US Departmentt of Homeland Security due to their unique ability to reach underserved groups and deliver health and resource information in culturally appropriate ways. My center's expertise on CHWs and community engagement can contribute to health and other systems' understanding of how to reach and support marginalized groups in our state with information, resources and support. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering |
Computational Biology, Bioinformatics |
Dr. Valafar's group has investigated the molecular basis of SARS-CoV infectious nature by studying the structure and function of the non-structural protein 1 (nsp1). Using computational modeling approaches, exhaustive mining of the Protein DataBank, and predictive modeling tools, Dr. Valafar's group has formulated a hypothesize mechanism of nsp1's binding events. In recent months Dr. Valafar's group has leveraged the compuational models of SAR-CoV nsp1 protein to better understand the SARS-CoV-2 nsp1's function. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Linguistics Program |
Linguistics |
My research centers around the cognitive aspects of second and any subsequent language acquisition. Specifically, I deal with issues related to the processing and acquisition of the grammatical structures of the foreign language in both comprehension and production. I employ behavioral data to seek answers to questions related to the influence of the first on any subsequent language acquisition and the relation between different foreign-language-internal factors on the acquisition of specific grammatical properties. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice |
Mental/physical illness in corrections (prisons and jails) |
I have worked extensively on issues of mental health and physical health in the context of prisons and jails. I continue to be involved with South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) regarding the preparation for and response to COVID-19. |
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UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Rural and Minority Health Research Center |
Rural Health; GIS; Spatial Access to Care; Health Disparities; Cancer Disparities |
My research focuses, in part, on characterizing rural disparities in health outcomes and access to health care services. While my research usually focuses on cancer disparities, I have interest in broader rural/geographic health disparities, including, for example, access to ICU services for rural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. I often use spatial methods to characterize access to care by accounting for supply and demand for services and distance between the supply and demand. |
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UofSC Columbia College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography |
GIScience, Big Data Analytics, Spatial Analysis, Modeling and Mapping |
I have been conducting research of using big social media (Twitter) data to monitor and map human movement at both the national and global scale during the COVID-19 outbreak. Combining AI and big data analytics, the Twitter-derived, near real-time population flows could help us gain better insights into the current and future infectious risk. Some preliminary results of my research can be found here: http://gis.cas.sc.edu/gibd/how-our-collective-efforts-of-fighting-the-virus-are-reflected-on-maps/. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Education, Department of Educational Studies |
Psychology of belief updating |
I study how individuals update their prior beliefs about complex/controversial topics. In the past several years I've focused on beliefs and misconceptions about vaccination and means of promoting correct knowledge about vaccines. Currently, my colleagues and I are working on a digital game to deliver educational content designed to combat COVID-19 misconceptions in an accessible manner. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Pharmacy, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences |
Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery |
I work in developing small molecule therapeutics for various diseases. I plan to start a new project to look at compounds that may block the interaction of the virus with the human receptor. I am looking for a collaborator that may be able to test the compounds for anti-viral activity. |
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UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology |
Inflammation, Immunology, Toxicology |
Our lab is interested in: 1) Nature of inflammation seen in COVID-19, 2) Role of immune response against Coronavirus, 3) Detection of cytokines in COVID-19 and 4) Convalescent plasma therapy. |
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UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology |
Immunology, epigenetics, microbial dysbiosis |
Our research interests focus on acute lung injury leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis which are relevant to COVID-19. Specifically, we are addressing the epigenetic/genetic mechanisms and examining the microbiome in ARDS and sepsis. In addition, our lab is developing therapeutic strategies using natural products and other pharmacological agents that affect immune dysregulation. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences |
Evolutionary genetics |
Our lab studies genetic and phenotypic diversification at the gene and genome scales. We are particularly interested in comparative sequence analysis to understand mutation rates, selection and genetic drift. |
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UofSC School of Medicine Greenville, Department of Biomedical Sciences |
Immunology, Virology |
My lab studies the function of intracellular immune genes that are up-regulated during
responses to respiratory RNA virus infections. We are looking to investigate how host
factors expressed during SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection: We are also interested in identifying SARS-CoV-2 viral motifs that are important in triggering the antiviral immune response during infection. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences |
Biochemistry, Virology | I am a biochemist who works on protein-protein interactions. In particular I have over 30 years of experience in studying an antiviral protein kinase, PKR, which is an interferon-induced protein. Interferons are antiviral cytokines produced by all infected cells in our bodies. PKR is involved in shutting off host cell protein synthesis during viral infections and every virus has a mechanism that prevents PKR activity so it can replicate itself efficiently. In my lab we study how PKR is regulated and I am particularly interested in learning how SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 prevents PKR activation so it can replicate efficiently in cells. SARS-CoV-1 and -2 also shut off interferon production and signaling in order to replicate efficiently. Interferon production and action as well as PKR activity severely limits virus replication. Once characterized, such mechanisms can be targeted by specific drugs to prevent PKR inhibition by SARS-CoV-2 and potentially limit virus replication. This is a promising avenue to explore which SARS-CoV-2 encoded protein inhibits PKR activity and then to look for drugs that efficiently prevent PKR inhibition and eliminate the virus replication. In many cases the virally encoded proteins prevent PKR activity by direct binding to PKR and potential drugs that disrupt such interactions will be potently antiviral and a promising therapeutic agent. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Social Work |
Health Policy and Health Services | Medicaid policy and the delivery of services to beneficiaries in South Carolina with a special emphasis on maternal and child outcomes, behavioral health, and individuals with chronic conditions. COVID-19 policies at the federal level will require implementation taking into consideration the unique characteristics of the population, e.g., rural. | |
Palmetto College - USC Union, Political Science |
International Security | My research is on international security, specifically how threats such as the coronavirus can and will alter national security in the United States and throughout the world. This also includes intelligence and security technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, Department of Sport and Entertainment Management |
Sports Economics | I am currently working with several other economists examining the impact that large-scale events, such as sport competitions and concerts, have on flu mortality rates. Naturally, our future work will extend to examination of the COVID-19 outbreak, in order to better understand the potential negative externalities of the sport and entertainment industry. The findings from this research will help to improve the planning, scheduling, and cancellation of events to try and minimize the impact of infectious disease transmission on society as a whole. | |
UofSC Columbia, School of Law |
Public health law, bioethics, and health law | My research involves bioethical, legal and regulatory implications of public health responses to specific problems, such as Zika, access to dental care, and access to health insurance coverage. I also write extensively about large scale health systems, including on topics such as the role of rationing in Medicare, the effects of regulatory systems on quality of care and related issues. | |
Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy |
Cluster and entropy pattern identification algorithms for networks and tabular data. | I developed a novel pattern identification system for general networks & tabular medical data providing an advanced transformative clustering and Renyi entropy spectral pattern identification using Lie algebras and Lie groups techniques from theoretical physics. If funded, our COVID-19 proposal to UofSC office of the Vice President for Research will support GRAs to host our analytics this summer on a server for general use. Simultaneously we will process our own medical patient data set to seek patterns in our patient physical + blood + urine + metadata file to see if clusters in this data correlate with degree of susceptibility to COVID-19 cases. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering |
Biosensors, Biomarkers, Nanomaterials, Personalized Diagnostics | SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has recently emerged to cause a pandemic. While nucleic acid diagnostic tests were rapidly developed, serologic assays are still lacking but urgently needed. Validated serologic assays are important for detecting asymptomatic cases, doing contact tracing, identifying plasma donors, and conducting epidemiological studies. We recently developed a nanopore biosensor with femtomolar detection limit and high specificity for HIV serologic assay. Based on this method, we propose to develop a portable, semi-automatic, multiplex, quantitative assay device to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in patients’ blood. With existing collaboration and approved IRB protocols, we will collect patient samples from Prisma Health to validate our assay. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Artificial Intelligence Institute |
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data | 1. We are analyzing COVID-19 related news and social media data (so far analyzed >700K
news, >400million tweets), to understand social quality (comparable to SAMSHA measures)
including mental health/depression, addiction/opioid/substance use. The analysis is
giving insights into the rapidly growing challenges related to mental health and addiction. 2. We are developing two related virtual assistants (chatbots) for COVID-19 and depression. These will have much more advanced capability compared to typical commercial informational chatbots, such as personalization, dynamic data (e.g., local resources), and integration with healthcare services. The depression assistant development and evaluation is in collaboration with the Neuropsychiatry & Behavioral Science department (Dr. Meera Narasimhan). 3. We are collaborating with the department of mechanical engineering/manufacturing automation program (Dr. Ramy Harik) to develop the capability to study the impact of COVID-19 epidemic on the state and nation's manufacturing industry and supply chain. |
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UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Sensing, Bio-Sensors, Ultrasonics | Design and fabrication of mechatronics-based biosensors with point-of-care sensing mechanism: In our design, we utilize mechanical deformation, acoustic or ultrasonic waves for an electrical readout in the presence of specific biomarkers. Such a system (COVID-specific biosensors) can be designed for rapid inspection of COVID-specific antigens and antibodies (of course we seek collaboration). Our novel state-of-the-art design ensures high sensitivity and high specificity of the biosensors, simultaneously. Activities are intended to be used for rapid testing to accelerate the discovery of new anti-virus and vaccine. Our team has vast experience with the design of biosensors for cancer-specific biomarkers. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering |
Artificial Intelligence, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Causal Models | Our work on methodology and algorithms for learning and using Bayesian networks, causal Bayesian networks, chain graphs, Bayesian hypergraphs, and other probabilistic graphical models leads to principled and normative approaches to modeling disease. The models are explainable and suitable for risk analysis. They allow for explicit causal claims and are therefore amenable to interventional and counterfactual reasoning, which may, among other benefits, reduce the need for costly and ethically questionable experiments. Causal Bayesian networks also allow for a precise characterization of identifiability when latent (unobserved) variables are known to exist. Dynamic Bayesian networks have been used to model disease progression and have recently been proposed as a flexible and non-parametric tool to model the spread of transmissible disease, complementing approaches from network science. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering |
Computing applications, including simulation | Most recently working with the UofSC epidemiology team (most closely with Stella Self and Alex McClain) to understand, tweak and use the CHIME software from UPenn that models the COVID-19 epidemic. Analysis of other models (IHME) will occur as needed. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Engineering and Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Fluid mechanics and biofluids, medical devices | So bad to see the bad news on Friday, April 10, 2020 that ~ only 20 percent of patients can survive when a ventilator is applied. If there is any opportunity, I would like to collaborate with clinical physicians to investigate to see if we can improve the performance of the ventilator to save life. | |
UofSC School of Medicine Columbia, Department of Pathology Microbiology and Immunology |
Nervous system diseases (neurodegenerative and neoplastic) and injuries | We conduct research in (1) cell death mechanisms such as apoptosis and autophagy in preclinical models of neurodisorders, some of which may be caused or aggravated by COVID-19 infection, (2) neuroinflammation due to reactive gliosis that may be relevant to pathogenesis by COVID-19, and (3) epigenetic modulators (microRNAs and histone deacetylases) for expression of genes for cell death, which is supposed to be affected by presence of COVID-19. | |
UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences |
Microbiology | My research group is working with the CDC and SCDHEC to monitor COVID19 virus abundance in municipal sewage as an indicator of overall community-wide virus abundance. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Education, Department of Educational Studies |
Educational Technology | I have been working on how to provide open educational resources for teachers and schools to support online teaching and personalized instruction in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, our team is planning to design an intervention to better understand the pandemic. | |
UofSC School of Medicine Greenville, Department of Biomedical Sciences |
Clinical Virology, Medical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases | Research interests are centered on the development, validation and implementation of novel rapid and accurate methods for the diagnosis and monitoring of infectious diseases, with a primary focus on viruses (including SARS CoV-2 and COVID-19). Current emphasis has been on laboratory-based and point-of-care (point-of-impact) molecular technologies, although work in areas of specific antibody and antigen detection continue as well. | |
UofSC Beaufort, School of Science and Mathematics |
Mathematical modeling of infectious disease and data analysis | I am an infectious disease modeler, using ordinary differential equation models along with parameter estimation from time-series data. I am currently applying a simple influenza model to COVID-19 data in South Carolina, as a class project with undergraduates. I also have experience in statistical analysis of data. My recent work has been modeling childhood obesity as an infectious disease. | |
UofSC Columbia, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Mathematics |
Numerical analysis for differential equations including numerous models with spatial and age effects | I am an applied mathematician with research expertise in mathematical modeling, including the modeling of infectious diseases. While most of my work has not been directly focused on any specific disease, I welcome opportunities to learn more about COVID-19, or any other infectious disease, to see if there are ways to apply my expertise or to help create new models. | Karami, Amir UofSC Columbia, College of Information and Communications, School of Information Science |
UofSC Columbia, College of Information and Communications, School of Information Science |
Data Science, Text Mining, Social Media Analysis, Health/Medical Informatics, Computational Social Science | Developing open-source platforms to computationally (1) analyze COVID-19 literature and (2) explore COVID-19 discussions on social media to detect associations between and within relevant concepts. | |
UofSC Columbia, Arnold School of Public Health |
Microbiology | In regard to COVID-19, we study bacterial biofilms, which occur throughout the human body. Biofilm matrices are sticky microenvironments where viruses, such as COVID-19, bind and are concentrated and then make their way to tissues. |