Left to right:  Sukirth Ganesan, Kevin Legge, Eric Taylor and Ashutosh Mangalam

Drs Ashutosh Mangalam, Kevin Legge, Sukirth Ganesan (Periodontics) and Eric Taylor (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics) were awarded a Carver Trust COVID-19 Pilot Collaborative Award. The grant, entitled Unraveling the Role of Saliva in COVID-19 Pathogenesis Using a Comprehensive Multi-omics Approach, will involve a multi-arm, cross sectional, case-control study with an integrated ‘omics’ approach to determine microbial, metabolic, functional and immune alterations in the saliva of COVID-19 patients. With recent publications highlighting an important role for saliva in virus transmission and SARS-nCoV2 infection, the grant will help in understanding the pathogenesis of COVID-19. The multidisciplinary team brings together expertise in microbiome, oral biology, metabolomics, viral immunology and infectious disease with Drs. Mangalam, Ganesan and Taylor serving as Co-Principal investigators and Dr. Legge as Co-Investigator. Dr. Val Sheffied (Pediatrics) and Dr. Katherine Imborek (Family Medicine) will serve as consultants. Total funding for this award is $74,910 and the project period is June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022.