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Virologist Benjamin tenOever and his colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York are racing to find drugs that work against SARS-CoV-2. The lab, which until recently focused on a large-scale research project studying transmission of influenza virus between ferrets, is now using the animals to see if already-approved drugs show promise in stalling coronavirus replication or improving symptoms of infected animals. Should any treatment show signs of working, it’ll be considered for use in patients battling COVID-19.
Work with the live virus has to be conducted in biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) labs, carefully regulated facilities where workers are required to wear a suite of gear to protect themselves and people who come into contact with them. Facial protection typically comes in two forms: the preferred choice is a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR)—a reusable device that pumps filtered air into a face ...
