The Ohio State Universitys Office of Research announced details of the final round of funding to boost research in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eleven additional projects were awarded funding for a total of $310,000. Through three rounds of funding, 24 projects were awarded over $770,000 from the Office of Research.

Natalia Higuita-Castro, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the lead investigator for one of the round-three projects. Her research will use next-generation nanocarriers based on engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver anti-inflammatory therapies to lungs injured by the novel coronavirus.

The gold standard is nature. As an engineer, rather than reinventing the wheel, I try to learn from nature, she said. Nature has this amazing method to produce these nanocarriers and what we do in my lab is to use nanotechnology to engineer them to deliver specific molecular cargo to the inflamed lung.

Higuita-Castro, member of the Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute at the Ohio States Wexner Medical Center, is working with her collaborators on a treatment for COVID-19-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a life-threatening condition characterized by severe inflammation and damage of the lungs that can eventually lead to respiratory failure.

The therapy Higuita-Castro is developing will be designed to decrease the inflammation, giving the patients own system a better chance to overcome the infection.

Your own immune system has to do the work and overcome the infection, but we are shifting that balance from a severe inflammatory state to a more balanced state, to potentially aid faster recovery and reduce lung damage, she said.

Morley O. Stone, senior vice president for research, said the universitys multidisciplinary approach positions Ohio State to provide innovative solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Office of Research supported 10 additional projects in the third round of funding:

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Final round of COVID-19 seed funding supports 11 new projects - The Ohio State University News