File photo of the team from the tenOever Laboratory, from left to right: Kohei Oishi, PhD, Tristan Jordan, PhD, Daniel Blanco-Melo, PhD, Skyler Uhl, PhD candidate, Ben tenOever, PhD, Rasmus Moeller, PhD candidate, Maryline Panis, Lab Manager, Ben Nilsson-Payan, PhD, and Daisy Hoagland, PhD candidate
According to research led by Benjamin R. tenOever, PhD, the SARS-CoV2 virus which leads to COVID-19 behaves very differently from the flu or common respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in that it travels under the radar and enters human and animal cells quietly, eliciting a low-powered immune response that tends to fester. The preliminary findings show that the very stealth nature of SARS-CoV2 may actually account for its lethality, a hypothesis that complements the virus’s long clinical progression, with many severely ill patients being hospitalized for more than 10 days.
