To request a media interview, please reach out to School of Biological Sciences experts using our faculty directory, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts and research areas across the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is also available to journalists upon request.
Maureen Downey, education columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, used the Georgia Tech-developed Covid-19 Event Risk Tool to determine which metro Atlanta school districts face the biggest risk of Covid infection as students head back to classes. The Tool was developed by Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure; and Clio Andris, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning and Interactive Computing. Downey found that students and teachers in Douglas, Henry, Cobb, Fulton, and Rockdale counties face the highest risk, with a greater than 75 percent chance that a gathering of 25 people (an average class size) will have at least one person with Covid-19.
Opinion: Which metro Atlanta classrooms face greatest COVID risk? | 2022-01-04T00:00:00-05:00
Nobody wants to mandate business closures, but so many people are getting sick during the recent Omicron wave of Covid-19 that businesses are closing anyway. For most vaccinated people, Omicron will be mild. Yet even a mild cold, sufficiently widespread, can disrupt a city. But if soft lockdowns help suppress that viral spread, then cases will drop off sooner, while many people are still susceptible. In other words, “when you see a peak and see it go down, it doesn’t mean the risk has abated,” says Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure.
Omicron Is Pushing America Into Soft Lockdown | 2021-12-26T00:00:00-05:00
Black soldier fly larvae could help to create sustainable animal feed and solve the world’s food waste problem. Each year humans waste more than one billion tons of food, and many countries are running out of options for disposing of this waste. Black soldier fly larvae help break down organic material, from rotten produce to animal remains and manure, but when feeding tightly packed in container bins, they generate metabolic heat that collectively can turn lethal for them. Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics, and David Hu, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences, are part of a Georgia Tech research team that found delivering the right amount of airflow could help solve the overheating issue. (This study was also covered in ScienceDaily, Our Georgia News, Verve Times, Spot On Georgia, Canadian Food Sinc, and Hollywood Movies.)
Black soldier fly larvae ‘could help solve the world’s food waste problem’ | 2021-12-15T00:00:00-05:00
Covid-19 cases are climbing nationally as the U.S. barrels into its second holiday season during the pandemic, with most families planning this year to gather for Thanksgiving. The daily average of new cases stands below 100,000, and almost 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated. But with millions still unvaccinated and cases rising, experts are urging Americans to exercise caution when gathering with others. The Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Management Tool — developed by Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure — shows that for events with 50 people, eight states have counties with an at least 95 percent risk level. (The Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Management Tool is also mentioned in Fast Company, CBS17 Raleigh, Louisville Courier-Journal, Tri-City Herald, Akron Beacon-Journal, and Des Moines Register.
COVID-19 cases rise with Thanksgiving gatherings on the way | 2021-11-21T00:00:00-05:00
As the country’s second COVID-19 Thanksgiving approaches, experts say the landscape of risk has changed. New variants have emerged, and tens of thousands of new infections are still occurring every day in the United States. Vaccines are available for everyone age 5 and older, but only 59 percent of people in the U.S. are currently fully vaccinated, and some populations remain at risk due to underlying conditions or compromised immune systems. Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure, says last Thanksgiving and Christmas coincided with a Covid-19 wave across the country. Weitz's Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool has added smaller group sizes so people can gauge their chances of being exposed at holiday family gatherings.
How to have a COVID-safe Thanksgiving gathering | 2021-11-18T00:00:00-05:00
The symptoms and side effects of Covid-19 are scattered across a diagnostic spectrum. Some patients are asymptomatic or experience a mild immune response, while others report significant long-term illnesses, lasting complications, or suffer fatal outcomes. Three researchers from the School of Biological Sciences — Professor, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair, and GRA Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology Jeffrey Skolnick; Ph.D. student Courtney Astore, and senior research scientist Hongyi Zhou — and one from Emory University are trying to help clinicians sort through these factors and spectrum of patient outcomes by equipping healthcare professionals with a new “decision prioritization tool.” The team’s new artificial intelligence-based tool helps clinicians understand and better predict which adverse effects their Covid-19 patients could experience, based on comorbidities and current side effects — and, in turn, also helps suggest specific Food and Drug Administration-approved (FDA) drugs that could help treat the disease and improve patient health outcomes.
Georgia Tech researchers making breakthroughs treating COVID-19 | 2021-11-18T00:00:00-05:00
With vaccines available and restrictions relaxed, many people are eager to shop for holiday gifts in-person this season. Others are struggling to understand the risks of contracting COVID as the pandemic enters a new phase of uncertainty. Stephen Beckett, research scientist with the School of Biological Sciences, works on Georgia Tech's COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, which can help shoppers gauge the risk of infections in groups of all sizes. “Actions such as mask wearing, reducing event sizes, or avoiding large events, getting vaccinated, being outdoors rather than indoors, or in areas with high quality air ventilation, can all help mitigate the risk that an individual will become infected and risk spreading COVID-19 in their community," Beckett says.
Holiday shopping in-person this year? Here are some ways to lower COVID risk | 2021-11-16T00:00:00-05:00
A team of Georgia Tech researchers led by John F. McDonald, professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and colleagues from the Ovarian Cancer Institute are using ensemble-based machine learning algorithms to predict with high accuracy how patients will respond to cancer-fighting drugs. The results of their recent research were published in the Journal of Oncology Research. The researchers found an overall predictive accuracy of 91%. (This research was also covered in News-Medical.net.)
Ensemble-based machine learning algorithms accurately predict the response of cancer drugs | 2021-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
A study by Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences researchers Cody Clements and Mark Hay offers both hope and a potentially grim future for damaged coral reefs. In a paper published in Science Advances, the researchers found that increasing coral richness by "outplanting" a diverse group of coral species together improves coral growth and survivorship. The ecological pendulum swings the other way, too. If more coral species are lost, the synergistic effects could threaten other species in what Clements and Hay term a "biodiversity meltdown."
Underwater gardens boost coral diversity to stave off 'biodiversity meltdown' | 2021-10-25T00:00:00-04:00
Some Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic or experience a mild immune response, while others report significant long-term illnesses, lasting complications, or suffer fatal outcomes. Three Georgia Tech researchers are trying to help clinicians sort through these factors and spectrum of patient outcomes by equipping healthcare professionals with a new artificial intelligence-based “decision prioritization tool.” Jeffrey Skolnick, professor, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in the School of Biological Sciences; Ph.D. student Courtney Astore, and senior research scientist Hongyi Zhou, both from the Center for the Study of Systems Biology, were involved in the research. The research was also covered in Health IT Analytics.
New AI-based tool helps clinicians understand and better predict adverse effects of COVID-19 | 2021-10-25T00:00:00-04:00
