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To help answer Scientific American's question, the authors seek the expertise of Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences in the School of Biological Sciences. Two tools built by Weitz's team are included: the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool that estimates the probabilty of infection in groups of all sizes, given the rates of infection in an area; and a guide for estimating what proportion of each state's population has Covid-19 immunity, either through vaccination or natural infection.
work family interactions | 2021-07-14T00:00:00-04:00
For the first time in several weeks, the Covid-19 seven-day moving average increased for Clarke County, from 1.3 daily new cases on July 1 to 5.9 on July 9, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. A new tool from Georgia Tech researchers looks at vaccination immunity alongside natural immunity rates, i.e., rates of people previously infected with Covid-19. One of the Population Level Immunity tool developers is Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences.
Georgia Tech’s Army ROTC | 2021-07-13T00:00:00-04:00
Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences in the School of Biological Sciences, says some two-thirds of Georgians could have some immune protection against the coronavirus, either through vaccination or natural infection.
2022 benefits | 2021-07-07T00:00:00-04:00
While Georgia Tech business major Elena Shinohara has chased her Olympic dreams in rhythmic gymnastics, her father, Minoru Shinohara, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has been with her to use his expertise for Elena's training. "Every movement is created by the neural system," he says. Shinohara’s research interests include neurophysiological and biomechanical mechanisms underlying motor skills.
Aaron Stebner | 2021-06-24T00:00:00-04:00
A new Georgia Tech-led study is taking the air out of a hypothesis linking early Earth’s oxygenation to larger, more complex organisms. The researchers report a more complex effect, and it’s all about exactly how much O2 was available to some of our earliest multicellular ancestors. The Geogia Tech researchers with the School of Biological Sciences are G. Ozan Bozdag, research scientist; Will Ratcliff, associate professor; and Rozenn Pineau, Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS). Joining them is Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Title IX logo | 2021-06-11T00:00:00-04:00
Demand for Covid-19 vaccinations has fallen so dramatically in Georgia that the state has been turning down millions of allocated doses, telling the federal government to distribute them elsewhere. Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences in the School of Biological Sciences, is part of a team that’s attempted to estimate the level of immunity via prior infection and vaccination in the U.S. and in each state. Weitz estimates about 60% of Georgians have some level of immunity. But millions remain unprotected.
Georgia passes up millions of vaccine doses as demand plummets | 2021-06-11T00:00:00-04:00
A Georgia Tech-based study published June 2 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface presents the first evidence that elephants can use suction to pick up small objects as well as vacuum up water. The study's corresponding author, David Hu, is a professor of fluid mechanics in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who holds a joint appointment in the School of Biological Sciences. The study sought to better understand the physics of how elephants use their trunks to move and manipulate air, water, food and other objects. They also sought to learn if the mechanics could inspire the creation of more efficient robots that use air motion to hold and move things.
John Fritsch | 2021-06-04T00:00:00-04:00
Kristen Whalen, assistant professor of biology at Haverford College, will lead a team of interdisciplinary scientists to develop new methods to track and translate complex chemical signals exchanged between phytoplankton and bacteria that are fundamental to ocean ecosystems.To accomplish this goal, this grant brings together four scientists with expertise across metabolomics, proteomics, physiology, virology, and chemical ecology. One of the scientists is Julia Kubanek, professor in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Biochemistry, and vice president for interdisciplinary research for Georgia Tech. Kubanek is a former academic mentor of Whalen's.
linguis | 2021-06-03T00:00:00-04:00
Even as health officials continue to try to calculate — and communicate — when herd immunity might happen, they have to contend with both public misunderstanding of the term and scientific disagreement over what it means. Even within public health circles, “some of our colleagues have disagreed with one another” on the definition of herd immunity, says Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences at the School of Biological Sciences. Changes in behavior can lead to declines in cases, he says, “that do not imply that the population has reached herd immunity.” Populations develop immunity through a combination of vaccination and natural infections, Weitz says, and the safe and ethical route to reach herd immunity is through vaccinations.
wendy truran | 2021-05-25T00:00:00-04:00
Until recently, neuroscientists considered the mechanisms of skin itch the same. But Liang Han, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, who is also a researcher in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and her research team uncovered differences in itch in non-hairy versus hairy areas of the skin, opening new areas for research. The Han team research was also covered in Newswise.
humann resources | 2021-05-21T00:00:00-04:00
