Even before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States, Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine, started setting the stage with Sean Whelan, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology, for scientists at the university to study the virus. Whelan had just arrived in St. Louis to begin his new role as head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and didn’t even have an operational laboratory when the two scientists jumped into the breach and started work to equip and certify a Biosafety Level III laboratory, where researchers could study SARS-CoV-2.

Since those early days of improvising to get funding and equipment in place, the researchers not only have studied the novel coronavirus; they’ve also made a less dangerous form of the virus. that has allowed a wider circle of scientists to study it. And after discovering that SARS-CoV-2 does not naturally infect mice, they used a viral vector to temporarily make the mice susceptible to the virus, enabling scientists to learn more about how it behaves in an animal model. Diamond and Whelan also have played a role in efforts to develop new vaccines, including a nasal vaccine that prevents infection in mice.

The podcast, “Show Me the Science,” is produced by the Office of Medical Public Affairs at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.