Michigan Tech alumni are putting their education and ingenuity to work to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve heard of Huskies involved in many different aspects of the pandemic response: producing parts for ventilators, creating testing kits and making masks.
How are you or your company involved? Comment below.
Here is a sampling of the stories we’ve heard.
Abbott (Lynne Fleischmann ‘95) in Abbott Park, Illinois, launched a molecular point-of-care test to detect COVID-19 in as few as five minutes. Read more.
Calumet Electronics (Meredith Ballard LaBeau ‘04 ‘08 ‘12 and others) in Calumet, Michigan, is filling orders for circuit boards for ventilators as quickly as possible. Read more.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Dr. David Frendewey ‘76) in Tarrytown, New York, is working on a treatment for COVID-19. Read more.
Alliance Beverage (Shawn Gary ‘80) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, teamed up with New Holland Brewing to produce 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. Read more.
Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis (Jeffrey Thompson ‘12 and Stephanie Stevens ‘13) in Boyne City, Michigan is making protective face shields. Read more.
Makerhub.co (Cedric Kennedy ‘16) is connecting 3D printing enthusiasts, sewing hobbyists and other DIYers to create and donate personal protective equipment to hospitals. Read more.
Ben Manning ’17 and Amanda Stenzelbarton ’14 ’16 in Athens, Georgia, turned their garage into a 3D printing facility to make masks and face shields for local first responders and hospitals. You can donate printing supplies to their cause through Amazon.
Glen Sachtleben (‘74 Forestry) is with FEMA in Atlanta working the FEMA Regional effort to support eight states and six tribes in the southeast U.S. fight against COVID19. Recently battled the Easter Sunday tornado outbreak at same time and ready to respond to hurricane season June-November in a COVID19 environment.
Translational Genomics Research Institute (Darrin Lemmer ’98) in Flagstaff, Arizona developed a genomic test for COVID-19 and set up a clinical lab to test patient samples for all of Northern Arizona. In addition, TGen is sequencing positive samples from the entire state to be able to compare and analyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome to determine the source of introductions into Arizona as well as the presence and rate of community spread within the state.
(Mychal Ivancich ’13 Bioinformatics)
Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases such as the novel Coronavirus disease, COVID-19 and Ebola pose a significant threat to global society and test the public health community’s preparedness to rapidly respond to an outbreak with effective diagnostics and therapeutics. Recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies enable rapid generation of pathogen genome sequence data, within 24 hours of obtaining a sample in some instances. With this data, one can quickly evaluate the effectiveness of existing diagnostics and therapeutics using in silico approaches.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.031963v1
Bruce Rossman (’81 Scientific & Technical Communications) is lead media relations specialist at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. He is part of the team working to share Spectrum Health’s efforts in the medical response to COVID-19 and educate the public regarding social distancing, best practices in slowing the spread of this disease, and Spectrum Health’s research initiatives.
The COVID19 Pandemic is challenging the healthcare facilities around the globe like never before. As the Chief Engineer for EWB-USA, Mike is leading a EWB / Rotary Team in Guatemala to improve the infrastructure of healthcare facilities so they are ready for the increased caseload. Work includes an increase water supply, water storage, hospital triage areas and expanded waiting rooms.