A $150,000 grant from the North Carolina Collaboratory will allow Brian Byrd, professor of environmental health sciences at Western Carolina University, and his students to identify environmental and behavioral risk factors for La Crosse encephalitis in western North Carolina.
A new North Carolina study called VISION, funded by the North Carolina Collaboratory, will enroll 7,500 adults recently diagnosed with COVID-19 to understand the different factors that impact individual risk for key clinical outcomes including recovery from acute illness, symptom rebound, re-infection and long COVID.
The North Carolina Collaboratory, headquartered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is funding five new research projects focused on community and local government engagement to assist opioid abatement and recovery efforts across the State.
Originally focused on natural resources and environmental issues, the Collaboratory has since expanded to numerous other research areas in response to some of North Carolina’s most pressing challenges.
Noble’s recently funded oyster mortality project with the Collaboratory uniquely connects to a previous Collaboratory-funded project she developed to study COVID-19 throughout North Carolina’s wastewater systems.
In July 2021, a historic $26 billion agreement was reached between states and several large drug distributors and opioid manufacturers. As part of that settlement agreement, the state of North Carolina and local governments across the state are set to receive $757 million over the next 18 years to address the opioid crisis.
The Collaboratory is awarding 11 research and development grants through a new competitive Business-Academia Partnership Program to help address the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19 in North Carolina.
Two of the Collaboratory’s previous interns who have utilized skills developed during their time with the Collaboratory in their current roles include Janis Arrojado, UNC-Chapel Hill class of 2022, and Elizabeth Kendrick, UNC-Chapel Hill class of 2020.
Researchers from UNC and N.C. State are teaming up to figure out how PFAS chemicals could be contributing to the higher risk that firefighters have of both being diagnosed and dying from cancer.
On Tuesday, Nov. 15, the Collaboratory is excited to host N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus. Secretary Biser will participate in a panel focused on environmental justice in policy making. The event is open to University students, staff and faculty.
