NHS awards grant to University of Utah biomedical engineer for COVID-19 research

Mucus may be part of the spread of the coronavirus and University of Utah biomedical engineer Jessica Kramer has received a grant to research the potential role it plays in spreading the virus. 

Different mucus compositions could have roles in transmitting the coronavirus, according to the National Science Foundation. With the award of the a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation, Kramer is researching just what those roles could be.

Discovering how the different compositions of mucus can spread the virus can help researchers understand why some individuals are "super-spreaders" of COVID-19 and why others are vulnerable to infection, Kramer said. It will also potentially lead data on which populations spread the disease to be collected faster.

"Not everyone spreads the disease equally," Kramer told the National Science Foundation. "The quality of their mucus may be part of the explanation. One person may sneeze and transmit it to another person, and another may not."