Bring in the Scientists: Immunologist Amanda Jamieson

Quick Pivots: Immunologist Amanda Jamieson

WHEN AMANDA JAMIESON went to Galveston, Texas, at the end of February for an international conference on the Biology of Acute Respiratory Infection, she heard a lot about the dangers of COVID and its exponentially increasing spread. Back at Brown, she heard people talking about having a few more weeks before any possible shutdown. Jamieson, an assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, was ready to start ramping down right away.

Immunologist Amanda Jamieson

While shutting down many projects was painful and caused significant research losses, Jamieson was already looking forward: “Being an immunologist, there had to be something we could do.” She talked with members of her lab team and others, and, after the university announced its COVID-19 Research Seed Fund in April, Jamieson applied for and became the only researcher to be funded by two Seed awards.

Working with Graphene Composites (GC), a nanomaterials technology company whose CEO is Brown alumnus Sandy Chen ’88, Jamieson is testing a graphene/silver nanoparticle ink formulation to be used in personal protective equipment as a way of reducing virus transmission rates. She said initial results have been promising.

In her other Seed project, Jamieson teamed up with faculty from pathology and laboratory medicine, as well as economics, to try to map the spread of COVID in the Rhode Island population and assess the role of asymptomatic cases.

Buoyed by her seed success, Jamieson applied for a highly competitive COVID Fast Grants opportunity, a program from Emergent Ventures in the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She won a $300,000 award that she can use for anything related to COVID and which she plans to use for bioinformatics-related research to look at possible causes of blood coagulation defects in COVID patients.

For several months, Jamieson’s whole team concentrated on COVID work, but was subsequently able to resume its previous grant-funded research.

“In terms of techniques, it’s things we do a lot,” Jamieson said of the COVID work. “But the subjects are completely new. It’s been really interesting learning a new field. I have always felt that how people can survive respiratory disorders is important, and people are appreciating it more. It is more urgent now.”