Juliet Morrison

Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.

ilseu — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 23:59:45 +0000

Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be. ilseu Mon, 08/31/2020 - 16:59 More CNAS in the Media Apoorva Mandavilli | The New York Times August 29, 2020

THE NEW YORK TIMES - Some of the nation’s leading public health experts are raising a new concern in the endless debate over coronavirus testing in the United States: The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.

Any test with a cycle threshold above 35 is too sensitive, agreed Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside. “I’m shocked that people would think that 40 could represent a positive,” she said.

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UCR virologist receives prestigious award from alma mater

ilseu — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 16:14:00 +0000

UCR virologist receives prestigious award from alma mater ilseu Thu, 08/27/2020 - 09:14 More College News Imran Ghori | Inside UCR August 26, 2020

Juliet Morrison, an assistant professor in UCR’s Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, has been honored by her alma mater, Bard College, with the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science.

The award honors scientists who demonstrate a breadth of concern and depth of commitment characterized by the pioneering father-and-son 18th century physicians for whom it is named. Their descendant, John Bard, founded the liberal arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1860.

Dr. Juliet Morrison

Morrison, who graduated from Bard College in 2003 with a bachelor’s of arts in biology, was presented with the award during the college’s Aug. 22 virtual commencement ceremony.

“I am beyond elated,” she said. “I am honored to receive this award from an institution I adore.”

Morrison caught the attention of faculty members first with her application for the Distinguished Scientist Scholarship program and later her ambitious biology research, according to the award program announcement. Faculty members praised not only her academic work but recalled her good humor and involvement in a number of extracurricular activities.

“No one who knew Juliet Morrison when she was a student at Bard is surprised that she became a successful and innovative scientist,” the awards announcement stated.

The college lauded Morrison for her continuing work as a virologist in her graduate studies at Columbia University; postdoctoral research at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; a scientific project manager at the University of Washington; and an associate research scientist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

In 2018, she joined the faculty at UCR where she is studying ways to target viral infections. Morrison is part of a team that helped develop a COVID-19 testing lab on campus.

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Gilead poised to upend market with its first Covid-19 study data

ilseu — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 15:00:43 +0000

Gilead poised to upend market with its first Covid-19 study data ilseu Tue, 04/28/2020 - 08:00 More CNAS in the Media Cristin Flanagan | Bloomberg April 24, 2020

BLOOMBERG - Gilead Sciences Inc., whose Covid-19 treatment has whipsawed markets amid conflicting early reports about its efficacy, is set to report the first results from a company-sponsored study of the experimental drug.

Data from the first 400 severely ill coronavirus patients being treated with Remdesivir in an open-label study are expected before the end of next week. While not expected to provide a definitive answer on efficacy, the report is likely to again trigger wide swings in Gilead’s shares and the broader market. Options prices show investors expect a more than 9% move in the drugmaker’s stock price over the next week.

University of California, Riverside virologist Juliet Morrison expressed a similar sentiment. “We still don’t have the raw data, but it doesn’t seem impressive to me,” she said in a phone interview after the China data reports. For diseases like Covid-19 driven by a patient’s own immune system, “antivirals are unlikely to work. And they won’t be helpful at the severe stages of the disease when the virus is not the driving factor,” she said.

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