Brigitte Gomperts spent much of the pandemic growing miniature lungs in her lab.
A professor of pediatrics and pulmonary medicine, Gomperts conducted research about COVID-19 as the virus ravaged the world around her. Specifically, she studied the effects of cigarette smoke on cells infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Her research team grew lung organoids and airways and then exposed them directly to cigarette smoke. Alongside Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami, an associate professor in molecular and medical pharmacology, Gomperts discovered more lung cells are infected with SARS-CoV-2 after cigarette smoke exposure because the lung cells lose immunity.
Despite the success of her research, Gomperts noted the difficulties brought by the pandemic, including shortages of the most basic laboratory supplies, limited lab capacity and – notably – lack of physical interaction with her lab members and other scientists.
Labs were open at 25 to 30% capacity throughout the pandemic, Gomperts said. In the labs, everyone was required to stay six feet apart at all times, she said, with one scientist for every 250 square feet, per UCLA Research Ramp-up Phase 2 guidelines.
“I didn't realize just how difficult that is – when you can't really interact (normally) with people, and how that really hampers science,” Gomperts said.
In addition to capacity reductions, the process of studying an ever-evolving and unprecedented disease can be frustrating, said Jason Hinman. Hinman, an assistant professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, encountered various difficulties while studying the increase of stroke incidents seen in COVID-19 patients. For example, his research had to be constantly modified in accordance with the changing information on the virus.
“It felt like we were chasing our tail, a little bit, because there was new research every day when we woke up and, you know, there were folks who were doing science,” Hinman said.
Despite their different research topics, Gompert and Hinman were in agreement about the importance of collaboration in UCLA’s scientific community.
In fact, physical restrictions like social distancing and stay-at-home orders may actually have influenced some scientists to more actively seek out collaboration, Hinman noted.
Normally, researchers would meet at an annual conference and potentially strike up a plan to collaborate. Now, without that opportunity, Hinman said, researchers have started to proactively initiate collaborative research rather than wait for an opportunity to present itself.
Last November, one of Hinman’s colleagues helped him hold a teleconference with a scientist in Paris. The scientist in Paris owned a different type of 3D printing model that could grow more types of cells in 3D printed blood vessels than Hinman’s model. Ever since, the two researchers have been communicating regularly via Zoom, discussing ways to merge their technologies.
Similarly, Gomperts is collaborating with another UCLA professor to better inform the UCLA scientific community about COVID-19 research through a weekly seminar series. She has been co-hosting the series alongside Melody Li, an assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.
The Zoom webinars, which unite researchers to discuss recent findings on SARS-CoV-2, were started by the UCLA COVID-19 Basic, Translational and Clinical Research Task Forces from the David Geffen School of Medicine.
“We've been really trying to get the word out about what different things people are doing, what different expertise people bring to the table, so that people can work together more easily despite the limitations in terms of communication,” Gomperts said.
Gomperts herself collaborated with two other UCLA faculty – Arumugaswami and Robert Damoiseaux, a molecular and medical pharmacology and bioengineering professor, who is also the director of Molecular Shared Screening Resource at the CNSI.
Arumugaswami and Damoiseaux discovered a therapy that could potentially reduce the spread of viral infection from COVID-19 within the body, and Gomperts assessed the efficacy of the therapy in primary lung airways. The three are also collaborating on another project, this one about identifying other potential therapies for COVID-19.
They have brought together their different expertise in a beneficial way, Gomperts said – Gomperts’ lung organoid drug screening platform enables the effective screening of lung organoids in response to SARS-CoV-2, which are infected by Arumugaswami and screened by Damoiseaux in the Molecular Shared Screening Resource for rapid results.
“I've been studying viruses for the last 20 years,” Arumugaswami said. “But in April, that's the first time I have seen in my life, irrespective of the field, people want to work on COVID-19 ... whether they are cardiologists, nephrologists, neurologists, diabetic specialists – doesn't matter. Everybody.”
But Christopher Seet, an assistant professor of hematology-oncology, said studying the virus over a long timespan is often challenging, and it can be difficult to stay motivated when he is not seeing his intended results.
Alongside professor Gay Crooks and graduate student Suwen Li, Seet has been researching how immune cells, called T cells, respond to SARS-CoV-2.
“Sometimes you can spend a month examining some (T cell responses) and not see a T cell response positive to the virus we're looking at,” Seet said. “And then at that point, it's disappointing.”
The explosion of novel findings on the coronavirus over a relatively short period required strenuous effort and grit from researchers, Arumugaswami said.
“We kind of feel we survived, but we had moments, we were stretched so thin,” Arumugaswami said.
He recalled the long hours and nightly lab work he and other researchers endured before making any successful discoveries. Arumugaswami added that, in the beginning of the pandemic, researchers often worked at least 16 to 18 hours a day, seven days per week. At times, he even saw researchers waiting to pick up samples for the lab at 10 p.m. Friday night, with plans to run tests on the samples through the night and into Saturday morning.
Arumugaswami said he was personally motivated throughout his research by his childhood in India, where he often witnessed Indian children being exposed to various diseases.
He explained that more developed countries like the U.S. are less affected by infectious diseases than countries like India. Many people in the U.S. initially scoffed at warnings about the deadliness of COVID-19, which eventually led to the United States’ staggering death rate, he explained.
Arumugaswami still thinks back to March 2020, when he became the first researcher at UCLA to receive a coronavirus sample from the CDC.
“It was wrapped in multiple layers of materials, so the virus cannot escape. So we opened that, and we had a small vile in our hand, and we were kind of wondering, ‘How come this small thing created such a massive pandemic?’” he recounted.
UCLA scientists have greatly contributed to researching the virus. Yet, there are also numerous contributors outside university laboratories that helped promote a conducive research environment, Damoiseaux said.
For example, he accentuated the vital contributions of loading dock workers who helped ship and receive critical supplies, staff who ordered from and followed up with suppliers, as well as the custodians who helped clean various facilities.
Finally, Damoiseaux also credited UCLA leadership for their role coordinating vital resources during the early stages of the pandemic, as well as the broader UCLA community for its energy during this challenging time.
“I think it was very clear to everyone that everyone runs at full speed at full capacity as quickly as possible to find the solution to this problem,” Damoiseaux said. “Everyone contributes. That wasn't even a question.”
The traditional methods of collaboration – spurred from bumping into colleagues in the hallways and spontaneously discussing ideas – may be obsolete at the moment. But over the last year, the scientific community has found new ways to work together.
“Together but independent,” Hinman said. “And that's a new way of doing science.”