Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Kahn Lab

COVID-19


Discovering new mechanisms of COVID-19 pathogenesis.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 with pulmonary, cardiovascular, neurologic, and other multi-organ manifestations. Despite the fact that millions worldwide have been infected, we still do not understand many of the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying COVID-19 disease. Our lab has acquired NIH funding to support basic and translational research into the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. This includes mechanisms of viral spread, pulmonary disease, and neuromuscular disease. Additionally, we have created multiple novel mouse models of SARS-CoV-2 infection to model COVID-19 to study how it spreads throughout the body and damage various organs. This work has important implications in understanding the course of viral infection and may reveal novel insights into Long COVID (sustained symptoms after viral clearance).

Collaborating Labs

  • Edward Morrisey (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Sarah Millar (Mount Sinai)
  • Hector Aguilar-Carreno (Cornell University)
See the below recent publications related to this project:

Cell-autonomous requirement for ACE2 across organs in lethal mouse SARS-CoV-2 infection

Tang et al. 2023, PLoS Biologyhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001989