Inside the Outbreak

By staying home, researchers at FAU have done their part to help contain the spread of COVID-19. Yet even with limited access to their labs and fieldwork, most research at FAU never stopped.

“A lot of research that happens here can be done with a computer,” said Daniel Flynn, Ph.D., vice president for research. Although he described the transition as relatively seamless, he also noted that work restrictions have slowed the pace at which faculty generate data, the raw material for research.

Keeping people physically distant from one another — one of the primary precautions enacted to prevent the spread of the virus — required little change to some projects and a lot to others. It has, for example, limited experiments such as those involving microscopes in a busy lab or sample collecting trips in small boats. Meanwhile, psychology experiments that require in-person contact went on hiatus.

As researchers find themselves with fewer data and publications, Flynn expects that the university could experience a decline in grant applications, which reached an all-time high in the first quarter of 2020. “We may see a little bit of a downturn later this year and early next year, but I am confident it will bounce back,” he said.

Even after normalcy returns, the pandemic could have lasting effects on how researchers communicate and collaborate, but these impacts are unlikely to affect the research process itself, Flynn said.

"At the end of the day, researchers are like small businessmen; they are driven to create and innovate,” he said. “They will find the information and the partners they need."

STILL GOING STRONG

Engineering projects are typically well suited to distancing measures because most are carried out by collaborators working across distributed teams with varying degrees of in-person interaction, according to Jason Hallstrom, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and director of FAU’s Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering.

“The challenges we face as a result of the pandemic will be highly discipline specific and area specific,” Hallstrom said. “We are very fortunate in engineering. Despite the challenges, this has been an extremely productive time.”

There have been occasional setbacks: Many labs have limited field experiments and production work, once typically team efforts, to a single student. However, if anything, he says, the pandemic has energized engineers, who are applying their expertise by, for example, using data on people’s interactions to simulate viral transmission or visualizing how air flows from a cough.

MAKING IT WORK

Researchers in other fields, however, routinely share workspace. In Randy Blakely’s The pandemic forced psychologist Nancy Jones to put her in-person experiments with parents and babies on hiatus. neuroscience lab, for example, up to six scientists could simultaneously use their so-called “worm room” to study the creatures’ neurons under microscopes. Distancing measures, though, have meant that only three researchers can work in the room at a time.

Other shared spaces became less communal too. A calendar once used to schedule absences was converted to a list designating when and where each scientist plans to work, minimizing overlap. In the lab, everyone must always wear masks and other protective gear. Meetings are held remotely, and Blakely’s team does tasks such as reading literature and writing papers and grants at home to ensure that the lab continues moving forward.

Other shared spaces became less communal too. A calendar once used to schedule absences was converted to a list designating when and where each scientist plans to work, minimizing overlap. In the lab, everyone must always wear masks and other protective gear. Meetings are held remotely, and Blakely’s team does tasks such as reading literature and writing papers and grants at home to ensure that the lab continues moving forward.

Other shared spaces became less communal too. A calendar once used to schedule absences was converted to a list designating when and where each scientist plans to work, minimizing overlap. In the lab, everyone must always wear masks and other protective gear. Meetings are held remotely, and Blakely’s team does tasks such as reading literature and writing papers and grants at home to ensure that the lab continues moving forward.

A PLAN TO PREVENT THE WORST

To limit contact between her staff and others, Sylvia Gografe, the head of animal care, asked researchers, like those in Blakely’s lab, to limit their visits and schedule the use of rooms where they work with the animals.

To limit contact between her staff and others, Sylvia Gografe, the head of animal care, asked researchers, like those in Blakely’s lab, to limit their visits and schedule the use of rooms where they work with the animals.

Should illnesses and quarantines interfere with the technicians’ ability to work, Gografe could face a grim prospect: Animals that can’t be cared for must be euthanized.

To prevent gaps in staffing, she put a plan in place. Her office has cross-trained research technicians from labs as well as administrative staff, including Gografe herself. “This was a very conscientious decision made early on: We don’t reduce the animal populations except in truly excruciating circumstances,” she said.

FEW OPTIONS, NONE OF THEM GOOD

Some research simply requires close contact. While much of the work at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) has continued, the institute curtailed fieldwork typically done by teams in tight quarters, according to James Sullivan, Ph.D., executive director of HBOI. Sample collecting trips on small boats became less frequent, carrying fewer people who adhere to new precautions such as wearing masks. Meanwhile, SCUBA diving was largely suspended.

Scientists in perhaps the most difficult situations are those who study humans. Nancy Aaron Jones, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, is among them. Her research often requires babies and mothers, whose interactions she studies, to come into her lab.

In one such project, Angela Bernardo, a graduate student in the lab, has been observing babies’ emotional reactions and brain activity when their mothers ignore them in favor of a potential competitor, a lifelike baby doll. Researchers scheduled the babies to visit twice in three months to observe potential changes over time. Only a fraction had completed their second visit when social distancing precautions made it necessary for Jones to put the experiments on hold.

She has hoped to find a way to continue, but the options aren’t good. “Babies don’t respond well to masks,” she said. “They think the usually playful time at the lab is a visit to the doctor’s office and that we may be giving them an injection.”

Professional societies, such as the International Congress of Infant Studies, are encouraging researchers to switch to remote studies. To do so, she would need to drop off brain recording equipment at babies’ homes and train mothers to use it. Home visits, another component of her research, have also stopped.

If too much time passes, the remaining children will get too old to complete the study, leaving Bernardo with only limited data for her thesis.

Other experiments in the lab have gone on hiatus too. As much as Jones wants them to continue, she worries about doing so. “As a researcher, I am very concerned that I don’t give parents bad advice and that I don’t put them or their infants at risk for the virus,” she said.

If the need for distancing persists, she fears a worst-case scenario: Losing the ability to study crucial aspects of mother-infant interactions.

“Some research can only be done in the lab, over multiple visits,” she said. “The larger issue is that the pandemic is constraining our ability to conduct this important work indefinitely.”