testing

Greg Dowling, left, moves his son Cole Dowling into his dorm in West Village for the spring semester. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Move-in is a big moment for Northeastern parents, too

Tillie Kopec is one of many parents juggling the excitement of sending their children off to college with the logistics of moving onto campus amid COVID-19 precautions. But she and other parents were reassured by Northeastern’s push to vaccinate the community.

by Hillary Chabot January 13, 2021

Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Just how much contact tracing and testing do we need?

How much testing is enough? What percentage of people who’ve been unwittingly exposed to the virus do we need to track down? How many people will need to be quarantined? In a recent study published in Nature Human Behaviour, researchers in Northeastern’s Network Science Institute sought to quantify these answers.

by Laura Castañón August 25, 2020

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

It’s an all-out effort to promote safety as Northeastern’s Boston campus reopens

As students, faculty, and staff make their way to residence halls, labs, and offices Monday, they will find a university transformed from top to bottom to promote the safety of the Northeastern community and the surrounding neighborhoods.

by Peter Ramjug August 16, 2020

Think everyone will be clamoring to get a COVID-19 vaccine? Think again, a new national study says.

Two-thirds of U.S. residents say they will get a vaccination when one is available, but others may not because of fears of side effects or a lack of trust in the healthcare system, a new survey by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers has found.

by Peter Ramjug August 6, 2020

Timely test results are necessary to slow the coronavirus. But a new study shows critical delays across the US.

More than 63 percent of U.S. residents are waiting longer than one to two days to get their coronavirus test results—delays that undermine the contact tracing that could identify individuals who are contagious but show no symptoms, according to results of a new survey by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers.

by Peter Ramjug August 3, 2020

What if we could get COVID-19 test results instantly?

A breathalyzer created by engineering professor Nian Sun could dramatically reduce the time it takes to test for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Once…

by Benjamin Bertsch and Adam Fischer July 23, 2020

A gas sensor used to detect airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus in professor Nian Sun’s lab in Egan Research Center. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

These new sensors can detect coronavirus particles on your breath, instantly

Instead of sticking swabs up our noses, what if we could instantly detect viral particles we breathe out? That is precisely the kind of technology that Nian Sun, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working on.

by Roberto Molar Candanosa July 17, 2020