Rhode Island native is scientist working on coronavirus cure

April 24, 2020 6:10 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Dr. Timothy Sheahan has specialized in coronavirus research for years, but COVID-19 is suddenly thrusting him into the spotlight.

“Now everybody knows what coronavirus is,” said the North Smithfield native. “It’s very strange.”

The world is counting on a small group of scientists like him to find a cure.

“Figuring out if these drugs and vaccines are going to be useful, and help people and to try to stop the pandemic — so like, you know, no pressure,” he said with a wry smile.

His lab at UNC Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health had already helped the antiviral medication Remdesivir get a jump start as a possible treatment.

“The things that we did here positioned that drug to immediately go into clinical trial for COVID-19,” he said.

Dr. Sheahan’s lab is one of only a few in the country working on a cure for COVID-19. But he says what they’re discovering may have an even bigger impact.

“We’ve been working on a couple of antiviral drugs that in the lab, at least, work against every coronavirus tested so far,” he said.

It’s an encouraging sign that even though a cure could take many more months, it may ultimately combat multiple viruses.

“One of the things that we’ve been trying to do is develop broad therapies that not only work against the viruses that we know about today, but also those that may emerge in the future,” Sheahan said. “What can we do to help not only with COVID-19, but with COVID-25?”