On a frigid morning in mid-January, tiny flurries swirled outside the University of Iowa State Hygienic Lab building as an unusual sight, an eighteen-wheeler UPS semi-truck, slowly backed up to the loading dock with a daily delivery of samples. Inside the truck was a record-breaking haul: fifty-five 4’ x 4’ bags containing COVID-19 test kits from Iowans across the state. Each bag contained...

March 8 will mark one year since the State Hygienic Laboratory detected the first case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and the lab has processed more than one million samples since that fateful day. As vaccines for COVID-19 work their way across the country, SHL isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s continuing to work around the clock to improve testing and expanding the tools available...

While it’s not, technically, a business, Iowa’s State Hygienic Lab (SHL) has demonstrated incredible innovation and dedication since it became ground zero for most of Iowa’s COVID-19 testing. That’s why SHL and Director Mike Pentella were recently given the Driver award as part of the sixth annual Gazette Business Awards. The Driver award is given to an individual or institution that has...

With federal funding from the Iowa Governor’s Office, researchers at the University of Iowa are working to help create a nanovaccine that would protect against the virus that causes COVID-19 and be administered via nasal spray rather than a needle. On Thursday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced she has set aside $2 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (or CARES) Act funding to...

If the State Hygienic Laboratory’s Coralville operation is headquarters in Iowa’s war on COVID-19, Connie Henderson is the lab’s forward scout and envoy to clinics across the state. Henderson, a retired laboratory manager at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames, has served as an SHL Ambassador since 2019, providing expert guidance to the lab, helping SHL better connect with and meet the needs of...

The State Hygienic Laboratory (SHL) has been in the spotlight since the beginning of the COVD-19 pandemic. It’s won widespread praise—including from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Board of Regents—for the dedication of its staff as it’s expanded its capabilities to meet explosive demand for testing. The lab is fast approaching having conducted half a million COVID-19 tests since February and...

The State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa (SHL) is cross-training staff and operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet testing demands. Since March, the scientists and administrators at the SHL have overcome numerous challenges to provide rapid, high-volume testing to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Iowa. The lab needed to rapidly ramp up its staffing, navigate shifting...

Test Iowa reached a milestone today: 100,000 tests have been conducted, all by the State Hygienic Lab (SHL) at the University of Iowa, since the program began on April 25. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement to announce the test numbers. “In the face of a global pandemic, we had to be bold, ambitious, and move quickly to launch a comprehensive initiative to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Iowa...

The University of Iowa Office of the Vice President for Research has launched a new Website to help guide researchers, scholars, and creative artists as they begin to return to campus during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The following message from University of Iowa Vice President for Research Marty Scholtz was sent to the campus research community on May 18, 2020. To receive important announcements about research activities during the COVID-19 outbreak click here to subscribe to a special edition of the OVPR newsletter. Good afternoon: First off, thanks to all of you for your cooperation as we work together to...

IMPORTANT: The following message from Vice President for Research Marty Scholtz applies only to research study visits occurring in UI Hospitals & Clinics and other clinical settings during scheduled patient visits. Guidance for other human subjects and broader research on campus is forthcoming. We're working closely with the campus Critical Incident Management Team, collegiate leaders, and the...

Given its dramatic impact on daily life at the University of Iowa, the global spread of COVID-19 makes it tempting to feel pessimistic. Certainly, this is an unprecedented and challenging time on a scale seen by few people alive today. But stories of quiet heroism, of people on campus and across the state going above and beyond to help one another during this crisis, are emerging every day. They...