Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1272398
60 60 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP OSU medical center is expanding COVID-19 testing through team approach, chief scientific officer says By Kelly Gooch P eter Mohler, PhD, is the new chief scientif- ic officer for Colum- bus-based Ohio State Univer- sity's Wexner Medical Center and health sciences colleges, and he is a healthcare veter- an with COVID-19 research experience. Dr. Mohler joined OSU in 2011. In addition to serving as chief scientific officer, he is the vice dean for research in the OSU College of Medicine and director of the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. The university cred- its him with leading research to expand and accelerate COVID-19 testing capabilities, with more than 80 COVID-19-related research studies occurring under his leadership. Dr. Mohler told Becker's Hospital Review he is inspired seeing OSU healthcare and research teams collaborate during the pandemic and looks forward to continuing those efforts. He shared his goals as chief scientific officer and discussed OSU's testing capabilities. Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What has you most excited about your new role? Dr. Peter Mohler: We're fortunate to have a great college of medicine. At Ohio State, we also have great colleagues in other colleges, includ- ing our health sciences colleges. I think we have seen over the last two months the ability to put teams together to answer complex questions [related to the pandemic]. is has been inspiring, and I hope to use this platform to bring people together [moving forward]. Q: What are a few of your top priorities for your first year as chief scientific officer? PM: To make sure there's good alignment on some of the key things facing Ohio and the nation related to health. For years, aca- demic medical centers have focused primarily on laboratory-based research, but I think alignment nationally with social determinants of health and areas of engaging population health is going to be incredibly important. Having a portfolio that balances basic, trans- lational and health services research is going to be critical for our patient populations. Q: How has OSU expanded and accelerated critical COVID-19 testing capabilities? PM: We are fortunate to have a great partnership with Battelle, [a science and technology development company]. Our teams in the department of pathology have worked closely with Battelle scientists to create very accurate and high-throughput platforms for COVID testing for communities across Ohio. We have been successful by combining the different strengths of our two orga- nizations. It has both increased our creativity but also accelerated our productivity. Right now, in our medical center we have about 100 active research projects focused on COVID-based solutions. In some cases, we have completely repurposed laboratory space to expand new testing capacity. Q: Is OSU working on antibody testing, or just diagnostic testing? PM: We are currently only performing diagnostic COVID viral test- ing. We are not currently performing antibody testing. Like many others across the country, we hope to see additional progress on the accuracy and specificity of antibody tests for use in surveillance. We do have active research teams at Ohio State and Battelle working on new assays — for example, examining neutralizing antibodies. ese types of studies are critically important today. n