David Odde, Ph.D.

A team of University of Minnesota researchers found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, can decrease the amount of COVID-19 virus in the body and lower the chances of the virus coming back strongly after initial treatment. The study was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

A higher viral load — the amount of virus in a person’s body — usually indicates a greater concentration of the virus, which can be important in understanding the severity of an infection and monitoring the effectiveness of treatments.

“The results of the study are important because COVID-19 continues to cause illness, both during acute infection and for months after infection… Continue reading.

In a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, University of Minnesota researchers found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, prevents the development of long COVID. The study investigated if early outpatient COVID-19 treatment with metformin, ivermectin, or fluvoxamine could prevent long COVID. A simulator developed by David Odde and team predicted metformin’s ability to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus… Continue reading.

An international team of researchers, led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities engineers, has discovered that cancer cells invade the body based on the stiffness of their environment, providing a new understanding of how cancer spreads and the potential for improvements to future treatments.

Their study, published on July 11 in the journal Nature Materials, found that not only does the stiffness of their environment impact the speed at which cells move — ranging from stiff (bone tissue) to soft (fatty tissue) to medium stiffness (muscle tissue) — but it also affects the direction in which they move… Continue reading.

Professor David Odde is creating a biophysical computer model that simulates COVID-19 on a molecular and cellular level, and tests therapies and vaccines computationally.