Teaching Moments: An Interview with David Townes

David Townes, UW associate professor of medicine (emergency medicine), joined the UW faculty in 2001. He is also a public health and medical technical advisor to the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at USAID and a medical epidemiologist in the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Throughout his career Townes has worked in Antarctica, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Russia, Senegal, Tanzania, Turkey, the West Indies and Zambia.

KOMO: Local Research Could Cure Zika Virus and the Common Cold

By Molly Shen

SEATTLE -- On the heels of the World Health Organization declaring a public health emergency related to the Zika virus, local scientists said they are already working on a cure. And if they're able to treat Zika, it could also mean a cure for viruses ranging from West Nile to Ebola, to the common cold.

Scientists at biotech company Kineta and the University of Washington are developing the compound. Just like antibiotics treat bacterial infections, their antiviral drug would fend off a range of viruses.

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