Opelousas native Donald Alcendor, Meharry compete to develop COVID treatment

Donald Alcendor, Ph.D., an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Meharry Medical College, is competing against a multitude of pharmaceutical companies, colleges and universities across the country to be the first to develop a treatment for the novel coronavirus that has caused a global pandemic, according to NBC News. The antiviral drug will undergo clinical trials and must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which could take a few months. Alcendor, who is a native of Opelousas, was on the front lines in the fight against the Zika virus several years ago. His research seeks to eliminate COVID-19’s ability to reproduce viral proteins. This could help to reduce or stop the virus’s potency.