ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ continues its public outreach on the coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic with two livestreamed programs the first week of June, featuring experts from the university and around the country discussing the progress being made in testing for and vaccinating against the disease.
AT A GLANCE
Topic: Vaccines
- WHAT: COVID-19 Symposium
- WHEN: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, June 3
- WHERE: YouTube (on Walter Leal’s ) and Zoom
Topic: Testing
- WHAT: ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ LIVE
- WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 4
- WHERE: and
The first program, focusing primarily on vaccines, is scheduled for Wednesday (June 3), as the third symposium in a public awareness series organized by Distinguished Professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Guests will include the virologist who co-discovered HIV as the cause of AIDS, Robert Gallo, a professor in the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is the co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at Maryland; and co-founder and international scientific advisor, Global Virus Network
Others scheduled to appear include:
- Dean Blumberg, professor and chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Health
- Allison Brashear, dean, ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ School of Medicine
- Stuart H. Cohen, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ School of Medicine
- Robert E. Page Jr., honey bee geneticist, ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Distinguished Professor emeritus, commenting on whether bee sting therapy might have a role in COVID-19 treatment
- Kate E. Broderick, senior vice president, research and development, INOVIO Pharmaceuticals
- Atul Malhotra, professor, UC San Diego Health
Leal will moderate and Chancellor Gary S. May will deliver opening remarks.
ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ LIVE: Testing
Tran is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in California, he worked with colleagues to develop ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½â€™ own in-house test for SARS-CoV-2 based on samples from the first patient treated at ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½. In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to the state’s COVID-19 Testing Task Force, a public-private collaboration to more quickly increase coronavirus testing capacity.
May, a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, is the principal investigator for a study of a test developed at ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ to detect antibodies to the new coronavirus. She is the director of the Emergency Department’s Antibiotic Stewardship Program and has been involved in emergency preparedness around infectious disease outbreaks.