@10queues and 10 Questions in Virology

Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) presents a virtual program featuring Dr. Paul Duprex from the Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. EST. In early January 2020, a group of people in Wuhan, China who were suffering from pneumonia, were found to be infected with a novel coronavirus – what soon after would be termed SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. By the end of 2020, the United States had approved two novel vaccines for use against this virus. Additional vaccines likely will be approved soon. The astonishing speed in developing effective vaccines was noted as the 2020 Breakthrough of the Year by Science magazine. During this conversation-led presentation with David Kushner, associate professor of biology, information about the vaccines, how they work, why it is important to be vaccinated, and whether or not we need to be concerned about new viral variants are among the topics that will be discussed. This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of mathematics & computer science and biology; the Program in Policy Studies, and the Health Studies Program. This program is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series. Biographies (provided by the speakers): Paul Duprex is the director of the Center for Vaccine Research (CVR), professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and Jonas Salk Endowed Chair for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a molecular virologist with nearly twenty five years’ experience. His postgraduate training at the Pirbright Institute, Woking, England, UK focused on foot and mouth disease and he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1994 from The Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK where he was a lecturer/senior lecturer in molecular virology from 1999 until 2010. He works on human and animal respiratory viruses such as measles, mumps and SARS-CoV-2. His research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of viral pathogenesis and vaccine attenuation, with a view to developing rationally attenuated vaccines. Developing novel strategies to increase the thermostability and deliver vaccines optimally are key elements in his research program. He is interested in barriers that restrict cross species transmission events, with the aim of developing tools to predict pathogen evolution. David Kushner has been a member of the biology department at Dickinson College since 2003, where he teaches courses in microbiology, virology, immunology, RNA biology, and bioethics. Kushner has been studying viruses since 1992. His Ph.D. work at the University of Pennsylvania focused on understanding how cells transformed by certain Adenoviruses escape immune detection, and therefore become cancerous. His postdoctoral work at University of Wisconsin-Madison featured the first use of a genome-wide screen to identify host factors with roles in virus replication. At Dickinson, Kushner and his students use an in vivo evolution-based approach to elucidate sequence and structure requirements in a small RNA that enhance pathogenesis caused by a plant virus. Kushner’s research has been published in Journal of Virology, Virology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, PLoS ONE, Oncogene, Vaccine, and the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. For more information, please visit www.clarkeforum.org