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Taste of Science: Flu Season
January 28, 2020 @ 7:00 pm
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Achoo! If you’re not feeling too under the weather, come join us at Ryan’s Daughter for an evening all about influenza. Learn about how researchers trace flu pandemics back to their animal sources, and about efforts to generate a universal flu vaccine. Play our trivia game and win special flu-related prizes!
Doors open 7pm, Event begins 7:30pm
Speakers:
Dr. Nacho Mena
“Finding the swine cousin of the virus that started the 2009 influenza pandemic”
Dr. Nacho Mena obtained his PhD. in Molecular Biology in 1996 at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) with studies about the influenza virus. After that he has worked at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (California), at the Institut Pasteur in Paris (France) and at the Center for Research in Animal Health (CISA-INIA) in Madrid (Spain). In 2011 he moved to New York and joined the prestigious group of Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Sastre where he holds the position of Research Assistant Professor.
Through his 25+ years of research experience Dr. Mena has studied several viral pathogens of great importance for human and animal health, such as Influenza Virus, Coxsackievirus, Noroviruses, Classical Swine Fever Virus and Newcastle Disease Virus, among others. His current work at Mount Sinai includes the study of influenza virus diversity in animals and humans, and the genetic manipulation of influenza and Newcastle Disease Viruses for vaccine development, basic virology research and oncolytic therapy.
Dr. Florian Krammer
”Influenza viruses and vaccines”
Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines. In 2013 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Krammer’s work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on Zika virus, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses.