GeneTex
Events
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Webinar - Immunomodulation by Food to Maintain Gastrointestinal Health
Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. (EST)
Speaker: Huub F.J. Savelkoul, Ph.D.,
Professor of Cell Biology and Immunology Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Dr. H.F.J. Savelkoul earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Immunology from the distinguished Erasmus University in Rotterdam in the Benner lab. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Coffman lab at the DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Palo Alto, California. This was followed by appointments as an Assistant, then Associate, Professor in the Immunology Department at Erasmus University. He subsequently accepted a position as a Full Professor in Cell Biology and Immunology at Wageningen University and Research in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Dr. Savelkoul has attained success in all aspects of his scientific career, including supporting a highly productive lab that generated almost 400 peer-reviewed publications that focus on diverse aspects of the interaction between food and the immune system, immunochemistry, and immunodiagnostics. In addition, he co-edited several books, trained well over 50 Ph.D. candidates, is named on eight patents, and received multiple awards that include recognition as an outstanding teacher. He is also a member of many prestigious societies and organizations focused on immunology, including the Netherlands Society for Immunology, the European Academy for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and the Dutch Foundation for Asthma Prevention. -
Webinar - Viral and Host Determinants of Arbovirus Viremia and Dissemination
Thursday, Nov 29, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. (EST)
Speaker: Thomas E. "TEM" Morrison, PhD
Arboviruses are major public health threats. Major determinants of arbovirus transmission, geographic spread and pathogenesis are the magnitude and duration of viremia in the vertebrate host. However, the factors that dictate viremia following arbovirus infection are poorly defined. Dr. Morrison’s team used mouse models to find that a panel of arboviruses display distinct clearance kinetics from the circulation. Moreover, for several different alphaviruses, bunyaviruses, and flaviviruses, they discovered that clearance requires blood-exposed liver Kupffer cells. However, while the clearance of dengue virus (DENV) and eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) also requires Kupffer cells, distinct pathways including mannose binding lectin (MBL) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), respectively, promote clearance. In his talk, Dr. Morrison will describe the mechanisms underlying these differences, host species specificity, and a previously unrecognized arbovirus-scavenging role for lymphatic endothelial cells. Collectively, his team’s work provides new insight into virus-host interactions that influence arbovirus viremia, dissemination, and pathogenesis. -
Webinar - The interface of the ovary and fallopian tube during ovarian cancer formation and spread
Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT)
Speaker: Joanna E. Burdette, Ph.D.
Dr. Joanna E. Burdette earned her B.S. from Emory University in Biology and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. She is the Edward and Josephine Chair in Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Chemistry as well as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Pharmacy. She serves as the co-Director for the Cancer Biology Program in the UI Cancer Center and the co-director of the IRACDA program, which focuses on training postdoctoral fellows in research and teaching with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Her research has helped to develop three-dimensional models of the fallopian tube epithelium, which is thought to be the source for the deadliest type of ovarian cancer, high grade serous cancer. She has held leadership roles in the Endocrine Society, the Society for the Study of Reproduction, and in the Gynecologic Oncology Group. She has been the recipient of the Liz Tilberis Scholar Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, the UIC Rising Star, UIC Distinguished Researcher, and University Scholar. -
Webinar - SARS-CoV-2 Omicron therapeutics: Getting to know the unknown and the road ahead
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. (EST)
Speaker: François Jean, PhD
François Jean, PhD, is an expert in antiviral drug discovery and professor of molecular virology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is the founder of the UBC’s Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER), one of the largest university-based containment level 3 (CL-3) facilities in the world. He is currently leading major international research initiatives funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to discover broad-spectrum drugs active against current infections with the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants and future pandemic-causing viral pathogens. He is the Lead of Pillar 10, Antiviral Strategies & Antiviral Therapeutics, at the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (CoVaRR-Net). He has won several prestigious scholarly awards including the CIHR New Investigator Salary Award, the UBC Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career Scholar Start-Up Research Grant, the Thermo Fisher Scientific Award from the Canadian Society for Microbiologists, and UBC’s Faculty of Science Excellence in Service Award in recognition of his leadership role in establishing FINDER. His webinar will highlight the exciting and ongoing advances his lab has made in novel SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug discovery since he last spoke in the GeneTex Webinar Series.
