Hello to all the devoted friends and attendees of the Rochester Science Cafe!
Starting this Fall, and continuing on until it is deemed safe for us all to meet in person again, the Rochester Science Cafe is moving to Zoom (the Rochester Zience Cafe?). See below for details on how to join, and how to ask questions.
Our Fall 2020 series will begin on September 22, and continue on monthly. The first talk will be:
September 22, 7pm: https://rit.zoom.us/j/96028743897
The Road to a Pandemic COVID-19 Vaccine
Dr. Angela Branche
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases
University of Rochester Medical Center
To join the Cafe, simply follow the Zoom link above. Please note that Cafes will be recorded, so we can reach the broadest audience possible. There will be two ways to ask a question:
- Write it down in the "Chat", and one of the MCs, either David or Josh, will ask it for you
- Go to "Participants", and use the "Raise Hand" feature. Josh or David will unmute you and ask you to go ahead with the question.
We will allow the audience to leave their video on, but we recommend turning it off while you are just listening to save bandwidth, turning it on to ask a question.
During her years at the University of Rochester her focus in research involved the use of viral molecular and immunological diagnostic assays to explore the pathogenesis and host response to acute viral respiratory illnesses in adults. She is currently the clinical director of the NIH Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) New York Influenza Center of Excellence (NYICE) and Co-Principal Investigator for the UR Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit (UR VTEU). Her current research activities explore clinical disease, pathogenesis, development of therapeutics and vaccine biology related to infection with viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens. Studies include assessment of asymptomatic carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae and the impact of pneumococcal vaccination, surveillance of epidemic influenza infections and immunologic mechanisms of protection following natural infection versus vaccination, the development of pandemic influenza vaccines, population-based studies of RSV infection and the development of vaccine and anti-viral agents for RSV. Current efforts also include the study of the pathogenesis and immune response to pandemic SARS Coronavirus 2 infections and clinical interventional trials for the development of COVID19 therapeutic agents and vaccines. She is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the NIH Human Cohorts Steering Committee and NIH IDCRC Emerging Infectious Expert Working Group. Dr. Branche has published several peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters related to respiratory viral pathogens in adults.
