5:30-7:00 PM Commemoration of John Maassab 

(Room M1020) and reception (Community Lounge (1680 SPH1)).

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9:30-10:30 AM - "The need for improved vaccines"

Arnold Monto, MD. Thomas Francis, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan

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10:45-11:45 AM - "Synthetic vaccines for rapid pandemic response"

Philip Dormitzer, MD, PhD. Head of US Research, Global Head of Virology, Novartis Vaccines

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During influenza outbreaks with pandemic potential, vaccine strain changes are urgent.  The systems for accomplishing vaccine strain changes have required the shipment of viruses and other biological materials around the globe, with delays in vaccine availability, and have employed legacy techniques of egg-based virus cultivation, resulting in vaccine mismatches.  In collaboration with Synthetic Genomics Vaccines Inc. and the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Novartis has developed a synthetic approach to influenza vaccine virus generation.  Synthetic influenza vaccine viruses and mammalian cell culture technology promise influenza vaccines that match circulating influenza strains more closely and are delivered in greater quantities, more rapidly than vaccines produced by conventional technologies.  These new technologies could yield an improved influenza vaccine response system in which viral sequence data from many sources are posted on the internet, are downloaded by vaccine manufacturers, and are used to rescue multiple, attenuated, vaccine viruses directly on high yielding backbones.  Elements of this system were deployed in the response to the 2013 H7N9 influenza outbreak in China.  The result was the production, clinical testing, and stockpiling of an H7N9 vaccine before the second wave of the outbreak struck at the end of 2013.  Future directions in synthetic influenza vaccine technology include the automation of influenza virus rescue from sequence data and the merger of synthetic and self-amplifying mRNA vaccine technologies.  The result could be a more robust and effective influenza vaccine system.

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1:00-2:00 PM - "Live-attenuated Rotavirus Vaccines: an Evolving Global Health Success Story"

John (Chris) Victor, PhD, MPH. Advisor for Epidemiologic Science and Clinical Trials, PATH.

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2:15-3:15 PM - "Obesity and Influenza: A match not made in heaven"

Melinda Beck, MS, PhD. Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Obesity has been shown to be an independent risk factor for increased risk for morbidity and mortality from infection with influenza. What is the reason for this increased susceptibility? Our laboratory has utilized both animal models as well as a human clinical research study in order to interrogate the obese immune response to both influenza infection and influenza vaccination. Our studies suggest that the cause of the impaired immune response of obese subjects is multifactorial, including contributions from the high fat diet itself and metabolic alterations within the immune cells.

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