The talk will begin with a history of coronavirus research, from the 1960s, until the present. It will include the stories of three zoonotic coronaviruses- severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2- that have emerged into humans in the twenty-first century, their different patterns of spread and disease including the recent COVID-19 pandemic. There will be a discussion about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and data supporting its natural origin. There will be a brief discussion of the biology of coronaviruses, including the two pathways of viral entry and the coronavirus genome that encodes many potential targets for antiviral therapy, conserved among all coronaviruses. Further discussion will explain how coronaviruses variants arise and why some SARS-CoV-2 are of concern. The talk will end with some thoughts about how to be prepared for future outbreaks of zoonotic coronaviruses.

Featured Speaker:

Susan Weiss, Ph.D. | ASM.org

Dr. Susan Weiss

Professor of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania

Susan Weiss is a Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Microbiology and Director of the Penn Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as Associate Dean for Biomedical Postdoc Programs (2010-2019). She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2023. She has worked on many aspects of coronavirus replication and pathogenesis over the last forty years, making contributions to understanding the basic biology as well as organ tropism and virulence.  This work included the murine coronavirus (MHV) infection of the central nervous system disease, a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. More recently she has work on MERS-CoV and since 2020 also on SARS-CoV-2. Her work for the last ten years has focused on coronavirus interaction with the host innate immune response and viral innate antagonists of double-stranded RNA induced antiviral pathways.

Event Date
November 6, 2024 / 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Format

  • In-person
  • Virtual

Timing

  • Past

Event Type

  • Distinctive Voices

Location

  • Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center, 100 Academy Way, Irvine, CA

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Event Disclaimer

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