Flu Preparedness: Lessons Learned, Action Plans & New Directions

Speakers

Peter Palese, PhD

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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Peter Palese is a professor of microbiology and chair of the Department of Microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He has over 200 scientific publications that include research on the replication of RNA-containing viruses with a special emphasis on influenza viruses, which are negative-strand RNA viruses. Specifically, he established the first genetic maps for influenza A, B and C viruses, identified the function of several viral genes, and defined the mechanism of neuraminidase inhibitors (which are now FDA-approved antivirals).

Palese also pioneered the field of reverse genetics for negative strand RNA viruses, which allows the introduction of site-specific mutations into the genomes of these viruses. This technique is crucial for the study of the structure/function relationships of viral genes, for investigation of viral pathogenicity and for development of novel vaccines.

Palese's group was also involved in the reconstruction and the study of viruses containing genes of the highly virulent but extinct 1918 pandemic influenza virus. His recent work in collaboration with García-Sastre has revealed that most negative strand RNA viruses possess proteins with interferon antagonist activity, enabling them to counteract the antiviral response of the infected host. Palese was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 for his seminal studies on influenza viruses. At present he serves on the editorial board for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and as an editor for the Journal of Virology. Palese was president of the Harvey Society and the American Society for Virology in 2004.

He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Vienna.

Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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Adolfo García-Sastre is professor in the Department of Microbiology of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. For the past 15 years, his research interest has been focused on the molecular biology of influenza viruses and several other negative strand RNA viruses. During his postdoctoral training in the early 1990s, he developed, for the first time, novel strategies for expression of foreign antigens by a negative strand RNA virus, influenza virus. His research has resulted in more than 100 scientific publications and reviews.

Together with Charlie Rice at the Rockefeller University, García-Sastre is the leader of the basic research component on Viral Therapeutics and Pathogenesis of the North East Biodefense Center proposal, which was recently funded by NIAID and involves the collaboration of more than 20 academic institutions in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. He is among the first members of the Vaccine Study Section of the NIH. In addition, he is member of the Editorial Board of PLOS Pathogens, Journal of Virology, Virology, Journal of General Virology, and Virus Research. He has been a coorganizer of the international course on Viral Vectors (2001), held in Heidelberg, Germany, sponsored by Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), and of the first Research Conference on Orthomyxoviruses in 2001, held in Teixel, the Netherlands, sponsored by the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI). Recently, his publication with Palese and others in Science on the reconstruction and characterization of the pandemic influenza virus of 1918 has been awarded with the distinction of the paper of the year 2005 by Lancet.

Stephen S. Morse, PhD

Columbia University
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Stephen Morse is an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and founding director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Columbia University. His professional interests include the epidemiology of emerging infections (a concept he originated), international cooperation for infectious disease surveillance, and defense against bioterrorism. Morse returned to Columbia in 2000 after four years in government service as program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. Department of Defense, where he codirected the Pathogen Countermeasures program and subsequently directed the Advanced Diagnostics program. Before coming to Columbia, he was an assistant professor (virology) at the Rockefeller University in New York, where he remains an adjunct faculty member.

Morse is the editor of two books, Emerging Viruses (Oxford University Press, 1993; paperback, 1996), which was selected by American Scientist for its list of "100 Top Science Books of the 20th Century," and The Evolutionary Biology of Viruses (Raven Press, 1994). He currently serves as a section editor of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases and was formerly editor-in-chief of the Pasteur Institute's journal Research in Virology.

Morse received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Isaac B. Weisfuse, MD, MPH

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
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Isaac B. Weisfuse is deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He began his public health career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemic intelligence service officer. Since 1987 he has worked in public health in New York City at the Health Department. His current responsibilities include prevention and control of communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, TB, and STIs, as well as emergency preparedness and public health laboratory services. Weisfuse received his BA and MPH from Columbia University and his MD from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. He is board certified in internal medicine.

David Nabarro, FRCP, BM, BCh

United Nations
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David Nabarro was appointed as United Nations System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2005. He was seconded to this position, at the level of UN Assistant Secretary-General, by the World Health Organization. Prior to this, Nabarro served for six years at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. He started in 1999 as head of the Roll Back Malaria Program, then was promoted in 2000 to Executive Director in the Office of the then Director-General. In 2002, he led the WHO cluster on Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments. In 2003, he was made head of the newly created Health Action in Crisis group, and special representative of then Director General Lee Jong-Wook.

Nabarro qualified as a physician in 1973, then worked in the UK National Health Service. In 1976 he worked for two years as District Child Health Officer in Dhankuta District, East Nepal. He then moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), qualifying in public health.

Menno de Jong, MD, PhD

Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Vietnam
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Menno de Jong heads the virology labs at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He received his MD from the Medical School at the University of Amsterdam in 1990. De Jong received his PhD in 1996 from the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam for his research on drug failure in the treatment of HIV. He stayed on there to complete medical specialist training for clinical microbiology and became a staff clinical microbiologist, first at Leiden University Medical Center and then at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam.

Marilynn Larkin

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Marilynn Larkin is a medical editor, journalist, and videographer based in New York City. Her work has frequently appeared in, among others, The Lancet, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and Reuters Health's professional newswire. She is currently head of publications for the Society for Biomolecular Screening.

Ms. Larkin has served as editor of clinical publications for neurologists, anesthesiologists, HIV providers, and long-term care professionals. She also developed physician/patient education videos and continuing medical education symposia for several medical communications companies.

Prior to her work for physician audiences, she covered health, nutrition, fitness, psychology, and travel for women's and general interest magazines. She is also author of five medical books for general readers, and of Reporting on Health Risk, a handbook for journalists.

In 2004, Ms. Larkin started her own fitness consulting company (www.mlarkinfitness.com), and developed a class, Posture-cize, that helps people improve their posture, increase productivity, and reduce injury.