THE SCIENCE AND MANUFACTURE OF VACCINES

Dennis M. Gross, MS, PhD

CEO, Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute

DATE & TIME:  Wednesday, January 8, 2020, Bacco Italian Restaurant, North Wales, PA

Networking, 5:30 PM; Dinner, 6:30 PM; Talk and Business Session, 7:30 PM

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Abstract:

The world daily faces the potential for a coming plague of emerging communicable diseases we have not yet been exposed to.  Science has developed vaccines for polio, rabies, typhoid, hepatitis A/B, pneumonia, cholera and a number of other communicable diseases whose administration prevents as many as 3 million deaths a year according to the WHO. The way we have made vaccines is time tested and rather effective against known threats. However, with recent history as a guide, we are ill-prepared for the coming plague of emerging diseases such as Ebola, Zika and even Influenza. Yes, many ID experts consider Influenza to be an emerging disease: it is basically different every year. We will look at how vaccines work and take a tour through history looking at how they have been made and the increasing sophistication of modern production, not forgetting that time is not our friend in responding to new emerging threats.

Biography:

Dennis Gross is CEO of the PDDI, professor at the Blumberg Institute, faculty at Jefferson University and Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Geisinger Commonwealth Medical College and Harrisburg University.  He received his Ph.D. from UCLA (Dr Luciano Barajas) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University Medical School (Prof. James Fisher and Dr. Louis Ignarro 1998 Nobel Laureate). He joined Merck  in 1977, retiring in 2006 as Senior Director working at a number of Merck sites in the US, UK, Italy, Canada and Japan. Upon retiring from Merck, he joined Jefferson University as Associate Dean for the Graduate School and Associate. Professor of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics in the Medical School. 

Location: Bacco Italian Restaurant, 587 DeKalb Pike, North Wales, PA 19454  MAP

Reservation: Click the register button to register to attend the event. Fee, including dinner and non-alcoholic beverages, is $35 by reservation/cancellation deadline: noon Monday, Jan 6^th, 2020.