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Speaker series examines vaccine developmentSept. 21, 2007 KALAMAZOO--The development of vaccines, the ethics of vaccine clinical trials and future research are topics of the 2007 Vaccinology Seminar Series being held at Western Michigan University Mondays through Dec. 3. The free lecture series, co-sponsored by WMU and pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer Inc., is being held weekly from 1:30 to 3:50 p.m. at the Fetzer Center. Pfizer is encouraging its local employees to attend and has linked the sessions via the Web to 10 Pfizer sites around the globe. "The desire was to get the intellectual, academic and industrial groups together in one place," explains Dr. Robert Eversole, master faculty specialist and director of the Michigan Biological Imaging Center in WMU's Department of Biological Sciences. "This gives us global presence with the vaccine development world." "The people we're bringing in are world-class experts in their field," adds Paul Dominowski, manager of the formulation laboratory at Pfizer. "This will be a weekly seminar that gives colleges exposure to top-line vaccine specialists, regulatory people and immunologists. There will be a lot of data hot off the presses." Each week, a different speaker will present a topic in their specific area of expertise. Upcoming speakers and the dates and topics of their talks are: Sept. 24, "Innate Immunity" by Bali Pulendran of Emory University Oct. 1, "Plant Molecular Biology and Protein Engineering" by Hugh S. Mason, Arizona State University Oct. 8, "HIV-1 Vaccine Using Our Studies on Mice, Monkeys and Some New Human Data" by Velpandi Ayyavoo of the University of Pittsburgh Oct 15, "Parasite Vaccines" by Charles Mackenzie of Michigan State University Oct 22, "Process Development and Manufacturing/Legal Aspects of Vaccination" by Dominowski of Pfizer and Ram Mannan of McDermott, Will and Emery LLP Oct. 29, "Ethical Considerations for Vaccine Clinical Trials" by Robert Edelman of the University of Maryland Nov. 5, "Global Policy and Regulatory Aspects of Vaccines" by Maryna Eichelberger of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Nov. 12, "Vaccines and Immunization: Past, Present and Future" by Ciro A. de Quadros of the Sabine Vaccine Institute Nov. 19, "Influenza" by Richard W. Compans of Emory University Nov. 26, "Genomics in Vaccine Development" by Hans Cheng of the United States Department of Agriculture Dec. 3, "Future of Vaccines" by Regina Rabinovich of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information, contact Paul Dominowski at paul.j.dominowski@pfizer.com or (269) 833-2775. Media contact: Deanne Molinari, (269) 387-8400, deanne.molinari@wmich.edu WMU News |
