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Research Convening Event Schedule 2023

9th Annual Stanford Global Health Research Convening

“Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness”

January 25, 2023 | McCaw Hall, Arrillaga Alumni Center

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Click below to download a PDF of the 2023 Global Health Research Convening program.

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8:00-9:00 am | Registration and Light Breakfast

9:00—9:15 am | Welcome and Opening Remarks

  • Michele Barry, MD
  • Senior Associate Dean of Global Health
  • Director of the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH)

 

  • Lloyd B. Minor, MD
  • Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine

9:15 – 9:55 am | Opening Keynote

Tara O’Toole, MD, MPH, Senior Fellow and Executive Vice President, In-Q-Tel (IQT)

Pandemics, Planetary Health, and National Security

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Tara O’Toole is an internationally recognized biosecurity expert. She joined the nonprofit In-Q-Tel (IQT) in 2014 as Executive Vice President, and became a Senior Fellow in 2021. IQT uses venture capital practices to discover, adapt, and accelerate innovative technologies for national security missions. Dr. O’Toole leads B.Next, a division of IQT Labs, which focuses on evaluating and investing in technologies to prevent and mitigate epidemic disease, and in biotechnologies relevant to national security. Dr. O’Toole also served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety, and Health in the Clinton Administration.

From 2009-13, Dr. O’Toole served in the Obama Administration as Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to joining DHS, Dr. O’Toole was Professor of Medicine and Public Health and the CEO and Director of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to that, she was a professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University and founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Defense Studies and served as the Center’s CEO and Director from 2001-2005.

9:55-10:10 am  | Lightning Round Presentations (Pink Group)

Presenters will each have 60 seconds to give a snapshot of their global health research.

10:10-10:30 am  | Snack Break and Poster Viewing  

10:30-11:30 am | Panel Discussion: Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness

Moderator: Michele Barry, MD

Panel: 

  • -Steve Luby, MD, Associate Dean for Global Health, Director of Research, Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH)
  • -Milana Boukhman Trounce, MD, Clinical Professor, Emergency Medicine, Stanford Medicine
  • -Jeffrey Glenn, MD, PhD, Joseph D. Grant Professor and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford
  • -Drew Endy, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford Department of Bioengineering
  • -Jassi Pannu, MD, Resident Physician, Stanford Department of Internal Medicine

Preparedness & Prevention Panelist Bios

Drew Endy

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Drew Endy

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Drew Endy is a bioengineer at Stanford University who studies and teaches synthetic biology. His goals are civilization-scale flourishing and a renewal of liberal democracy. Prof. Endy helped launch new undergraduate majors in bioengineering at both MIT and Stanford and also the iGEM — a global genetic-engineering “Olympics” enabling thousands of students annually. His past students lead companies like Ginkgo Bioworks and Octant. He is married to Christina Smolke CEO of Antheia the essential medicine company. Endy served on the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) the Committee on Science Technology & Law (CSTL) the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Synthetic Biology Task Force and, briefly, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board (DIB). He currently serves on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research. Esquire magazine recognized Drew as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

Milana Trounce

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Milana Trounce

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Milana Trounce directs the BioSecurity program at Stanford, focused on protecting society from pandemics and other threats posed by infectious organisms, with a specific emphasis on approaches to interrupting transmission of infectious organisms in various settings. The background for the approach is outlined in her briefings at the Hoover Institute (see in publications list below). Stanford BioSecurity facilitates the creation of interdisciplinary solutions by bringing together experts in biology, medicine, public health, disaster management, policy, engineering, technology, and business. Learn more

At Stanford, over the past ten years she has established and directed a class on BioSecurity and Pandemic Resilience , which examines ways of building global societal resilience to pandemics and other biothreats and has educated over a thousand students. She has also taught an online Harvard course on medical response to biological terrorism, educating thousands of physicians globally.

Steve Luby

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Steve Luby

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

For the last 30 years Dr. Stephen Luby’s research efforts have engaged a broad array of health issues in low income countries. Dr. Luby currently serves as the Director for Research of Stanford University’s Center for Innovation in Global Health. He is also appointed as a Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and a Senior Fellow to Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Earlier in his career he lived in Pakistan for 5 years and Bangladesh for 8 years. Dr. Luby is a prolific researcher who by working closely with local collaborators has conducted extensive work assessing pandemic risks and strategies to reduce these risks. He teaches a popular course to Stanford freshman entitled “Preventing Human Extinction.”

Jeffrey Glenn

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Jeffrey Glenn

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Jeffrey Glenn’s primary interest is in molecular virology, with a strong emphasis on translating this knowledge into novel antiviral therapies. Current projects aim to better understand the role of prenylation in the life cycles of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) and other viruses–both as a mechanism of intracellular trafficking and trigger of virus assembly, and as a target for a promising antiviral treatment. The function and cell biology of hepatitis and respiratory virus proteins are also being studied, with a focus on identifying key determinants of pathogenesis and designing novel antiviral strategies for hepatitis, influenza, and enteroviruses. Of particular interest are targets in host cells upon which viruses depend, and critical RNA secondary structures in viruses. Other interests include exploitation of hepatic stem cells, development of small animal models, NASH, liver cancer, and engineered human liver tissues. Dr. Glenn is also the Director of , the Stanford Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness Initiative.

Jassi Pannu, MD

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Jassi Pannu, MD

Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Panel Speaker

Jassi Pannu completed her medical degree at Stanford University and is currently a resident physician with the Stanford Department of Internal Medicine. With support from the Center for Innovation in Global Health as a Global Health Scholar, Jassi works clinically at Kirrudu General Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Jassi conducts research relevant to global health and pandemic prevention policy as a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

11:30-12:20 pm | Selected Oral Presentations (Red Group)

  • Meri Varkila, MD, Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Use of wastewater metrics to track COVID-19 community levels in the U.S.

 

  • Gary Darmstadt, MD, MS, Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, Professor of Pediatrics
  • Association of clinical signs of possible serious bacterial infections (PSBIs) identified by community health workers (CHWs) with mortality of young infants in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan): a prospective, observational cohort study

 

  • Brian Dawes, MD, PhD, Internal Medicine Resident
  • Rift Valley fever virus and genome stability in raw milk

Oral Presenter Bios

Meri Varkila

Postdoctoral Fellow

Meri Varkila

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Meri Varkila is a a physician and epidemiologist working as postdoctoral fellow in the Parsonnet lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her Medical Degree and PhD training in infectious diseases epidemiology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Dr. Varkila is engaged in research aimed at understanding and defining the effects of microbial exposures on health outcomes over time. Most recently, her postdoctoral work has focused on investigating the accuracy of wastewater metrics for tracking COVID-19 risk over time, and how wastewater surveillance can be used to inform infectious diseases screening strategies in vulnerable populations.

Gary L. Darmstadt, MD, MS

Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, Professor and Co-Director of Global Pediatric Research

Gary L. Darmstadt, MD, MS

Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, Professor and Co-Director of Global Pediatric Research

Gary L. Darmstadt, MD, MS, is Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, Professor and Co-Director of Global Pediatric Research in the Department of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He serves on the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE) Committee on Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health, and Nutrition. Previously Dr. Darmstadt was Senior Fellow and Director of Family Health (Nutrition, Family Planning, Maternal-Newborn-Child Health) at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He trained in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, in Dermatology at Stanford, and in Pediatric Infectious Disease at the University of Washington.

Brian Dawes, MD, PHD

Internal Medicine Resident

Brian Dawes, MD, PHD

Internal Medicine Resident

Brian is currently an internal medicine resident in the global health track at Stanford University. He received his MD/PhD from the University of Texas Medical Branch while working in the Galveston National Lab. He studied neuropathogenesis of Nipah virus and La Crosse virus, antiviral development against Nipah virus, and completed internships with WHO reviewing Nipah virus and Zika virus vaccine development pipelines. His interest remains the study of emerging encephalitic and hemorrhagic fever viruses, which he has continued while working with the LaBeaud lab at Stanford studying Rift Valley Fever virus.

12:20 – 1:15 pm  | Lunch and Poster Viewing

1:15-1:50  pm | Selected Oral Presentations (Blue Group)

  • Melissa Salm, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, CISAC
  • Addressing Global Health Blindspots with the Visibility Initiative for Responsible Science (VIRS)

 

  • Jordan John Lee, BA, BS, M.S. Candidate in Epidemiology and Clinical Research
  • Non-Malarial Fevers and Antibiotic Use in a Cohort of Pregnant Women Enrolled in a Malaria Chemoprevention Trial

Oral Presenter Bios

Melissa Salm, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Melissa Salm, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Melissa Salm is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Biosecurity Program at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Dr. Salm received her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology with a Designated Emphasis in Science & Technology Studies (STS) from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on the integration of ‘One Health’ principles into global health governance tools, epidemiological field investigations of zoonoses, and experimental laboratory research with pandemic potential pathogens. She previously has conducted global health research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center (FIC) and is currently an active member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).

Jordan John Lee

Master's candidate

Jordan John Lee

Master's candidate

Jordan John Lee is a second-year master’s candidate in Epidemiology and Clinical Research with a concentration in Infectious Disease at Stanford School of Medicine, having received his bachelor’s degrees in Classics and Biology at Stanford in 2022. Fascinated by the immune system since his senior year in high school, he completed numerous courses in immunology and disease ecology where malaria and other vector-borne diseases captivated him. As a result, he joined the Jagannathan Lab to learn more about the immunology and clinical outcomes of malaria and to explore the effects of malaria chemoprevention treatments during pregnancy.

1:50 – 2:15 pm  | Lightning Round Presentations (Green Group)

Presenters will each have 60 seconds to give a snapshot of their global health research.

2:15 - 2:25 pm | Closing Remarks and Thank You

Steve Luby, MD

Michele Barry, MD

2:25 - 3:00 pm | Poster Viewing and Networking