Events 2021
Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett
4 March 2021
The Biomedical Research Center (BRC) of Qatar University hosted Dr. Kissmekia Corbett from the United States on 4/3/2021 to present a talk about COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development. Dr. Corbett is a senior research fellow at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and has led the collaboration between her institute (NIH) and Moderna to develop and evaluate the Moderna mRNA vaccine in preclinical and clinical trials. She works under the direct supervision of Dr. Barney Graham and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of NIH. She presented the different stages of vaccine development, illustrating with scientific data the utilized approaches to make the candidate vaccine available for phase I clinical trial 66 days after the emergence of the pandemic. Relying on former knowledge from MERS vaccine development, the Viral pathogenesis lab at VRC-NIH demonstrated the ability of mRNA vaccine to induce potent antibody response in preclinical settings (mice and monkeys), before the vaccine was tested in phase 1-3 human trials. Answering some questions, the speaker recommended the vaccination of pregnant and nursing mothers, noting that phase III clinical trial is undergoing in this regard. The seminar was moderated by Dr. Hadi Yassine from the Biomedical Research Center, who participated in coronavirus vaccine development at NIH before joining Qatar University.
Dr. Wael Kafienah
6-7 February 2021
The Biomedical Research Center at Qatar University organizes a workshop on Biosafety and biosecurity capacity building: To Boost Laboratory and occupation Safety Practices across Qatar. With the support of Qatar National Research Fund, the Biomedical Research Center (BRC) at Qatar University (QU) organized a workshop on 6-7 February 2021. The workshop aimed at providing diversify training content on biosafety and biosecurity principles, following the “One Health Approach”. It also aimed at promoting biosafety ethics among students and professionals in Qatar, as well as enhancing the communication and collaboration between Qatari stakeholders in the field of biosafety and biosecurity.
Dr. Hassan Zaraket
04 February 2021
BRC organized the first online seminar with Dr. Hassan Zaraket from the American University of Biuret. He talked about how Influenza viruses constitute a major health burden as one of the most common causes of acute respiratory tract infections. Furthermore, Sphingolipids have been shown to play essential roles in regulating various aspects in the life cycles of several viruses including uptake, replication, assembly, and budding. Their studies showed that IAV infection modulates ceramide levels in cells and demonstrated that ceramide exerts an antiviral role. Several enzymes that are involved in the de novo synthesis of ceramide during IAV infection. They also showed that sphingomyelin, present in the plasma membrane and viral envelope, plays an important role in IAV cell entry and infection. These findings highlight the potential of targeting the sphingolipid pathways as potential therapeutic options for influenza.
