Come hear about the state of the science in all things DNA from Thomas Randall, Ph.D., an expert in Integrated Bioinformatics at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Increasingly, the public is turning to direct-to-consumer companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe to gain insights into genetic makeups, health screenings, ethnic origins and family connections. Learn about what these companies are able to tell us – and what they aren’t able to tell us – about who we are. At NIEHS, Dr. Randall works with research groups within the Institute primarily analyzing next generation sequencing data. He also is involved in projects relating to population genomics and microbiome and metagenomics analyses. Dr. Randall is founder of Ronin Genetics, an independent molecular genetics research laboratory that focuses on molecular genetics and classical genetic analysis and genomics of the ascomycete fungus Neurospora crassa. He also is co-founder of Triangle DIY Biology, which provides the Research Triangle area with access to a community-based wet lab. In this lab, members host workshops about current cutting-edge biology techniques, they meet and discuss the latest in open-source research, and they explore interesting questions by doing hands-on group research projects.
Meet Nimmi Ramanujam, Ph.D., an innovator, educator, entrepreneur and change agent at Duke University who solves problems that bring better health and improved quality of life to people throughout the world. Come hear about her inspiring career, her work and her inventions, including the Pocket Colposcope, which has the potential to revolutionize cervical cancer screening in low resource communities by enhancing the effectiveness and scalability of the screening process, reducing loss to follow up and guiding treatment decisions. As director of Duke’s Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies, Dr. Ramanajam’s mission is to develop and leverage technology to have the widest reaching impact on women’s health. At Duke, she develops tools that make treatment for diseases such as breast and cervical cancer more effective and efficient for women around the globe. She is empowering her trainees to be agents of change, providing them with the knowledge, confidence and critical thinking skills to create impactful solutions to improve women’s lives.
Barton Haynes , M.D., Director of the Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) in the Duke University School of Medicine, will address the status of the vaccine for infants and children, booster shots and the effectiveness of existing vaccines against current SARS-CoV-2 variants, and he will discuss the current prospects of a pancoronavirus vaccine. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Haynes and the DHVI Team have been working non-stop to develop vaccines, and rapid and inexpensive tests and therapeutics to combat the pandemic. Since March, 2020, he has served as a member of the NIH Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) committee to advise on COVID-19 vaccine development, and he has served as the co-chair of the ACTIV subcommittee on vaccine safety. Bring your questions to this live session and be prepared to receive the most-up-to-date and accurate COVID-19 update. Dr. Haynes is the Frederic M. Hanes Professor of Medicine and Immunology, and Director of the Human Vaccine Institute in the Duke University School of Medicine. Prior to leading the Vaccine Institute at Duke, Dr. Haynes served as Chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology and later as Chair of the Department of Medicine. As Director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, Dr. Haynes is leading a team of investigators working on vaccines for emerging infections, including tuberculosis, pandemic influenza, emerging coronaviruses and HIV/AIDS. To work on the AIDS vaccine problem, his group has been awarded two large consortium grants from the NIH, NIAID known as the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) (2005-2012), and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology-Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) (2012-2019) to conduct discovery science to speed HIV vaccine development. In July 2019, his team received the third of NIH “CHAVI” awards to complete the HIV vaccine development work. Haynes is the winner of the Alexander Fleming Award from the Infectious Disease Society of America and the Ralph Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research from the American Association of Immunologists. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Do you have students who are interested in science careers, who would like to make an impact on human health, and soon will be in a position to train for and pursue in-demand jobs right here in North Carolina that pay well and bring tremendous personal satisfaction? If so, you won’t want to miss our 2021 STEM Workforce Spotlight at this year’s Bridging the Gap conference. In just 2020 alone, life science companies in North Carolina announced plans to create nearly 3,000 new biopharma manufacturing jobs in our state. A biopharma manufacturing career isn’t just for scientists. People with different skills and backgrounds have fulfilling jobs in this industry. In fact, so many jobs in this field keep coming online here in North Carolina that industry leaders need K-12 education partners to spread the word far and wide to connect today’s students to one of the hottest life science careers. Launching a biomanufacturing career is easier than you think! Let us show you how. Come ready to learn about North Carolina’s biopharma community, training resources and career pathways. Speaker to include:
We are excited to announce that four dynamic leaders in medicine will share their personal career journeys in a special Bridging the Gap live plenary discussion on October 27 for K-16 educators and their students. The panelists will discuss their careers in human and animal medicine – careers where racial and ethnic diversity is needed – and they will provide advice and inspiration for students to consider. Educators attending Bridging the Gap 2021 will be encouraged to share this session in recorded format with their students following this year’s conference in an effort to connect youth with inspiring role models in medicine right here in North Carolina. This is a session you will not want to miss! Panelists are: