Harvard Club of San Antonio

Join the Harvard Club of San Antonio on Wednesday, December 9, at 5:30pm for:

The Covid-19 Crisis:

Of Viruses and Vaccines

An On-line Conversation with Philip Serwer, Harvard Ph.D and Professor, University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio

Some important questions are not being asked.  In asking and addressing the most critical of these, Dr. Serwer will cover: (1) detection of viruses, (2) modern history of virus-caused pandemics, (3) basic molecular biology needed to understand what is the virus called SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, (4) relatively novel aspects of SARS-CoV-2 and related topics of virus evolution, (5) history of vaccine development, including a brief description of the immune response-eliciting particles (antigens) in the various vaccines, (6) based on this history, questions of strategy in the vaccine-response to a newly emerging pandemic, including COVID-19, (7) causes (usually good ones) of the slowness in the response of the FDA to new vaccine approval and, finally, (8) the importance of both understanding basics and asking questions by the non-specialist public.

About Philip Serwer: Dr. Serwer grew up in Brooklyn and then, New Rochelle (New Rochelle High School, ’59), New York.  He received an AB in Physics from the University of Rochester in 1963, an MS in Microbiology from New York Medical College in 1968, and a PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University in 1973.  After postdoctoral work at Caltech in 1972-1976, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, first as an Assistant Professor, and then as an Associate Professor and a Full Professor (his present position).  In basic science,  his orientation is the complete physical and biochemical analysis of the assembly of at least one virus from its components.  His key collaborations are in the areas of DNA sequencing/informatics, cryo-electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulation.  His disease orientation is “filling in gaps,” as he sees them---and he sees a surprisingly large number of large gaps.

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 834 0612 9063

Passcode:  1636

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I look forward to learning a lot more about the Coronavirus and the outlook for vaccines together on December 9!

Ed Tijerina

President

Harvard Club of San Antonio