Two Seminars on Avian Flu

Feb 26, 2006, Sun, 2-5 PM at Community Room, Mountain View Public Library. Photo

Published in Chinese World Journal, Feb 27, 2006. More...
Published in Singtao USA, Feb 27, 2006. More...
Published in Singtao USA, Feb 26, 2006. More...

Chinese Bioscience Association (CBA) cordially invites you to attend two seminars on the fight against the highly virulent Avian Flu. Please join us for the informative presentations and an opportunity to meet with colleagues in the biotech industry. The seminars are free.

Structural Basis for Tamiflu's Role in Influenza Treatment and Prevention
Xianwu Chen, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Gilead Sciences

Dr. Chen's area of expertise is structure-based drug discovery, computational chemistry, and structural biology. He has been involved in drug discovery effort against viral diseases such as influenza and HIV. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Xiamen University, PhD in biochemistry/biophysics from Penn State University.

Potential pandemic of Avian influenza poses a serious threat to the society. Currently there is no vaccines effective against Avian influenza. previously popular treatment using M2 inhibitors are encountered serious resistance and limited efficacy. A new class of anti-influenza drugs, neuraminidase inhibitors, is effective against human influenza in clinical setting and avian influenza in animal models. The talk will focus on how and why neuraminidase inhibitors (Tamiflu and Relenza) work.

Development of Influenza H5 Vaccines in Taiwan
Min-Shi Lee, PhD, Associate Investigator, Vaccine Research and Development Center, NHRI, Zhunan, Taiwan

Dr. Lee is currently working on the development of influenza H5. Before joining NHRI in Sep 2005, he had been an epidemiologist working on vaccine development of parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza viruses at MedImmune Vaccines (formerly Aviron) since 1999. Prior to joining MedImmune Vaccines, Dr Lee had worked on surveillance and control of measles, Japanese encephalitis, and dengue viruses in Taiwan government (Department of Health). He holds a Ph.D. degree in epidemiology from Oxford University and a bachelor degree in medical technology from National Yang-Ming University.

From Dec 2003 to Feb 13, 2005, seven countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam) have reported 91 deaths and 166 cases of influenza H5 in humans. An influenza pandemic seems to be getting closer. In this talk, virology and epidemiology of influenza H5 viruses will be reviewed and current status of vaccine development in Taiwan and worldwide will be discussed