Education
Event Title
Zika Virus Vaccines and Therapeutics
University of Maryland CERSI
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Presented by:
Monica McArthur, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Member, Center for Vaccine Development and
Institute for Global Health
University of Maryland School of Medicine
About the Presentation
Zika virus is a rapidly emerging infectious disease of great public health importance. Although infections are frequently asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, associations with severe neurologic complications in infants born to mothers infected with Zika virus during pregnancy as well as neurologic complications in adults (e.g., Guillan Barre Syndrome) have made Zika virus a high priority pathogen. At the time of the lecture, there were no licensed vaccines or therapeutics against Zika virus; however, there were numerous vaccine candidates in development. The anti-Zika virus vaccine candidates in the pipeline as well as ongoing efforts to identify therapeutics effective against this pathogen were discussed.
About the Presenter
Monica McArthur, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Pediatrics and a member of the Institute for Global Health and the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. McArthur received her MD and PhD degrees from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where her research work was focused on identifying determinants of flaviviral virulence. She subsequently completed residency in pediatrics, also at the University of Texas Medical Branch. In 2009, she moved to the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she completed a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and post-doctoral fellowship in human immunology. She joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2013. She is currently the site Principal Investigator for a Zika DNA vaccine trial being performed at the Center for Vaccine Development in collaboration with the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Additionally, she is a flavivirologist and human immunologist involved in multiple projects investigating T cell responses following infection with or vaccination against flaviviral infections, including Zika virus.