Hundreds attend virtual event that included a message on racism from professor Joseph Freeman
Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) chair and professor David Shreiber was delighted to welcome nearly 300 faculty, staff, family, and friends to a virtual event on Thursday, June 4, 2020, celebrating the graduating Class of 2020 that included a keynote presentation on the challenges in vaccine development. Vita Lanoce, an award-winning leader in the vaccine industry, is a School of Engineering and Department of Biomedical Engineering alumna and CEO of the contract research organization (CRO) Linical Americas. She shared her unique perspective on today’s urgent search for a COVID-19 vaccine in a discussion entitled, Pivoting in a Crisis: The Race to Develop Vaccines.
According to Lanoce, while the first vaccine candidate test on March 16, 2020 was an amazingly accelerated response to the crisis, many unknowns remain about the coronavirus itself. “We don’t fully know the disease well,” she admits.
Unanswered questions about the virus are one reason a range of technical platforms for the vaccine are being evaluated. Lanoce noted that in vaccine development, there’s often no “one size fits all.”
She summarized the phases of vaccine development from limited initial tests and full-scale clinical trials, to approvals and production – a process that can traditionally take up to 10 and 15 years. “What’s the difference today?” she asked. “We can accelerate and combine some of the early phases and are taking on the risk of moving production forward to Phase I/II for vaccine candidates that show immunogenicity and safety, which will help us be able to produce vaccines more quickly to meet the extreme need.”
Lanoce applauded the many collaborations and partnerships among developers in private industry, academia, and government currently dedicated to developing an effective vaccine for the virus. Linical Americas is among those companies collaborating with a range of partners to launch start-ups and test novel compounds for vaccines.
While more than 2,000 clinical trials are underway globally, Lanoce reported that between 10 and 14 vaccines are nearing or started clinical development – with the possibility of a working coronavirus – or SARS-CoV-2 – vaccine becoming a reality by early 2021.
Before engaging in a Q&A session, Lanoce reminded the new graduates – and fellow alumni – that BME excels in teaching how complex problems can be broken down into components to reach effective solutions. “Be open, be present, and be involved to find solutions to the many issues we have facing our future. We need your creativity and innovation,” she stressed. “Your history will be written by you, so take the opportunities to grow every step of the way.”
Prior to Lanoce’s remarks, Shreiber acknowledged the challenges we are experiencing – from the coronavirus pandemic to the demonstrations seeking racial justice. He noted that BME students in the “best major ever” overwhelmingly want to use their engineering minds to help people. “We need this spirit now more than ever,” he said.
Shreiber also invited professor and graduate program director Joseph Freeman to share his thoughts on racism as the Black Lives Matter protests were continuing around the world.
“We are celebrating the graduation of hundreds of problem solvers. It’s what we do – so now it’s your turn,” the professor who is Black said in a powerful, yet hopeful message. “You are engineers. Look at the problem from different angles, analyze it, and then act. Add your voice to tell others about this until they see the wrong. I have hope because our society has already made great strides. If you had told my parents that someone would call me Dr. Freeman, they would have thought you were crazy.”
The event concluded with award presentations to undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering students and remarks by faculty members.
Click HERE to view the presentation.
You can also see the entire BME Class of 2020 Celebration HERE.