Meetings & Courses Program

Crossroads of Biology

COVID/SARS CoV2 Rapid Research Reports #2
July 21 - 22, 2020 Virtual
Registration Deadline: July 20 @ 4:00pm EDT

Organizers:

Hung Fan, University of California Irvine
Stanley Perlman, University of Iowa
Susan Weiss, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
David Stewart, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

With over 13 million cases of COVID, more than 575,000 deaths, and economic devastation on a global scale, the world scientific community will come together for a series of virtual meetings starting on June 16th. This monthly series will bring together expert scientists on the forefront of COVID research into viral origins & variation, virus biology, host response, and antivirals & vaccines. It is designed to stimulate ideas and collaborations among scientists with the goal of hastening a solution to vanquish this worldwide disease.

COVID-R3-#1 Invited Talks only June 16 - 17, 2020
COVID-R3 #2 Invited Talks only July 21 - 22, 2020
COVID-R3 #3 Invited & Selected Talks/Posters August 25 - 26, 2020

Sessions & Confirmed Speakers (COVID-R3-#2) Times posted in US Eastern Daily Time

Session I: Patterns of Virus Spread / Genomics 
Tuesday, July 21: 9:30am EDT
Co-chairs: Ben Neuman, Texas A&M Texarkana & Eric Snijder, Leiden University 

Susanna Lau, University of Hong Kong - The role of bats in the evolutionary origin of SARS-CoV-2
Jeffrey Shaman, Columbia University - Transmission Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2: Inference and Projection
Yuguo Li, University of Hong Kong - Probable opportunistic airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 – Learning from two outbreaks  
Alexander Gorbalenya, Leiden University - The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus
Manolis Kellis, MIT/The Broad Institute - Sarbecovirus comparative genomics elucidates gene content of SARS-CoV-2 and functional impact of COVID-19 pandemic mutations

Roundtable Discussion: How does prior research on coronaviruses inform studies of SARS-CoV-2?
Tuesday, July 21: 11:45am EDT
Chair: Susan Weiss, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Conni Bergmann, Cleveland Clinic
Alexander Gorbalenya, Leiden University
Volker Thiel, University of Bern
Carolyn Machamer, Johns Hopkins University 
Susan Baker, Loyola University

Session II:  Coronavirus Biology
Tuesday, July 21: 2:00pm EDT 
Co-Chairs: Susan Baker, Loyola University & Sonia Navas-Martin, Drexel University

Fang Li, University of Minnesota - Cell entry mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2
Carolyn Machamer, Johns Hopkins University - Assembly and Egress of Coronaviruses
Marjolein Kikkert, Leiden University - Coronavirus proteases and their interaction with the innate immune system
Shinji Makino, UTMB - Interplay between CoV and nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway
Anthony Fehr, University of Kansas - The Unique Activities of the Coronavirus Macrodomain
Volker Thiel, University of Bern - A screen is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get
Vineet Menachery, UTMB - Exploration of the SARS-CoV-2 Furin Cleavage Site
Tom Gallagher, Loyola University - Spike protein domains involved in coronavirus entry

Session III:  Pathogenesis & Host Response
Wednesday, July 22: 9:30am EDT
Co-Chairs: Tom Lane, University of California Irvine & Kent Tseng, Texas A&M University

Adrian Hayday, King's College London School of Medicine - A signature COVID-19 immunophenotype includes distinct traits associated with poor prognosis
Jürgen Richt, Kansas State University - Susceptibility and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Domestic Cats
Elizabeth Middleton, University of Utah - Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Contribute to Immunothrombosis in COVID-19
Antonio Bertoletti, Duke University/NUS - SARS-CoV2 specific T cells in COVID-19, SARS and uninfected 
Alessandro Sette, La Jolla Institute - SARS CoV2 specific T cell responses in exposed and non-exposed subjects
Theodora Hatziioannou, Rockefeller University - Neutralizing antibody response to SARS-CoV-2
Dennis Burton, Scripps Research Institute - Neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 vaccine design

Session IV:  Vaccines & Antivirals
Wednesday, July 22: 2:00pm EDT 
Co-Chairs: Connie Bergmann, Cleveland Clinic & Stanley Perlman, University of Iowa

Gerald McInerney, Karolinska Institute - An alpaca nanobody neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by blocking receptor interaction
Kizzmekia Corbett, National Institutes of Health - SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Development enabled by Prototype Pathogen Preparedness
Drew Weissman, UPenn - Nucleoside-modifies mRNA-LNP vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
Deborah Heydenberg Fuller, U Washington - Rapid response replicon RNA vaccine for COVID-19: Preclinical studies in mice and nonhuman primates
Sara Cherry, UPenn - Repurposing in COVID-19: Can we identify new antivirals
Keong-Ok Chang, Kansas State University - Development of 3C-like protease inhibitors against human coronaviruses including MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2
Bruno Canard, Aix-Marseilles University - The SARS-CoV RNA polymerase complex: a machine with outstanding structural and functional features

Virtual 2 day live meeting + archive access

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~32 talks / 4 sessions
(late am/early pm)
~12 total hours with interactive Q&A
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Leading Strand video archive access to talks
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Twitter for meeting news & general comments
Pricing:

Virtual COVID-R3 #2 Package: $100
*Registration closes July 20 at 4:00pm EDT

Combo Virtual Package (COVID-R3 #2 and #3  conferences): $180
(Combo Registrants may extend enrollment for future COVID-R3 conferences for $80/conference)

Institutional Group Discounts requests must be submitted before Thursday, July 16.

Institutional Registration (Single  or Combo #2 and #3 Conference Registration): 
Institutions registering 10-25 people: 35% discount
Institutions registering 25+ people: 40% discount

Institutional discounts require a single payment: please submit a list of participants planning to attend in advance of registration to Alicia Franco  to establish appropriate discounted fees. 

Virtual Attendance packages include access to online Zoom-based oral sessions with live Q&A and access to the video archive on the Leading Strand for ~twelve weeks following each meeting.