The Role of Technology and Science in Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic

The College of Engineering is pleased to provide you with access to its webinar from Alumni Weekend featuring an expert panel of alumni and faculty.
This webinar explores:

• How breakthroughs in biotechnology allow the rapid ability to find the origins of the coronavirus and the best targets for therapies and vaccines.
• How clinical care at the front lines has changed as new insights of the disease emerge to radically improve treatment success.
• How corporations have approached and will approach the challenge of large-scale, low-cost, development and manufacturing of critically needed testing methods now and for emerging methods.
• How a complex, large institution (i.e., Boston University) stood up and ran a massive testing system to allow a return to function for all its constituents.

Moderator:

Kenneth R. Lutchen,
Dean, College of Engineering
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Boston University

Panelists:

Catherine Klapperich, Ph.D.
Vice Chair (BME)
Professor (BME, MSE, ME)
Director, Precision Diagnostics Center
Boston University

Catherine Klapperich is a Professor Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Precision Diagnostics Center in the College of Engineering at Boston University. Dr. Klapperich oversaw Boston University’s extraordinary COVID 19 testing systems, allowing the institution to test every student, faculty and staff as frequently as needed for surveillance to curtail the spread of the virus. Dr. Klapperich’s research is focused on engineering medical devices for use in low resource settings and at the point of care. Dr. Klapperich earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley; her M.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.

Manuel Mendez (ENG’91)
Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer
Quest Diagnostics

Manuel O. Mendez is the Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Quest Diagnostics. He is responsible for all commercial sales activities across the company. Prior to joining Quest in October 2019, Mr. Mendez was SVP, Global Commercial Operations at QIAGEN, a worldwide provider of molecular sample and assay technologies, where he helped accelerate growth and led a global commercial team. Mr. Mendez received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University

John Ngo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, (BME)
Boston University

Dr. Ngo is the Reidy Family Career Development Professor at Boston University, which recognizes junior faculty who are emerging future leaders in their respective fields. Ngo’s research applies principles of evolution, chemistry, and engineering to develop new tools for visualizing, measuring, and controlling biomolecules in living cells. Dr. Ngo believes the technologies he is pursuing will be powerful additions to the toolkit for engineering therapeutic cells. Dr. Ngo received his Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, California Institute of Technology.

Avrum Spira, M.D., M.Sc.
Global Head, Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson
Alexander Graham Bell Professor of Healthcare Entrepreneurs
Boston University

Dr. Spira is the Global Head, Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson and is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine at BU Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Spira was the Director of the Boston University – Boston Medical Center Lung Cancer Center. Dr. Spira’s laboratory research interests focus on applying genomic and bioinformatics tools to the translational study of lung disease. His research program centers around the concept that inhaled toxins create a “field of injury” in all exposed airway epithelial cells. . He has co-founded both a molecular diagnostics company and a pharmaceutical company in order to translate these tools from “bench to bedside”. Dr. Spira obtained his MD from McGill University in Montreal. During his fellowship, Dr. Spira obtained a master’s degree in Bioinformatics from Boston University.