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Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD |
Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, of the Scripps Research Institute, will present the 18th annual Fredric S. Fay Memorial Lecture, Antibodies against Ebola and Lassa: A Global Collaboration, on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 3 p.m. in the Albert Sherman Center Auditorium.
Dr. Saphire is professor of immunology & microbial science and integrative structural & computational biology at Scripps. Her lab combines x-ray crystallography, biochemistry and immunology to identify sites on proteins that play key roles in the pathogenesis of Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Lassa. Critical regions of these structures are used as templates for vaccine design to enable rapid responses to newly emerging forms of viruses. With a $28 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Saphire has led a global consortium of researchers working together to conquer Ebola infection by developing vaccines made with combinations of Ebola antibodies. An antibody serum developed at Scripps was used to treat two American health care workers who were infected with Ebola during the 2014 outbreak in West Africa, and would have been used on the third American health care worker infected—Richard Sacra, MD, assistant professor of family medicine & community health—had any of the antibody been available at the time of his treatment.
Saphire serves as co-director of the Scripps Center for Excellence and the Global Virus Network, as well as the director of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Immunotherapeutic Consortium at the Scripps Research Institute. She is a member of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Translational Science Programmatic Evaluation Team, Virology A Study Section of NIAID; and serves on the editorial boards of Annual Review of Virology and Virology. Saphire has received numerous honors, including, in 2015, the Young Investigator Award from both the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the International Society for Antiviral Research, and, in 2016, the Eli Lily and Company-Elanco Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology.
The Fred Fay lecture is given in remembrance of the late UMass Medical School professor of physiology and his scientific contributions, particularly to the field of biomedical imaging. For additional information about the event, contact Ann Rittenhouse, PhD, associate professor of microbiology & physiological systems, at 508-856-3735.
