Implementing COVID-19 Testing in Massachusetts Phased Reopening Plans

August 12, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Webinar, click "live-stream" button to view

Add to Calendar 8/12/2020 12:00:00 PM 8/12/2020 1:00:00 PM Implementing COVID-19 Testing in Massachusetts Phased Reopening Plans

COVID-19 testing is a significant part of the answer to reopen our economy and our lives – and will remain crucial even after vaccines or therapies eventually become available. Municipalities, companies, universities, hospitals, school systems, and families want to know how and when they could implement testing or be tested so our society can reopen more fully and more confidently. Ideally, we want a highly reliable, rapid test that provides results in minutes. We hear it is taking 7+ days to get a test back due to the current surges in our country and it seems like test companies are way over capacity. How does the MassBio community implement testing? Is it even realistic now? What kind of testing should be implemented? We’ll hear from those who were on the forefront of implementing testing as part of their reopening strategy and get a pulse on how it is going. We’ll also address the shortfalls of current testing and offer strategies to undertake testing as a key component of your reopening plans.

Webinar link will be emailed to participants the day before - you can also access it from the "Live Stream" tab below. This event is for members-only.

NOTE: MassBio makes every effort to accommodate our entire community at each of our events. Please let us know at least 3 days in advance of the event if you require special accommodations, such as captioning.

Webinar, click "live-stream" button to view

Co-Founder and CEO, Verve Therapeutics

Dr. Sekar Kathiresan is co-founder & CEO of Verve Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to the care of cardiovascular disease, transforming treatment from chronic management to single-course gene editing medicines. Dr. Kathiresan is a cardiologist & scientist with a career focused on understanding the inherited basis for heart attack & leveraging those insights to improve the care of cardiovascular disease. Based on his groundbreaking discoveries in human genetic mutations that confer resistance to cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kathiresan co-founded Verve Therapeutics with a vision to create a pipeline of single-course, gene editing therapies focused on addressing root causes of this highly prevalent & life-threatening disease. Today, Verve is advancing 2 initial programs targeting PCSK9 & ANGPTL3, respectively – genes that have been extensively validated by Dr. Kathiresan & others as targets for lowering blood lipids, such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is a major driver of cardiovascular disease. Before joining Verve, Dr. Kathiresan’s roles included director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Genomic Medicine, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute & professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. There, his research laboratory focused on understanding the inherited basis for blood lipids and myocardial infarction. For his research contributions, he's been recognized by the American Heart Association with its highest scientific honor - a Distinguished Scientist Award & by the American Society of Human Genetics with the 2018 Curt Stern Award. Dr. Kathiresan graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania & received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine & cardiology at MGH & his postdoctoral research training in human genetics at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute.