Dark Horse
In Memoriam
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, my alma mater, is conducting a pioneering effort in a 2-day conference to bring together engineers, scientists and vaccine mfrs from around the world to lay out a framework to come up with a technology to dramatically up scale vaccine production for a pandemic.
With current technology, it takes 10 billion eggs (that would almost fill my refrigerator) to ensure 2 billion vaccine doses. The logistics of the traditional method are mind-boggling.
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The National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations have organized a Topical Meeting devoted to possible engineering responses to critical vaccine needs that might arise in the event of a worldwide, viral pandemic.
The goals of the meeting are to:
Identify challenges to manufacturing influenza vaccines, including rapid production for pandemic influenza.
Discuss specific approaches for increasing influenza vaccine production using both existing and "next generation" technologies.
Provide a venue where a "community" of interested academic and industrial engineers, government regulators, and other scientists and physicians can bring an engineering perspective to critical demand situations.
Identify research opportunities for young researchers and others new to the field.
Participants will review current technologies of vaccine production and explore alternative technologies, including unconventional approaches capable of scale-up in the event of a pandemic. Both current egg-based and alternative cell culture-based production technologies will be covered. Particular attention will be given to identifying novel approaches, including those currently used in non-pharmaceutical industries for other purposes.
There is a web cast of the 2-day event going on now.
http://www.vaccine2006.org
With current technology, it takes 10 billion eggs (that would almost fill my refrigerator) to ensure 2 billion vaccine doses. The logistics of the traditional method are mind-boggling.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations have organized a Topical Meeting devoted to possible engineering responses to critical vaccine needs that might arise in the event of a worldwide, viral pandemic.
The goals of the meeting are to:
Identify challenges to manufacturing influenza vaccines, including rapid production for pandemic influenza.
Discuss specific approaches for increasing influenza vaccine production using both existing and "next generation" technologies.
Provide a venue where a "community" of interested academic and industrial engineers, government regulators, and other scientists and physicians can bring an engineering perspective to critical demand situations.
Identify research opportunities for young researchers and others new to the field.
Participants will review current technologies of vaccine production and explore alternative technologies, including unconventional approaches capable of scale-up in the event of a pandemic. Both current egg-based and alternative cell culture-based production technologies will be covered. Particular attention will be given to identifying novel approaches, including those currently used in non-pharmaceutical industries for other purposes.
There is a web cast of the 2-day event going on now.
http://www.vaccine2006.org