Science Cafe explores COVID-19 vaccines, clinical trial

Three UNMC infectious disease experts will discuss the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines, as well as UNMC’s Phase 3 clinical trial of an investigational COVID-19 vaccine for adults, during the Jan. 19 Science Cafe.

The presenters — Nada Fadul, MD, Diana Florescu, MD, and Richard Starlin, MD — will outline the importance of the vaccines and of clinical trials, including the recently announced UNMC clinical trial of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate. For more information on the clinical trial, go to unmc.edu.

To ensure social distancing, the Science Cafe will be offered via Facebook Live and begin at 10 a.m. (Viewers do not need a Facebook account to view the livestream.)

Dr. Fadul is an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases. Dr. Florescu is a professor in the department of internal medicine. Dr. Starlin is an assistant professor in the department of internal medicine and the medical director of employee health at UNMC.

Dr. Fadul also is the medical director of UNMC’s Specialty Care Center and the principal investigator of the Ryan White Parts C&D grants. She completed her medical degree from the University of Khartoum-Faculty of Medicine in Sudan and subsequently completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois. She completed a palliative care fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center and an infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Texas-Houston. A member of the Leadership Development Committee of the national HIV Medical Association, she serves as an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) advocacy liaison and was chosen to join the inaugural IDSA Leadership Institute. She is active in advocacy for humanitarian issues facing Sudan.

Dr. Florescu attended the Universitatea de Medicina Si Farmacie. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Danbury Hospital and her fellowship in infectious diseases at Columbia University. Her research interests include adenovirus, cytomegalovirus and fungal infections in solid organ transplantation; immunodiagnostic and vaccines in solid organ transplantation and infections in small bowel transplant recipients.

Dr. Starlin completed medical school at UNMC. His residency was in internal medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, as was his infectious disease fellowship. His research interests include infectious disease in community practice, occupational health and travel medicine.

Science Cafes involve a face-to-face conversation with an expert about current science topics. They are open to everyone (21 and older) and take place in casual settings like pubs and coffeehouses. Each meeting is organized around an interesting topic of conversation. The expert gives a brief presentation followed by a Q&A period.