We normally understand our physical selves to be distinct and singular, and understand our skin to be a reasonable physical boundary between ourselves and the other. The pandemic and what it’s meant to our relationship with the world of viruses and other microorganisms has challenged both of those preconceptions. Viruses are vectors that sometimes make us ill and link us, oftentimes perilously, with other members of the animal kingdom. What is the extent of our knowledge of viruses and how has that knowledge changed our understanding of what it means to be a human being? The Jackson Laboratory’s Scientific Director Nadia Rosenthal and Principal Deputy Director of the US CDC Nirav Shah will dive into these and other profound questions, whose answers may have a significant and practical impact on the way we will live in community for the foreseeable future.
Nirav D. Shah serves as the principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control, where he works with data modernization, public health preparedness and response, laboratories, and communications. Prior to this role, Shah served as the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, leading the State of Maine’s public health response to COVID-19, managing a cross-disciplinary team of state employees, and serving as the primary public communicator during the crisis. Shah also led several key initiatives in Maine, including efforts to mitigate the public health effects of climate change and to reduce the dangers posed by PFAS/PFOA chemicals in Maine’s environment.
Nadia Rosenthal is the scientific director of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. She is a global leader in the use of targeted mutagenesis in mice to investigate mammalian development, disease, and repair. Her research focuses on the role of growth factors, stem cells, and the immune system in the resolution of tissue injury for applications to regenerative medicine. Her book, Heart Development and Regeneration, is considered the definitive text in the field. She is a founding editor of Disease Models and Mechanisms and editor-in-chief of Differentiation and of a new Nature Partner Journal, Regenerative Medicine.
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