Wednesday, 17 March 5:00pm – 5:30pm

This seminar will be delivered via Zoom – Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Speaker: Professor Daria Mochly-Rosen; University of Stanford

Host: Dr William Jorgensen

Title: SPARK and SPARKGLOBAL response to the COVID-19 challenge

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine distribution throughout the world – the only means to stop the COVID-19 global pandemic – is unlikely to occur for a long time because of cost, challenges in mass production, and the cultural and belief systems that reject the use of vaccines. But there’s another important player that could be used in the fight to prevent COVID-19 infection, and that is passive immunization. SPARK is developing nasal drops to protect against COVID-19 infection that serve as a passive vaccine, containing antibodies that develop in hens immunized with the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This approach is fast, does not require specialized equipment, does not require cold-chain distribution (stable for years at 4^oC),  is safe even in immunecompromised people and can be made available for local production and distribution in low and middle income countries. The lecture will describe the project from idea inception to completing phase 1 clinical trial at industry standard, but while still  in academia, enabled by the SPARK translational research organization.

Read about it in Science:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/can-nose-full-chicken-antibodies-ward-coronavirus-infections

Biography:

Daria Mochly-Rosen is a protein chemist in the Chemical and Systems Biology department at Stanford and leads a multi-disciplinary research lab focusing on the molecular mechanisms of diseases. She has published >280 articles and dozens of patents, was the Chair of her department (2001-2004), and the Senior Associate Dean for Research (2006-2013) at Stanford University, School of Medicine.

Dr. Mochly-Rosen founded three biotech companies, including KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen and KAI’s product, Parasbiv, is approved). Her experience translating basic research to drug development efforts led her to found SPARK, Stanford’s translational research program. Started in 2006, SPARK has a >60% success rate, which is measured by projects licensed to excising companies (13) or startups (43) and/or going straight to clinical trials (17) addressing local and global health care needs. In 2020, SPARK At Stanford won the Xconomy National Award for Ecosystem Development, as well as the Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award from Cures Within Reach. SPARK’s model has been adopted in more than 60 institutes across 22 countries, and Mochly-Rosen serves as President and Founder of the SPARK GLOBAL organization.

Daria Mochly-Rosen, PhD

The George D Professor for Translational Medicine, Professor, Dept Chemical and Systems Biology

Stanford University, School of Medicine https://mochlyrosen.stanford.edu/

Founder and co-director, SPARK At Stanford, a Translational Research Program https://med.stanford.edu/sparkmed/about.html

President Founder, SPARK GLOBAL https://sparkglobal.io/

Read about SPARK’s role in drug discovery in the Washington Post

SPARK at Stanford is the  winner of the 2020 National Xconomy Award for Ecosystem Development

https://xconomy.com/national/2020/09/24/2020-national-xconomy-awards-winners/

SPARK at Stanford is the  winner of the 2020 Cure Within Reach Award

https://sparkmed.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cures-Within-Reach-press-release.pdf