Virtual Meeting Hosted by AuI

Friday, May 2, 2025

Sandra López Vergès, Ph.D.

Senior Health Researcher V, Dpt. of Research in Virology and Biotechnology

Gorgas Memorial Research Institute for Health Studies, Panama

Member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI).

"How International Labs Could Prevent Leaks and Produce Cutting Edge Research"

Meeting Agenda

• 7:00 PM (CST) - Speaker

• 8:00 PM Social hour (via breakout rooms)

Abstract: In moments of complex issues and big challenges, knowledge and skills are not enough, collaboration may be the way. We will discuss the potential sources of future pandemics, highlighting the risks from climate change, environmental impacts, and livestock agriculture, alongside laboratory leaks due to human error. While addressing laboratory safety is more straightforward, funding constraints hinder countries from implementing effective biosafety and biosecurity measures. Here, I emphasize the need for international collaboration through the establishment of multinational biological research facilities, akin to successful models in physics and space science, to enhance global research while ensuring high safety standards. It underscores the importance of consistent funding for scientific progress, especially in low and middle-income countries, and advocates for science diplomacy to foster collaboration, trust, and innovation in pathogen research.

Bio: Sandra did her studies at the Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, France, receiving her Bachelor in Biology-Biochemistry in 2001, her Master (Ecole Normale Supérieure d’Ulm, Pasteur Institute) and her Ph.D. on Microbiology specialty Basic Virology in 2003 and 2007, respectively, with a doctoral thesis on the cellular cofactors for HIV morphogenesis and budding at the Institut Cochin with Clarisse Berlioz-Torrent. She did her post-doctoral training on NK cell responses to viruses (mainly HIV and HCMV) at the University of California San Francisco, USA.

She works at the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama, as a Senior Health Researcher, since 2012. She created the flow cytometry core there, participates in molecular epidemiology studies on arboviruses and emergent viruses and leads projects on viral immunology. She was the Head of the Department of Research in Virology and Biotechnology from 2020 to January 2025, and participated in the national response for the COVID19 pandemic. She has been giving graduate classes at the Universidad de Panama since 2018.

Her research has resulted in one patent and more than 50 scientific publications (ORCID: 0000-0002-1106-8479). She obtained several awards as the Gorgas Memorial Award (ASTMH, 2013) and the UNESCO-L'OREAL International Fellowship for Young Women in Science in 2014 to work on arboviruses (Dengue and Madariaga equine encephalitis virus) at the University of Texas Medical Branch, USA (2015-2017). She was selected as a member of the National Research System (SNI, SENACYT in Panama) in 2014, of the Global Young Academy (GYA) in 2018 (alumna since 2023), of the International Women Forum leadership program and the HiddenNoMore Women in Science International visitor leadership program from the US Department of State, both in 2022. She was part of the Pathogen Bulletin working group on Biosafety and Biosecurity in Virology research (2022-2024), the WHO Togaviridae working group (2023-2024) and is now part of the panel of experts from the International Science Council for the Bioweapons convention (2024-2025). She was selected for the ASTMH Mid-career leadership program in 2024.

Please RSVP by Thursday, May 1, 2025 to gshearerdgs@gmail.com.  The Zoom link will be sent to you by Thursday evening, May 1, 2025.