Stone Memorial Lecture set for March 21

Eva Harris, Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Global Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, will present the 2015/2016 Stone Memorial Lecture at 4:00 p.m. on Monday March 21, 2016, in 108 Wartik Laboratory at Penn State University on the University Park campus. This free public lecture, titled “New Insights into Dengue Pathogenesis: How Dengue Virus NS1 Protein Triggers Endothelial Permeability and Vascular Leak,” is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Harris has developed a multidisciplinary approach for studying molecular virology, pathogenesis, immunology, epidemiology, clinical aspects, and control of dengue, the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in humans. This work is now being extended to include the mosquito-borne Zika virus. In her research, Harris addresses immune correlates of protection and pathogenesis, viral and host factors that modulate disease severity, and virus replication and evolution. Her work includes in vitro approaches, animal models, and research involving human populations. Her work with human populations has been made possible through a 28-year collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Nicaragua. This work focuses on laboratory-based and epidemiological studies of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and influenza in Latin American countries where the diseases are endemic. Harris’ ongoing projects include clinical and biological studies of severe dengue, and a pediatric cohort study of dengue, chikungunya, and influenza transmission in Managua, Nicaragua. She recently concluded a cluster-randomized controlled trial of evidence-based, community-derived interventions for prevention of dengue via control of its mosquito vector.

In 1997, Harris received a MacArthur Award for her work over the previous ten years, during which she developed programs to build scientific capacity in developing countries, and to address issues in public health and infectious disease. This award enabled her to found, in 1998, a non-profit organization to continue expanding this work, Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI), with offices in San Francisco, Nicaragua, and Egypt. Harris was named a Pew Scholar for her work on dengue pathogenesis. She received a national recognition award from the Minister of Health of Nicaragua for her contribution to scientific development and was selected as a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum. In 2012, she was elected Councilor of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and received a Global Citizen Award from the United Nations Association. She has published over 185 peer-reviewed articles, as well as a book about her international scientific work.

Harris received a B.A. degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and a Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, before becoming a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998.

Each year the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology identifies a preeminent microbiologist to present her or his work, to enrich the microbiological research community at Penn State, and to honor Robert W. Stone. Professor Stone was Head for 23 years of the former Department of Microbiology, which merged with the biophysics and biochemistry departments in 1979 to form the present Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. For more information about the lecture, contact Tamara Housel at (814) 865-3072.