CORBEVAX: A Recombinant Protein Covid19 Vaccine for Global Health
Meeting for the week of June 13, 2022 - June 19, 2022
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: CORBEVAX: A Recombinant Protein Covid19 Vaccine for Global Health
Speaker: Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi and Dr. Peter Hotez
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from our Club President.
Members and guests,
Welcome to this week’s meeting of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
There is a lot of activity taking place this June, with the Rotary International Convention in Houston from 4 to 8 June, as Rotary Fellowships Month on the Rotary calendar, and also as the final month of the Rotary year.
Each year, the Rotary International Convention is a great opportunity for Rotarians from across the world to come together to share ideas, learn from each other, and take action to implement sustainable changes that deliver lasting benefits to communities across the world. As an eClub with global membership, it provides a great platform for many of our club members who would otherwise not meet each other in person to have the opportunity to connect. Many of my fondest memories and experiences with Rotary have taken place at a Rotary International Convention, and I encourage all members to attend. Next year’s Rotary International Convention will take place in Melbourne, Australia from 27 to 31 May 2023, and registration is now open (Melbourne | Rotary Convention).
Rotary Fellowships are international groups with members that share a common passion. For many Rotarians and friends - membership in a fellowship is open to any interested individual - being part of a fellowship is a fun way to make friends around the world, explore a hobby or profession, and enhance their Rotary experience. Many of our club members are part of fellowships and have spoken to our club about them in the past and how rewarding being involved in a fellowship has been for them. There are many fellowships covering a wide variety of subjects - there’s even one for E-clubs - so I encourage you to follow the link to explore the many Rotary Fellowships.
Reflecting upon this Rotary year, it is important to recognise the hard work and effort that has been invested by many of our members, both in helping the communities that we serve, but also in the work they do to make being a member of this club an engaging and rewarding experience. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the club’s President during this Rotary year and to have the opportunity to work with such passionate and dedicated people. I look forward to working with soon-to-be President Angelica in the coming year and I invite all of you to join us for our Handover Ceremony on 16 June (1PM US Pacific Time).
Thank you for being a member - or a friend and supporter of our club - and playing your part as we Serve to Change Lives.
Brett Sham
President, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
You are certainly not required to pay anything in order to attend our meetings. However, if you would like to make a small contribution to our service efforts, you are welcome to do so in our secure Happy Dollars section down the page. This could be what you normally pay at your own club's meetings for lunch, for example. Any amount is welcome, but first and foremost, we're happy you've joined us, and hope you will share with others who we are and what we do to help inspire Service Above Self.
And don't forget to fill out our attendance form so you get an email you can pass on to your club's secretary!
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly Funny with Shags.
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin !
Daily Walk
My doctor was giving me a hard time about my health. To get back on his good side I bought a puppy and named him 'Five Miles'.
That way, when I went to see my doctor I could tell him, "I walk five miles every morning!"
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This week's other humor bit is not a meme, but a link to an audio track of a very early SNL show skit featuring Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Chevy Chase. Many great comedic authors and writers contributed, including a former US Senator! I remember watching this when it first aired. Can't find it with video, but there was an album released of many of the skits from the first season. I still have the cassette tape somewhere!
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
Sometimes a movie trailer is a fascinating fodder for thought all by itself. In this case, the trailer is for the documentary, "The Wonderful," about the people who have lived aboard the International Space Station.
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
This is the winning photo from the 2022 Rotary Magazine photo Contest by Heinz-Gerd Dreehsen of the Rotary Club of Oberhausen, Germany. Sunset in Manila, Philippines. Judges say: The playful, organic shapes of the kids’ bodies make a stark contrast with the hard lines of the electric poles and wires. Despite the photo’s limited color palette, you feel like there is an explosion of color.
Learn Something New
Why Does Our Breath Stink in the Morning ?
Unlike the old dumb kid's joke about waking up with a mouth that tastes like s*** with the punchline, "I musta forgot to pay you.", this is the real reason!
Service Report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! The section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
District 5170 Events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated in the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Program: CORBEVAX: A Recombinant Protein Covid19 Vaccine for Global Health
Speaker: Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi and Dr. Peter Hotez
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Maria Elena Bottazzi is Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Division Chief of Pediatric Tropical Medicine, and Co-director of Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Distinguished Professor in Biology at Baylor University in Waco. She is an internationally recognized tropical and emerging disease vaccinologist, global health advocate, and co-creator of a patent-free, open-science COVID-19 vaccine technology that led to the development of CORBEVAX, a COVID-19 vaccine for the world. She pioneers and leads the advancement of a robust infectious and tropical disease vaccine portfolio tackling diseases such as coronavirus, hookworm, schistosomiasis, and Chagas that disproportionally affect the world's poorest populations. She also has established innovative partnerships in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, making significant contributions to innovative educational & research programs, catalyze policies, and disseminating scientific information to reach a diverse set of audiences.
Dr. Bottazzi obtained her bachelor's degree in Microbiology and Clinical Chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Honduras and a doctorate in Molecular Immunology and Experimental Pathology from the University of Florida. Her post-doctoral training in Cellular Biology was completed at the University of Miami and Pennsylvania.
Dr. Peter Hotez MD Ph.D. DSc (hon) FAAP FASTMH is a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also co-director of the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He is a vaccine scientist who led the development of vaccines to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases and coronavirus infections. Together with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi and a team of scientists, a new Texas Children's CVD COVID19 vaccine has been scaled for industrial production at Biological E (BioE) in Hyderabad, India for pending emergency use listing.
Dr. Hotez obtained his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his MD and Ph.D. from Weil Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University. He is the author of more than 600 scientific articles indexed on PubMed and 4 single-author books. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and he has been honored by PAHO/WHO, Research America, B'nai Brith, American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH), and other organizations. He is past president of ASTMH and appears frequently on major news outlets (CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR) promoting global health, and vaccines and immunizations, countering anti-vaccine and anti-science movements.
The Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) has developed a unique COVID-19 vaccine for global health. The vaccine relies on recombinant protein fermentation technology in yeast, similar to that required to produce the hepatitis B vaccine produced locally in countries such as India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and elsewhere, and is an approach well-suited to address both vaccine equity and vaccine hesitancy. The Texas Children's CVD has licensed the vaccine to several developing country vaccine producers. Biological E in India is the furthest along where the vaccine has been released for emergency use authorization towards the end of 2021. CORBEVAX has now been administered to more than 25 million Indian adolescent schoolchildren with plans for other age groups to follow. CORBEVAX has also been approved in Botswana in preparation for other African nations. The Texas Children's CVD approach has been used for other parasitic disease vaccines and provides proof of the concept that it is possible to "decolonize" the vaccine ecosystem and empower vaccine producers in low and middle-income countries.
Members and guests, please welcome Dr. Bottazzi and Dr. Hotez!
Upcoming Program Recording Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
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