Moderated by our Dean of the School of Science, Roy Wensley, our three SOS panelists will share their work related to virology and public health–and explore the impact of COVID-19 in our daily lives, and the scientific community response.

More About Our Experts:

Vidya Chandrasekaran, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology. Prior to joining Saint Mary’s College in 2007, she obtained her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from State University of New York at Buffalo and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in developmental genetics at University of California at Berkeley. Chandrasekaran is an active research scholar in the area of cellular neurobiology and neuropharmacology publishing over fifteen articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and regularly presenting her research at regional, national and international conferences. In addition, she has served as a research mentor for over 50 students since joining Saint Mary’s College and the last five of her papers have included Saint Mary’s College students as co-authors. Also, she has been a co-PI on two successful NSF grants that provide funding to help increase diversity among STEM students and develop an undergraduate STEM teacher education program committed to social justice.

Professor Keith Garrison received his PhD in genetics from UC Davis in 2004. The work for his PhD involved identifying markers of genetic diversification within clonal lineages of wine grapes. After completing his PhD, Garrison began a post-doctoral position at the Gladstone Institutes and later at the Division of Experimental Medicine at UCSF studying HIV immunology. The lab team was working to identify novel targets for an HIV vaccine that could help overcome the challenge of rapid HIV mutation, which helps the virus evade many vaccine-driven immune responses. Much of his research work at SMC relates to human endogenous retroviruses, which are the past remnants of retroviral infections that are retained like fossils in our genomes. He has also been using coral as a model system to study the evolution of the immune system in animals, especially the earliest events in the immune response that help warn the host of an impending viral infection. Because many of the determining factors of severe COVID-19 illness may relate to faulty timing of these early events, Prof. Garrison is interested in studying the immune response to SARS CoV-2 infection as a part of his research in the future.

Karl Beutner '71 MD, PhD was a founding member and first Chairperson of the Saint Mary’s College School of Science Advisory Board. After graduation, Karl went on to earn MA and PhD in microbiology and immunology as well as an MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. This was followed by internship and residency at UCLA, a fellowship in immunology and infectious diseases and a residency in dermatology at the University of Rochester. He then returned to his hometown of Vallejo, CA to practice dermatology. In addition to building a clinical practice he started a clinical trials group that conducted hundreds of clinical trials resulting in the development of new treatments and vaccines for a variety of skin diseases. Over time he gravitated toward working in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical sector. He was Chief Medical Officer of Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences which was acquired by Valent Pharmaceuticals and Anacor Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Pfizer. Currently, along with his clinical practice, he is co-founder CEO and CMO of DermBiont a company focused on the cutaneous microbiome to better understand and treat skin diseases.