The COVID-19 pandemic put virtual meetings at center stage. The LNS Microbiology department would like to capitalize on this new scientific era by gathering online interested parties for knowledge sharing and scientific learning. The team therefore created the virtual forum, Lux-MicroHub, to bring you together, on a monthly basis, to present and discuss the latest advances in Clinical Microbiology.

Thus, it is a great pleasure to invite you to attend the third webinar Lux-MicroHub which will take place Thursday, 04 February 2021 (01 pm) via the following Webex link: https://lns.webex.com/lns/j.php?MTID=m62d8cf953ac4a266b04c4ef94bc12677

CURRENT COVID-19 VACCINES: TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY AND EFFICACY

Safe and efficacious vaccines are urgently needed to contain the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The development of Covid-19 vaccines has moved forward at unprecedented speed and includes RNA vaccines, DNA vaccines, non-replicating viral vector vaccines, inactivated virus vaccines and protein subunit vaccines.

Dr Schockmel will address the technological platforms, pharmaceutical properties, safety and efficacy profiles of currently approved Covid-19 vaccines, as well as the potential impact of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants on vaccine efficacy.

Dr Gérard Schockmel holds both a degree in medicine (M.D.) from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a degree in science (Ph.D.) from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a board-certified specialist in infectious diseases and in internal medicine.
Dr Schockmel devoted an extensive part of his research activities to the study of RNA viruses, research he carried out at the Universities of Oxford and Geneva, respectively. At the University of Oxford, he constructed a binding site for the HIV virus on the rat C4 receptor, providing direct, positive evidence for the HIV attachment site on CD4. At the laboratory of Virology, Geneva University hospitals, he developed an ultrasensitive assay for the detection of HIV RNA in plasma, allowing to measure levels of HIV circulating in an infected person’s blood that had previously been undetectable. The ultrasensitive assay became the international standard for the management of antiviral therapy in HIV infected individuals and changed clinical practice worldwide.
Dr Schockmel spent several years of his professional career in the pharmaceutical industry, where he held managerial positions both in a large company (Roche), and in a start-up biotechnology company (Basilea Pharmaceutica), respectively. His R&D activity focussed on drug development at a worldwide level, from the early preclinical stages to clinical phase I-III studies.
At the Hôpitaux Robert Schuman, Luxembourg, Dr Schockmel created and was Head of the multidisciplinary Hospital Laboratory for which he obtained ISO 9001 certification and ISO 15.189 accreditation. Subsequently, he created and was Head of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit for the four Robert Schuman hospitals. Currently, Dr Schockmel is Infectious Diseases consultant and Head of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team at the Hôpitaux Robert Schuman.
Dr Schockmel is known to the general public in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic due to his regular appearances on television and on the radio, his contributions in the written press and his webinars with emphasis on Covid-19 vaccines.

After the lecture, there will be ample time and opportunity to ask questions. So, feel free to post your questions at luxmicrohub@lns.etat.lu by 04/02/2021.