May 5, 2016 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Pittsburgh Launches Cura Zika to Accelerate International Research on Devastating Epidemic

Cura Zika Symposium and Live Webinar

University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

Auditorium (G23), 130 DeSoto St, Pittsburgh, PA

Registration and Webinar Access: www.curazika.pitt.edu

On Thursday, May 5, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health will launch Cura Zika, an international alliance to perform much-needed research addressing the Zika epidemic, with a special symposium and live webinar featuring Pitt biomedical scientists and their Brazilian collaborators.

The symposium will feature:

• Donald S. Burke, M.D., dean, Pitt Public Health, who also holds the UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health and serves as director, Pitt Center for Vaccine Research

• Celina Turchi Martelli, M.D., Ph.D., senior public health scientist, Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)-Pernambuco, Brazil

• Jennifer Adibi, M.P.H., Sc.D., assistant professor, Pitt Public Health Department of Epidemiology and Pitt School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences

• Yoel Sadovsky, M.D., Elsie Hilliard Hillman Professor of Women’s and Infants’ Health Research, Pitt School of Medicine; scientific director, Magee-Womens Research Institute

• Ernesto Marques, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, Pitt Public Health Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology; member, Pitt Center for Vaccine Research

Zika is a mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted virus that causes microcephaly in infants born to mothers infected with it while pregnant. It also is associated with increased risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome and other neurological disorders in people who contract it. The virus is widespread in South and Central America and has a likelihood of gaining sustained transmission in the southern U.S. this summer.

Cura Zika builds on Pitt Public Health’s long-standing collaboration with FIOCRUZ, the most prominent science and technology health institution in Latin America.

Cura Zika—which means “Cure Zika” in both Portuguese and Spanish—will provide quick-access funding to scientists performing time-sensitive research on the virus. This support is designed to move early-stage innovative research ideas into larger studies in an accelerated manner.