8. Coronavirus, Vaccines, and High Containment Labs

Lab Rat Chat - Episode 08 with Dr. Ricardo Carrion, Jr., Professor at Texas Biomedical Research Institute
 
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In this eighth episode of Lab Rat Chat, Dr. Ricardo Carrion, Jr., from Texas Biomedical Research Institute, talks to us about the research they are doing down at their institute in San Antonio, TX to help combat COVID-19. 

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Dr. Carrion’s journey through his education and career leading to his current position at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
• The details behind various high containment laboratories that allow scientists to work safely with deadly pathogens.
• The use of various animal models to help understand and study SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus behind the COVID-19 disease.

Notable quotes:

"Individuals are actually suited into a space-suit type uniform, it's a single, continuous jump-suit, if you will, that has a zipper...they are tethered to a breathing air-supply line, and they work in the BSL-4 laboratory in that suit."

“The level of collaborations seen in this outbreak, this pandemic, is greater than any other type of collaboration that I’ve seen in the 20 years that I’ve been doing science.”

“If you look at vaccine development, if you look at Ebola for instance, as an example, it was about 7-10 years to license that vaccine.  So that in one year, we’re talking about possibly having an FDA licensed vaccine for COVID-19, it’s pretty remarkable”

Resources & Links:

• Texas Biomedical Research Institute (www.txbiomed.org)
• Americans for Medical Progress (https://www.amprogress.org/)
• AMP's COVID-19 Resources (https://www.amprogress.org/covid-19-resources/)
• PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (https://olaw.nih.gov/policies-laws/phs-policy.htm)  
• Animal Welfare Act (https://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/animal-welfare-act) 

All Lab Rat Chat episodes are edited by Audionauts: https://audionauts.pro/