Symposia & Seminar Series

The 14th Annual CEND Symposium was a success!

Emerging and neglected diseases are a group of debilitating and often deadly infections. As a group, these diseases are poorly understood and generally lack effective tools for prevention, control, and treatment. CEND Annual Symposium aims to strengthen connections between San Francisco Bay Area scientists working on infectious diseases of global health importance and the broader global health research, product development, and advocacy communities. The symposium features a dynamic list of invited speakers from around the world, including scientists from developing countries. Participants include academic researchers from UC Berkeley, UCSF, Stanford, UC Davis as well as representatives from local biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and global health nonprofits.

Eighth Annual Bay Area Symposium on Viruses - June 2018

The Bay Area Symposium on Viruses is an annual one-day conference that aims to strengthen interactions among Bay Area scientists and clinicians who share a strong interest in virology. The symposium features presentations by leading Bay Area scientists, roundtable discussions, a poster session, and opportunities for networking.

The Diagnostics by Design workshop is an interdisciplinary forum for discussing the challenges and lessons learned in developing and implementing global health technologies, specifically at the point of care. Through interactive talks, a panel discussion with experts from industry and academia, and a hands-on build session, we will explore the challenges associated with translating technologies beyond the lab. This workshop will draw on the expertise and experience of individuals from across disciplines to explore collaborative solutions to global health issues.

The workshop will feature Columbia Professor and mChip inventor Samuel Sia as the keynote speaker. Food and drink will also be provided throughout the event.

The Diagnostics by Design hackathon is a cross-communities effort to bridge the gap between makers and do-it-yourself innovators and the sphere of global health. The event is posed as a challenge to participants: with minimal materials or through innovative coding, tackle a technological or informatic need in the space of point of care diagnostics. These can range from generating DIY lab equipment alternatives for medical clinics with limited resources, informatics for disease monitoring, or redesign of diagnostic tools for resource-limited settings. Attendees from the Maker community will work with participants from academic and professional spaces: the goal is an interface between the innovative expertise of the former with the needs assessments and field knowledge of the latter. We not only explore, but get hands on experience with pressing health and design needs.

The DxD hackathon is a two day event, from Saturday (1/11/13) from 9AM to 9PM, and Sunday (1/12/13) from 9AM to 3PM. Eventbrite only shows the Saturday date; registration covers participation and meals for both days.

"Molecular Diagnostics, Antibiotic Resistance, and Helminthic Diseases”

The 11th annual CEND symposium addressed three core themes: Molecular Diagnostics, Antibiotic Resistance, and Helminthic Diseases. During each of the three sessions, three speakers presented scientific research projects, product development, and policy. Topic-specific panels at the end of the session allowed the audience to pose questions to all three of the speakers at once.

For a recap of the 11th Annual Symposium, please follow this link.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need for better integration of science and policy in a sharp focus. The 13th Annual CEND Symposium "Rapid innovation in a highly regulated space - what can we learn from COVID-19 for pandemic preparedness?" aimed to provide a forum for interdisciplinary thought exchange and development of ideas about how to best harness academic innovation and reserve capacity, and how to develop regulatory frameworks in times of crisis.

This two-day conference featured lectures from thought leaders in drug development, health policy, and other relevant fields, as well as workshops to develop tangible ideas for publication in a conference report. Videos from the 13th Annual CEND Symposium are available on CEND's Youtube channel.