December 11, 2009 Dr. Croyle takes part in a local panel on H1N1 policies sponsored by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Center for Health and Social Policy titled "Managing the H1N1 Virus:Immunization Development and Distribution Policy" at Brackenridge Hospital.
This event consisted of a panel of state and local health officials (Adolfo Valadez, Assistant Commissioner for Prevention and Preparedness Services at the Texas Department of State Health Services; Dr. Thomas Erlinger, Director of Research Administration, Infection Prevention and Epidemiology, Seton Hospital Network) and those in the scientific community with expertise in the science and management of infectious disease (Dr. Maria Croyle, UT Pharmacy and Dr. Lauren Meyers, UT Integrative Biology) moderated by Dr. Benedicte Callan, CHASP Professor and formerly of the OECD. The audience was local health care providers, and those involved in public health legislation. Dr. Croyle discussed issues associated with production and testing of H1N1 vaccines that have serious effect on public health with local health care providers, and those involved in public health legislation that attended the discussion.
November 1, 2009 Dr. Croyle takes a short break from the lab and runs the New York City Marathon!
On a cold and rainy Sunday morning, Dr. Croyle started her 26 mile race with 50,000 other international runners throughout the streets of New York's five boroughs: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. This was the 16th marathon race that she has completed.
October 4-6, 2009 Dr. Croyle Discusses Progress of Ebola Vaccine at Third Annual Global Vaccine Conference Held in Singapore.
Dr. Croyle met with internationally recognized leaders in vaccine development, design and distribution for four days at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia hotel Singapore to discuss issues associated with implementing novel vaccine delivery methods in the clinic. Dr. Croyle's talk, titled "Development of A Mucosal Vaccination Platform for Ebola" was also featured as part of the "Virtual Congress" that was videostreamed to subscribers in real time across the internet.
Ebola Cards
July 24, 2009 Croyle Welcomes 40 Outstanding High School Seniors to Visit Virus Laboratory
Twenty students fill a small lecture room chatting about what they have discovered while visiting the UT Austin campus. In rushes Dr. Maria Croyle, unbeknownst to them, with the announcement that something serious has happened in their small village here within this room and one person has fallen ill. While doing this she hands a somewhat shocked student a small card with a picture of the Ebola virus on it. She goes on to say that this individual rushes to her friends for help and in turn infects one of them (another student is given an Ebola card). Before they know it, 90% of the students in the room are holding Ebola cards. The exercise ends with approximately 75% of those infected holding "death" cards. This was one of several exercises used to illustrate how lethal pathogens spread and affect small isolated populations. Croyle then talked to the students about how these infections impact the state of Texas and the United States with respect to public health and economic policies. The class then toured her laboratory and got to witness how her group produces a recombinant vaccine against the Ebola virus from infecting cells used to grow the virus to final purification steps.
The Honors Colloquium is an annual event during which The University of Texas at Austin opens it's doors to high school seniors primarily from Texas high schools that will eventually be named National Merit, National Achievement, or National Hispanic Finalists and Scholars, and compete for the university's honor programs. For more information about this program see http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/hc
Maria Croyle & Sandra Renteria
Joe Dekker
Jin Huk Choi
May 27-30, 2009 The Croyle Lab Presents Three Papers on Vaccine Research at National American Society of Gene Therapy Meeting in San Diego
Three students from Dr. Croyle's lab had abstracts selected for presentation in the Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Section of the National ASGT meeting.
Sandra Renteria, a P3 student who started in the lab prior to studying in the College as part of the Hispanic Center of Excellence program, presented her work titled "Effects of Concentration and Formulation on Adenovirus Stability and Infectious Titer during Actuation from Two Intranasal Delivery Devices". Sandra received a travel scholarship from the College to support her trip and plans to submit this work to a peer-reviewed scientific journal by the end of the fall semester.
Joe Dekker, a graduate student in the ICMB program, presented his work titled "An In Vitro and In Vivo Strategy for Optimization of a Recombinant Adenovirus-Based Ebola Vaccine for Nasal Administration". Joe also plans to submit this work for publication soon.
Jin Huk Choi, a Pharmaceutics graduate student, also received a travel award from the College to present his work titled "Development of a Recombinant Adenovirus-Based Ebola Vaccine for Oral Administration".
Katie Lee, P1 student who also works in the lab, attended the meeting as part of her participation in the UT Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program for undergraduates in the College of Natural Sciences. To read more about Katie's experience in the IE program and her work in the Croyle lab, please visit her page.