Lecture Starts at 10:15
PSW #2425
September 25, 2020
COVID-19 Treatments and Trials: Treatments to End a Pandemic
Davey Smith
UC-San Diego
www.pswscience.org

This talk will start by describing the current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and how it leads to COVID-19. It will then discuss issues with early studies on the treatment of COVID-19, using hydroxychloroquine as a case study. The presentation will next describe the current landscape of potential therapies, their targeted COVID-19 mechanisms, and how trials of these potential therapies are being conducted. The US government’s Operation Warp Speed program will be described with a focus on the ACTIV-2 trial, which aims to identify effective and safe treatments for people with COVID-19 that can keep them out of the hospital.

Davey Smith is Vice-Chair of Faculty in the Department of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health and Professor of Medicine at UC-San Diego, and he also serves as Co-Director of the San Diego Center for AIDS Research and the Florence Seeley Riford Chair in AIDS Research there.

Davey is a translational research virologist. He uses basic science techniques to answer clinically relevant questions and vice-versa. He conducts research at both UC San Diego Antiviral Research Center and his laboratory on the UC San Diego campus. He been primarily involved in studying both the transmission of HIV and HIV reservoir dynamics to understand the factors that drive HIV transmission and persistence, and to find new ways to interrupt these mechanisms.

In late 2019, when reports of a novel coronavirus began circulating, Smith refocused much of his research on investigating causes, preventatives, and potential cures for the new virus, working together with colleagues in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego. In March 2020, he instigated the formation of collaborative partnerships across the 17 NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) to pool laboratory equipment, methods, and knowledge applicable to HIV and easily transferable to studies of the novel coronavirus, helping to speed research on COVID-19. Currently, Davey leads or in involved in numerous COVID-19 studies across the United States.

Among other honors and awards, Davey was named HIV Researcher of the Year by the HIV Medical Association and was elected as a Fellow to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and of the American College of Physicians.

Davey earned his MD at the East Tennessee State University School of Medicine. He did his internship, residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at UC San Diego, and stayed there to complete a fellowship in Infectious Diseases.

www.pswscience.org