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Threats to global health security continue to evolve due to the changing nature of conflict, advances in science and technology, globalization, and the growing threat posed by emerging infectious diseases and pandemics. Pandemics, Bioterrorism and Global Health Security: From Anthrax to Zika is a three and a half-day workshop, non-credit summer workshop designed to introduce participants to the challenges facing the world at the intersection of national security, public health, and the life sciences. The workshop faculty are internationally recognized experts from the government, private sector, and academia who have been extensively involved with research and policy-making on public health, biodefense, and national security issues. The workshop is organized by the Biodefense Graduate Program at the Schar School of Policy and Government and will be held at the Schar School’s campus in Arlington, Virginia on July 15-18, 2019.

Features

-Syllabus and reading materials
-Social hour after first day of course
-Light breakfast, coffee, and lunch provided on all days
-Certificate of Attendance

Course Objectives

-Identify the range of biological threats and assess the risks they pose to public health and national security
-Describe impediments to organizational change and identify strategies for overcoming these obstacles
-Examine lessons learned from the SARS and avian flu outbreaks, the 2009 influenza pandemic, and the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak
-Explore the dual-use dilemma and how to balance the benefits of advanced biotechnologies against the safety and security risks they can pose
-Investigate the growing importance of biotechnology to the national economy, domestic and international risks to biotechnology innovation, and legal, policy, and regulatory measures for safeguarding the bioeconomy
-Understand the technical, political, regulatory, and financial obstacles to developing new medical countermeasures for bioterrorist and pandemic threats

Registration

Please click here to register for this event. Please note that only credit cards will be accepted.

Prior to June 1, the course fee is $1,200. After June 1, the course fee is $1,400. Discounts are available for George Mason University faculty, students, and alum and for groups of three or more from the same organization. If you qualify for one of these discounts or have any questions regarding registration, please email biodefense@gmu.edu.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds will be available if canceled prior to the start to the start of the workshop (July 15, 2019).

Emerging science in recent decades suggests that many chronic, non-communicable diseases (including diabetes, obesity, other metabolic or endocrine disorders, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and the aging process itself) may have common metabolic roots, and thus may be susceptible to common solutions.

But the challenges of targeting “metabesity” are not just technical:  Regulatory agencies today don’t know what to do with a pill that is claimed to delay aging; companies and financiers are disinterested in running and paying for clinical trials involving hundreds of thousands of subjects over a decade or more to demonstrate prevention; payers are reluctant to pay for products and services today where the benefits may not be reaped for decades.

Targeting Metabesity 2019 concerns some of the most important issues in healthcare today:  Increasing the focus on chronic, not just acute, diseases; shifting the emphasis from treatment to prevention; going beyond treating individual diseases to extending healthy lifespan.
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Bringing together stellar speakers from multiple disciplines, from science and medicine, government regulation and policy, reimbursement, industry and capital markets, patient advocacy and others, Metabesity 2019 is a call to action and a silo-busting conversation for tractable steps today to address healthcare challenges where the health and quality of life of billions of humans, and trillions of dollars in savings and opportunity, are at stake. We invite and urge all who have an interest in this conversation to attend this event.