The 13th Annual Great Plains Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference was held April 4th, 2024!
As in previous years, this conference served to bring together public health professionals, researchers, faculty, and students in microbiology, infectious diseases and related fields working in the Great Plains and Midwestern states. The GPEID Conference highlighted basic, applied, epidemiological, and translational research in biomedical and veterinary disciplines.
Below is information on the 2024 GPEID Program and the 2024 Keynote Speakers.
2024 GPEID Program
2024 Keynote Speakers:
Wendy L. Picking, PhD, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia
Wendy Picking is a MizzouForward Professor in Veterinary Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received her BA and PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Kansas. She did post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Texas at Austin and Washington University in St. Louis. After moving back to KU, Dr. Picking became a Research Assistant Professor secured NIH funding to examine the pathogenesis of Shigella flexneri, a diarrheal pathogen that is responsible for mortality and morbidity in children under the age of five in low income countries. Upon moving to Oklahoma State University, she obtained funding from the NIH, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the PATH-Enteric Vaccine Initiative to perform proof of concept experiments to demonstrate the protective efficacy of the novel vaccine, which provided the foundation for new serotype-independent subunit vaccines. Now at MU, Dr. Picking’s lab is expanding on these findings.
GPEID Conference Presentation: T3SS: Converting a bane into a boon
Without question the most powerful tool generated to date for protection of public health has been vaccination. While the low-hanging fruit has provided us with successful vaccines against scourges such as smallpox (now eradicated) and toxin-based diseases (e.g. diphtheria), more research-intensive efforts have put diseases such as polio on the verge of eradication. Vaccines against many of the bacterial pathogens have been more difficult to create due to, in many cases, the lack of effective adjuvants and the identification of conserved antigen targets that do not elicit serotype specificity. We have developed a platform that takes advantage of highly conserved and surface-localized type III secretion system proteins fused to LTA1, the active moiety of dmLT (double-mutant labile toxin from Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli), formulated as an emulsion-based nanoparticle. We will specifically discuss our success with a vaccine to prevent the many infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Shigella flexneri.
James A Roth, DVM, PhD, Presidential Chair in Veterinary Microbiology and Preventative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University
Dr. Jim Roth is a Clarence Hartley Covault Distinguished Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University in the veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine department. He also serves as the ISU Center for Food Security and Public Health (CFSPH) director and executive director of the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics. With the development of the Veterinary Biologics Training Program, Roth and his team have provided an educational program covering the USDA process for approving vaccines and diagnostics for more than 25 years. The CFSPH has advanced medical education related to foreign animal diseases available to every veterinary college in the country. Roth currently focuses on Secure Food Supply projects; working with state and federal officials and industry in planning for optimal responses to transboundary and emerging diseases that threaten the food supply or public health. He has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award from the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists and the Public Service Award from the American Veterinary Medical Association. Additionally, he received the Senator John Melcher Public Service Award from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges and the USDA APHIS Administrator’s Award for lifetime achievements in animal health. He has testified before Congress on biosecurity preparedness, efforts to address bioterrorism and agroterrorism, and the need for vaccines for foreign animal diseases. Roth served on the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity from its inception in 2005 until 2014. Roth is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been named to the National Academy of Medicine (2016). He is a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists.
GPEID Conference Presentation: The Need for Vaccines Against Transboundary Diseases of Food Animals for Pandemic Preparedness and Food Security
Contact Us
Have questions about the conference, registration, or abstract submission?
Contact: Anna Giudici (anna-giudici@uiowa.edu) or KariAn Mulford (karian-mulford@uiowa.edu)