by Simone Brunozzi
Pandemic Resilience, and Biowarfare
This week for Cota Access we discussed COVID-19, mRNA vaccines, synthetic biology and more. Our panel includes:
- Milana Boukhman Trounce, MD, MBA — Founder & Director of BioSecurity and Pandemic Resilience and Response at Stanford University
- Gigi Kwik Gronvall, PhD — Associate Professor and Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
- Simone Brunozzi (moderator) — Operating Partner at Cota Capital
Our panelists have been leading key COVID-19 initiatives at their respective institutions, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. They teach, research, speak, lead, and generally mic drop on all things “viral.”
We spoke about the new variants, the tech behind mRNA vaccines and synthetic biology, as well as what real threats and opportunities surround biosecurity and biowarfare today.
“The world is a big place and I think it’s important to remember— if we’ve learned nothing else from this year—is that infectious diseases don’t care about borders and that as long as the infections are raging in lots of other countries we’re going to have a problem.”
– Gigi Kwik Gronvall
With unique lenses on infectious disease, public health, and biowarfare, doctors Trounce and Gronvall enlightened us on topics that don’t often get the attention they deserve. Their training and vantage points helped shed light and hope on our current predicament around how we can elevate our resilience as a species, as a nation, and as a planet in the face of future bio-events.
ABOUT COTA ACCESS
The Cota Access webinar series offers in-depth, market-driven discussions from featured founders, thought leaders, and leading executives, exploring cutting-edge business and technology trends that fundamentally impact large enterprises.