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COVID-19: An Update on best practices, testing and future directions.
April 28, 2020 at 8:00 pm EDT
COVID-19: An Update on best practices, testing and future directions
Rabbi Arthur Schneier in dialog with Sarah Schlesinger Hirschfeld, M.D.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/iw-JSl53Cjw
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87641366256
Meeting ID: 876-4136-6256
ABOUT SARAH SCHLESINGER HIRSCHFELD, M.D.
Sarah Hirschfeld is an Associate Professor of Clinical Investigation and Senior Attending Physician at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Hirschfeld chairs The Rockefeller University Institutional Review Board and the Research Education and Training committee, which is part of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. She also serves as director of the Clinical Scholars Program and the Certificate in Clinical and Translational Sciences Program.
Previously, she led clinical trials of 11 HIV vaccines and vaccine adjuvants. She also previously conducted the first HIV vaccine trial based on dendritic cells, which were discovered at Rockefeller in 1973 by Ralph M. Steinman and his mentor, Zanvil A. Cohn. Ralph’s discovery was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011.
In the steady state, dendritic cells capture antigens and travel to immune or lymphoid tissues, where they present the antigens to T cells, stimulating a robust immune response. But dendritic cells also play a seemingly opposite role, immune tolerance, silencing dangerous immune cells and preventing them from attacking the body’s own tissues. Working with Steinman, Dr. Hirschfeld used dendritic cells to study and design treatments that can either enhance the immune system or silence its functions in an antigen- or disease-specific manner.
Dr. Hirschfeld currently serves on the board of directors at Innoviva, Inc., Armata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. eGenesis Bio and the board of three non-profit organizations: the AIDS Vaccines Advocacy Coalition, Global Viral, and The Hastings Center, the pre-eminent center for the study of bioethics. Dr. Hirschfeld served as an independent corporate director of Ariad Pharmaceuticals from 2013 until its sale to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited in 2017 and as independent corporate director of The Medicines Company until its sale to Novartis in 2020.
Dr. Hirschfeld has a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois. She trained in Pathology at The New York Hospital where she served as Chief Resident. She lives in New York City with her husband Real Estate developer Elie Hirschfeld. Together they are the proud parents of ten children and three grandchildren.