UIC’s Innovation Celebration

WHAT:

The University of Illinois at Chicago Office of Technology Management will host its second annual Innovation Celebration, an event to recognize and celebrate commercially successful, cutting-edge innovations that got their start at UIC. A co-inventor of the Shingrix vaccine, which was developed at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Rockford, will share how a crucial discovery led to the vaccine to prevent shingles. Speakers will also discuss how UIC is supporting the Discovery Partners Institute, the collaborative research institute located in Chicago led by the University of Illinois System.

UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis will also announce a new multimillion-dollar partnership to foster the commercialization of therapeutics developed at UIC.

WHEN:

Tuesday, April 23
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

WHERE:

Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum
725 W. Roosevelt Road

WHO:

Michael Amiridis, Chancellor, UIC

TJ Augustine, Interim Vice Chancellor for Innovation, UIC

R. J. Cohrs, professor of neurology, University of Colorado, Denver, co-inventor, Shingrix

DETAILS:

Shingrix is a shingles vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the end of 2017, and developed by Abbas Vafai, who was an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford from 1990 to 1997 where he worked on the vaccine.

Vafai discovered the gE glycoprotein on the surface of the virus that causes shingles that he realized could be used as a vaccine antigen instead of using killed virus, which is what most vaccines are made from. He made these initial discoveries while at the University of Colorado. He further developed the glycoprotein into a vaccine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford.

Please RSVP to join this event.