ABSTRACT

Despite the scientific community warning us for some time of the possibility of highly infectious pandemics, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit we lacked the basic tools we needed to fight the spread of infection. Diagnostic tests became one of the early methods of defense to assess who in a population was infected, but were also critical in helping us understand how many people in a geographic area had been exposed to the virus, and esoteric tests were employed to understand whether individuals infected with SARS Cov2 virus were at risk of developing severe immunologically-based sequela. In this session we will look at the evolution of diagnostic tests during the Covid-19 pandemic and how this may change the future way manufacturers develop them, the way our government prepares for such an emergency, and consumer expectations.

About the Speaker:

Dr Renee Howell is currently Vice President of Clinical Sciences in the Medical Affairs department of Siemens Laboratory Diagnostics where she leads the clinical trials unit. Renee has over 25 years experience in industry working in R&D, Manufacturing, and Quality Assurance. She has held positions of increasing responsibility at several corporations including Siemens Laboratory Diagnostics, Canon Biomedical, Qiagen, Digene, and SeraCare. Dr. Howell completed doctoral studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey studying in vivo genetic variation of HIV-1 and postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland which focused on DNA structure and its effect on gene expression. She is a past Chair of the Industry Division of American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC), serves as a corporate representative to the Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine and is an advisor on the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Expert Panel on Molecular Methods. She is currently serving on the Westchester County Board of Managers for Laboratories and Research. Dr Howell has authored or co-authored dozens of scientific papers and professional abstracts and holds several US patents. https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneemhowell/