Category: Blog Page 3 of 17

Over 200 members of the Duke community traveled to Washington, D.C. this week as part of the university’s reimagined immersive orientation programs and QuadEx initiative. The Duke in DC office, located in the heart of downtown D.C., served as a home and central convening space for the first-year students, as well as faculty, staff and student orientation leaders.

The two groups – Project Citizen (led by POLIS: Center for Politics) and Project Identity and Culture (led by Duke’s Office of Student Affairs) – spent several days participating in enriching educational activities, including a special showing of the musical “American Prophet,” meetings with Duke alumni, and visits to the U.S. Capitol, embassies and Smithsonian Museums.

“The history of our country impacts how identities are valued and devalued in the present day. Creating an opportunity in Washington, D.C. for students to take in both the strengths of historically marginalized communities and the challenges these communities have navigated with their peers presents so many valuable opportunities,” said Duke’s Associate Vice President of Student Affairs for Student Engagement Shruti Desai.

Desai highlighted the value that the two programs bring to Duke’s undergraduate experience, “It teaches students to reflect, dialogue across differences and question their own assumptions and learnings. This experience is a catalyst to how we want students to take on their time at Duke.”

Henry Stephens IV, a first year from Georgia on the Project Citizen trip, added that the orientation programs’ emphasis on diverse thinking stood out to him. “We have so many different perspectives and I think that’s what makes us – as Blue Devils – so great,” he said.

The week was highlighted by several marquee programs including:

A Night at Arena Stage – Students, faculty and staff from both programs gathered with over sixty alumni to attend “American Prophet,” a musical centered around abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s life and work. The musical, co-written and directed by Duke alumnus Charles Randolph-Wright ’78, is influenced by Douglass’s speeches and writings about escaping slavery and stewarding a national movement against racial injustice. Charles Randolph-Wright and members of the cast treated the Duke community to a post-performance discussion of key themes of the musical and took questions from the students.

Alumni Networking – Recent alumni Elise Bousquette ’22, Kamran Kara-Pabani ’22, Amy Kramer ’18, Bryant Lewis ’21, Christina Oliver ’17, Ivan Robles ’20 and Janelle Taylor ’19 attended a dinner with the Project Identity and Culture students at the Duke in DC office. During a panel discussion with a lengthy Q&A, the alumni shared valuable advice on academics and student life, including how to maintain balance, find meaningful extracurricular activities and build community at Duke.

Tour of Capitol Hill – Project Citizen students toured the U.S. Capitol and then heard from a panel of Duke alumni congressional staffers: Leah Hill ’09, Madeline Perrino ’16, Sandeep Prasanna ’11 and Nathaniel Sizemore ’17 who shared their experiences living and working in the nation’s capital, how Duke helped shape their careers and advice for succeeding at Duke.

“Our Project-Citizen first-year orientation experience was an extraordinary opportunity for students to think seriously about how they want to engage as members of the Duke and Durham communities, of the states and nations that they call home, and as world citizens,” said Deondra Rose, the director of Polis: Center for Politics and an associate professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy. “It was an honor for Polis to be included and to have the chance to help inspire students as they embark on their journey at Duke.”

Tyné Kidd, a first year from Maryland on the Project Citizen trip said, “Visiting the Capitol building – even though I’m from the area – was a better experience with my peers because it has built my confidence and pushed me to do things I never would have considered, like reaching out to public officials in my home state.” Project Citizen also engaged their students with tours of several embassies and civic training with Braver Angels and the Close Up Foundation.

Project Identity and Culture’s Smithsonian tour – Project Identity and Culture students toured several museums including the National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of American History: Molina Family Latino Gallery, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Joseph Asamoah-Boadu, a first year from North Carolina, reflected on his experiences with Project Identity and Culture saying, “There is so much history that gets left behind, so much history that people don’t talk about. It will be a priority of mine to tell people’s stories. It’s so important for us to know our history because if we don’t, history will repeat itself.”

Joyce Gordon, the director of Jewish Life at Duke who led Project Identity and Culture, highlighted the program’s overall value. “The trip to DC afforded students the opportunity to think deeply about and experience various aspects of identity before they embark on their Duke career,” said Gordon, “Through the lenses of history, arts, and the learned wisdom of young alumni, these students spent two days asking thoughtful questions and developing friendships to help guide them through their first weeks at Duke.”

Posted 8/25/22 by Lizzie Devitt

What do you get when you bring computational and molecular biology, data science and engineering all together? That’s what Daniel Reker and his lab are investigating. Daniel Reker is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School for Engineering who joined Duke University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2020.  In his research, Reker uses machine learning and modeling to explore how drugs, excipients and nanoparticles behave once they enter the body. Duke’s Office of Government Relations asked Reker five questions about his work and its implications for the future of big data-driven protocols for precision medicine and personalized drug delivery. 

What influenced you to study machine learning and its applications in designing drug therapies? 

I have always been interested in both computer science and chemistry. Computer science enables us to design smart algorithms to solve problems and chemistry can explain complex, real-life phenomena from molecular interactions.  

My determination to combine these two fields productively led me on a winding educational path, weaving different programs that emphasized the computational or chemical sciences. This allowed me to learn a lot about these two disciplines and collaborate with and learn from amazing peers and mentors that helped shape my path. I realized that machine learning and pharmacology are specialties that were particularly fascinating to me since they enable the autonomous development of predictive algorithms and the design of molecules to treat diseases. It was clear to me that both were incredibly powerful and that a lot of impact can be achieved by combining them. To me, it’s the perfect combination of intellectually challenging questions that have a very clear societal impact. 

How does machine learning aid researchers’ ability to develop new drug therapies? What does your research and other research in the field mean for future developments in designing drug therapies? 

Researchers have proposed impactful approaches to use machine learning to improve all stages of therapeutic development – from refining our understanding of the disease to analyzing clinical trial data. Our work is focused on drug discovery, development, and delivery, where we aim to identify new molecules that have useful therapeutic properties, optimize them, and create carrier materials to ensure that the medication can reach the desired organ.  

Machine learning algorithms can learn from past experiments to predict the outcome of future experiments. This enables us to focus our experiments on the most promising candidates, and thereby save time and resources.  

Can you provide an example where machine learning proved useful? 

One particularly promising direction is the use of “active machine learning”, where the machine can ask a scientist to perform experiments that the algorithm is uncertain about – which are most informative and thereby can generate data that helps the algorithm improve future predictions. 

More recently, we have started to use machine learning to predict a wide range of other properties of drug candidates, such as potential side effects or ease of synthesis. Such machine learning models enable us to anticipate potential “dead ends” in our drug development campaigns and thereby de-risk the process. 90% of all drug development campaigns fail, so reducing risk could help us to bring more life-saving medications to patients.  

In the future, I believe that we will be able to combine thousands of machine learning models to predict all the positive and negative effects medication could have on a specific, individual patient. Such systems will enable pharmaceutical companies and clinicians to develop and prescribe the safest and most effective medication for every individual patient – thereby providing an important tool to personalize medicine and making pharmaceutical research and development more equitable.  

What findings in your research have you found most significant?   

The most significant part of our work to me is when we can see a “real world” effect of our predictions. For example, it is always exciting to see when our designed molecules change the behavior of cells and proteins in the laboratory. Other examples are predicted side effects of medications: many patients reached out to us to thank us for helping them better understand these issues and for raising awareness about complications that they or a loved one have been struggling with for decades. Similarly, I still vividly remember when we were treating mice with our computationally designed nanoparticles and saw them improving much faster compared to the mice that received the standard treatment.  It is this real-world impact that has drawn me to study pharmacology, and it is what keeps me motivated every day.  

What are you looking forward to most in your time at Duke? 

Aspects that set Duke apart from other institutions are the sense of community and the collaborative climate.  The work of my laboratory synergizes with many other scientists and, although we have only been at Duke for a bit over a year and started working here during a pandemic, we have already established seven collaborative projects with colleagues in Pharmacology, Biology, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Immunology. Especially the proximity between the university and the hospital provides unique opportunities for translational research at Duke. 

Another big advantage for Duke is the incredible students that are smart, driven, and creative. These students drive a lot of our research and are also excited to explore new research directions. I have recently established a new class “Machine Learning in Pharmacology” at Duke that is very popular. We are also setting up a “Biomedical Data Science Master’s Certificate” at Duke together with some of my colleagues. These are just some examples of how we are working to further enhance the training at Duke. Seeing the student’s excitement and passion for the field is hugely rewarding and gives me hope for a brighter future. 

What would you like to tell students who are also interested in computer science and its biomedical applications? 

It is a very exciting time to work in computational biomedical sciences. Not only has computational power and algorithms improved in the last years, but we now also have access to larger datasets thanks to increasing automation from biomedical experiments. Maybe even more importantly, the quality of biomedical data has been dramatically improving and technologies such as CRISPR, cell painting, single-cell biology, and broader access to sequencing technologies are improving our understanding of the biological systems we are trying to model and treat. All these improvements have created a big hype around AI-driven drug development, which is currently resulting in rapidly growing educational and job opportunities. It is very interdisciplinary work that profits from many different perspectives, and I have seen students with many different backgrounds be very successful in this field. My advice for students is to seek out learning opportunities not in one area alone but in both biomedical sciences and computation as well as at their interface. For example, our laboratory has access to a cluster computer, but we also run our biological experiments in our wet laboratory. I have specifically designed our laboratory in this way to increase our scientific impact but also to provide a training environment where students are engaged in both computation and experiments. The future of our field will require scientists that are “multilingual” to translate between fields, identify relevant medical challenges, and tailor appropriate computational algorithms to solve them. 

Computer science and its products are undoubtedly a key part of our society’s future. As a result, it is of the utmost importance that we ensure diversity in terms of those who are working in computer science, as well as its effects on society.

Shani Daily is a professor of practice in Electrical and Computer Engineering & Computer Science at Duke University and was named among North Carolina’s Black STEM Leaders by Governor Roy Cooper this year. Last year, Daily and her colleague Nicki Washington were awarded $10 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish the Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (AiiCE). The program aims to increase the entry, retention and degree completion rates of high school and undergraduate students from groups that are historically underrepresented in computing.

We spoke with Daily about this federal support for her work, her start in computer science and ways to attract the next generation of students to her field.

What influenced you to study computer science and its role in supporting diversity and inclusion? 

I have always been interested in building things (e.g., software, robots) that could support education. When I was in graduate school, I noticed a couple of things: first, there were not a lot of people in STEM who looked like me, and second, if STEM environments were going to be more inclusive, people would need the interpersonal skills necessary to work together. My work from there was either building technologies and programs to create more pathways for people to engage with STEM or technologies to cultivate emotional self-awareness and empathy. One example is a virtual environment where learners could program 3D dance partners. Another is a digital diary where learners could tell meaningful stories and see how their bodies physically responded to those stories. Ultimately, my dream is to be a part of creating an environment where diverse groups can come together to design computational solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. 

What are the ways we can use machine learning to improve the quality and diversity of computing education and what are some important factors when considering these interventions?

When I think about machine learning (ML), I think about understanding patterns. What we want to continually get better at accomplishing is understanding how DEI interventions influence the computing landscape. Moving forward, our interest is to utilize ML approaches to make data-driven decisions about the types of interventions that will best impact students.

Can you discuss the Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education’s (AiiCE’s) mission and how the Nationals Science Foundation (NSF) supports the program’s objectives?

The Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (AiiCE) was formed to address barriers to marginalized groups participating in computing and create measurable change by increasing and normalizing course and degree enrollment, retention and completion rates of students from groups that are historically underrepresented in computing. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) cooperative agreement provides $10 million over five years to enable us to establish a network of educators, policymakers, administrators, industry leaders and others to transform the computing landscape. 

Are there any policy-driven changes that you would like to see in the higher education system and/or how we prepare students who are entering the workforce?

Our work is based on the thought that policy can impact students’ abilities to enter the workforce. We also look at the need to change practices and influence how educators and administrators work to create inclusive environments. Specific policies might include ensuring educators, staff and TAs can adopt practices and dispositions that support inclusive excellence; expanding research opportunities to include agendas that influence social justice work; ensuring DEI policies and practices are a part of larger accountability structures; developing incentive structures to recruit, prepare and retain a diverse pool of computer science teachers (K-12); and providing comprehensive educator preparation and professional development programs that support identity-inclusive pedagogy and practices.

What would you like to tell students who are interested in computer science and engineering at Duke?

Duke is an extraordinary place with lots of interdisciplinary opportunities for students. The Duke Technology Scholars Program also provides unmatched support for students. I’d encourage students who want to develop any fluency in computation to explore the wide range of opportunities to engage at Duke. 

Posted 6/23/22

 
“Oceans are in transition,” said Dan Vermeer, “We know that both ecosystems and economies are changing faster than ever before.” 

This was the framing shared at the start of Duke in DC’s recent briefing for federal policymakers “Oceanpreneurship: Creating a Vibrant Ecosystem to Scale Ocean Innovation.” The conversation was centered around World Ocean Day, Capitol Hill Ocean Week and the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference – all coinciding in June. The panelists discussed the blue innovation landscape and assessed how policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs and universities can foster rapid development and large-scale deployment of these exciting solutions. 

The ocean economy has long been dominated by large, global companies in traditional industries like oil and gas, shipping and fishing. However, alongside these incumbent industries, there is a rapidly evolving ecosystem of startups using innovative technologies and business models to solve ocean problems, and sustainably use ocean resources to address global challenges. 

After attending a United Nations conference as a college student, Daniela Fernandez, founder and CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), saw a clear need for a centralized platform that provided “intersectoral and intergenerational collaboration,” to solve pressing oceanic problems. “The maritime industry has been around for a really long time,” said Fernandez, “what is new is the fact that we are taking the approach of regenerating and sustaining the ocean.”  

Aleksandra Gosiewski, another panelist and co-founder and COO of Algiknit, drew upon her experience in the fashion industry to identify a more sustainable fabric solution. Algiknit is a startup that focuses on producing seaweed-based sustainable textiles. Gosiewski said that early on, “there’s clearly a need for more sustainable materials,” and companies that have set sustainability targets are looking for novel solutions. However, it is an early industry, with risk involved and specifically “when it comes to grants, they are also few and far between because it is a new space.”  

Mark Huang, co-founder and managing director of SeaAhead, discussed some of the issues currently facing the ocean and what policy and industry interventions are promising.  

“The policy we all know is hard,” but Huang noted that a ray of hope is the “changing is the power of the consumer and the public.” He observed that as consumers are starting to use their pocketbooks to drive change, we will begin to move the needle faster.  

Several panelists underscored the increasing urgency for both government and industry to act, develop frameworks and rapidly develop solutions to avoid more entrenched issues related to climate change. “You can’t improve what you can’t measure,” said Alexis Grosskopf, founder and CEO of OceanHub Africa, “we need to have a better understanding of what’s happening in the ocean.” Grosskopf added that all sectors need to get involved to better manage the ocean and design solutions.  

Among her recommendations to Congress, Fernandez outlined a need for more government funding and additional permitting for companies that enter the ocean space. She also called for policymakers to direct their focus to short-term targets rather than loftier environmental goals over the next several decades. “The reality for all of us is that we are the last generation that can do something significant to change the trajectory we are on.” 

“This is our responsibility,” said Fernandez, “and this is our problem, and we need to link arms and work together on this as a collective because we don’t have another choice.” 

Posted on 6/29 by Lizzie Devitt

Reflecting on the vital role this federal program has played for students at Duke over the years  

The Pell Grant, one of America’s premier means of providing financial aid to college students, hits a big milestone this week as the program turns 50 years old. On June 23^rd, Duke joins the higher education community in marking Pell’s golden anniversary and day of advocacy. 

First created in 1972 by the Higher Education Act (HEA) Reauthorization, Pell Grants have provided aid to tens of millions of college students who are most in need of financial support. According to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), the Pell Grant supplied nearly 7 million college students student aid in the 2019-2020 academic year. In the same academic year, the program also supported 14% of all Duke University undergraduate students. 

“Pell Grants play a vital role in helping all students have access to higher education,” explained Miranda McCall, the assistant vice provost and director of the Karsh Office of Undergraduate Financial Support at Duke. “Since the program began 50 years ago, it has helped millions of people in our country attend college. Duke provides robust additional financial support for Pell recipients to meet demonstrated financial need, and we stand with other colleges and universities in advocating for the doubling of the Pell Grant to ensure broader access to higher education nationwide.” 

Strengthening the Pell Grant remains a key priority for Duke’s federal advocacy agenda. Chris Simmons, Duke’s associate vice president for government relations, emphasized that Pell Grants give “recipients an additional boost as they make their way through the college years. It also offers a glimmer of hope and optimism, politically, as it enjoys strong bipartisan support year to year.” 

“While the support and program are celebrated,” said Simmons, “the anniversary is a good reminder that more must be done to support our most financially vulnerable students.” 

As the anniversary date of June 23, 2022, approaches, Duke has continued to reiterate its support for Pell Grants and advocates for doubling the maximum Pell Grant to the North Carolina Congressional delegation. We have also been supportive of the recent bipartisan, bicameral resolutions honoring the Pell Grant program.  

More activity and celebration of this anniversary will be found on Duke in DC’s Twitter feed and at #PellTurns50 on social media all week. 

Technological advancement over the past several years has brought FinTech and cryptocurrency to the forefront of our public discourse. While these innovations to both domestic and international financial institutions are here to stay, a select few individuals have a deep understanding of what they are and what this signifies for the future of banking.

Jimmie Lenz, an executive in residence and director of the Master of Engineering in FinTech and Cybersecurity at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, provides some answers for those who are looking to learn more about cryptocurrency and FinTech and offers advice to lawmakers as they consider legislation and implementation of regulations for the industry.

What is a common misunderstanding amongst federal policymakers about crypto and FinTech?

I could write a book about each of these, maybe several. Probably the most pronounced misconception around FinTech is that this is something new. I feel like I’ve been working in FinTech during my over two-decade career in financial services. Crypto is a bit different, this is quite new and should be approached, as with any new technology, with an eye toward the future opportunities that it may facilitate.

What are the primary considerations lawmakers should keep in mind when shaping legislation and regulations?

Understanding that these are both delivering products and services that are new, and that they likely will not conform to historic notions. Understanding the offerings that these technologies provide, as well as the technologies themselves, is of paramount importance. Trying to shape legislation based on anything less than a good working understanding could be quite catastrophic.

What does the Biden administration’s executive order on cryptocurrencies get right, get wrong, and/or leave unaddressed?

Let’s face it, this executive order was pretty light in terms of tone and direction, which is certainly better than uninformed legislation, but at this point in time, it should have been a bit more concise. There are a number of agencies that this [responsibility] has been pushed to, and that’s likely to end in more of the same regulatory agency posturing that we’ve seen before. It would be great if a few legislators on both sides of the aisle could look at the morass of regulatory agencies and possibly use this as an opportunity to start to move into the 21^st century.

In your eyes, what does the future hold in terms of how we exchange money and protect consumer privacy?

These are two vastly different questions in my mind. Privacy involves ownership, in this case of personal data. Like other assets that one owns: it can be sold, traded and sometimes stolen; it has value and like all valuable assets there is a market for it. “Money” whether fiat, crypto, or something else is a store of value and technology has allowed these stores of value to be exchanged in different ways. As we have seen, this has facilitated people around the world at times of emergency, to exchange currency quickly, but there are opportunities to make commerce much more efficient and remove the “frictions” that often hamper trade.

What are the concerns if the U.S. doesn’t craft a comprehensive, well-informed policy around these topics?

There are two in my mind. The first is the competitive edge we will lose along with the companies and people that are developing these technologies. The second is the benefits that society will lose out on – this goes for government too – in delaying the use of things like digital currencies, digital wallets, etc.

What are privacy and corruption concerns if crypto is primarily regulated by the private sector?

People vote with their feet. If they are concerned, they simply won’t use a particular service, we’ve seen this time and again. My concern over regulation is that it will favor the legacy firms at the cost of new products and services being made available to the widest array of people.

By Lizzie Devitt, 6/8/22

The question of how we can prevent and mitigate the effects of future pandemics has a down-to-earth answer – protect the environment. Duke researchers Stuart Pimm, Bill Pan and Dana Pasquale spoke to a virtual audience of professionals from Washington, D.C. on May 9^th to discuss key insights about the adverse consequences arising from climate change, deforestation, wildlife trade, urbanization and other global environmental and animal health threats.

As Congress works on bipartisan legislation to prepare for the next pandemic, Stuart Pimm, the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, listed several threats he thinks are important to recognize for the future. “Many disease vectors… are moving north and can begin to enter the U.S., fringes of Europe and certainly China,” Pimm noted, “we are an increasingly urbanized society,” and are continuing to be more mobile through migration and travel.

“These risks are completely independent from science and medical technology being able to address emerging disease…it is mostly riven by environmental, anthropogenic-environmental change.

Bill pan

The panelists outlined several additional factors – agriculture practices, illegal gold mining and logging – that also will exacerbate society’s risks of encountering new pathogens.

“These risks are completely independent from science and medical technology being able to address emerging disease,” Pan said, “it is mostly driven by environmental, anthropogenic-environmental change.” As a result, efforts to curb or stop these practices would have a great impact on the prevention of future pandemics.

By observing the COVID-19 pandemic response, researchers have also drawn conclusions about how we can better prepare for future disease outbreaks. Duke Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences Dana Pasquale explained that while a vaccine is a helpful tool in healing from COVID-19, “the next pandemic will be underway before a vaccine is developed.”

Bill Pan, the Elizabeth Brooks Reid and Whitelaw Reid Associate Professor of Population Studies at Duke also commented on some of the other shortcomings of relying on vaccines. “The problem that comes in with the environment is that vaccines are an individual choice, but the environment is not,” explained Pan. “Climate change, deforestation and sea level rise all affect the population on a much broader scale. There are specific environmental interventions that we need to begin thinking about to prevent massive spillover of diseases… because vaccines will not always protect us.”

“As an ecologist, I think we need to recognize that there are some very straightforward, prudent, sensible and cheap interventions that we could implement.”

Stuart pimm

Pimm emphasized the importance of stopping deforestation of tropical rainforests – which adds an additional four billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year – as well as wildlife trade. “All of these are simple and cost-effective, and we have to think about these as a matter of policy to slow down what might be the next scourge.”

“As an ecologist,” explained Pimm, “I think we need to recognize that there are some very straightforward, prudent, sensible and cheap interventions that we could implement.”

From the local level to the global scale, climate and mobility jointly contribute to the rises and falls of pathogenic spread throughout the seasons. Pan highlighted that while illegal migration is typically cited as the main concern for transmission, “the fact is that internal migration within countries and even legal migration across borders are spreading diseases in ways that greatly exceed any type of illegal migration.”

Pasquale also underlined another risk, current agricultural practices which use antimicrobials to increase farm yields.“We’re doing quite a number to increase the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance… we know already that its heading to disaster and we’re not doing anything to slow down.” In addition, climate change, accompanied with defaunation and deforestation, will cause humans to encounter other animals and pathogens more frequently. Pasquale explained,“there will be opportunities for more novel diseases to potentially contact species that they never contacted before and in some cases, there will be a suitable host for that new pathogen.”

“Surveillance is a really tricky problem. It requires a lot of investment and resources… as anthropogenic climate change occurs, as the world warms, as people move, there has to be more of a focus on integrating animal health and environmental health.”

dana pasquale

In closing the three researchers provided policy staff in the audience with several recommendations and preventative measures.

First, Pasquale discussed surveillance and tracing of the potential transmission and spread of pathogens, which continues to be an issue even for developed countries like the US. “Surveillance is a really tricky problem,” said Pasquale, “it requires a lot of investment and resources… as anthropogenic climate change occurs, as the world warms, as people move, there has to be more of a focus on integrating animal health and environmental health.”

Closing with a call for action, Pimm stated, “Many of these things we can stop. Countries can suppress illegal gold mining and logging in their forests – they can stop deforestation and do this for the bargain price of a few billion dollars.” The important thing will be for countries, including the U.S., to implement strong, proactive policy and so these issues do not become insurmountable.

By Lizzie Devitt, Posted 5/26/22

Learning from COVID-19 and Planning for the Future 

In a short period of time, the world has gone through an unbelievable process of acknowledging, responding, and acclimating to a global pandemic. “[This response] didn’t happen out of nowhere,” explained Dean and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, Duke University School of Medicine, Mary Klotman, MD. “There was a broad base of fundamental work and infrastructure that allowed a rapid generation of vaccines that goes back 20-30 years. There is a need to keep that tech and infrastructure going as we anticipate the next challenge.” 

As Congress works to draft bipartisan legislation to strengthen the nation’s public health infrastructure and prepare for future pandemics, Duke in DC and Duke Health Government Relations convened a group of Duke experts to brief federal policymakers. The briefing focused on the importance of federal investment in research, the impacts from their work, and additional recommendations to bolster our nation’s public health, medical preparedness, and response systems.  

The April 11^th event was moderated by Dean Klotman and the panelists included Tom Denny, MSc, M.Phil, the chief operating officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) and professor of medicine at the Duke University Medical Center; Christina Silcox, PhD, digital health policy fellow at the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy; and Tony Moody, MD, professor of pediatrics and immunology at Duke University Medical Center and DHVI member.  

Vaccines are one of the most critical public health investments needed to protect us from current and emerging infectious diseases. DHVI has been a global leader in vaccine research since the 1980s, addressing global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, influenza and zika. Reflecting on some of the successes from the pandemic, Denny noted, “the fact that we identified a pathogen and were able to provide multiple vaccine candidates with EUA (emergency use authorizations) approval was truly amazing,” while also stressing the need for more countermeasures. 

“One of the things the vaccine institute (DHVI) is working on, with funding from the NIH (National Institutes of Health), is a new generation of pan-coronavirus vaccine,” said Denny. This vaccine, which would provide broad coverage for several SARS-like pathogens along with a separate flu vaccine that Duke is working on, could work in tandem to provide protection for a number of illnesses over time. As a result, Denny stated, “There is reason to be optimistic, but we can’t take our foot off the pedal.” 

Also critical to the pandemic response are public health interventions including testing, screening, treatments, infrastructure-based mitigation, technology and more. The Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy has offered pioneering policy expertise to address the COVID-19 pandemic and to create a pathway to reopen the nation successfully and create a more secure health care system.  

Silcox emphasized, “The hard science around identifying the virus, making the vaccine and inventing the test is really only the first step.” Building up implementation, the delivery system, data infrastructure, and most importantly communication and trust are key to managing the pandemic on a global scale.  

“We focus on the biomedical science, and often forget about the social science,” added Klotman. 

Silcox pointed to a real need for researchers and policymakers to “understand the different subpopulations and attitudes throughout the United States and learn how to communicate with them.”  

Lessons Learned 

Denny stressed the importance of maintaining a flexible, growth mindset around emerging findings and building better efforts around the global surveillance of viruses and testing.  

Moody added that the pandemic highlighted existing challenges in our global infrastructure. “We have a globally interdependent economy, and supply chain was an incredible issue,” he stated, “which we have to plan for and deal with. We learned to be flexible.” 

Manufacturing capacity, central reporting for at-home tests, and the lack of ability to alert people who are at high-risk were challenges in the pandemic response and critical to plan for in the future. “We also need to find a way to make testing less logistically complicated,” said Silcox.  

An underappreciated aspect of the pandemic response is the importance of investing in data and infrastructure. “If you’re going to make policy decisions,” said Moody, “you need the best data you can get your hands on.” 

The panelists agreed that ventilation requires more attention when it comes to future mitigation strategies. “There are a lot of benefits to focusing on ventilation, but we need to make sure there is equity,” explained Silcox. Many high-risk settings including nursing homes, prisons, and schools have aging infrastructure where the ventilation is not good. She also added that “wastewater testing has been invaluable,” and provides an early warning sign that over-the-counter testing can’t provide.  

Policy and Next Steps 

As Congress and the Biden administration consider how to develop strong policies to prepare for future pandemic threats, Moody emphasized communication and investment in infrastructure are key.  

“You build a fire station for the size of the fire you want to contain,” said Moody, “you can’t decide to build the fire station when the fire starts, you have to build it upfront.” We need to “learn from this and build on this, otherwise we are going to be in a situation during the next pandemic where we are recreating all the things, we just spent two years creating,” he explained.  

When it comes to public mistrust and misunderstanding, clear and consistent communication is critical. “If we don’t communicate with the public in an effective way, we won’t make much progress,” added Klotman.  

Spring Roundup of Federal Activities in Washington, D.C. 

Another few months have passed and after several continuing resolutions, Congress has successfully passed its FY22 omnibus package in time for spring. Below are the highlights from the last few months and a preview of what is to come for Congress and the Biden administration as it relates to Duke and the higher education community: 

Budget and Appropriations 

On March 11^th, President Biden signed the $1.5 trillion FY22 omnibus package into law. The bill provides a 6.7% increase for domestic discretionary spending and a 5.6% increase for defense spending over FY21 levels. Notably, the bill established ARPA-H (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health), a new agency housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that will focus on accelerating the pace of scientific breakthroughs for disease.  

Soon after passing the FY22 legislation, the Biden administration released its FY23 budget request on March 28^th. The request calls for $5 billion to the newly established ARPA-H, a 20% increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF) above FY22 levels and a proposed $2,175 increase to the maximum Pell Grant maximum award to put the program on a path to double the award size by 2029.  

As a reminder, the budget request is mostly a wish list for the White House and Congress is now working to develop appropriations bills that align with its own priorities. For a quick overview of the congressional appropriations process, please see this graphic linked here.  

Research and Innovation 

Congress continued its work to develop major competitiveness legislation during the early months of 2022. In February, the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act on a party-line vote of 222-210. After previously noting a preference for passing stand-alone authorization measures, House leadership decided to draft a companion measure to the Senate-passed US Innovation and Competition Act. This began a series of procedural efforts to start the formal conference negotiations, culminating with the naming of conferees earlier this month. You can review the lists of House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans conferees here.  

Higher ed associations laid out priorities for conference negotiations in a letter to Congressional leadership and produced a side-by-side comparison of the pending bills from each chamber. 

As Congress continues to debate the contours of the sweeping competitiveness legislation and the future direction of the National Science Foundation, the National Science Foundation formally launched its new Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP) Directorate in March. NSF describes TIP as a critical first step to accelerate the development of new technologies and products that improve daily life, grow the economy, create new jobs and strengthen U.S. competitiveness. 

In early February Eric Lander resigned from his role leading the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Lander stepped down amid reports of bullying and mistreatment of subordinates. Currently OSTP’s interim leadership consists of Dr. Alondra Nelson performing the duties of director of OSTP and Dr. Francis Collins performing the duties of Science Advisor to the President and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. 

 
Foreign Influence and Research Security 

Issues and concerns related to foreign influence and research security continue to be a focus for both Congress and the Biden administration. On one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, conference negotiators for the aforementioned competitiveness legislation will work through different research security and foreign influence provisions contained in the House and Senate bills. A side-by-side of these provisions can be found here but some of the most concerning provisions include an expansion of a Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) review of certain gifts and contracts between foreign individuals and universities, faculty disclosure of foreign gifts and contracts and overly broad definitions of foreign talent programs. 

Within the Biden administration, the Department of Justice announced changes to its “China Initiative” in late February. The new “Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats” will replace the China Initiative and take a more broad and comprehensive approach to address efforts by other nations which seek to undermine our core democratic, economic, and scientific institutions.  

Higher Education and Student Aid 

Noted in the chart above, the FY22 omnibus package included a $6,895 maximum Pell grant award and the Biden administration has requested an increase in FY23 to $8,670. 

The release of the Department of Education’s Title IX regulations are expected to come out in May. The forthcoming regulations are expected to rewrite the Trump administration’s rules on sexual misconduct and codify federal anti-discrimination protections for transgender students. 

The department also announced it would extend the pause on student loan repayment again through August 31, 2022. The pause, which was initially put in to place during the COVID-19 pandemic, will provide additional time for borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments. 

Immigration 

USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) recently announced a three-part effort to increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall legal immigration system. USCIS will set new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expand premium processing to additional form types, and work to improve timely access to employment authorization documents. 

In response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the Biden administration announced it will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and other displaced individuals. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also announced it will grant Ukrainians Temporary Protected Status (TPS). 

Biden Administration and Federal Government 

On April 7^th, Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially confirmed by the Senate, making her nomination to the Supreme Court a reality. Jackson is set to become the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the nation. 

Robert Califf, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, Duke alum and former professor of cardiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, was approved by the Senate to once again lead the FDA. Raskin, the Colin W. Brown Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at the Duke Law, decided to rescind her nomination to serve as vice chair for supervision of the Board of Governors of the Fed amid dissension around her positions on climate change regulations. 

Updates from the Office of Government Relations and Duke in DC 

The Duke in DC office hosted a welcome dinner this semester for Duke and NCCU Army cadets. The dinner featured a conversation between Duke alumni Wyndee Parker ‘91, national security advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Pat Thompson ‘11, national security advisor to Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), moderated by Amy Kramer ’18, special assistant and policy analyst in the U.S. Army. 

In 2022, Duke in DC also launched a new video series, “Duke Research and the Federal Funding that Makes it Possible.” The series highlights projects throughout Duke University that are progressing science, innovation and discovery, and underlines the positive impacts they are creating for the state of North Carolina. The first two videos of the series are DOE (Department of Energy) and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) and NIH (National Institutes of Health) and Duke’s Superfund Research Center.  

There has been strong representation from Duke faculty on the hill this semester. William (Sandy) Darity, Manju Puri and Shane Stansbury each provided expert testimony to Congress.  

Darity spoke to the House Financial Services Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee about the role of financial institutions in the horrors of slavery and the need for atonement. Puri spoke to the House Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Regulations on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Stansbury spoke to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on the role of digital assets in illicit finance.