COVID-19 & The Brain Webinar

Dr. Eric Song will discuss his work that revealed the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to directly infect the mammalian brain (Song et al., J. Exp. Med. 2021). This important study entailed the use of several elegant approaches to demonstrate SARS-CoV-2 infection of both mouse and human brains, with clear implications for the subset of COVID-19 patients experiencing persistent neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms after resolution of the acute disease. Dr. Song will also provide updates on his current efforts and offer perspectives on future directions of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 research.

Dr. Eric Song is presently in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Yale University. His previous training in biomedical engineering focused on nanoparticle design to facilitate gene therapy and drug delivery strategies. At Yale, Dr. Song joined the renowned Iwasaki lab where he explored immune responses in the central nervous system (CNS), which was traditionally thought to be immune-privileged. His future professional goal is to use his multidisciplinary training to develop novel therapeutic approaches for neurological disease.