O this summit, the future of america in america summit. Were published by good and upworthy and were with the Aspen Institute and Society Program for this event. Im aaron, and im the founding director of the Aspen Institute science and Society Program. Part of the Broader Health medicine. Science and society was established in 2019 with the mission to elevate public trust in science and to help fost ear more diverse scientific workforce. Next slide. The gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the rita allen foundation. We would like to thank the eneral supporters. This event accompanies a magazine that talks about the lection issue. It was very positively reviewed. It was positively reviewed in the washington post. Are a number of the articles that you can view online if you heck out the magazine. Next slide. We are thrilled to have a stellar lineup of experts to discuss the future so future of science in this country. The format is rotating pair conversations during which two experts will speak for approximately eight minutes before we moved to the next pair. At the end of the five conversations, we will bring the speakers back for a q a. You can submit your question using the q a feature. At the bottom of the screen. And we will conclude the summit at 1 10 p. M. Eastern time. We will have the chat open for ll attendees if people wish to react to the discussion and, or share information. Ext slide. We will not be reading the biography. We will time each conversations for eight minutes and give notice when there is 30 seconds remaining in each conversation. Our first pair is dr. Ichelle mcmurryheath and dr. Rance cordova. We will bring those two into the spotlight. Dr. Mcmurryheath, youre welcome to kick us off with the irst question. Murryheath so im interested in how you are seeing this impacting science funding. We have seen new models for scientific funding in 2019 and 2020. What is this mean for the uture . Dealing with the covid situation, impacting science funding, michelle . Exactly. Yeah, well, i think all the science agencies are very busy. Ith receiveing proposals they are doing an admirable job. Theyre doing this at home, virtually. I know the National Science foundation, with which i am most familiar are doing reviews and awards remotely. And theyre theyre just giving out a tremendous number of awards. When you look at the statistics its even better than a year ago perhaps because they have more time to focus. And i think that it is working out very well for that particular gency. To receive a lot of proposals to get the funding out. I think i have been much more involved in the philanthropic world. Since initiating my term at the National Science foundation the foundations are stepping up. I know the science philanthropy alliance, for which i am a Senior Advisor is doing a lot to encourage the funding of basic research. And have over 30 foundations as part of that. And the foundations are really stepping up, realizing the tremendous importance of the continuity of science funding. There have been so many allegations of political interference in science funding and the covid related projects and agendas through this last year. Can public trust and science agencies further the progress of science to the benefit of the public . That is an important question, michelle. Science is about a search for truth. It is essential that the public trust the science agencies which have been authorized and funded. And have oversige from congress, which of course theyre the elected representatives of the people. So i think that the future of science in america depends on scientific integrity an relies n the backs of its citizens. Youre right. There have been allegations of political interference in the agenda or projects by some federal agencies. Only this morning, i was reading a misstep by the ceo of sigma phi of Scientific ResearchHonor Society about how protection should be established to protect ientific integrity established. And many media outlets, including those of the Scientific Societies have recorded various instances. And i think that the fact so many are concerned about these allegations and congress is clearly concerned is a healthy sign that the public wants to ensure trust in the science agency. We want to hold them accountable, want them to be transparent. And forthcoming in what they know. And that is a good thing for our democracy. Know many of the scientific missions, in my term of six years, we did not suffer from political interference. We hoped to maintain our mission to further the progress of science. We were sensitive to the priorities of different administrations. In 2010, our white house memorandum laid out the basic principles for the development and implementation of scientific integrity policies. Any of them had published, a few years later, their scientific integrity policies that were consistent with the intent of that memo. Unfortunately, Government Accountability office found that there was an uneven application oversight of the policy. They found that a number of the departments had failed to monitor with the compliance policy. We have a ways to go. Congress is actively proposing requirements for scientific integrity among the gencies. Or example, a bear in march of in march of bill 2019 that would require scientific Training Programs and so on. It had almost 200 supporters in congress. I think this issue you bring up is going to really come to the floor with the new administration. Its an important one. You know, part of what weve been seeing in terms of competence around a potential Covid Vaccine and responding to covids public discomfort with how science can understand something one day or seem to be going in one direction and then face a setback. How do you think we can better educate the public on the scientific process . And how you sometimes takes two steps forward and one step back or vice versa . Well, i think that too is a superb question. I think covid really brings that floor. N to the people perhaps did not think deeply about the scientific process and were confused about why were not there absolutes that we have a cure for this or we said we were going in this direction, why didnt we get there . That the whole progress with covid with understanding its genesis, understanding treatments, understanding how to do the the whole Data Analysis and contacts, and now, of course, the all important vaccines, that theyre understanding that that it takes a careful long time for cience to address really important, big mile stones, big goals. We had a number of samples. Tremendous breakthroughs that covers Science Magazine and newspapers all over the world like the discovery of provocation of the image on imaging of the black hole and so on, that we were careful to report. These took decades to come to fruition. Teamwork, global teamwork. And so, i think that there is more of an effort on the part of scientists and engineers and the science agencies and everyone in Media Publications to reinforce how long it takes the different you in in in in, know, the truth. About 30 seconds remaining in this conversation. We are in the midst of a president ial transition season. And ive participated in the Obama Transition Team many years ago. What would be your advice to the Transition Team looking at nsf right now . I think the agency is just remarkable in its goals and its progress and its team that has people exceptionally committed to the mission of the agency. Y advice is to do no harm. It is such a beautiful agency. We want to always encourage more young people to get involved in science. I think that the nsf is an invitation to young people to find out what it is like to submit a great proposal and to review them and all, and be a part of the entire spectrum of science and engineering. Wonderful, thanks. We will bring dr. Mcmurry heath back at the end. We are happy to have the head of the Global Health office of science and Technology Innovation at Johnson Johnson. Hello, hello. Signa, welcome to this forum. So Johnson Johnson, i hear you are busy working on a vaccine. Can you tell us a little bit about it and some of the questions people have about the equitable delivery of the vaccine . Where is Johnson Johnson in the whole spectrum of developing the vaccine and what are some of the challenges youre considering on the road to making sure the u. S. And the whole world has access to it . Yeah, thank you. Im pleased to talk about it. And its been 24 7 since the beginning of this year, when treatment for the coronavirus became a valuable available in january. Johnson johnson has been working fast and furious. Ours is a vaccine that is is platform called the agonal vector platform. This is the same platform that reviews many of the other vaccines, including the one we developed for zika but we never launched it. Because zika kind of disappeared. The same vaccine is being used in the hiv arena. The h. I. V. Vaccine is in phase three Clinical Trials across the world. And ebola, the ebola vaccine was approved by the European Union last year. So this is to say that weve had this platform. They have a huge vaccine expertise. So we just jumped on it immediately. Where we are today is in phase three, the studies are ongoing across the world. In the United States, in latin america, in south africa and in many countries in europe. It is a singledose vaccine. So you you you know, its fingers crossed, we are hoping to see the results soon. And our goal is to actually have the first batches of the vaccine available for emergency authorization in early anuary 2021. We hope to make one billion vaccines per year. Our commitment is to make it available for a notforprofit price. Across the world. In addition to working with governments, in terms of equitable access and distribution of the vaccine, we are working with many other actors. We recently made a commitment to portion of our vaccine lot as early as next year to the lower and lower middle Income Countries and lower Income Countries. This is a commitment we made at the u. N. General assembly where g7 was making a commitment to equitable access across the world. We are looking forward to the results. And you know, hoping to make a big difference for the world. That is wonderful. I am sure everybody is delighted to hear that. Youre the head of Global Innovation at Johnson Johnson. In africa youre trying to encourage finding the next einstein for science and engineers. And i personally think the future of science in america depends on the future of science in the whole world and how we interact and engage with the whole world. Science work for the whole world. Can you tell us about your efforts, globally, in encouraging young people to become the next einstein . I think as you may know, Johnson Johnson is a Global Healthcare company. So we have offices and our ickup trucks products reaches across the world. It is a Global Network of people and products. Today, i know everybodys mind is on covid. E have multiple things for medical solutions and medical devices in pharmaceuticals as healthcare. Nsumer as we think about that and we think about the pipeline, we want to be sure about the pipeline. Thats coming behind from an r. N. D. Perspective. Similarly, the diversity of deas, i think we all believe and know that science is not an individual activity. It is a team sport. Its also an International Collaborative enterprise. Its our goal, a great idea can come from anywhere or anyone. We have to be prepared to pounce on those ideas. Because in those ideas are the solutions to make the world a better place. That is just great. So where do you see innovation being required in what you o . Where do you think we have the biggest need for most nnovation . I think it is across the globe in terms of disease states because i think on the one hand, we are focused on Public Health solutions and infectious diseases. And theres a huge need continues to remain a huge need n infectious diseases. But the noncommunicable diseases, cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, as of last year, before covid, we all thought that was the next ticking time bomb. T probably still is. I think as we continue to age and they have an aging population across the globe, and nother area that that science remain as black box. So if i think across, you know, the whole landscape, we have come a long way in health care. But, there are still major challenges to be solved. These do not recognize national boundaries. You know, they are human specific. So alzheimers disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer still remains a huge issue. We are excited about gene therapies. But i think ultimately, its probably in a place where we want more innovation is the personalized medicine the future that we all imagined. 30 seconds remaining. For the future, i think it is personalized medicine. But also, in the hands of young scientists all over the world. Whose ideas we need to solve the Biggest Challenges in healthcare. Well, thank you very much. Good luck with that vaccine development. Thank you, friend. Thank you. Karisi,ing us is joseph a professor of biochemistry and biochemists at ucsf. Hi, joe. Great to see you i dont see you yet. There you are. Hi, how are you . Im doing great. Bio hub its a very interdisciplinary type of innovative approach to solving problems. What are some of the things youre working on now . Sure. Just to be clear, there are two organizations, the Chan Zuckerberg initiative and the bio hub. I am with the bio hub. They are two separate organizations. In these times of covid, you are asking what are we working on or what were we working on recovid and it is ironic. Precovid, the bio hub and the bill and Melinda Gates foundation, we were working on a worldwide Early Warning radar system for emerging infectious disease. Kind of ironic. Biology was to leverage and infrastructure in low Income Countries by giving them technology training. The issue with that is that counter intuitively, the price of analyzing data has actually gone up while the cost to process samples has gone own. There are solutions to that. What good is the data if you cannot analyze it . Our solution was ivc. His was precovid. It enables people in your own country to analyze samples from people, insects, life stocks, plants, the environment. Whatever you want. To aggregate realtime analysis of that data. Basically making an emergency pathogen dashboard for the world was the idea. In early january, i was in cambodia, with the team, helping to set up the system there. It was with the institute there that they used the system to detect the First Chinese tourist ith covid. We were able to sequence that genome in midjanuary, early on in the pandemic. We thought great, the system is working. This thing probably will not go far past asia. We were badly wrong in that obviously. Fast the march, where are we now and what are we turning our attention to . We made a huge pivot. Everything we do now is all covid, all the time. Critical lab testing in the bay area to address the testing for the most vulnerable populations, clinics, prisons, jails. We deployed our technology to be ore actionable and useful. That is, every time or every two to three times covid jumps from persontoperson, a mutation is introduced in the genome, pretty much randomly. Not so randomly but mostly randomly. This effectively leaves a breadcrumb trail in the dream known genome that allows you to trace back where the virus as been. This is an amazing tool. Together with the department of health, cdph, and all the sequencing programs, we have been sequencing all of the covid genomes we can get. We are turning that information back to the counties in a way to make the information imminently actionable. You may ask how does that work . Imagine that you have two nursing facilities, both of which have outbreaks. And this is a real example, but im not going to name names obviously. In the sequence data, we saw that they shared identical genomes that are geographically distant from each other. We know they did not share patients. So immediately led to the conclusion that they had to share employees. And then the department of health was able to find the linkages to cut transmission short. We need to use every scrap of information we have right now to stop the third transmission of the virus. Thats what were turning our technology to. With thanksgiving coming up, and the Holiday Season coming up. Theres already a spike in covid cases. It will go even higher. The technology you are talking about, it sounds amazing. It sounds almost sciencefiction like, which is fabulous. It that, inat why is america, where we are one of the most advanced nations, having so much trouble in preventing transmission . Well, theres a lot to unpack in that question. One of the issues, there are many issues, ranging from political to organizational. Let me address some of the obvious ones. Right off the bat. And i can speak mostly for california. Ere a state of 58 counties. Each county has its own department of Public Health and has their own just dictions. They have 58 ways of doing things. 58 intentionally different information systems. Transmitting information among counties is hard. We had a conversation with one of our departments of