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Introduction of Peter Marks

January 22, 2021
  • 00:00Hello everyone, I'm Carlos Oliveira.
  • 00:02I'm one of the Co leads for the
  • 00:04vaccine Network initiatives here.
  • 00:06Yell and I have the great honor of
  • 00:08introducing our keynote speaker today.
  • 00:10Doctor Peter Marks,
  • 00:11who is the director of the Center for
  • 00:14Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA.
  • 00:16Doctor Marks is a Brooklyn native
  • 00:18who received both his MDM PhD New
  • 00:21York University after medical school.
  • 00:22He moved to Boston to complete residency
  • 00:25in internal medicine and fellowship in
  • 00:27Human can Brigham and Women's Hospital.
  • 00:29After Fellowship Doctor Marks remaining
  • 00:31program where in addition to serving as
  • 00:33the clinical director for hematology,
  • 00:35he was actually quite an
  • 00:37accomplished musician.
  • 00:37Here he is 20 years ago as a member
  • 00:40of the longer Symphony Orchestra.
  • 00:42Doctor Marks went on to work at
  • 00:45the Pharmaceutical industry for a
  • 00:47few years prior to come into Yale.
  • 00:49To lead our adult leukemia program
  • 00:51on the top left, believe it or not,
  • 00:53is doctor Marks in 2007.
  • 00:55At that point he was speaking about the
  • 00:57novel Count Cancer Therapeutics on NPR.
  • 00:59I believe in it on the bottom.
  • 01:02Is Doctor Mark said smile Cancer Hospital
  • 01:04where he served as the Chief Clinical
  • 01:07Officer after it was built in 2010?
  • 01:09He remained here again until 2012
  • 01:11when he joined the FDA and was quickly
  • 01:13promoted to the director of the Center
  • 01:15for Biologics Evaluation Research.
  • 01:17Currently I,
  • 01:17as one of the top official at the
  • 01:20FDA Doctor Marks overseas more
  • 01:22than 1200 scientists,
  • 01:23including the team of vaccine knowledge
  • 01:25is who are currently reviewing
  • 01:26the data for the covid vaccines,
  • 01:28which we've all been very excited about
  • 01:31over the last few months as I've learned.
  • 01:33More about Doctor Markson I've realized
  • 01:36that I have all his accomplishments.
  • 01:39The one achievement that's the most
  • 01:41impressive to me at least is the one
  • 01:44that he gets the least amount of credit
  • 01:47for which his operation warp speed.
  • 01:49But many people argue is the most
  • 01:52significant scientific achievements
  • 01:53since the landing on the moon.
  • 01:55And although the president and his
  • 01:57secretaries love to take credit
  • 01:59for warp speed,
  • 02:00the operation was actually the
  • 02:01brainchild of Doctor Marks.
  • 02:03Who I'm told is an unabashed
  • 02:05as Star Trek enthusiasts.
  • 02:06And the term want speed is
  • 02:08actually quite interesting to me.
  • 02:10It refers to traveling at speeds
  • 02:12that are faster than light,
  • 02:13something that we all know is not possible
  • 02:16based on the current laws of physics.
  • 02:18However,
  • 02:18as a fellow Star Trek nerd myself,
  • 02:21I can tell you that is actually quite
  • 02:23an appropriate term for this operation.
  • 02:25You see,
  • 02:26the idea of warps,
  • 02:27we comes from the thought that if
  • 02:29we can warp space or full space we
  • 02:32can travel faster than linear line.
  • 02:34So if you can imagine space is a piece
  • 02:36of paper and you draw a line in it.
  • 02:39You can get from the beginning to
  • 02:41the end of that line much faster if
  • 02:44you fold the piece of paper in half,
  • 02:46so by skipping all that that
  • 02:48space you can go
  • 02:49from point A to point B much faster,
  • 02:52and this is in many ways with Doctor
  • 02:54Marx envisioned or or thought of when
  • 02:57it came to warp speed because he was
  • 02:59able to eliminate all of this Dead
  • 03:01Space from what was previously a fairly
  • 03:03linear vaccine development pipeline.
  • 03:04And as a result we have now not one,
  • 03:07but two covert vaccines within a year.
  • 03:09And which is a remarkable achievement.
  • 03:13I saw something that if you
  • 03:15had asked me a year ago,
  • 03:17if I ask any of the vaccine ologist
  • 03:19in the panel year ago they would
  • 03:21have said it's impossible to do this.
  • 03:24According to all the laws
  • 03:25of modern vaccinology.
  • 03:26So I will finish with this slide because
  • 03:29I really like the way the title of this
  • 03:31New York Park Washington Post article,
  • 03:34because it summarizes fairly well when I,
  • 03:36when I've learned about Doctor Mark switches,
  • 03:38he's ineffective.
  • 03:39A brilliant physician scientist who is humble
  • 03:41and really uninterested in the spotlight.
  • 03:43But who's important work has and continues
  • 03:46to ensure the health of this country.
  • 03:49So without further ado Doctor marks.