Presented By: Dr. Laura L Gibson
Speaker Biography: Laura Gibson, M.D., is an Adult and Pediatric Infectious Disease physician at UMassMemorial Health and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School.
As a clinician, she serves a variety of patient populations, including the immunocompromised, pregnant women, and children. As a physician-scientist in Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology spanning more than 15 years, Dr. Gibson combines all-age patient care and translational research.
Over the course of her 28-year career, she has mentored numerous students, residents, post-doctoral trainees, and faculty, and is the recipient of several grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease focused on immunology and the pediatric population, COVID-19 antigen testing and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Dr. Gibson has also presented at international, national, regional, and local conferences on advances in the diagnosis and management of congenital CMV infection, and how to improve prevention and treatment of the disease.
Her work to raise awareness of CMV led her to create the Massachusetts Congenital CMV Coalition (MCC), a non-profit organization of professional and community stakeholders, and parents of children with CMV infection. Through this work, she is involved in several activities to screen for newborn testing programs and created the congenital CMV testing and management guidelines to serve as a resource for providers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In fact, her work resulted in the filing of a bill in February 2021 with the Massachusetts State Legislature to mandate pre-natal CMV education and universal CMV screening for all newborns in Massachusetts.
In March 2022, UMass Chan Medical School announced Dr. Gibson would lead a research collaboration with Moderna, Inc., on a comprehensive study of cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission in group childcare, education, and household settings.
The CMV Transmission and Immune Tracking (CMV TransmIT) Study will examine how CMV spreads among children in large group early education and care settings, and between those children and their household members, with an aim to characterize immune responses to CMV infection over time. Findings from the study will inform the design of prevention strategies that reduce CMV transmission to pregnant caretakers and will support CMV awareness campaigns.
Webinar: Congenital CMV: Standards of care, Knowledge Gaps, and a Story
Webinar Abstract: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is common and usually results in a mild, non-specific illness in otherwise healthy individuals, followed by asymptomatic latency. However, congenital CMV (cCMV) infection during fetal development can cause severe symptoms in newborns, including developmental delays, hearing loss, and even death. It is underappreciated that CMV causes more cases of congenital disease than the 29 most commonly screened metabolic and endocrine disorders combined, and that congenital CMV is the leading cause of non-genetic sensorineural hearing loss and neurodevelopmental abnormalities in infants. Early detection of cCMV infection is critical for timely clinical intervention, including treatment with antiviral medications, which may lessen the severity of the hearing and developmental impairments associated with this infection. This seminar will review the standard of care for cCMV diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment, and explore areas of opportunity. The impacts of advocacy and education for cCMV will also be discussed.
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