Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series
The Robbins College Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series brings innovative researchers who are positively impacting the health and well-being of their communities to the Baylor University campus to speak on their research and its impact.
"WHAT I LEARNED DURING THE PANDEMIC"
April 12, 2024 | 10:00am | Foster 250
Michael J. Joyner, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
Mayo Clinic
From Dr. Joyner: "Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I ran an applied physiology lab focused on how humans respond to physical challenges like exercise, hypoxia, and blood loss. I am also interested in the philosophy and history of science. In February 2020, my colleague Arturo Casadevall published an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal about how a pre-World War II therapy—Convalescent Plasma (CP)—should be tried for COVID-19. Based on Arturo’s OpEd, I immediately repurposed my lab to focus on the CP try. My lecture will be the story of this try and what I learned from it while tens of thousands of lives were saved in the process."
ABOUT DR. MICHAEL JOYNER
Michael J. Joyner, MD, has broad-based interests related to integrative physiology in humans. He also practices clinical medicine as an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic. His specific areas of expertise include autonomic control of circulation, muscle and skin blood flow, exercise, oxygen transport and metabolic regulation in humans. This work has been continuously funded by the NIH since the early 1990s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Joyner repurposed his lab and led the U.S. Expanded Access program for Convalescent Plasma. He has an emerging interest in passive immunity and antibody therapy for infectious diseases. In addition to his funded work, Dr. Joyner also has significant expertise in the physiology of human performance, including the original work that led to the sub-2-hour marathon.
Past Lecturers
- Tyler Cooper, MD, MPH, President and CEO, Cooper Aerobics/Cooper Clinic (Fall 2023)