Investiture Program for Matthew B. Frieman, PhD

MATTHEW B. FRIEMAN, PHD
Matthew Frieman, PhD is a Professor in the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine. His research focuses on highly
pathogenic coronaviruses including the Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus
(SARS-CoV), the Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and now
SARS-CoV-2. Throughout his work he has
balanced the study of the biology of these
viruses with developing therapeutics against
them. His work has been funded by NIH,
BARDA, DARPA, The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and many industry partners,
especially as SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
Dr. Frieman grew up in Owings Mills, MD where he graduated Owings Mills High
School in 1994 before attending Washington University in St. Louis where he
majored in Biology. There he had the privilege to work all four years of college in
the lab of Dr. Craig Pikaard working on ribosomal RNA silencing. It was there that
he learned to love working in a lab, figuring out how to answer scientific questions
and messing up countless experiments. It was there that he met Dr. Jill Fahrner,
whom he would marry in 2003.
He returned to Baltimore in 1998 and received his PhD at the Johns Hopkins School
of Medicine where he worked in the lab of Dr. Brendan Cormack on yeast cell wall
proteins. He was Dr. Cormack’s first graduate student and was able to see how to run
a lab from the early stages of its development. Here he built his molecular biology
skills and developed a love for yeast, which he uses in his laboratory today.
After his PhD, Dr. Frieman followed his wife to North Carolina where she was
finishing her MD/PhD, and he started a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 to study coronaviruses in the laboratory of Dr.
Ralph Baric. SARS-CoV had emerged in 2003 and Dr. Baric was a longtime
coronavirus researcher at the forefront of studying this new virus. His postdoctoral
work focused on the identification of several SARS-CoV proteins that helped the
virus block the immune response during infection, and how the host responded to
SARS-CoV infection.
In 2009, Dr. Frieman returned to Baltimore as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology to start his laboratory continuing his
work on coronaviruses. Since then, he has studied SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV (which
emerged in 2012) and now SARS-CoV-2 with a focus on understanding the basic
biology of these viruses, how they cause disease and developing therapeutics to fight
them. Early in his research on coronaviruses, he focused on building animal models
to study how the host responds to infection, and what pathways and proteins the
viruses need to replicate and cause disease. These models laid the groundwork for
research on coronavirus therapeutics, initially for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but
rapidly expanded to the study of SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. His lab has collaborated
with many researchers and companies over the years including Regeneron, Novavax,
AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly on SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.

WELCOME
Mary Pooton
Associate Dean for Development
University of Maryland School of Medicine
James B. Kaper, PhD
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs
James and Carolyn Frenkil Distinguished Dean’s Professor and Chair
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Distinguished University Professor
University of Maryland School of Medicine
REMARKS
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
DONOR RECOGNITION
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
REMARKS
Marco and Debbie Chacón
Donors
SPEAKERS
Brendan Cormack, PhD
Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Ralph S. Baric, PhD
William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Vineet D. Menachery, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
University of Texas Medical Branch
MEDAL PRESENTATION
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
REMARKS
Matthew B. Frieman, PhD
The Alicia and Yaya Viral Pathogen Research Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
CLOSING REMARKS
James B. Kaper, PhD

T
he first endowed professorships were established more than
500 years ago with the creation of the Lady Margaret chairs
in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The
original endowed chairs were sponsored by Lady Margaret,
countess of Richmond, and grandmother of Henry VIII in 1502.
Subsequently, private individuals began making financial contributions
to establish other endowed professorships and chairs such as the
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, which Sir Isaac Newton held beginning
in 1669. Professor Stephen Hawking, the internationally renowned
physicist and recipient of the 2010 US Medal of Freedom, was another
prominent holder of this endowed chair.
The honor associated with appointment to an endowed position has
remained unchanged for the last 500 years and is recognized as one of
the highest tributes that an academic institution can bestow upon its
most distinguished faculty. These endowed professorships and chairs
continue to reward exceptional scholars uninterrupted to the present
time.
The Office of Development is charged with securing private gifts to
ensure the School’s tradition of excellence is sustained through robust
research, clinical, and educational programs and initiatives. The
University of Maryland School of Medicine is fortunate to have nearly
85 endowed chairs & professorships in various stages of completion
and held by esteemed faculty members.

MARCO AND DEBBIE CHACÓN
Marco and Debbie Chacón have been valued members of the University of
Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community for many years, generously supporting
entrepreneurial, philanthropic, and educational initiatives.
Marco A. Chacón, PhD, is an accomplished biotech industry and community
leader who came to the United States in 1967 as a 17-year-old foreign exchange
student. Following his return to the United States, the Chacón’s were married in
1972 and put themselves through school. In 1990, following graduate studies,
together they decided to start Paragon Bioservices—a pharma services
company. Over the years, Paragon became a leading CDMO specializing in
GMP manufacturing of viral vectors for gene therapy and vaccines. In 2019,
with 200 employees and 220K square feet of labs and manufacturing suites,
Paragon was acquired by Catalent Pharma for $1.2B. Catalent currently
employs approximately 2,000 scientists, bioprocess engineers and skilled staff
at three sites in Maryland—including the UMB BioPark.
Following his calling as an entrepreneur, in 2019 Marco founded Irazu Bio (an
early-stage technology development company) and in 2022 spun off Irazu
Oncology, LLC—a company that is developing cancer vaccines, in
collaboration with the University of Maryland SOM’s Center for Vaccine
Development. Marco also serves as CSO of Wexford Science & Technology.
Marco’s Board activities include: UM’s School of Medicine and the Center for
Breakthrough Medicines (King of Prussia, PA.) He also served as Trustee of
the UMB Foundation and was appointed in 2016 to the Maryland Life Sciences
Advisory Board by Governor Hogan.
Before co-founding Paragon Bioservices, Debbie worked as a copywriter and
was a songwriter for SONY Music Entertainment. She has songs on several
albums, including Julio Iglesias and Vikki Carr.
After their successful Paragon exit, the Chacón’s wanted to give something
back to society. They founded The Alicia and Yaya Foundation—which
supports science, education, children and the less fortunate—to help create a
better world.