As the global threat of COVID-19 remains ever present, Canadian researchers are working tirelessly to better understand and combat the virus. Whether developing a vaccine, learning about how COVID-19 affects the body or studying how the pandemic has influenced every aspect of our lives, Canada鈥檚 researchers rely on cutting-edge research infrastructure to do their work.
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced on Monday close to $28 million in research infrastructure support through the Canada Foundation for Innovation鈥檚 (CFI) Exceptional Opportunities Fund. The funding, which covers the urgent need for equipment for ongoing research related to COVID-19, will support 79 projects at 52 , across Canada.
One of the funded projects is being led by researchers at Dal, the IWK Health Centre and the QEII Health Sciences Centre, who have received $1.2 million to advance the development of new COVID-19 vaccines with upgrades to the 鈥檚 level 3 containment facility at the IWK Health Centre. This will allow them to create models of COVID-19 to test the efficacy of vaccines, learn why people develop different degrees of severity of the disease, and produce new tests to determine at the earliest stages of infection who may be hit the hardest.
鈥淭his is a great opportunity to enhance the basic research and clinical research capabilities to conduct valuable work on COVID-19 by growing the SARS-CoV-2 virus, studying models of COVID-19 severe infections, monitoring clinical biomarkers of severe COVID-19 disease and identifying COVID-19 vaccine responses in people,鈥� says Dr. David Kevin, professor in Dal鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine and project leader.
Enabling real-time results
Elevating the capacity and operation of this facility will be an important achievement for Canada. The development and testing of pre-clinical and clinical COVID-19 vaccines is a key part of the pipeline of providing Canadians with safe and effective immunity 鈥� allowing for a secure return to 鈥渘ormal鈥� conditions.
鈥淲e are so very proud to have this amazing group of researchers playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19,鈥� says Alice Aiken (shown left), vice-president research