“La recherche de qualité est un effort collectif qui ignore les frontières des institutions, des juridictions et des disciplines”
Vice-président de l’UBC pour la recherche et l’innovation Gail Murphy, UBC News
Objectifs
La pandémie de COVID-19 continue de représenter une crise sanitaire mondiale en évolution rapide. Les chercheurs et chercheuses canadien(ne)s mènent des recherches novatrices pour contribuer aux efforts mondiaux de recherche sur la pandémie, dans les domaines des vaccins et des thérapies, des diagnostics, de l’épidémiologie, des sciences fondamentales, des sciences sociales et comportementales, de la santé publique, et bien plus encore.
Notre base de données de recherche financé a deux objectifs principaux :
- Informer la communauté sur les différentes questions de recherche liées à COVID-19 qui sont explorées
- Servir comme point de départ pour des collaborations entre experts de différents domaines, en soutenant les chercheurs et chercheuses canadien(ne)s dans leurs efforts mondiaux pour la pandémie COVID-19.
Recherche financée
Nous réactualisons régulièrement cette liste, au fur et à mesure de nos contacts avec les organismes de financement et les institutions de recherche (c’est-à-dire les IRSC, le CRSNG, le CRSH, le CRCC, le NFRF, le CRDI, le GC).
Si vous avez un projet de recherche financé, contactez-nous afin que nous puissions le partager avec notre réseau d’experts, ouvrant ainsi la porte à des possibilités de recherche collaborative !
| Title | Category | PI | Institution | Funding Body | Location | Abstract | coInv | coInst |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development of a rapid point-of-care diagnostic test for COVID-19 | Diagnostics | Berezovski, Maxim | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | A novel zoonotic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has recently been identified in patients with an acute and potentially fatal respiratory disease (COVID-19). This virus is genetically similar to SARS and MERS coronaviruses. The outbreak started in the city of Wuhan (China) and then soon turned into a pandemic with over 60,000 clinical cases and at least 1,500 fatalities. Cases in healthcare workers and other close contacts indicate human-to-human transmission. Rapid, simple and specific point-of-care diagnostic tests are urgently needed for the quick isolation of those infected. To address the issue, we have assembled a team of specialists in chemistry, infectious diseases, and clinical diagnostics. We propose to develop rapid point-of-care tests based on aptamer-assisted graphene oxide (AptaGO) and paper enzyme-linked aptamer assays (p-ELAA) for SARS-CoV-2 and its surrogate (HCoV-229E), which is a Containment Level 2 (CL-2) pathogen. The aptamer-based sensors can rapidly (<3 minutes) and specifically bind to the virus proteins with a measurable color/fluorescence change. In addition, AptaGO-based a low-cost (<$1 per test) platform while being ultrasensitive (protein equivalent of <100 virions), thus making them ideal for the proposed use. The tests will be developed in liquid- and paper-based formats: In the liquid format, a few drops of AptaGO will be added to the liquid sample, and the signal read by a fluorescence reader, revealing the presence of SARS-CoV-2 proteins/particles and their concentration. In the paper format, the sample will flow along a paper strip via capillary action (similar to a pregnancy test) and target virus proteins/particles will bind to the aptamers producing a visible line. It is a high-impact and high-reward project considering the devastation the virus has already produced globally with no clear signs of a slow-down. If successful, the developed virus-specific aptamers may be used in place of neutralizing antibodies to treat COVID-19. | ||
| Point-of-care diagnostics of COVID-19 using isothermal amplification and CRISPR technology | Diagnostics | Le, Xiaochun Chris | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | This research addresses the urgent need of rapid point-of-care diagnostics of COVID-19. The collaborative research is conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of virologists, chemists, infectious disease specialists, front-line practitioners, and public health researchers from the University of Alberta, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Wuhan Institute of Virology (China). The immediate priority focuses on developing two complementary techniques to be performed on-site and in resource-limited settings, in support of rapid diagnosis of COVID-19. The diagnostic innovation takes advantage of the most recent advances in chemistry, molecular biology, genome technology, and nanotechnology. Chemical reactions required for efficient amplification and sensitive detection of the viral RNA take place in a single tube at a moderate temperature, simplifying the operation procedures. The specific reaction products are visible to the naked eyes, thus eliminating the need for any elaborate equipment. The first test reads color changes, with red color indicating negative and blue color indicating positive. Readout for the second test is color band on paper strips, similar to those of pregnancy tests, with two red bands indicating positive whereas a single control band indicating negative. The mid-term priority focuses on validating and evaluating the new diagnostic tests for field applications in the epidemic center of COVID-19. Our team members in Wuhan who currently perform the standard diagnostic tests will lead this effort. Once validated and approved, the new diagnostic tools will be used to support screening and diagnosis of COVID-19 at the community level. The mid-term objective also includes adapting the point-of-care diagnostics at other collaborating sites, e.g., Karachi (Pakistan) and Nairobi (Kenya). A longer-term priority of this research includes refining the new diagnostic tools to enable monitoring of mutational changes of the virus as it continues to evolve. | Babiuk, Shawn ; Drabovich, Andrei P ; Tyrrell, D. Lorne J ; Zhang, Hongquan ; Zhang, Xian-En | |
| Rapid, Low-cost Diagnostics and Deployable Surge Capacity for COVID-19 | Diagnostics | Pardee, Keith Ian | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | The outbreak of the coronavirus, first identified in Wuhan, China, highlights the importance of the capacity for a rapid and nimble response to infectious disease. As we have seen, the world in highly interconnected and outbreaks in one region quickly become global concerns. Diagnostics are a key tool in the fight against spread of the virus, allowing frontline responders to quickly triage patients. Over the past five years, our team has developed low-cost and de-centralized paper-based diagnostics that are simple to use and easy to distribute. During the Zika virus outbreak, we developed diagnostics within weeks and have since completed patient trials in Latin America showing performance equal to the gold standard CDC tests used in clinical labs (sensitivity equal qPCR test, 98.5% accuracy). These diagnostic, programmable by design, thus hold promise for managing future outbreaks. Seeking to contribute to the COVID-19 outbreak response, we have already begun the development of diagnostics for the virus and anticipate having validated tools within a month. Here we propose the following project to create a deployable diagnostic infrastructure for the virus: 1) A lab-in-a-box kit that can provide diagnostic surge capacity for COVID-19 (14,000 tests), 2) A package with the "pop-up capacity" to manufacture the diagnostics on-site for sustained response to the outbreak and 3) A point-of-need test for rapid screening of patients (e.g. cruise ships, airports). Such tools are important in Canada but are especially so in countries where health care system do not have the resilience to handle a large outbreak. We have assembled a team of researchers from four countries with expertise in virology, diagnostics technologies and delivering impactful research outcomes. Our goal is a diagnostic platform capable of providing the capacity to respond to COVID-19 here in Canada or aboard, and the companion technologies, protocols and training to ensure effective deployment. | ||
| Development and implementation of rapid metagenomic sequencing coupled with isothermal amplification point of care testing for viral diagnostics | Diagnostics | Pillai, Dylan R | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | Infectious pandemics or plagues have altered human history since the beginning of time. Today we face the threat of viral pandemics spreading through human populations disseminated fueled by the ease of international travel which has become commonplace. SARS, influenza, and now the 2109 novel coronavirus are examples of just a few of these pandemics. We must create novel tools that enable us to rapidly identify the virus and then develop a test that can reliably test for the virus in patients. The test has to be portable and taken to the bedside where patients are quarantined so that these individuals do not further transmit viruses in our hospitals and public places. | ||
| Rapid Research Response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak: Development of Targeted Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Comparative Pathogenicity Assessment | Diagnostics | Langlois, Marc-Andre | University of Ottawa | GoC* | Ontario | In 2019, the world has seen the emergence of a virus that causes pneumonia in humans, which has a high probability of resulting in complications that include acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in an estimated 0.2% to 5% of cases. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a virus endemic in wild animals that has adapted itself to infect humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the 2019 outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which is now officially named SARS-CoV-2, a global health emergency. Currently, there is no effective antivirals against this virus. The virus is genetically similar to the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS) and shares many disease features with influenza virus infections. Our team will combine its multidisciplinary expertise to develop genetically engineered antibodies that can be used as therapeutics to limit the spread of the virus, as well as help identify the virus in patient samples. We will also develop a rapid genetic test for SARS-CoV-2 and measure the speed of genetic evolution of this virus compared to other coronaviruses that cause disease in humans such as SARS that caused the 2003 outbreak and the middle east respiratory syndrome virus (MERS). Finally, we will mass-produce the surface viral protein to enable the development of a prototype nasal-spray vaccine. | Altosaar, Illimar ; Cooper, Curtis Lindsey ; Durocher, Yves ; Mulvihill, Erin Elizabeth ; Pelchat, Martin ; Tanha, Jamshid ; Tran, Anh T ; Zhang, Wandong | National Research Council of Canada |
| Development of a portable point-of-care device for rapid testing of SARS-CoV-2 | Diagnostics | Boudreau, Denis | Université Laval | GoC* | Québec | The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak that started in December 2019 triggered unprecedented measures to avoid a global pandemic. However, China has been particularly hit with over 70 000 confirmed cases, of which about 80% are in Hubei province. Wuhan, capital city of Hubei, is considered ground zero of the outbreak. Testing is typically performed at centralized facilities with highly qualified personnel operating specialized equipment, RT-qPCR being the current method of choice and DNA sequencing a second choice. The response time between sampling patients and obtaining clinically relevant information usually depends on sample shipping time and clinical lab capacity. In this current outbreak containment situation in China, large portions of the population are quarantined, travel is restricted, and clinical labs are operating well over capacity. We propose to develop a rapid point-of-care test to help mitigate the outbreak of COVID-19. The RNA-based test will be performed with a high sensitivity, label-free sensing method. RNA purification and amplification will not be required. The instrumentation needed will be portable and lightweight to enable frontline workers to rapidly test for SARS-CoV-2. The assay will be developed with an easy-to-use platform that can be operated by untrained personnel. It can thereby be deployed locally, within regions of quarantine at a temporary health centers and neighbourhood clinics, reducing flow of people in urban centers; it can be shipped and used in remote or isolated areas including cruise ships | ||
| Reducing the Health Care Resource Burden from COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2): Rapid Diagnostics to Risk-Stratify for Severity of Illness | Diagnostics | Keshavjee, Shaf | University Health Network | GoC* | Ontario | Key to an effective response to the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a method to rapidly identify emergency department patients presenting with symptoms of COVID-19 and are at high risk of progressing to severe illness and death. At University Health Network, our team represents a deeply experienced group of critical care doctors and infectious disease researchers who can immediately respond to the global need to provide an accurate diagnosis of respiratory illness-the main feature of COVID-19-at the front lines of patient care. We have recently developed a 40 minute diagnostic test to determine lung quality for transplantation. Recent scientific studies from China clearly show that the body's development of respiratory distress as a response to potential COVID-19 infection produces an identical injury profile that would be detected by our diagnostic test. We will work alongside SQI Diagnostics, our Canadian partner committed to developing diagnostics for lung health, to adapt our test towards the development of RALI-Dx (Rapid Acute Lung Injury Diagnostic). This diagnostic can be used by hospital emergency departments to screen for lung sickness and the likelihood of COVID-19 infection. An important part of our CIHR-supported research study is a commitment from our Chinese collaborators to safely test our diagnostic first on COVID-19+ blood samples to make sure the test is highly accurate before hospital use. With our 40 minute RALI-Dx test, we will: -Quickly identify the highest risk patients in need of immediate care -Identify lower risk patients who require at-home monitoring -Reduce the current major stress on health care facilities Additionally, new COVID-19 therapies are being rapidly developed around the world, and the first step will be to identify which patients will benefit the most from these treatments. With RALI-Dx, hospitals everywhere can better manage patient care and provide an accelerated response to the COVID-19 outbreak. | ||
| SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Research: Fast track isothermal viral diagnostics | Diagnostics | Unrau, Peter J | Simon Fraser University | GoC* | British Columbia | COVID-19 is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). With no treatment or vaccine currently available, it is imperative that rapid, sensitive, and simple screening technologies be developed that can be fully integrated into near real time medical reporting infrastructure so as to speedily identify viral carriers and slow this and future viral outbreaks. The Unrau laboratory at Simon Fraser University has engineered an isothermal RNA detection kit that reports the presence of RNA template by fluorogenic aptamer (RNA Mango) synthesis in a simple fluorogenic assay (Mango NASBA). This technology, which currently is being commercialised for the detection of pathogens in human tissue culture, can be rapidly adapted for the detection of SARS-CoV_2 and offers several advantages over conventional RT-PCR: 1. Isothermal Mango NASBA viral testing has a considerably simpler work flow than RT-PCR requiring only a simple fixed temperature device capable of detecting fluorescent readout. This offers the potential to implement real time viral testing at venues (i.e. airports, borders, hospitals etc) not normally considered with existing RT-PCR methodologies and that require more costly real-time thermocycler infrastructure to implement. 2. We anticipate that Mango NASBA offers a significant time saving of ~3-4 fold relative to a standard RT-PCR assay (90-120 min) in high viral load samples. Should high sensitivity detection be required, Nested Mango NASBA can be performed subsequently. Nested Mango NASBA has sensitivity directly comparable to RT-PCR and can be performed twice as fast as RT-PCR methodologies. We have assembled a team consisting of biochemists, chemists, virologists, engineers, and clinicians offering deep skills in four highly significant fields to help address this rapidly evolving SARS-CoV_2 crisis. This highly expert team will meet the challenge of detecting and tracking this rapidly evolving viral outbreak. | ||
| Development of field-deployable and point-of-need diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 using CRISPR-based technology | Diagnostics | Pickering, Bradley | Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health | GoC* | Manitoba | Current diagnostic testing for the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak requires the use of specialized equipment for molecular-based pathogen detection. The equipment must be housed in a facility with electricity and freezers for storage of temperature sensitive materials and equipment operation. Lateral flow based assays are an alternative diagnostic tool that is inexpensive, temperature stable, user-friendly and has a faster turn-around-time (TAT). However, this platform takes longer to develop, with reduced specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy compared to molecular-based assays. An ideal diagnostic tool combines the adaptability and reliability of molecular assays with the TAT, cost-effectiveness, and stability of lateral flow. Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) based diagnostics can provide these capabilities and revolutionize the field of point-of-need molecular-based diagnostics. Our goal is to develop CRISPR-based diagnostics to detect SARS-CoV-2 at the point-of-need, such as at the bedside, passenger screening, or returning travellers who may have been exposed. We recently demonstrated that CRISPR-based diagnostics is reliable, sensitive and can be used to detect Ebola virus and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and caused more than 69,000 infections and contributed to over 1600 deaths. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to quickly diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection to administer appropriate patient care and isolation. CRISPR-based diagnostics is a next-generation diagnostic tool that can provide results in a timely manner and fill this gap. Implementation of CRISPR-based diagnostics will complement our armamentarium against high-consequence pathogens and will address the need for faster, cheaper, and more robust diagnostics for emerging infectious diseases of public health concern. | ||
| Identification of biomarkers that predict severity of COVID-19 patients | Cohort Studies/Biobanking | Kelvin, David J. | Dalhousie University | CIHR | Nova Scotia | The outbreak of the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China has infected over 75,000 people and has caused close to 2,000 deaths. One of the major problems with this outbreak is that emergency rooms, hospitals and ICU wards are over whelmed with patients. In an effort to find a test for rapidly determining who should be admitted to the hospital and who should be placed in ICU, we have undertaken an international study to find a set of biomarkers that can be used to help Emergency Room doctors to make decisions on whether a patient will become severe. We have established an international team based in China, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Cote D' Ivoire and Canada. This team will examine patients peripheral blood for biomarkers that predict the course of disease as mild or severe. The results of the study will be used to make a device that can be used in any situation and rapidly give results to predict the course of coronavirus infections. | Andrew, Melissa Kathryn ; Kelvin, Alyson Ann ; Marshall, Jean Sylvia ; McNeil, Shelly Ann; Kozak, Robert Andrew ; McGeer, Allison Joan ; Mubareka, Samira | |
| Plasmonic PCR: Rapid Point-of-Care COVID-19 Diagnostic Platform. | Diagnostics | Trifiro, Mark A | Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research | GoC* | Québec | The recent outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrates how in today's age infectious agents can spread rapidly. Given the ability of individuals to travel across the globe infectious agents can reach pandemic/epidemic proportions quickly, as seen with SARS and MERS outbreaks. Such viral agents become infectious because of genetic alterations many times occurring in other animals and eventually can infect humans. There are no effective anti-viral agents nor have vaccines been developed. Thus during these outbreaks we can only rely on infection control measures. Such measures help control the spread of the disease but is dependent on verifying individuals who are infected and those who are not infected. Presently diagnosing COVID-19 infections is inadequate as the laboratory tests may take 24-48 hrs to be completed. Such time periods make infection control very difficult. In this proposal we discuss how a rapid testing and diagnosis be made in the order of minutes. We have developed a revolutionary methodology that would construct a diagnostic device which is small and portable, and even be battery operated. Our device would be a true point of care platform that would be used at the "first contact" between patient and health professional. Our point of care testing platform would give rapid result in minutes and would help enormously in infection control management of not only the current COVID-19 outbreaks but also future pathogenic viral outbreaks which are surely to happen. | ||
| LabAnywhere: Technology for Detection of Coronavirus in Remote Settings | Diagnostics | Whelan, William M | University of Prince Edward Island | GoC* | Prince Edward Island | The COVID-19 disease is caused by a virus. Since the symptoms of the COVID-19 disease are similar to many other illnesses, accurate detection and correct identification of the virus in a patient is important to know whether or not the patient is suffering from COVID-19 versus another disease. The current gold-standard detection uses sophisticated molecular biology that must be done in a laboratory by trained technicians. Our research team has developed LabAnywhere, a system intended for rugged use in agriculture. Its called LabAnywhere because it is designed for use in a barn or farm field where there may not be any clean enclosed space to do complex sample handling. The viruses are different in veterinary medicine, but with some modifications, the technology can be applied to human diseases in remote settings. The proposed research will piggyback upon existing projects. The research team; a design engineer, along with experts in medical biophysics, protein chemistry, and veterinary diseases have been testing a pen-side system for the livestock industries. The design is a simple, easy to deploy handheld system for a molecular biologic assay where there is no laboratory available, such as on a ship at sea or in a remote community many days travel from a laboratory. The project will use easily handled, safe viruses from the animal world for initial testing to validate the methods, then move to tests using human viruses once initial trials are complete. | ||
| Rapid development of antiviral compounds to fight the COVID-19 outbreak | Fundamental Science | Sidhu, Sachdev Singh | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | The outbreak of a respiratory illness (COVID-19) in China at the end of December 2019 has been demonstrated to be caused by a new coronavirus. While health officials are using quarantine methods to try and prevent the spread of the infection, there are currently no treatments for the illness, which can be severe and even lead to death in 2% of cases. Here, we propose to build on our previous research with viruses of the same family, which include those that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). We have previously successfully engineered small proteins capable of blocking the activity of an enzyme of the virus that is crucial for its replication and for shutting down the human immune response. We plan on using a similar strategy to build blockers of the new virus. These will be extremely useful in better understanding the biology of the virus. Most importantly, we will use these blocking proteins to find chemical drug candidates that block the activity of the viral enzyme in infected cells, which can then be developed as therapeutics. Our method is rapid and cost efficient, and within the two years of this grant, we expect to have a number of lead candidate drugs. In order to achieve these goals, we have assembled a team of leading scientists with expertise in protein engineering of viral inhibitors (Sachdev Sidhu, University of Toronto), structural biology of viruses (Brian Mark, University of Manitoba), and development of chemical drugs (Roman Melnyk, SickKids Research Institute, Toronto). Our project also has the support of an internationally recognized leader in viral biology (Marjolein Kikkert, Leiden University, Netherlands) and a frontline clinician-scientist in infectious diseases (Samira Mubareka, Sunnybrook Health Centre, Toronto). Ultimately, this work will generate critical tools to better understand this new virus, and most importantly, will provide novel candidate drugs for direly needed therapies. | Mark, Brian Leonard ; Melnyk, Roman | |
| Development and Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Polymerase Inhibitors | Fundamental Science | Götte, Matthias | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | Coronaviruses (CoV) can cause severe human respiratory diseases, which is documented by three major outbreaks over the past 17 years: SARS-CoV in 2003, MERS-CoV in 2011, and currently SARS-CoV-2. In response to the current COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2, we oppose to develop novel tools to discover, develop and evaluate inhibitors of the viral polymerase. The polymerase is an enzyme that is essentially required for the propagation of SARS-CoV-2, which makes it an attractive target for therapeutic intervention strategies. | ||
| Rapid Response to Emerging Serious Pathogen Outbreaks using Next-gen Data: R2ESPOND | Fundamental Science | Prystajecky, Natalie Anne | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | A new virus has been identified from Wuhan City in China from the coronavirus family (SARS-CoV-2), which is now responsible for more than 71,000 cases of illness (COVID-19 disease) in over 29 countries. Although there have not yet been any deaths in Canada, public health agencies are on high alert, as there is a real possibility of a serious epidemic. The WHO has declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern. As of February 14th, five COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in British Columbia and based on travel patterns there is every reason to expect additional cases in BC. There are many unanswered questions regarding the virus, how it spreads and the disease that it causes. This information is needed for a data-driven response to this outbreak. We aim to use two types of next-generation data (next-gen genomics data and next-gen human data), along with a data integration tool called PLOVER 2.0, to answer these unknowns. The research team will 1)Carry out rapid genomic sequencing on patient samples to study the virus, how it spreads, how it evolves and predict which drugs will work 2)Develop knowledge of how the virus characteristics, along with a patient's previous health conditions, impact the severity of illness and how they recover from the illness 3)Develop a software tool (PLOVER 2.0) that will allow us to carry out this research and will also make the data viewable by key stakeholders such as Medical Health Officers. This work will not only generate critical knowledge about the SARS-CoV-2 virus but will also help develop a better understanding of health outcomes for infected patients. The knowledge generated and tools developed by this research can ensure an evidence-based and cohesive response to this public health emergency, here in Canada and internationally. | Krajden, Mel; Colijn, Caroline ; Fjell, Christopher David ; Harrigan, Richard P ; Hoang, Linda ; Hsiao, William ; Janjua, Naveed Zafar ; Patrick, David Michael ; Sekirov, Inna ; Skowronski, Danuta Maria | |
| Understand the high pathogenicity and zoonotic transmission of the COVID-19 virus: evasion of host innate immune responses | Fundamental Science | Liang, Chen | Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research | Québec | Coronaviruses are not new to humans. The human coronaviruses OC43 and 229E were discovered as early as in the 1960s. Both viruses cause common cold, a mild infection of our upper respiratory tract. However, the story started to change in 2002 when SARS broke out in China and other countries. This outbreak was caused by a new coronavirus which originally came from bats. Most importantly, this SARS coronavirus is highly pathogenic, with a fatality as high as 10%. Ten years later, a more deadly coronavirus caused the MERS outbreak. Now, a new coronavirus came back, is raging in China, may cause a global pandemic if not controlled. This new virus, COVID-19 (or SARS-CoV-2), has infected more and killed more than the total number by both SARS and MERS. Two urgent questions need to be addressed. How did these coronaviruses transmit from animals into humans? What have made them so pathogenic and lethal? Humans are protected from viral diseases by the immune system. These pathogenic coronaviruses must have found ways to evade the immune responses so that they can spread in humans and cause fatal illness. We thus propose this research to elucidate how this COVID-19 virus does this. The findings will identify the key viral genes that suppress immune responses by blocking essential signaling pathways. Our results will open new avenues for the development of effective interventions to halt the COVID-19 break. | |||
| Preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection by targeting human type II transmembrane serine protease activity | Fundamental Science | Leduc, Richard | Université de Sherbrooke | CIHR | Québec | The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing COVID-19 has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization which has mobilized international scientists to collaborate in order to find therapies to counteract the virus's effects which can be devastating. The strategies need to be as vast as possible since we do not yet know if vaccines or other antiviral drugs will be efficacious. Our group had previously shown in the context of influenza infection that the human host has cell-surface proteases (called type II transmembrane serine proteases or TTSPs) that the virus requires in order to cleave a viral surface protein called hemagglutinin, itself essential for the virus to gain entry into the cell and further replicate using the host cell machinery. We had shown that small molecules inhibiting the activity of lung epithelial cell proteases were efficacious at significantly reducing influenza virulence demonstrating novel anti-viral properties of the compounds. The situation is similar with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but the protein found on the surface of the virus is different. This protein is called the spike glycoprotein (or S protein) and it requires cleavage by human host cell proteases of the TTSP family for its virulence. Our proposal will test protease inhibitors in models where cells are expressing the S protein and the most potent molecules will then be validated in lung organoids to verify their efficacy at reducing viral propagation. We have put together a team of molecular pharmacologists, chemists and virologist with access to containment level 3 facilities to rapidly assess the potential anti-viral properties of the compounds that we already have on hand. In addition, our team will be supported by Dr. Gary Whittaker, Cornell University, one of the world's expert in coronavirus biology. We believe that these conditions are very favorable for us to have a quick impact in the field and to deliver novel antiviral compounds for patients with COVID-19. | Jean, François ; Marsault, Eric | |
| Molecular and cellular therapies against COVID-19 using angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) | Fundamental Science | Zhang, Haibo | Keenan Research Centre | CIHR | Ontario | An epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly in China and 27 other countries. As of 15 February 2020, over 69,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported, with 1,666 deaths. The enormous health, economic and social impact clearly make it paramount to better understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19, as no specific drugs are available to combat COVID-19. To address this issue we have put together a world-class international research team of basic scientists and clinicians who have a track record of working together and have access to resources [SARS-CoV-2, cell and animal models, a candidate drug, biotech company, and patients (in China)]. This research proposal focuses on the role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a SARS-CoV-2 receptor to enter human body. We propose to do basic studies to examine the specific mechanisms involved, as well as to perform a clinical trial in COVID-19 patients in China using recombinant human ACE2 (rhACE2). | Mirazimi, Ali ; Penninger, Josef ; Slutsky, Arthur Samuel | |
| Understanding the pathogenesis of COVID-19 | Fundamental Science | Flamand, Louis | CHU de Québec | CIHR | Québec | Pulmonary infections by viruses such virulent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MeRS) CoV associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Clinically, infections by these viruses are associated with a pronounced lung inflammation, causing respiratory problems that often develop in secondary pneumonia. Inflammation is the result of immune activation in response to infection. When activation is too pronounced or sustained for extended periods of time, complications occur. Two main mediators of inflammation are known: Cytokines and lipid mediators of inflammation (LMI). In the current proposal we will study the inflammatory response during infection/exposure of lung and blood cells to the newly described COVID-19 and compare this response to that of SARS-CoV-2 and MeRS-CoV to obtain correlates of pathogenicity between these viruses. We will use primary lung cells and white blood cells from donors to conduct our studies. The mediators of inflammation will be identified and quantitated using state of the art methodology available in our laboratories. More than 200 LMI and 150 cytokine/cytokine receptors will be examined. Upon completion of this proposal, a detailed analysis of the response of primary epithelial cells and leukocytes to COVID-19 will be obtained, enabling the rational design of therapeutic strategies to help combat COVID-19. | Boilard, Eric ; Flamand, Nicolas | |
| SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis in human and bat cells and development of in vitro and in vivo infection models | Fundamental Science | Mossman, Karen L | McMaster University | GoC* | Ontario | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus - 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019 and has infected over 60,000 people, of which over 1800 have died. SARS-CoV-2 shares 96% similarity with a coronavirus found in bats. Bats have been shown to carry a diversity of viruses including coronaviruses globally, without showing signs of disease. Also, major circulating and endemic coronaviruses that are causing disease in humans are speculated to have evolved in bats. Our team's extensive experience in studying coronaviruses in bat and human systems, will allow us to understand interactions of SARS-CoV-2 in bats and humans using a holistic 'One Health' approach. The main objectives of our proposal are to investigate how cell anti-viral responses are induced in human (spillover host) and bat (reservoir host) cells, and to develop animal models to facilitate rapid testing of vaccine candidates and therapeutics. | ||
| Animal models for SARS-CoV-2: vaccines and immune enhancement | Fundamental Science | Falzarano, Darryl | University of Saskatchewan | CIHR | Saskatchewan | In December 2019 a novel coronavirus (CoV) was identified as the cause of pneumonia in a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China. This virus is related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV and has been named SARS-CoV-2. In less than two months, there have been over 69,000 cases and over 1600 deaths. Quarantine measures have been imposed on entire cities in China in an attempt to control spread. Cases of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified in 28 other countries and there is concern that this could lead to global pandemic. Here we propose to identify what common lab and agricultural animals may be infected with SARS-CoV-2. This addresses two important questions. What animals can be infected and may pose a risk (or are at risk) and can these animals be used to models. Animal model allow us to understand how the virus causes disease, whether vaccines can be developed that protect from disease and how might the virus be transmitted. These are critical questions that need to be addressed when a new pathogen emerges. In addition, there is some concern that less than optimal vaccines or previous exposure to related pathogens could exaserbate disease - this is a somewhat unique phenomenom that was observed with SARS-CoV vaccines. We plan to investigate whether these animal models can be used to test for this, to ensure that vaccines are safe prior to testing in human clinical trials. | Babiuk, Shawn ; Gerdts, Volker ; Karniychuk, Uladzimir ; Kelvin, Alyson Ann ; Kelvin, David J. ; Kindrachuk, Kenneth Jason ; Kobasa, Darwyn ; Liu, Qiang ; Pickering, Bradley ; Richardson, Christopher D. ; Van Drunen Littel-van den Hurk, Sylvia | |
| Rapid RNA sequencing of coronavirus for public health surveillance and transmission | Fundamental Science | Croxen, Matthew A | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | There is an ongoing worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus. As of February 18 2020, nearly 73,500 cases have been identified and 1,875 deaths reported. To prevent further spread and to understand how the COVID-19 virus is spreading, where it came from, and when it likely jumped from animal to humans, the genome sequences of these viruses have been instrumental in providing insights. So far, Canada has reported 8 cases of COVID-19 (5 in BC; 3 in ON). However, no Canadian genomes have been made publicly available. In contrast, over 102 genomes have been released from several other countries including China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and the United States. Here, the Public Health Laboratory in Alberta, Edmonton and Calgary and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg have teamed up with genomics, bioinformatics, microbiology and infectious disease experts to address this challenge. We are verifying a direct RNA sequencing method capable of accelerated inexpensive sequencing of COVID-19 virus genomes. We aim to roll out this rapid method into Canada's frontline operations, along with direct analysis to promote global sharing and uptake of needed genome information. The lab methodology and data analysis will be openly available to help the global response in combating this disease. | ||
| Genomic epidemiology and evolutionary dynamics of COVID-19 and other emerging corona viruses | Fundamental Science | Joy, Jeffrey | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | Emergence of the 2019 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has highlighted the severe impact emerging zoonotic pathogens have on human health, the global economy, and health service delivery. Phylogenetic analyses of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences improve our understanding of host reservoir species, assess the potential for transmission to humans, and illuminate evolutionary dynamics relative to other viruses in Coronaviridae, informing response to current and future epidemics. We will study the genomic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 to investigate if particular motifs are under selection for increased virulence and immune evasion. We will compare SARS-CoV-2 with genomes of other zoonotic coronaviruses to elucidate common genomic features associated with virulence, host switching, and human-to-human transmission. We will also evaluate spatiotemporal transmission patterns of SARS-CoV-2 across different populations using Bayesian phylogeographic analyses. Such analyses allow identification of spatially and temporally structured, clinical and epidemiological parameters such as the basic reproduction number, period of infectiousness, and true viral prevalence over time within different populations. We will also elucidate the reservoir host species of SARS-CoV-2 in concert with collaborators from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control as well as other Canadian researchers by probing unique environmental samples as well as both novel and existing datasets available for coronaviruses. Phylogenetic co-speciation analysis will explore whether coronaviruses are more likely to jump between phylogenetically proximate host species allowing development of a predictive framework to anticipate future zoonotic events. We will identify genomic factors of SARS-CoV-2 associated with virulence, estimate vital epidemiological parameters, and illuminate potential reservoir species. With the Chinese CDC, we will help focus the response, control and elimination of the current, and future, coronavirus outbreaks. | ||
| Synthesis, Structural Studies and Evaluation of Inhibitors of the 3CL Protease of SARS-CoV-2 as Potential Drugs for Treating Infection | Fundamental Science | Lemieux, Joanne Mary | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The Wuhan coronavirus, formally known as SARS-CoV-2, is viewed as a global health emergency since its 1st appearance in China in Dec 2019. Coronaviruses are spread through close contact from coughs & sneezes, but may also spread from animals, feces or contaminated surfaces. As of Feb 2020, > 44,730 people are infected in China and >1114 have died (97 in a single day). Seven cases have been reported in Canada. This disease, Covid-19, could become a pandemic unless appropriate measures or cures are found. In past work on a similar coronavirus from China, Severe Acute Respiratory Virus (SARS) prevalent in 2002-03, our group modified inhibitors for a protein it produces and requires, namely the 3CL protease. This protein is essential for replication and infectivity of that SARS virus. Genome sequencing of the current "Wuhan" virus, SARS-CoV-2, demonstrates that it also has a 3CL protease that is nearly identical (96% the same). Of the 306 amino acid residues in the chain that makes the 3CL protease of the "Wuhan" virus (SARS-CoV-2), only 12 are different and they are highly similar in properties. Recently, chemical compounds we previously made for the original SARS 3CL inhibition were slightly altered and one new derivative was shown to cure cats of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a natural mutant of feline enteric coronavirus (FECV). This infection is almost always fatal, but the key compound effected cures or significant remissions in all the cats. We propose to make the key compound and a series of its analogs by chemical synthesis. In addition, we propose to clone and express the 3CL protease (non-infectious) of the Wuhan coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). We propose to assay all synthetic compounds as inhibitors of the 3CL protease, and to obtain X-ray crystal structure pictures of the protease with these potential drugs to facilitate further inhibitor design. In a virology lab, compounds will be examined for their ability to kill the virus in infected cell lines. | Tyrrell, D. Lorne J ; Vederas, John Christopher | |
| Risk of environmental Surface and air Contamination in COVID19 (RISC-COV) | Transmission Dynamics | McGeer, Allison Joan | Sinai Health System | CIHR | Ontario | This study has three goals. First, we will collect clinical and epidemiologic information about COVID-19 in Toronto and Peel region to share with ISARIC studies of the risk factors for, clinical features and outcomes of this infection in Canada and around the world. Second, we will collect data about how long patients with this infection shed virus, and whether this virus can be found on surfaces and in the air around patients with this infection, in order to help guide infection prevention practice. Third, we will systematically collect samples containing the virus, serum and cells of the immune system, in order to create a biobank that can be shared with investigators developing vaccines and treatment for this disease. | Bryce, Elizabeth ; Mubareka, Samira ; Ostrowski, Mario Anthony ; Wong, Titus; Duchaine, Caroline ; Hoang, Linda ; Katz, Kevin Carl ; Kozak, Robert Andrew ; Krajden, Mel ; Muller, Matthew Paul ; Murthy, Srinivas | |
| Development of vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibodies to interrupt the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Kobinger, Gary P. | Université Laval | CIHR | Québec | The novel coronavirus (Covid19) that emerged in Wuhan, China is a threat to global health. Infection causes respiratory disease that can progress to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and even death. Often patients require hospitalization and intensive care, which increases the chance of viral spread within health care settings. Since it was first identified there have been over 69000 cases, and 1600 deaths, and the virus has spread to multiple countries. Currently, there are no vaccines or therapeutics, but these are urgently needed to bring the epidemic under control. Our proposal seeks to address these areas of need by a multifaceted approach. Specifically, the objectives of this proposal include: 1) Isolation of virus and generation of an in vitro reverse-genetics COVID-19 system 2) Identification of neutralizing antibodies 3) Development and evaluation of candidate vaccines Additionally, the project will generate data on the safety of candidate vaccines in humans through a phase I trial. This will help determine which vaccines can be advance for further study. This will be accomplished through synergistic research between the biotechnology companies Medicago and Inovio in conjunction with several academic research laboratories. Dr. Kobinger's group has an established track record of translational research, and has successfully brought a DNA-vaccine against MERS-CoV to phase I clinical trials 24 months after commencing the project and in less than 7 months for Zika virus. He has led multinational collaborations in the past, and has a history of promoting collaborative and transparent consortium-based research programs. This proposal will develop tools that can be shared with the world scientific community that will help further our understanding of viral pathogenesis, transmission as well as screen potential small-molecule inhibitors and antibodies. Collectively, the findings from this project have potential to contribute to global response against COVID19. | Kozak, Robert Andrew ; Wong, Gary Ck; Charland, Nathalie ; D'Aoust, Marc-André ; Falzarano, Darryl ; Mubareka, Samira | |
| Innovative therapeutic approaches for the 2019-novel coronavirus | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Boivin, Guy | CHU de Québec | GoC* | Québec | The 2019-novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) is a major sanitary and economical threat to all countries. Development of effective antivirals is a major global priority especially early in the epidemic when vaccines are unavailable. This proposal aims at discovering and evaluating active compounds by rational design through 3D modeling of key viral proteins and also by analyzing cellular gene signatures induced by the virus. In-depth evaluation of selected compounds will include in vitro, ex vivo (human bronchial epithelium tissues) and in vivo (animal models) studies. These approaches, mostly based on drug repurposing (new indication for an existing drug), will result in rapid identification of anti-SARS CoV-2 compounds with accelerated clinical development. | ||
| Augmented Discovery of Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CL Protease | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Cherkasov, Artem | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | The COVID-19 epidemic is causing serious or even fatal respiratory tract infections around the city of Wuhan, China and other countries. The urgent situation is pressing the global community to respond rapidly together to develop a vaccine or small molecule drug to inhibit viral infection. We have recently established a powerful Deep-Learning accelerated Docking pipeline to virtually screen a commercial 1.3-billion-compound library in a matter of one week--compared to the three years with previous programs. We have applied this novel algorithm to identify 1000 quality "candidate" compounds to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (3CLpro) which is uniquely critical for the viral life cycle. We will screen these compounds with a high throughput screening biochemical assay and then evaluate these hits using a cell-based SARS-CoV-2 viral replication assay in a Canadian Containment Level 3 facilty at University of British Columbia. In addition we will use X-ray crystallography to refine the protease 3D crystal structure to accelerate the development of COVID-19 therapeutic drug development. Our research program will significantly contribute to global response to the COVID-19 outbreak by rapidly identifying small anti-viral drug molecules in an extremely condensed timeframe. Our expertise, facilities, and capabilities in cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, inhibitor modeling, X-ray crystallography, coronavirus protease inhibition, human viral pathogen research, and anti-viral therapeutics are world class. Our first application this month of "Deep Docking" enabled the screening of 1.3B commercially available compounds against the essential SARS-CoV-2 protease, in 1 week compared to the 3 years of conventional docking. This accomplishment coupled with fast tracking anti-viral assays at UBC and high resolution 3D structure characterization provide our team, Canadians and global colleagues an enormous head start on developing an anti-viral therapeutic for COVID-19 | ||
| Neutralizing Antibodies as SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutics | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Rini, James M | University of Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | Three highly virulent coronaviruses - SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 - have crossed species barriers to infect humans since 2003. SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for COVID-19, a disease that arose in Wuhan China in December of 2019. The virus has infected over 64,000 people and caused 1380 deaths and the World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern. Although drastic measures are being taken to contain SARS-CoV-2, there is an urgent need for new therapeutics to combat this virus and reduce its spread. In this work we will develop therapeutics based on human antibodies that can be used in the treatment of COVID-19. | ||
| Host cellular protein substrates of SARS-CoV-2 proteases | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Jan, Eric | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | The recent outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (2019-2020) leading to COVID-19 disease in China and worldwide has led to increased urgency in identifying strategies to mitigate the spread of coronavirus infection and treat infected individuals. No established treatments exist, thus there is a need to identify antiviral targets. As evidenced of recurring SARS-CoV (2003) and MERS-CoV (2012) outbreaks, there is also a need for long-term preparations to counteract future emerging coronavirus outbreaks. Currently, the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to COVID-19 and related SARS/MERS-CoV diseases are not understood. In this study, we will identify the host proteins that are targeted by a viral protein called a protease using an unbiased proteomics approach. Identifying the protein targets of SARS/MERS-CoV proteases will reveal into the protein sequence that binds to the proteases. We will engineer and optimize decoy protein sequences that will effectively block SARS/MERS-CoV protease function and thus, inhibit SARS/MERS-CoV infection. Uncovering the proteins that are targeted by the SARS/MERS-CoV proteases will also provide a catalog of the host processes that these viruses affect, thus gaining insights into the pathogenic mechanisms that lead to COVID-19 disease. | ||
| Drug repurposing for the rapid development and evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Côté, Marceline | University of Ottawa | GoC* | Ontario | The initial symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, shortness of breath and a dry cough. For some patients, the disease progresses to pneumonia as the infection spreads to the lung and leads severe inflammation. These severe symptoms can cause difficulties for the lungs to oxygenate the blood and can lead to death. There are currently no antivirals against SARS-CoV2, the causative agent of COVID-19, and development of new molecules can take years to reach patients. As the COVID-19 epidemic is progressing rapidly, the need for antiviral therapy is urgent. Therefore, our goal is to use our current arsenal of approved drugs already tested for their safety and used in the clinic for various conditions and repurpose them to treat COVID-19. In this rapid response grant, we propose to identify drugs with activity against SARS-CoV2 in vitro and in vivo and contribute to the global COVID-19 response and provide a therapeutic option for patients developing life-threatening disease. | ||
| Targeting genetic and chemical vulnerabilities of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Wright, Gerard D | McMaster University | GoC* | Ontario | The recent outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in China and its continued international spread threatens to become a global pandemic. Although coronaviruses generally cause mild respiratory infections in humans, over the past 18 years, three animal-derived coronaviruses have emerged that cause much more severe disease: SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and the current SARS-CoV-2. Each of these emergent viruses cause substantially higher death rates than common coronavirus infections; the current estimate of the death rate due to COVID-19 syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection is ~2.5%. The main challenge in addressing these new coronavirus-associated outbreaks is a lack of suitable therapeutics to treat active disease (i.e., anti-viral drugs) or to prevent disease (i.e., appropriate vaccines). We propose to apply genomics-based tools and drug-screening platforms to rapidly pinpoint new targets for SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral agents and to identify candidate therapeutic compounds. Our team has deep expertise in anti-infective drug discovery, the application of genomics in identifying drug targets, and in the biology and biochemistry of RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Our project will identify new therapeutic strategies that may help to treat COVID-19 patients. These strategies will also help mitigate newly emergent coronavirus-associated diseases that will undoubtedly continue to cause outbreaks in the future. | ||
| Development of COVID-2019 main protease inhibitors as potential antivirals against the 2019 coronavirus. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Moitessier, Nicolas R | McGill University | GoC* | Québec | Coronaviruses are associated with a variety of human diseases ranging from the common cold to new and serious conditions such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first reported in 2012, and a recent and still growing outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. MERS and SARS together claimed over 1600 lives, and the death toll of COVID-19 recently passed 1300 and is growing rapidly. It is currently unclear if the COVID-19 outbreak can be contained, with some estimates of potential fatalities reaching as high as 50 million. There is currently no approved treatment for any coronavirus, although clinical trials of the Gilead compound Remdesivir are currently underway and there is some optimism that it may be effective against SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need for additional potential SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics, as the success of Remdesivir is far from assured. We are proposing to use a combination of computer calculations and laboratory testing to rapidly identify and validate molecules that block an enzyme that is essential to the virus. The targeted enzyme, known as 3CLpro, is responsible for processing viral proteins into their active forms. A detailed 3D structure of the SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro enzyme was recently solved, and this provides enough information to identify chemical structures of molecules that are likely to block its action, through a procedure known as virtual screening. We will synthesize promising compounds and test them against the purified enzyme using a technique known as Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC). Our team has a proven track record of using virtual screening and ITC to generate potent inhibitors of enzymes similar to 3CLpro. Molecules we identify are likely to prevent the virus from replicating and would have high value as new potential treatments for COVID-19 that could be used alone or in combination with other therapies | ||
| Targeting programmed ribosomal frameshifting as a therapeutic strategy against 2019-nCoV | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Woodside, Michael T | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | The new coronavirus 2019-nCoV has spread rapidly in the last 3 months, infecting tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries and killing over 1,000, with no preventive vaccines or medications that can treat it. We propose to search for possible drugs to treat 2019-nCoV by targeting the ability of the virus to hijack the cell's machinery and recode how the genome is read via programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF). Coronaviruses use PRF, which is triggered by a specific structure (a 'pseudoknot') in the viral genome, to produce essential enzymes in specific ratios. Suppressing PRF in SARS coronavirus-which is very closely related to 2019-nCoV-disrupts viral propagation and significantly reduces infectivity, suggesting that PRF inhibitors could be used to combat 2019-nCoV. We will search for potential drugs that bind to the 2019-nCoV pseudoknot and disrupt PRF. We will first build a structural model of the pseudoknot by combining computational simulations with measurements revealing the base-pairing patterns and higher-order structures in the RNA. We will then use high-throughput computational tools to screen large libraries of existing approved drugs (which could be deployed rapidly), as well as publicly-available chemical compounds, for binding to the pseudoknot. Compounds predicted to have high binding affinity will be tested experimentally to confirm their binding-quantifying the binding affinity, identifying the binding site, and showing that binding alters the pseudoknot structural dynamics (thought to be important for triggering PRF)-and to measure their effectiveness at inhibiting PRF in cell extracts. We will examine if the effects of the compounds are specific to 2019-nCoV by repeating all measurements using other RNA structures as controls. Lead compounds will be passed on to collaborators for future studies assessing their effectiveness against live virus and suitability for deployment as therapeutics. | ||
| Repurposing of FDA-approved drugs as novel therapeutics for COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Wu, Jian Hui | CIUSSS de Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal-Jewish General | GoC* | Québec | Currently, there is no vaccine or effective therapeutics for COVID-19, which is caused by 2019-nCoV (now officially referred to as SARS-CoV-2). Tens of thousands of people get infected by SARS-CoV-2 and substantial percentage of them showed severe symptoms. Dr Wu's team proposed to rapidly screen database of FDA-approved drugs by computationally approaches and further evaluate the top-ranking candidates by an array of experimental assays. This project could rapidly lead to drug candidates for COVID-19. | ||
| Neutralizing human-derived single-chain antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Bach, Horacio | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that has caused an epidemic of human respiratory disease (COVID-19). It first emerged from the city of Wuhan in Hubei in December 2019 and has since spread widely in China and to more than 24 counties globally. The virus has been declared as a deadly global threat, and accelerated international efforts have been engaged to control the virus. A total of 1,524 deaths been confirmed as of 15th February 2020 (WHO). As a result of the rapid transmission internationally, a global call to control the spread of the virus in affected and non-affected areas has been implemented. Currently, there is no effective treatment or vaccine to control the virus. Symptoms of the infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, and shortness of breath. In more severe cases, the infection can cause respiratory failure, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and death. The objectives of this application are 1) to develop antibodies that will block the entrance of the virus into the cells, and to test the efficacy of these antibodies in mice. | ||
| Therapeutic Development for COVID-19 Coronavirus Induced Sepsis and ARDS Targeting Vascular Leakage | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Wen, Xiao-Yan | Unity Health Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | The new coronavirus COVID-19 is threatening to become a global pandemic for which currently no effective drugs exist. Although development of vaccines and drugs targeting the virus are ramping up, none of these addresses host response of COVID-19 infections directly. CAVID-19 death is mainly caused by Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which arises from a dysregulated host immune response and associated vascular leakage from viral induced sepsis. Our proposed drug development efforts aim to control the host response and protect patients from ARDS and death. My lab developed a novel zebrafish sepsis model to screen and identify drug compounds that rescue sepsis-associated mortality and vascular leakage. This project will pursue two main research objectives: (1) develop our best anti-sepsis candidate drug UNC0642 for treatment of COVID-19 induced sepsis/ARDS, and (2) carry out drug screens to identify and repurpose existing drugs as anti-COVID-19 therapeutics. UNC0642 inhibits G9a and GLP enzymes responsible for gene regulation. Severe viral infection leads to an immune over-response which drives vascular leakage and results in multiple organ swelling and ARDS. We hypothesize that UNC0642 will protect coronavirus patients from organ swelling and decrease ARDS and mortality by controlling immune-associated gene expression. Dr. Wen has extensive expertise in virology, transgenic animal modelling, clinical medicine and drug development needed to carry out the proposed project. A collaboration with Dr. Samira Mubareka is in place to start COVID-19 virus work at University of Toronto's CL3 lab. Once developed, UNC0642 will become a first line treatment of severe COVID-19 infection. Because of the tragic outbreak of COVID-19 infection in China, regulatory filing for clinical trials in China are likely expedited, especially for repurposing existing drugs. COVID-19 mouse and zebrafish models developed will be rapidly shared with other coronavirus research groups. | ||
| Towards anti-COVID-19 therapeutic development by targeting the viral papain-like proteinase | Vaccines and Therapeutics | James, Michael N | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | When positive-stranded RNA viruses such as the causative agent for the 2019-2020 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak enter an infectious cycle in the cell, their RNA genomes hijack the host cell's protein production machinery to mass produce large continuous viral polyproteins in a process called translation. In order to make progeny viruses, these viral polypeptides need to be processed into smaller, individually functional protein programmed to perform specific tasks, e.g., replicating the RNA genome, assembling the protein coat for progeny viruses, packing the newly synthesized RNA genome into the assembled viral capsid, and subverting or disabling the host cell's antiviral defense mechanisms. Two virally encoded proteinases, the papain-like (PL) and the 3C-like (3CL) proteinases, carry out the job of "clipping" the viral polypeptides into individual viral proteins. The PL is translated before the 3CL hence it likely takes precedence in performing "cuts" in the polyprotein, releasing an initial batch of viral proteins to mount the first wave of suppressive attack on antiviral host defense. In addition, coronavirus PL directly participates in preventing type I interferon activation, an important step leading to antiviral defense. Last but not the least, PL1 is part of non-structural protein 3 (NSP3), which is an indispensable component of the membranous complex where viral RNA genome is replicated. Taken together, PL of the novel coronavirus makes a good antiviral target for the development of therapeutics. Inhibiting PL would not only halt viral protein and RNA production at an early stage but would also help restore host antiviral defense. In this proposal, we seek to solve the 3-dimensional structure of SARS-CoV-2 PL and then use the structural knowledge to aid our search of small molecules that can inhibit the functions of PL. We will work with our collaborators to optimize the top inhibitors and test these inhibitors in cell and animal infection models. | ||
| Development of vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibodies to interrupt the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Kobinger, Gary P | Université Laval | GoC* | Québec | The novel coronavirus (Covid19) that emerged in Wuhan, China is a threat to global health. Infection causes respiratory disease that can progress to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and even death. Often patients require hospitalization and intensive care, which increases the chance of viral spread within health care settings. Since it was first identified there have been over 69000 cases, and 1600 deaths, and the virus has spread to multiple countries. Currently, there are no vaccines or therapeutics, but these are urgently needed to bring the epidemic under control. Our proposal seeks to address these areas of need by a multifaceted approach. Specifically, the objectives of this proposal include: 1) Isolation of virus and generation of an in vitro reverse-genetics COVID-19 system 2) Identification of neutralizing antibodies 3) Development and evaluation of candidate vaccines Additionally, the project will generate data on the safety of candidate vaccines in humans through a phase I trial. This will help determine which vaccines can be advance for further study. This will be accomplished through synergistic research between the biotechnology companies Medicago and Inovio in conjunction with several academic research laboratories. Dr. Kobinger's group has an established track record of translational research, and has successfully brought a DNA-vaccine against MERS-CoV to phase I clinical trials 24 months after commencing the project and in less than 7 months for Zika virus. He has led multinational collaborations in the past, and has a history of promoting collaborative and transparent consortium-based research programs. This proposal will develop tools that can be shared with the world scientific community that will help further our understanding of viral pathogenesis, transmission as well as screen potential small-molecule inhibitors and antibodies. Collectively, the findings from this project have potential to contribute to global response against COVID19. | ||
| Production of a recombinant S ( spike ) protein vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and emerging coronaviruses | Vaccines | Houghton, Michael | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | In December 2019 a human coronavirus (CoV) outbreak causing pneumonia-like symptoms began, centered around a fish market in the Wuhan district of China. After the genomic sequence was determined the causative pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, showed 99.98% identity among 9 patients, was 88% identical to two bat SARS-like CoV, ~79% identical to SARS-CoV, and ~50% identical to MERS-CoV (Tan 2020 Lancet). SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were responsible for severe human illness and mortality (~10% in 2002 and ~35% in 2013, respectively). Although understanding of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 disease is ongoing, it is believed human-to-human transmission is possible and the disease fatality rate is ~2-3%. In early February 2020, WHO reported >31,000 confirmed human infections, >640 deaths, and declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, presumably due to the possibility of a pandemic. The coronavirus 2019 outbreak is the third coronavirus outbreak causing a severe human disease in the past ~20 years. Currently a coronavirus prophylaxis vaccine and therapeutic drugs are not available. In this application we describe the investigation of vaccine candidates. Our team has manufacturing experience expressing a subunit Hepatitis-C virus vaccine candidate and has developed methods for industry-scale vaccine purification using removable purification tags (Logan 2017 Journal of Virology). This work will identify a CoV vaccine candidate that can proceed to the creation of a manufacturing grade mammalian cell line. | ||
| Development of a novel DC-targeting vaccine that targets COVID-19 spike protein to control COVID-19 infection | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Yao, Xiao-Jian | University of Manitoba | GoC* | Manitoba | COVID-19 is a coronavirus identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness that was first detected in Wuhan, China. There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19 infection. The spike protein (SP) of the virus is the key molecule for entry into a cell and is a main target of host protective immune responses. A receptor-binding domain (RBD) located in SP is essential for the infection of COVID-19. Previous studies have demonstrated that RBD of SARS-CoV consists of multiple neutralizing epitopes that induce highly potent neutralizing antibodies. The neutralizing antibody can bind to SARS-CoV and interferes with its ability to infect a cell. These findings suggest that RBD of COVID-19 is an ideal anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells that play critical roles to efficiently present viral antigens to the T cells of the immune system. Therefore, targeting DCs is a promising strategy to improve vaccine effectiveness. Recently, we have developed a highly efficient DC-targeted vaccination technology, and in this study, we will use this vaccination technology to expose the RBD of COVID-19 to host immune system. We will also investigate the potential of this novel vaccine approach to elicit potent immune responses against COVID-19 and SARS-CoV infections in vivo. The success of this proposed study will lay the groundwork for the quick development and production of anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidates, and contribute to a rapid response towards controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in China and worldwide | ||
| Shutting down emerging Coronaviruses in humans now and in the future | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Barr, Stephen D | University of Western Ontario | GoC* | Ontario | In December 2019, a pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China. This disease is now named COVID-19. Over 73,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 1,700 people have died from the disease. There is no sign that the rate of new infections and deaths are levelling off or showing signs of declining. Similar coronavirus outbreaks in the future are always a risk and must be addressed now. The goal of this proposal is to establish and test an effective vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. In addition, we will develop a coronavirus vaccine bank containing hundreds to thousands of potential vaccines that can be used at the start of the next coronavirus outbreak. This will give us a head start in trying to treat patients early with the goal of reducing the spread of the disease and subsequent fatalities. | ||
| Development of a nanoparticle-based vaccine candidate to the SARS-CoV-2 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Leclerc, Denis | CHU de Québec | GoC* | Québec | The recent outbreak of the coronavirus in the province of Wuhan in China is an international concern since there is a risk for spreading the infection outside the Chinese territory. The spreading of the virus is facilitated by its human to human transmission by aerosols. Several approaches must be taken to limit the spread of the virus, including quarantine, the decontamination of infected areas, early detection in patients, etc. It is also widely recognized that vaccination is from far the most efficient approach to control the spreading of the infection and protect the population. We propose first the development of a vaccine component-1 to the SARS-CoV-2 based on the use of an immune enhancer nanoparticle coupled to peptides derived from the virus nucleocapsid. This vaccine will trigger a protective immune response against the virus. The use of peptide antigens allows moving very fast in the development of the vaccine candidate. Besides the speed, this approach has the merit to induce a broad CTL immune response that should also trigger protection to any strains of the virus that are related to the Wuhan virus, like the SARS virus of 2002. Second, we will design and prepare a second vaccine component that will elicit the production of neutralizing antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2. Finally, both components will be combined in one vaccine formulation that will provide robust protection to the SARS-CoV-2 and also to related viruses, like the SRAS virus of 2002. The nanoparticles used to attach the vaccine antigens are very stable. The coupling to the nanoparticle will stabilize the antigens and generate a very stable vaccine formulation that can be stockpiled for a long period (years) without loss of integrity. This is an advantage because to insure preparedness to other epidemics with related viruses. | ||
| Evaluation of Intervention Strategies in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreaks | Public Health | Moghadas, Seyed M | York University | GoC* | Ontario | With the global spread of the novel coronavirus virus and potential for a COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization declared a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern", recognizing an extraordinary event that requires coordinated efforts to contain disease outbreaks. Research to evaluate intervention strategies can help decision-makers to identify the type and intensity of control measures needed for containment. We propose to investigate the severity and healthcare resource utilization during potential outbreaks, estimate the transmissibility and the percentage of the population that could be affected, and predict clinical outcomes and critical care demand. We will use modelling and simulation for nearly real-time estimates of public health and healthcare interventions in Canada, the US and India. Our specific research objectives are to: 1) Predict the scope of disease transmission, potential outbreaks, and clinical attack rates. 2) Project what hospitals will require for isolation, ambulatory services, emergency and hospital admissions, and critical care of symptomatic patients. 3) Assess the potential effects of various non-pharmacologic interventions, including quarantine, self-reporting and isolation, and school closure. 4) Evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine and determine best scenarios to distribute a vaccine based on population age and risk of disease severity. To achieve these objectives, we will develop new and adapt existing mathematical models to simulate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in outbreak scenarios. Our team has access to a number of databases including daily reports on incidence of confirmed and suspected cases, hospitalization, and deaths attributed to COVID-19 in China. Using demographics of the Canadian, US, and Indian populations, we will evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination strategies, hospital surge capacity, and social policies such as quarantine and closing schools. | ||
| A multi-country comparison of COVID-19 response: Planning, implementation, and health system resilience | Public Health | Zinszer, Kate A | Université de Montréal | GoC* | Québec | The many unknowns of COVID-19 have made the response efforts difficult despite the rapid guidance provided by the WHO. How different countries respond to this pandemic in their preparation and implementation is essential to study and understand. The aim of this project is to compare the public health response to COVID-19 in Brazil, Canada, France, and Mali. Use a case study approach, we will identify strengths and weaknesses in the response, including challenges for health professionals and health systems. To achieve our project aim, we will first document how countries have planned, organized, and implemented public health responses. We will also examine the role of scientific, empirical, and experiential information used in the response planning. We will also study health system vulnerability according to exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacities. We will then generate lessons learned for the benefit of public health and health systems and we will organize a workshop between the four countries and international organizations. Data sources for this study include key stakeholder interviews with decision makers and practitioners, organizational charts providing health human resource data, internal documentation indicating measures taken and dates implemented (e.g., emergency operations center activation, quarantine), and preparedness plans. The research team is composed of international and national experts in epidemic response and health systems analysis from each of the four countries. It is a multidisciplinary team of infectious disease clinicians, social scientists, public health practitioners, epidemiologists, data scientists, and a knowledge transfer expert. Our team includes decision makers and knowledge partners who are key to ensuring our work remains relevant and also provides an important conduit for the uptake of policy and practices recommendations. | ||
| Harnessing human mobility and surveillance data for disease forecasting to drive evidence-based public health policy during the COVID-19 epidemic | Public Health | Bogoch, Isaac | University Health Network | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 emerged from Wuhan, China in late December 2019 and is currently spreading to international destinations, globally. At the time of writing, cases have been confirmed in 24 countries worldwide. Of major concern are early indications of human-to-human transmission outside of China in those without a travel history to China. During the two months of this epidemic, public health policy has adapted rapidly to emerging information about disease location, disease burden, and clinical features of COVID-19. Public health screening and interventions will need to continuously evolve over the course of this epidemic to keep up with new foci of infection and potential new regions of COVID-19 exportation. We aim to harness validated tools to predict where COVID-19 will spread in real time by using a novel, AI-driven web-based surveillance tool coupled with real-time human mobility data. This surveillance system identifies regions with real or suspected cases of COVID-19. We simultaneously harness global commercial air transportation data and geo-referenced mobile device data to reflect human mobility, also in real time. We have successfully validated these tools for COVID-19 forecasting during the course of this epidemic and published our results in peer-reviewed literature. We will first use the AI-based surveillance system to identify regions with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases. We will then model the spread of infection from these locations by harnessing human mobility data to identify and forecast new regions (at the city, regional, and national level) for virus importation. We will work closely with our partners in the World Health Organization, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to use this data to help drive evidence-based public health policy in real time, with a focus on global projection strategies, and strategies for low and middle income countries in Southeast Asia. | Wilder-Smith, Annelies; Fernando, Ferdinal Moreno ; Khan, Kamran ; Powell, David | |
| La cohésion sociale est-elle possible en situation de crises multiples? L'influence des politiques publiques entourant le coronavirus (2019-nCoV) et les préjugés envers les citoyens et citoyennes d'origine chinoise | Social and Behavioural Sciences | de la Sablonniere, Roxane | Université de Montréal | GoC* | Québec | Le monde est actuellement confronte a une situation de crises multiples concernant les prejuges envers la citoyennete d'origines culturelles diverses: les mouvements migratoires, l'omnipresence des medias sociaux et le coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Au Canada, pres de 20% de la population est nee dans un autre pays et 41,8% de ceux-ci font etat de discrimination (Berry & Hou, 2017). Depuis l'eclosion rapide du 2019-nCoV, la communaute internationale observe une hausse des sentiments haineux (Burton, 2020) envers les citoyens et citoyennes d'origine chinoise. Nous soutenons que les politiques publiques vehiculees par les gouvernements ont un impact important sur les attitudes des citoyens et citoyennes a l'egard de la diversite (prejuges), surtout dans un contexte de crises multiples. Dans ce contexte, la collision des menaces a le potentiel de nuire de maniere significative a la cohesion sociale. Ainsi, une serie de questions fondamentales auxquelles il devient urgent de repondre sont soulevees: Est-ce que les politiques publiques des gouvernements influencent reellement le maintien de la cohesion sociale (diminution des stereotypes et de la discrimination)? Est-ce que les medias sociaux et les fausses nouvelles viennent inhiber la transmission efficace des politiques publiques? Comment les messages a la population sur les politiques publiques doivent-ils etre transmis, par qui et de quelle facon? Ce travail de recherche est fait au moyen de plusieurs etudes. Premierement, une etude representative et longitudinale (N=3000) sera menee. Elle permettra d'observer l'evolution des prejuges au fil du temps, conjointement a l'evolution du 2019-nCoV, et aussi la dynamique associee a ce processus. Deuxiemement, une serie de six etudes experimentales sera menee afin de tester l'efficacite des divers messages sur le coronavirus tels que transmis par les agents publics et par les divers medias sociaux tels que Facebook. | ||
| Agent-based and multi-scale mathematical modelling of COVID-19 for assessments of sustained transmission risk and effectiveness of countermeasures | Epidemiology/Modelling | Murty, Vijayakumar | The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences | GoC* | Ontario | The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, in collaboration with the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Atlantic Association for Research in Mathematical Sciences, together with the Public Health Agency of Canada and international partners, is assembling a national COVID-19 Mathematical Modelling Rapid Response Task Force. Our goal is to mobilize a national network of infectious disease modellers to develop mathematical technologies to assess transmission risk of COVID-19, project outbreak trajectories, evaluate public health interventions for its prevention and control, and inform public health policy makers as well as multi-scale modelling to assist in the development of effective treatment strategies. Such a network functioned during SARS and was successful in providing real-time advice to public health officials. In the case of COVID-19, in addition to the mathematical modellers drawn from across Canada, we have the partnership of the Public Health Agency of Canada and its Coronavirus Modelling Group, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Sasketchawan, the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation facility at York University and several research institutes in China including one at Xi'an Jiaotong University. | ||
| Acute Respiratory Mortality Surveillance (ARMS) for Coronavirus Infection (COVID-19): A globally relevant technology to strengthen mortality surveillance for acute respiratory deaths in many countries lacking complete medical certification of death | Epidemiology/Modelling | Jha, Prabhat | Unity Health Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | The current global infectious threat, COVID-19, has not yet been widely detected in sub-Saharan Africa or other low income countries in Asia. It is almost inevitable that it will reach those places. While unusual spikes in infection-related deaths can register quickly in higher income countries and in China, they can go unrecognized for weeks or months in low-income settings where even very ill people do not go to a hospital, infecting others. Detecting a mortality signal is important and may be the first step in recognizing a serious outbreak. We propose to build on our extensive experience using verbal autopsy (VA) in the long-running Indian Million Death Study, and ongoing studies in China, Hong Kong, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone to develop an enhanced verbal autopsy module to identify deaths from COVID-19. This will serve as a model for the next novel pathogen-as near as possible to real time in settings without routine medical certification of death. We will test three hypotheses: #1 An "Acute Respiratory Mortality Surveillance" (ARMS) module can be added quickly to the WHO VA instrument and validated against hospitalized cases and deaths (paired with epidemiological information and machine learning) to distinguish COVID-19 from other causes of respiratory deaths. #2 Early deployment of ARMS in China, Hong Kong, India, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia will help establish baseline distributions of usual acute respiratory deaths, as a comparator for COVID-19 deaths, and to inform modelling. #3 Effective knowledge translation of an open-source, widely-available ARMS module will improve the global response to COVID-19, particularly in the lowest income countries and help to improve mortality assessments for any subsequent COVID-19 waves. A successful ARMS will contribute to stopping the current outbreak and add novel surveillance tools. All materials and results will be made available globally to ensure the broadest use. | ||
| Understanding, Forecasting and Communicating Risk During the COVID-19 Epidemic | Epidemiology/Modelling | Fisman, David N | University of Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | A new infectious disease, COVID-19, has emerged worldwide. Canada has experienced few cases, but there is great concern about the possibility of a Canadian COVID-19 epidemic. Canada has a history of preparing for and managing disease outbreaks caused by new viruses (SARS, H1N1, preparing for Ebola). For many people inside and outside the public health community, an important part of preparation is having access to accurate, timely, reliable information about how the disease is spread, who is at risk, and who is not at risk. Public health professionals often want the answers to three basic questions about epidemics: "when will it peak?"; "when will it end?"; "how big will it be?". Our team of doctors, epidemiologists, public health professionals, and statisticians has experience responding to past outbreaks like SARS, H1N1 and Ebola. We are already actively involved in analysis and modeling that is helping public health agencies and the general public understand the COVID-19 epidemic, and "see what's around the corner". We have proposed a three-part project, which will use math and statistical modeling to: (i) forecast the near-term course of the epidemic; (ii) gain better understanding of the parts of the epidemic that are hidden from view, by analysing data that are public, but often messy or noisy; and (iii) use our information to build simulations that can help guide Canadian health agencies as they try to control or limit the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. Throughout this project, we will be creating infographics and tools that let Canadians inside and outside the scientific community gain a better understanding of how epidemics spread, who is truly at risk, and what it takes to make epidemics end. By providing timely information to Canadians, we will help reduce the fear, xenophobia and anxiety that are often part and parcel of emerging infectious diseases. | ||
| Modelling and Minimising the Impacts of Infection Control Routines on Nurse Workload in Acute Care Under Varying COVID-19 Outbreak Scenarios | Epidemiology/Modelling | Neumann, Patrick | Ryerson University | GoC* | Ontario | COVID-19 is taking a significant toll on front-line healthcare providers- especially nurses with over 1700 infected and 6 deaths to date. It is no surprise that nurses are questioning the safety of current SARS-CoV-2 infection control routines. These routines also pose extra work in a system where nurses are already working to capacity. If nurses are overworked, then fatigue develops and errors start to occur. Anticipating the demands and required extra personnel for an unknown number of incoming coronavirus patients is difficult. This research team will tackle this problem in two ways. First, we will work with nurses and professionals to refine their infection control routines so as to minimise the workload while simultaneously creating highly reliable safety routines. Secondly, we will develop an approach to creating computer simulations of two emergency departments that allow nurse workload and care delivery times to be precisely quantified. By modelling the care delivery process we are able to see the impact of varying severities of coronavirus outbreaks on the nursing team and, ultimately, how this extra workload affects their ability to deliver the care required to all patients in the unit. This project is a collaboration between researchers at Ryerson University and personnel at the University Health Network. The team will work collaboratively to engage front line personnel in developing the simulation model and co-designing improved infection control routines. The computer models, of two emergency departments with front-line responsibility for coronavirus patient treatment, can be readily adapted to other similar units across Canada. These models provide next-generation decision making support for managers who have to anticipate the unknown impacts of coronavirus, and be prepared to deliver the highest quality of care in ways that are safe for both patients and nurses. | ||
| Digital Virtual Support of Cases and Contacts to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): Readiness and Knowledge Sharing for Global Outbreaks (WelTel PHM) | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Lester, Richard T | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | The global outbreak of COVID-19 is the latest example of a rapidly spreading infectious outbreak with global impact. Infected patients with mild symptoms and asymptomatic contacts need to be isolated, ideally without overwhelming health facilities. WelTel, an integrated virtual care and patient engagement solution, emerged as an innovation initially to support the global HIV pandemic through a Canadian-Kenyan partnership over a decade ago. Co-founded by the lead investigator and registered in British Columbia, WelTel has continued to integrate research into a richly featured virtual care platform that can be used on the frontlines of healthcare delivery. The study aims to: 1-Deploy and co-optimize WelTel to assist in home monitoring and support of COVID-19 cases and contacts; 2- Determine essential linkages and technical demands of the digital health ecosystem for data security purposes and integration into other electronic health records (EHR) & health information management systems (HIMS); 3-Evaluate communication and other metadata captured by the system for public health quality improvement to better understand and reduce barriers (such as stigma); 4-Use novel computing approaches such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to harness artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to model, predict, and provide insights into future precision public health approaches. Collaborators have necessary expert skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods for rigorous assessment, and come from the countries targeted for the research deployment (Canada, UK, US, Kenya, and Rwanda). A rapid digital landscape analysis will also be done as a part of this research. Virtual care may be an efficient, cost-effective way to provide the necessary public health monitoring and support for patients and contacts of COVID-19 and future emerging communicable pathogens, as well as can inform public health quality improvement and precision care. | ||
| Mobilizing the Chinese Immigrant Community and Battling the Potential COVID-19 outbreak in the Greater Toronto Area: Gathering essential information, creating a mutual support quarantine network and assessing psychological impacts | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Wang, Peizhong P | Memorial University of Newfoundland | GoC* | Newfoundland and Labrador | The COVID-19 outbreak is raging in China and spreading across the globe. The situation is getting worse and may last longer than anyone can expect. Despite of only eight confirmed cases, Canada is now shrouded in fear and worry in face of uncertainty. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has one of the largest Chinese communities in the world and thus bears the brunt of the fear, anxiety, and panic. This, coupled with English language obstacles, has enabled rumors and misinformation to explode on social media. It has been suggested that the Toronto Chinese community is the most vulnerable, yet least prepared population for the potential COVID-19 outbreak. There is an urgent need to prepare and mobilize the GTA Chinese community to fight against the possible outbreak. In this context, the overarching goal of the proposed work is to assess the knowledge, develop effective epidemic control practice, and identify the psychological impacts of the disease. This will be achieved through coordinated efforts across communities, professionals, and local residents, to address three specific and inter-related objectives: 1) assessing GTA Chinese immigrants' knowledge, attitudes/beliefs, and protection practices toward COVID-19; 2) developing, evaluating, and optimizing a mutual-support quarantine network to contain COVID-19 from further spreading; and 3) assessing the psychological impacts and the associated predictors of the potential COVID-19 outbreak. The proposed project is culturally relevant, practical, and community-based. The research team is comprised of multidisciplinary researchers from the related fields of public health (epidemiology), psychology, sociology, and health policy. As part of the ongoing effort, the team has been closely working with the GTA Chinese community in various ways. This project will benefit not only the target population but also other communities in Canada. | ||
| Socio-Cultural Implications of COVID-19: Educating, Engaging & Empowering the Public | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Parsons Leigh, Jeanna J | Dalhousie University | GoC* | Nova Scotia | A novel infectious disease, COVID-19, is affecting mainland China and is now in at least 27 other countries. Since December 2019, over 67,000 people have been infected and more than 1,500 have died. Infectious disease outbreaks pose a severe threat to the physical and mental health of individuals and populations worldwide. A better understanding of social and cultural factors that contribute to public knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19 are needed to develop evidence informed strategies to combat misinformation, stigma and fear. In response to this challenge this study proposes to develop a national knowledge translation (KT) campaign to enhance public knowledge, understand public perceptions and develop targeted interventions to close identified public knowledge gaps. This will be achieved in three phases: i) Focus groups with members of the public from 5 provinces to identify major factors influencing public knowledge, perceptions and behaviours during the COVID-19 outbreak. ii) National survey with 1000 members of the public across Canada to create a comprehensive list of top public knowledge gaps, perceptions, and behaviours related to the COVID-19. iii) A national knowledge translation (KT) Campaign to educate, empower and engage the public to increase knowledge and foster positive public change in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. This study will target the Canadian public with the ultimate goal to educate, empower and engage members of the public to be informed stewards of their health knowledge in relation to the current outbreak by strengthening public understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and communities and providing evidence informed interventions to inform social and public health responses. | ||
| Ethical Pathways for Therapeutics and Vaccine R&D in the Context of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern: An Analysis of the 2013-16 Ebola Outbreak to Rapidly Inform COVID-19 R&D | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Smith, Maxwell | University of Western Ontario | GoC* | Ontario | A cross-cutting research priority identified by the recent WHO COVID-19 Global Research and Innovation Forum is the establishment of appropriate ethical oversight and global collaboration to accelerate COVID-19 R&D, and to establish these in such a way that promotes solidarity and equity. Yet, the existing COVID-19 research roadmap and WHO R&D Blueprint are largely silent on the global ethical pathways required to guide and oversee rapid therapeutics and vaccine R&D in this context (including whether and how such pathways ought to be modified, or precisely what solidarity and equity require for these activities). To identify and successfully navigate these ethical and regulatory pathways for COVID-19 R&D, we can look to the unprecedented R&D response to the 2013-16 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak for guidance. Only five months following the development of the first study protocols for EVD, the first patients were enrolled in clinical trials. Only four years later, the first vaccine was licensed in the United States. The atypical expediency of these R&D efforts was, in part, a product of significant modifications and adaptations to the usual ethical and regulatory pathways for health product development-pathways that involve ethical inputs into study protocols, independent ethics review of studies, global consultation and governance, data sharing agreements, and the approval, licensure, and dissemination of resulting products. This project will for the first time (1) analyze and describe the ethical pathways for R&D that existed or were established for EVD in order to aid the global research community in navigating these pathways for COVID-19 R&D; (2) analyze and describe the ethical pathways as they are established and navigated for COVID-19 R&D in order to rapidly support ongoing and future COVID-19 R&D; and (3) compare and conduct an ethical analysis of the ethical pathways for EVD and COVID-19 R&D to inform future R&D during epidemics. | ||
| Understanding Social Perceptions of Risk, Information Sources, Trust, and Public Engagement Related to the COVID-19 Outbreak | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kennedy, Eric B | York University | GoC* | Ontario | The aim of this project is to conduct rigorous research that (a) documents, preserves, and shares perishable data about the social dimensions of an emergent outbreak, and (b) that translates and mobilizes this knowledge into tangible countermeasures that can aid in minimizing the negative impacts of the disease on individuals and communities. With the emergence of a new disease like COVID-19, there is the potential for significant fear, stigmatization, and misinformation. It is essential to understand how these phenomenon operate; to trace how they affect public attitudes, fears, and beliefs; and to support evidence-based communication by government and expert public health sources that can help to minimize panic or stigmatization, support the adoption of appropriate precautions, and promote effective and pro-social responses. We combine four data sources (a nationally-representative survey sampling 300,000 Canadian households three times over the next two years; follow-up interviews with 135-165 participants; social media data; and mainstream media discourse analyses) to investigate a series of research questions surrounding public perceptions, fears, and reactions. The survey and interviews will provide core data on public perceptions of the risk of COVID-19, who Canadians are turning to as experts on the topic, and what information they are seeking. We correlate this data with analyses of the content being shared through social and traditional media platforms. This project supports the response to COVID-19. By better understanding Canadian risk perceptions, fears, and information sources, we can support the development and testing of more effective strategies for sharing reliable information and garnering trust. Longitudinal, cross-Canada surveying allows for regional analysis of interventions, rapid identification of what information Canadians are seeking, and the creation of pathways for sharing public knowledge and opportunities for engagement. | ||
| Destigmatizing Chinese Communities in the face of 2019-nCoV: Emergency Management Actions to Address Social Vulnerability in Toronto and Nairobi | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Mamuji, Aaida | York University | GoC* | Ontario | Chinese communities around the world are facing impacts to their personal wellbeing and livelihoods by way of discrimination and Sinophobia (anti-Chinese sentiment) due to COVID-19 disease (formally 2019-nCoV). By performing rapid response research, we can better understand social and policy countermeasures to mitigate the threats communities face from this and future Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC). This project focuses on the research area of social and policy countermeasures. Specifically, cultural dimensions of the epidemic such as examining how individuals and communities understand and react to the disease along with tailoring a response to the unique circumstances of different populations will be the foci of this project. Our research team will: 1) examine how Chinese diaspora communities in large urban centres globally, namely in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA or Toronto herein), Canada and Nairobi, Kenya are understanding and reacting to the novel coronavirus by studying social impacts and coping strategies. 2) engage with vulnerable groups (children, women, elderly, etc.) within Chinese communities using participatory action research approaches to counter misinformation about COVID-19 and share emergency management and public health practices and resources relevant to the health crisis. 3) share findings with emergency management professionals in both countries and collaboratively develop a culturally-specific public education campaign to support efforts to destigmatize Chinese communities during the COVID-19 PHEIC in both Toronto and Nairobi. 4) use social media and knowledge sharing events to educate the broader community on the true impact of misinformation, disinformation, stigma and fear, with the hope that this will improve community cohesion during the outbreak phase, in recovery, and for future resilience. | ||
| PROTECH - Pandemic Rapid-response Optimization To Enhance Community-resilience and Health | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Wong, Josephine P | Ryerson University | GoC* | Ontario | Global travel and trade have led to the spread of contagious diseases around the world, or pandemics. News about emerging pandemics often bring out fear and anxiety in the public. Recent public response to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak reflected blame, fear, and racism against the Chinese communities. We have learned during the 2003 SARS crisis in Toronto that stigma could lead to crushing harm on the health, psychological, social, and economic well-being of the affected communities. In response to the potential negative impacts of COVID-19 on the Chinese communities, our team proposes a cutting-edge model - Pandemic Rapid-response Optimization To Enhance Community-Resilience and Health (PROTECH) that consists of three interrelated components: (1) an online resource hub that provides accurate and timely information on COVID-19, and practical ways to cope with fear and anxiety; (2) an online group training with live video meeting to reduce stigma/stress and promote resilience among affected groups (individuals tested positive; healthcare providers experiencing stress or burnout, community leaders); and (3) a framework that sustains the first two components and aligns people, processes, and resources together. Our team includes clinicians, researchers, and leaders from diverse public, arts, and business sectors. We will also reach out to key opinion leaders and community influencers to mobilize the Chinese and other affected communities. We will use focus groups, surveys, and note-taking on project activities to examine the effectiveness of PROTECH in reducing stress and stigma, and promoting collective resilience, or how to best support the affected groups to keep well despite the challenges. Finally, the PROTECH model can be adapted and used in different communities across Canada and other countries for future pandemic outbreaks. | ||
| City Shutdown as a Response to COVID-19: Understanding Human Experiences and Mental Health Consequences of the Quarantine in Wuhan | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Qian, Yue | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | Wuhan, where COVID-19 originated, is the capital of Hubei Province, with a population of over 11 million. The municipal government shut down the entire city since Jan 23, 2020, hoping to halt the COVID-19 outbreak. "[B]elieved to be without precedent" (New York Times), this largest quarantine in human history provides a natural case study to assess the impact of quarantine, as a public health response to COVID-19, on individuals and communities. We will conduct five waves of online survey, each four months apart, to follow a diverse sample of 8,000 adults who lived in Wuhan during the quarantine. The survey will evaluate respondents' mental health, challenges encountered, and community services received during and after the quarantine. We will use survey data to identify individual and community risk factors for mental health outcomes during and after the quarantine, thereby determining the course of post-quarantine recovery and pinpointing the populations that need public health services the most. We will also conduct in-depth interviews with 120 adults who lived in Wuhan during the quarantine to examine, in much greater detail, how people understood, reacted to, and coped with the quarantine, and what local barriers, challenges, and needs existed in combating the COVID-19 outbreak. Our interviews will target vulnerable groups who have special healthcare needs (pregnant women, people with chronic conditions, and the elderly living alone) and people who are primary caregivers (people who care for family members with COVID-19, healthcare workers, and parents of young children). Spanning the fields of public health, sociology, demography, and disaster studies, this research will illuminate the feasibility of quarantine as a public health response to COVID-19, inform community and mental health service planning for post-epidemic recovery, and ultimately help to mitigate potential negative impacts of quarantine and the COVID-19 outbreak on individuals and communities. | ||
| Peer Champion Support for Hospital Healthcare Workers during and after a Novel Coronavirus Outbreak: It's a Marathon, not a Sprint | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Maunder, Robert G | Sinai Health System | GoC* | Ontario | Experience from the 2003 SARS outbreak taught that hospital workers often experience chronic stress effects for months or years after such an event, including burnout, absenteeism, and interpersonal problems. We learned that supporting healthcare workers requires attention to the marathon of occupational stress, not just the sprint of dramatic stressors that occur while infections are dominating the news. At our hospital, we routinely provide a range of supportive resources for staff, which depend on their needs and often depend on staff actively seeking support. This study's goal is to test if the well-being of hospital workers facing a novel coronavirus outbreak is improved by adding Peer Support Champions: an interdisciplinary team of professionals who actively monitor for early signs of heightened stress within clinical teams, liaise between staff and senior management to improve organizational responsiveness, and provide direct support and teaching (under the supervision of experts in resilience, infection control, and professional education). We will test the effectiveness of Enriched Support by rolling it out to different parts of the hospital in stages, comparing levels of burnout before and after the intervention reaches particular teams and units (this is called a stepped wedge design). By the end of the study, we will have provided Enriched Support to all of our clinical and research staff and many learners (> 6,000 people). We will test the effectiveness of the Peer Support Champions by measuring trends in burnout and other effects of stress over the course of the study in a subgroup of these hospital workers (~1000 people). We have assembled a team of experts in infection prevention and control, healthcare workers' stress and resilience, and continuous professional education. Because occupational stress and burnout are very common in healthcare, we expect this work to produce knowledge that is valuable well beyond the current outbreak. | ||
| Organizational response to disease | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kelloway, E. K | Saint Mary's University | GoC* | Nova Scotia | Both public and private sector organizations are increasingly faced with the need to deal with disease outbreaks. In particular, organizations are challenged by the need to promote health and health practices among their employees while, at the same time, maintaining their operations. In the current proposal we focus on how employees perceive their employers managing these two goals. In particular we examine how characteristics of the organizational response to disease outbreaks influence employees' own health and health-promoting behaviours. | ||
| Understanding and mitigating real-time differential gendered effects of the COVID-19 outbreak | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Lee, Kelley | Simon Fraser University | GoC* | British Columbia | Infectious disease outbreaks are considered by policymakers as global, collective problems, assuming a similar impact of pathogens on all people. Yet, the impact of disease on individuals and communities is not homogenous, with women disproportionately affected. The sex and gendered dynamics of the COVID-19 outbreak so far are anecdotal, but the consequences of sidelining these canlimit effective responses in affected regions, as well as prevention and preparedness efforts globally. This project will conduct a gender analysis to identify and document the differential gendered effects of the outbreak and gaps in preparedness and response measures in a dynamic way, providing real time guidance and recommendations to those crafting policy and public health interventions. We will: map and analyze sex disaggregated data on COVID-19 infections and mortality to provide evidence to inform public health responses, decision-making and planning; document and analyze gender impacts of the outbreak in order to strengthen understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and communities through chatroom and social media analysis and interviews with those infected and affected; conduct gender-based analysis of national and global responses through policy analysis and key informant interviews; produce knowledge translation resources, including a gender matrix and toolkit, to improve policy and public health responses to COVID-19. Findings will contribute to the global response of COVID-19 through strengthening understanding of how individuals and communities understand and react to the disease. The COVID-19 Gender Matrix will be a living, online tool presenting gender analysis questions and data as it is gathered and serving as a template to measure gender indicators, if and where the outbreak may spread. The COVID-19 Gender Toolkit will promote immediate gender mainstreamed actions within policy development, preparedness and response activities. | ||
| Exploring the Psychosocial and Health Service Consequences of Coronavirus on Children and their Families: Lessons Learned for Pediatric Health Care Practice and Policy | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Nicholas, David B | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | Outbreaks such as COVID-19 risk deleteriously affecting the quality of pediatric health care. For vulnerable children (e.g., those with COVID-19 or other respiratory conditions, those who are immunosuppressed, those with a terminal illness), person/family-centred care is essential to their health and well-being particularly in times of systemic challenge, which paradoxically is taxed during a pandemic outbreak. Studies have shown that outbreaks like COVID-19 strain practices such as imposing stringent infectious control procedures as well as widespread stigma and fear. These shifts risk negative impacts on tangible, relational (e.g., communication) and psychosocial aspects of care that can exacerbate patient anxiety and isolation both in and out of hospital. Procedural and other shifts in care may be needed to diminish negative impacts and conversely optimize patient care. Using qualitative data collection, this study will illuminate the perspectives of children, their families, and health care providers about how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted public health and institutional health care delivery. Pediatric care processes and stakeholder experiences will be explored via ground theory methods. We will recruit pediatric patients with varying conditions, their parents and health care providers. Diversity in family ethno-cultural and socio-economic backgrounds will be sought. Interviews, focus groups and a Delphi consultation will be conducted, as will a comparison of these findings relative to similar data collected by members of this team during the 2003 Canadian SARS outbreak. Accordingly, potential advances in pandemic preparedness and care will be appraised. Recommendations for practice and policy will be offered. | ||
| The role of communication strategies and media discourse in shaping psychological and behavioral response to the COVID-19 outbreak: a comparative analysis between Canada and two Asian countries/regions | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Genereux, Mélissa | Université de Sherbrooke | GoC* | Québec | First identified in December 2019 in China, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" by the World Health Organization (WHO). Large outbreaks can increase the sense of fear and lead to adverse responses from the public, such as denial, rumors, misconceptions, stigmatization, and avoidance behaviors. Both news media and social media play a major role shaping these responses. Little is known about how people of various cultural and social backgrounds react to health information and misinformation. It is also unclear how official information (from the authorities) flows and circulates across levels of governance (from WHO to countries, then from countries to citizens). Our research project aims to contribute to a better understanding of how the health information related to the COVID-19 outbreak is delivered by authorities and media, and how it is received, understood and used by the public. To do so, we will conduct a survey about knowledge, perceptions, and reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak among large and representative samples of the population in three places: Canada, Hong Kong and Philippines. We will also analyze and compare the way information about COVID-19 outbreak is shared in the news media and the social media. Finally, we will look at how health information delivered and received by the population is influenced by the multiple levels of governance. This international research project will allow to 1) evaluate the impacts of communication strategy and misinformation on populations of various backgrounds and 2) draw important lessons that could be applied to future disasters and global threats. | ||
| Détermination par la simulation du profil type et des valeurs des professionnels de la santé qui décideront de s'impliquer dans les soins aux patients atteints de COVID-19 ou de s'en retirer. | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Pilote, Bruno | Université Laval | GoC* | Québec | Le virus SARS-CoV-2 profite d'une large couverture mediatique en regard des deces qui lui sont attribuables. Les centres de sante au Canada suivent son evolution et ils sont attentifs a l'apparition de tout nouveau cas. Cette maladie virale peut faire peur et des professionnels de la sante pourraient craindre pour leur securite ou celle d'autrui au moment d'intervenir aupres de personnes infectees. Ce choix d'intervenir ou de se retirer des soins est generalement facile a faire en l'absence d'une veritable menace et il est soumis a un processus rationnel et conscient. Cependant, lorsqu'une personne est soumise a une menace reelle et imminente, elle ressent du stress et de la peur. Cette peur, rationnelle ou irrationnelle, joue un role important dans la decision d'intervenir ou de fuir. Actuellement, nous ne connaissons pas la reaction des professionnels de la sante lorsqu'ils font face a une menace imminente tel que le SARS-CoV-2. Nous ne connaissons pas le profil des personnes qui accepteraient d'intervenir, ni celui des personnes qui prefereraient s'abstenir. Nous desirons, dans cette etude, creer un environnement de simulation authentique reproduisant une situation d'epidemie. Des participants selectionnes au hasard (infirmieres, medecins et preposes) dans cinq etablissements de sante du Canada seront appeles a intervenir aupres de personnes atteintes par le coronavirus. Par cette simulation in situ, nous cherchons a reproduire l'etat mental dans lequel le professionnel de la sante se trouvera au moment d'intervenir aupres de cette population. Nous serons ainsi en mesure de determiner le profil des personnes pretes a intervenir, a l'aide d'analyse qualitative et quantitatives. Les centres hospitaliers pourront utiliser les resultats pour determiner les personnes susceptibles d'intervenir efficacement et de facon efficiente dans le cas d'une eclosion majeure afin de reduire les risques organisationnels et humains de l'epidemie. | ||
| Chinese and non-Chinese Canadians Response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): Interrelations between Risk Perception, Discrimination, and Preventative Health Actions | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Noels, Kimberly | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | The coronavirus (COVID-19) has triggered fear worldwide, and in Canada, some of this fear has been misplaced onto Chinese Canadians. The proposed research program is broadly concerned with Chinese Canadians' experiences of discrimination and stigmatization in the current context of the COVID-19 epidemic. Central to these experiences, we suggest, is non-Chinese Canadians' understanding of risk and the cultural dimensions of preventative health practices. The research program has three interrelated components that, together, will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how Chinese and non-Chinese Canadians understand, experience, and react to the COVID-19, and have implications for developing strategies to combat stigma and fear associated with Chinese people and COVID-19. The first study involves a longitudinal study of Chinese Canadians' experiences of discrimination during the COVID-19 epidemic will help determine what kinds of support Chinese Canadians would like to receive now and in the near future. The second study focuses on non-Chinese Canadians' perceptions of risk associated with virus transmission. This study will test the idea that one way to allay fears aroused by viral outbreaks is to provide people with accurate numerical information about the mortality rate produced by the virus, and its main implication that reducing fear may decrease discrimination against Chinese Canadians. Risk perceptions also predict preventative behaviour. Thus, the third study focuses on wearing a face mask in public as a preventative health practice that is particularly enmeshed in cultural beliefs that differ across the two communities Together, these three interrelated components represent significant social countermeasure research to combat the intergroup threat driven by misinformation, stigma, and cultural misunderstanding associated with COVID-19. | ||
| Developing COVID-19 Risk Communication and Community Engagement Readiness Strategy Guidance for Travelers Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Jardine, Cynthia | University of The Fraser Valley | GoC* | British Columbia | Containing an emerging disease, such as the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) depends on stopping the spread of the disease to other areas around the world. People who travel back to their countries of origin to visit friends and relatives (VFR) (including the children of immigrants and international students) are often at a higher risk of getting the disease and then spreading it to others. A better understanding of VFR traveler knowledge, risk perceptions, information needs, barriers to pre-travel care and advice, and access to protective measures will help us better develop strategies to keep travelers healthy. This will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its potential negative consequences. Our research will take place in the Fraser Valley and lower mainland of British Columbia as an area with a high number of immigrants. We are seeking information from Chinese and Punjabi VFR travelers, international students at the University of the Fraser Valley, and family physicians. We will use a combination of focus groups, surveys and interviews to get this information. The researchers for this study have a lot of experience in working with immigrant populations on infectious diseases to determine their risk communication needs. This includes research with VFR travelers. The University of the Fraser Valley has partnerships with organizations (such as the Divisions of Family Practice and Community Services) that enable us to easily access research participants. They will also help us access their large and diverse international student body. Including researchers from other countries, like Australia and New Zealand, will help us make sure our research and recommendations can be part of a coordinated international response. Our research also includes senior people in the BC provincial health system to make sure our results can be quickly used in practice. | ||
| The dynamics of trust before, during, and after the COVID-19 outbreak | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Wu, Cary | York University | GoC* | Ontario | The proposed research aims to study the COVID-19 outbreak and its relationship with four different kinds of trust, namely- trust in government, trust in health agencies, social trust in general others, and outgroup trust (e.g. Chinese and non-Chinese). We will undertake this research with a view to meeting two objectives. First, we seek to investigate how the pre and in-crisis trust context has shaped the response to COVID-19 in China and Canada (Objective 1). Second, we seek to understand how the COVID-19 outbreak response and experience then shaped the post-crisis context of trust in in China and Canada (Objective 2). The inclusion of both countries is vital not only for the possible control that Canada provides to the Chinese case, but also because it will allow for a more global picture of the impacts that the crisis had on individuals who are ethnically Chinese living outside of China. We will make these contributions by analyzing existing trust data collected prior to the outbreak (pre-crisis); by adding questions about the outbreak to current surveys being conducted on trust in China by team members (in-crisis rapid response conducted immediately); by conducting a new rapidly developed online survey to be administered in China and Canada (in-crisis rapid response conducted immediately; repeated post crisis), and by conducting focus groups with citizens in Chinese and Canadian cities (in crisis Canada only rapid response; repeated post crisis both countries). We anticipate that our team, which brings together experts in trust and health from the center of the outbreak in China, including in Wuhan city, as well as leading scholars on trust and public health in Canada and Sweden, is ideally positioned to conduct this research. As a result of team members' ongoing and previous collaborations we are well-poised for the rapid engagement that is urgently needed in order to meet the global challenge posed by the COVID-19 outbreak. | ||
| Combating misinformation, fear and stigma in response to the Covid-19 outbreak: An international collaboration between Canada and Singapore | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Fahim, Christine | Unity Health Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pneumonia-like illness (previously 'coronavirus' and now named Covid-19) a public health emergency of international concern. In past months, misinformation about the outbreak rapidly spread, sparking fear and stigmatization of Chinese, Asian and other communities in Canada and abroad. We will conduct this study in partnership with the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice (CCNC-SJ) and the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO), which are advocacy organizations aiming to reduce stigma and racism facing the Chinese-Canadian community. We have also partnered with the Yee Hong Centre in Canada and researchers and government officials in Singapore to explore how cultural and political contexts impact misinformation, stigma and fear. We will conduct a social media analysis to understand Canadian and Singaporean local and federal governments' response to Covid-19 and the public's reaction to these messages. We will conduct multi-language key informant interviews with citizens, health care providers and government officials in Singapore and Canada to identify drivers of misinformation, fear and stigma, and will develop corresponding strategies and tools to mitigate these. We will test our tools with an international, diverse participant panel to ensure our findings are meaningful to a global audience. | ||
| Sociocultural and behavioural factors affecting communities' response to countermeasures for COVID-19 epidemic: identifying interventions to build trust | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Dubé, Eve | Université Laval | GoC* | Québec | Fear might be a bigger threat than the virus.' As public health authorities increase efforts to address the new coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19), rumours, misinformation, and xenophobic online posts are spreading faster than the virus. Fear and misinformation have direct implication on the implementation of effective public health measures to control the epidemic. With this research, we will examine the individual and sociocultural factors that impact individual's and communities' adoption of public health recommendations. This study will use qualitative and quantitative methods to describe online discourses related to COVID-19 in Canada (Tweets and comments on news media report) and to describe individual/ community understanding of disease, priorities, fears, etc. including public health messaging that may impact the acceptance of measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. We will also identify interventions that will help build public trust in authorities responsible for disease spread and management, while dispelling unfounded rumours and xenophobic discourse. | ||
| Senior public health leadership during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: Comparative approaches to mitigating the spread of infectious disease and its social consequences in Canada and abroad | Public Health | Fafard, Patrick | University of Ottawa | GoC* | Ontario | During an infectious disease outbreak, senior public health leaders work diligently to contain its spread, manage the medical and social impact, and try to counter misinformation and prevent discrimination. The emergence of a novel coronavirus has vividly demonstrated the need for clear, timely, and accessible information from trusted and authoritative public figures. In many countries, the virus has been accompanied by the spread of false information, racism, and panic. These factors heighten the risks of the virus for individuals and communities and complicate the challenges public health leaders face in containing it. The proposed research will systematically analyze the ways in which public health leaders in Canada and four other countries with similar public health systems are addressing the biological and social risks of the novel coronavirus in their public messaging across a range of platforms, including social media. Using text analysis of official communications and one-on-one interviews with public health leaders, we will analyze and compare how government spokespeople, including Chief Public Health Officers and Ministers of Health, are communicating medical advice, addressing misinformation, and tackling racism. We will also examine whether and how they identify different impacts of the virus based on sex and gender. The project will additionally collect public polling data to investigate the extent to which these public health communications are received, understood, and trusted by citizens in different countries. As a result of this project, we will have a better understanding of who speaks for the government during an outbreak, the kind of information they share, and how their messages are understood by the public. | ||
| Understanding the effects of public health outbreak control policies and implementation on individuals and communities: a path to improving COVID-19 policy effectiveness | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Halperin, Scott A | Dalhousie University | GoC* | Nova Scotia | This project will examine the cultural dimensions of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic such as examining how individuals and communities understand and react to the disease, studying the response of public health, and exploring how public health policy affects individuals and communities. While public health policies are required to control an infectious disease outbreak, these policies can adversely affect individuals and communities. Quarantine, limitations in movement and public gathering, and other restrictive measures can put a social and economic burden on individuals, which may be disproportionate, depending on their socioeconomic status and other factors. Healthcare providers are both involved in administering the policy but are also put at grave risk in caring for patients. This will be a multiprovince, multicountry study in Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia), Bangladesh, and China (Guangdong). We will use qualitative methodology (document review, key informant interviews, focus groups) and quantitative methods (surveys) to examine policy and implementation from the public health/policy perspective as well perspectives of the media, communities, healthcare providers, patients and their caregivers, and members of the general public. These data will be used to improve the process by which public health policies are created and implemented. | ||
| Spatial and social patterning of COVID-19 prevention and transmission in Canada: Investigating the impacts of risk perception and preventive behaviour on individual activity space | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Wang, Lu | Ryerson University | GoC* | Ontario | Emerging and re-emerging global infectious diseases are presenting unprecedented public health challenges, resulting in negative, long-lasting health, sociocultural and economic consequences for individuals and communities around the world. As a global city, Toronto is home to one of the most highly-travelled populations in the world. It has been a significant receiving geography of a number of global infectious diseases. The project aims to understand the relationships among health risk perception, community prevention behaviour and individual activity space during the on-going global COVID-19 outbreak. Disease transmission in an urban centre is directly influenced by individual activity space and the effectiveness of preventive measures taken in a community, which is largely shaped by perception of the disease and its risk. The project will (1) explore the perception of COVID-19 and its risks among groups with different immigration status, socio-economic-demographic characteristics within Toronto's Chinese community; (2) examine how risk perception shapes prevention behaviour and individual activity space; and (3) assess how activity space is influenced by risk perception, prevention practices, and other factors through spatial-quantitative, mapping and qualitative analysis. Data will be collected from a community survey on risk perception, prevention behaviour and daily mobility, and focus groups on coping strategies. The project will contribute to the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak by providing evidence-based findings on community prevention behaviour in a large urban hub. It will reveal local perspectives, citizen approaches and community practices as outbreak response effort, and enhance our understanding of the cultural dimensions of the epidemic. It will yield implications for public health response in setting policies under time constraints and uncertainty, allocating resources, identifying high-risk groups and setting vaccine priority. | ||
| Using Online News Media to Assess Community and Public Health Responses to COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Buckeridge, David L | McGill University | GoC* | Québec | Canada has played a leading role in developing computer-based systems for scanning news on the internet to detect signals of infectious diseases. We will work with he Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization to develop artificial intelligence methods for analyzing news on the internet to understand how communities and public health agencies around the world are responding to the corona virus epidemic. These methods will help to understand the impact of the epidemic, identify effective strategies for controlling the epidemic, and contribute to improved global disease surveillance in the future. | ||
| Assessing and addressing the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among pregnant women and health care providers in Anhui, China | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Yamamoto, Shelby | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | On January 31, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. In addition to focusing on immediate clinical/biomedical needs relat-ed to the outbreak, it is also important to consider potential mental health impacts. Pregnancy can be a time of heightened vulnerability, especially during public health emergencies. Women may have several concerns related to: their health and fetus; the health of family, friends, and their infants; access to ser-vices; potential exposure during hospital deliveries; and social isolation, among others. Health care pro-viders (HCPs) also face mental, physical, and social challenges that can affect their wellbeing and ability to care for patients. Building on our team's existing research work and infrastructure, we will first assess the potential impacts of the COVID-19 emergency on pregnant women's mental health (depression) and the implementation of a perinatal depression and screening and management program in Ma'anshan, Chi-na. Secondly, we will then evaluate the effect of a cognitive behavioral therapy intervention aimed at re-ducing depression in pregnant women and investigate changes in the acceptability of and adherence to the intervention. Thirdly, we will investigate potential impacts in terms of adverse birth outcomes (preterm birth, low birth weight, small for gestational age) and explore women's experiences during the outbreak. Fourthly, we also plan to assess anxiety among HCPs and investigate the provision of perinatal health care during and after the emergency. This study aims to contribute to the global COVID-19 response, foster our understanding of the potential mental health impacts of the emergency, reduce public health risk and burden, and help inform clinical and public health responses to the outbreak. | ||
| Assessment of Cancer Patient and Caregiver Perspective on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the Impact on Delivery of Cancer Care at an Institution with a Confirmed Case of COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Singh, Simron | Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre | GoC* | Ontario | Understanding the perspectives that cancer patients and their family members and caregivers have toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) will be essential to ensure the continuity of their cancer treatments through this infectious outbreak in both the short and long term. A particular dimension that is under-explored and researched is the impact that infectious outbreaks have on the risk perception of cancer patients, including those who are at increased risk of developing infections due to their treatments and immunocompromised state. Furthermore, in the era of continuous and rapid news reporting, social media, and messaging platforms, the proliferation and distribution of COVID-2019 content is unprecedented and further driving distress among this group of patients and caregivers who need to visit medical instituions at regular intervals. At Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center Odette Cancer Center in Toronto, Ontario, we have seen an unprecedented number of clinic appointment cancellations due to fears of being exposed to COVID-2019 given we were the first Canadian institution to confirm a patient infected with COVID-2019. Therefore, to better understand this phenomenon, we have designed a research proposal to address this under explored area in order to develop educational tools to help patients and their families/caregivers make informed decisions based on the true risks during this outbreak with appropriate levels of concern and mitigation. We expect these education interventions to empower patients and families/caregivers on the true risks of COVID-2019 infection and in turn prevent inappropriate clinic cancellations and sub-optimal care for patients undergoing treatment for cancer. | ||
| The Paradox of Precaution: Examining Public Health COVID-19 Outbreak Management Strategies | Public Health | Driedger, S. Michelle | University of Manitoba | GoC* | Manitoba | In any outbreak, public health focuses on surveillance, containment, and providing recommendations for how the public can stay safe: wash hands, cover coughs, stay home when sick, and get vaccinated if one is available. While this is similar messaging to what is heard in cold/flu season, what separates these events apart is the inherent uncertainty involved during the emergence of a novel virus. However, when public health best practice (e.g. quarantining returning nationals from Wuhan) is attacked as putting people in "medical jails", or when the WHO implores governments for emergency resources to manage the outbreak by declaring the novel virus as "public enemy number one" akin to a "global threat potentially worse than terrorism", it creates a paradox around the concept of precaution. There is an urgent need to examine the cultural, social and political responses to the management of the current outbreak in real time. The objectives of this research are: 1) to evaluate how cautionary public health messages for the outbreak are presented by the news media; 2) to evaluate whether public health agencies are using social media and how well these tools, if used, increase public understanding of these outbreaks; 3) to assess how members of the general public, including special targeted groups, understand the outbreak, both the risks of disease and the risks of contraction; 4) to evaluate how effectively members of the public feel they can protect themselves given public health outbreak communication, and how they make sense of this relative to seasonal influenza risk messaging; and 5) to assess public response to a novel vaccine if one becomes available. We will meet these objectives through a content analysis of news media stories / social media, and interviews with public health communication leads (objs 1&2) and focus groups/surveys with members of the general public and targeted communities (e.g. Indigenous peoples, Asians) in select Canadian cities (objs 3-5). | ||
| Inoculating Against an Infodemic: Microlearning Interventions to Address CoV Misinformation | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Veletsianos, George | Royal Roads University | GoC* | British Columbia | The effort seeks to improve personal health and the health of populations by combating misinformation and developing online learning interventions that improve people's knowledge, skills, beliefs, and behaviours related to COVID-19. In particular, the effort uses a design thinking approach to (1) examine digital misinformation flows pertaining to the outbreak; (2) develop, test, and improve educational interventions to reduce the spread of online misinformation. The outcomes of the project will be: (1) the creation of effective COVID-19 educational interventions; (2) the provision of health-related information recommendations and resources to guide non-profits and other community groups who wish to educate the public; (3) the development of increased individual and community capacity to identify the differences between trustworthy and untrustworthy information on the virus; and (4) the mitigation of misinformation related to COVID-19. To reach these outcomes, we will rapidly develop and deploy COVID-19 educational interventions in a variety of cultural contexts. We will test and improve these interventions based on empirical data from a variety of sources including focus groups, surveys, social media, and field research. Instruments, data, and resources will be shared on an interactive website with licenses that allow others to reuse them for free. | ||
| What is the public health risk communication response to COVID-19 in the context of social media? | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kothari, Anita R | University of Western Ontario | GoC* | Ontario | Keeping Canadians safe requires a robust public health system. This is especially true when there is a public health emergency, like the novel Coronavirus outbreak. Social media, like twitter and Facebook, is an important information channel because most people use the internet for their health information. The public health sector can use social media during emergency events for: 1) public health messaging, 2) monitoring misinformation, and 3) responding to questions and concerns raised by the public. In this study we ask: What is the public health risk communication response to an emergency infectious disease in the context of social media? We examine how provinces and provincial public health leaders, and the Public Health Agency of Canada and national public heath leaders engage with the public using social media during the Coronavirus event. We compare findings to provincial and national public heath social media activity before the emergency. We also compare findings to the gold standard - WHO social media activity during the emergency. Using our study findings, we will work with public health stakeholders to collaboratively develop a much-needed Canadian social media emergency response set of guideline recommendations for public health and other health system organizations. | ||
| Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Caulfield, Timothy A | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | The spread of health misinformation and disinformation are a serious threat to public health, including in the case of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Addressing the spread of COVID-19 misinformation involves identifying the misinformation in circulation, understanding the public impact, and designing and implementing evidence-based solutions to combat the harmful discourse. We propose conducting research into COVID-19 misinformation from multiple angles, developing effective communication and education tools, countering misinformation strategically, and providing policy recommendations to deal with COVID-19 and future outbreaks. Our interdisciplinary team of experts is led by Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair and Health Law Institute Research Director, who has been studying health and science misinformation for over 20 years. Our team will conduct systematic content analyses of traditional and online social media and empirical psychological research on how individuals respond to COVID-19 information. The objective is to assemble and execute a depth-of-analysis sufficient to enact positive outcomes for COVID-19 while establishing a blueprint for future misinformation events. The impact of this course of research will be significant, enabling the development of strategies to combat misinformation, stigma, and fear, to address their underlying drivers, and to improve public awareness, knowledge, and trust. We will meet the call's objectives of contributing to the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak, strengthening the understanding of its public impacts, and providing evidence to inform public health planning, decision making and response. Deploying our expertise and networks will maximize outputs, including to those in health care, government, popular media, and the public at large. | ||
| COVID-19: The Role of Psychological Factors in the Spreading of Disease, Discrimination, and Distress | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Asmundson, Gordon J | University of Regina | GoC* | Saskatchewan | The novel corona COVID-19 arose in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has rapidly spread from China to other parts of the world. By early February there were over 40,000 confirmed cases in 25 countries, of which 2.5% have been fatal. The WHO declared the virus to be a public health emergency of international concern. COVID-19 is poised to become the next pandemic. For both epidemics and pandemics, psychological factors play a major role in the spread and containment of infection (e.g., non-adherence with hygiene guidelines) and in societally disruptive behaviour (e.g., infection-related discrimination, excessive fear and worry, overuse of healthcare resources); as such, psychological factors have important public health significance. The proposed studies are the first of a planned series of studies with the end goal of developing a rapid assessment system (assessment battery and online delivery platform) that can be used to assess, for any pandemic or major epidemic, infection-related excessive anxiety and xenophobia, and risk factors for these problems. To achieve this end goal, we will conduct three studies with a specific focus on COVID-19 using community samples. The goal of Study 1 will be to develop and validate measures of COVID-19-related anxiety and xenophobia (C-ANX, and C-XEN). In Study 2, these scales will be used to identify the correlates of C-ANX and C-XEN, which can then be used to identify the downstream impacts of these psychological reactions. Based on the findings of Studies 1 and 2, we will develop and evaluate an online public health assessment and information platform (Study 3) designed to reduce the risk of adverse psychological reactions to infectious outbreak. This platform would then be expanded to (a) monitor the psychological impact (as a public health problem) of a pandemic/epidemic, (b) identify people in need of psychological services, and (c) implement interventions for reducing infection-related xenophobia and excessive anxiety. | ||
| COVID-19's Informational Virus: Analyzing the Viral Character and Effects of Social Media Misinformation | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Ali, Syed H | York University | GoC* | Ontario | Social media is playing a central yet neglected role in the creation and spread of misinformation about COVID-19 by confusing public understanding, fostering racism and xenophobia, and affecting the capacity of public health officials to communicate scientific facts about COVID-19 to the general public. Without an understanding of the role that contemporary social media plays in the outbreak response, the resultant response may be of limited effectiveness. Thus, this project is based on the following research questions: how is social media-based misinformation shaping both public health and lay responses to COVID-19, and what public health strategies and public policies can be adopted to combat such misinformation and its stigmatizing social impacts? To address these questions, we will develop and apply a cutting-edge mixed-methods approach that combines big data analysis from computational social science with small data analysis from cultural and interpretive sociology. In year one, we will scientifically track misinformation about COVID-19 on Western social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit - as well as on Chinese social media platforms - WeChat, Weibo, Tencent, and Toutiao. This will be supplemented with interviews with public health officials. In the second year, our analysis will turn towards understanding the effects of social media misinformation about COVID-19, including: xenophobia, racism and stigmatization. We focus on the following lines of investigation: (i) Social Media, Misinformation and Risk Communication in Outbreak Response; (ii) Misinformation in a Post-Truth Environment: Implications for Outbreak Response; (iii) The Role of Misinformation in the Promotion of Stigmatization, Xenophobia and Racism During the Outbreak; (iv) The Relationship of Social Media and Political Culture in Outbreak Response: A Comparison of China and Canada. | ||
| An Investigation on Epidemic Logistical Response and Planning: The Case of Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) | Public Health | Ng, Koi Yu Adolf | University of Manitoba | GoC* | Manitoba | Effective mitigation to the impacts of sudden, large-scale epidemic outbreak is a key issue as it poses substantial impacts on human lives and society. As numerous urban and social activities involve logistics, it means that effective epidemic logistical response and planning is key to secure social security and prosperity, now and the future. Hitherto, however, there is a serious scarcity of knowledge on how the logistical system can adapt to epidemic outbreak. There is an urgency to investigate whether epidemic logistical planning approach is appropriate. Hence, by focusing on Covid-19, the goal of this project is to develop effective logistical strategies and solutions to tackle the social impacts caused by sudden, large-scale epidemic outbreak so as to enhance the resilience of cities, countries, and societies. It strives to achieve five key objectives: 1) to investigate how individuals and societies with difference characteristics (e.g., age, jobs) perceive and react to the social impacts of and logistical strategy in tackling Covid-19, 2) to identify attributes that can catalyze information sharing and coordination between cities and countries in epidemic logistical planning, 3) to identify ways that can facilitate the transfer of strategies and solutions to cities and countries under diversified geographical and cultural contexts, especially those with relatively weak health systems, 4) to investigate how governments plan and respond to the different logistical needs of society in the outburst of a sudden, large-scale epidemic at different stages; and 5) to develop strategies, solutions, and a supporting framework to governments and societies to mitigate the rapid spread of Covid-19 in terms of logistical service control, especially for vulnerable groups and areas. By improving the logistical response and planning, we strongly believe that this project will secure healthier and more secure societies in Canada, China, and around the world in the long term. | ||
| kitatipithitamak mithwayawin: Indigenous-Led Countermeasures to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and other Pandemics Then, Now, and Into the Future | Indigenous Research | Mclachlan, Stephane M | University of Manitoba | GoC* | Manitoba | The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was first identified on December 31 2019 in Wuhan, China. As of February 18 2020, 73,439 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in 29 countries around the world with an attributed 1,875 deaths. The World Health Organization recently declared COVID-19 as a global health emergency. Studies on H1N1 and other pandemics show that Indigenous communities in Canada suffered most from these diseases. Responses to H1N1 were often inadequate and at worst created more harm than good. Communities had poor access to medical experts and supplies. Indigenous organizations were mostly excluded from decision-making. And misinformation generated much fear that still persists today. Yet, many Indigenous communities and organizations also responded effectively and, with others, eventually found ways to reduce the impacts of H1N1. The outbreak of COVID-19 thus represents a critical moment. On one hand the same mistakes could be made, with similar impacts. On the other hand, there is an opportunity to do things differently in ways that are grounded in the priorities of Indigenous communities and organizations. The goal of this project is to evaluate the implications of past and existing responses to pandemics with respect to Indigenous communities across Canada and to address any gaps in understanding and support related to COVID-19 and future pandemics. This collaborative project will focus on the past by documenting experiences with other pandemics and explore changes in response over time. It will focus on the present by assessing current state of community emergency planning and risk communication. Finally, it will focus on the future by assessing community responses to different possible scenario and ideas for moving forward. We will share our outcomes with Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada, all levels of governments, and the general public so that the health interests of Indigenous people are best served now and into the future. | ||
| Towards Better Governance of Zoonotic Disease Risk: One Health Principles in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response | Policy/Government | Labonté, Ronald | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | The unfolding 2019-nCov outbreak presents an opportunity to establish a real-time monitoring infrastructure to study how One Heath principles are implemented in the global governance of infectious diseases (IDs). Through employing rapid environmental scan methodology and building on already existing research collaborations, we will be able to produce immediate results focused on the global coordination and response system that can feed into better global governance of 2019n-Cov, improving evidence-based decision-making and enhancing international collaborative efforts to mitigate the spread of 2019-nCov. | Beall, Reed ; Carabin, Hélène ; Graham, Janice Elizabeth ; Hollis, Aidan ; Ogden, Nicholas Hume ; Wiktorowicz, Mary E. ; Zarowsky, Christina; Hillier, Sean Arthur ; Rees, Erin Elizabeth ; Ruckert, Arne ; Weese, Scott J ; de Montigny, Simon | |
| Canada's response to Covid-19 in the context of the IHR(2005) and its opportunity to lead in global health security: a policy analysis | Policy/Government | Wilson, Kumanan | Bruyère Research Institute | GoC* | Ontario | On January 30th, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus originating in the city of Wuhan, China an international health emergency. Guided by global rules (the International Health Regulations), the WHO has taken action to limit the harm caused by the virus while at the same time protecting the international travel and trade. This grant will determine how Canada has adhered to these global rules and what it can do to support them. We will review stories from the media, important policy documents and other relevant materials. We will also interview key people in Canada and around the world involved in protecting the public from these threats. We will specifically examine if there is an opportunity for Canada to help lead efforts to protect the world from similar threats in the future. | ||
| Mitigation strategies against the public transmission of airborne COVID-19 in high occupancy structures: a program of research to develop optimized mechanical ventilation systems | Policy/Government | Zhong, Lexuan | University of Alberta | GoC* | Alberta | This research program brings together experts in Engineering and Medical Sciences to develop Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) related to mechanical ventilation systems in buildings. These settings have high concentrations of humans in enclosed spaces where the spread of airborne infections can have rapid, extensive, and detrimental consequences in terms of morbidity, mortality, and ultimately productivity and costs. This research program targets a key mechanism of COVID-19 transmission, that is, transport of the virus through heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems with subsequent inhalation by other people. Currently, it is not clear how human-generated bioaerosols affect airborne virus transmission and how HVAC systems should be optimally designed and operated to reduce the risk of transmission. This research program will include: 1) a thorough review of building science literature related to airborne virus transmission; 2) a policy directive for governing organizations who inform owners and operators of ventilation systems and building code bodies; 3) an inventory and assessment of over 100 buildings with diverse ventilation systems; and 4) an inventory and assessment procedure and protocol for other buildings. This research directly aligns with the objectives of the funding opportunity, in particular, to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its potential negative consequences. Based on the research results, we will develop evidence-based guidance and policy recommendations to inform the design/re-design of buildings. This work has the potential for widespread impacts in terms of establishing policy and procedures that can be applied locally, nationally and internationally. Further, this research will inform the immediate response to the COVID-19 outbreak while having a broader impact in terms of the spread of other airborne illnesses/contagions and future outbreaks. | ||
| Countermeasures to the supply chain disruptions in medical and pharmaceutical industries | Policy/Government | Toyasaki, Fuminori | York University | GoC* | Ontario | The intended research project focuses on the supply chain disruptions that medical/pharmaceutical industries are currently facing in the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak, due to the suppliers' strategic hoarding and consumers' panic buying behavior under psychological and behavioral uncertainties. Specifically, this proposed research project explores: factors that delay the resilience of medical/pharmaceutical industries' supply chain disruptions caused by the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak; and the feasibility of two countermeasures to the virus outbreak that we propose: (1) establishing a collaborative stock sharing/transshipment system; and (2) making an incentive contract with a potential second source that can produce highly customized medical/pharmaceutical items (e.g., protective clothing for or a new drug for novel viruses). | ||
| Assessing and Mitigating the Food Security Consequences of COVID-19 in China | Policy/Government | Crush, Jonathan | Wilfrid Laurier University | GoC* | Ontario | This project will evaluate the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on household food security in Chinese cities, assess the effectiveness of temporary policies from multi-stakeholder perspective and develop social and policy measures to mitigate the impacts. Building on the expertise, research instruments, and networks developed through the SSHRC-funded Hungry Cities Partnership, our objectives are to: 1) Investigate the immediate food security challenges resulting from China's quarantine measures, unstable food supply, and fear of food shopping in two COVID-19 affected cities (Wuhan and Nanjing); 2) Compare food security status in Nanjing following the COVID-19 outbreak with baseline data collected through Hungry Cities in 2015; and 3) Synthesize and assess policies established to address food security challenges and promote effective measures by engaging local stakeholders. Our Canadian-Chinese research team has strong multidisciplinary expertise in food security evaluation, food policy analysis and the social and food security impacts of infectious diseases. Using a mixed-methods approach, we will generate rapid answers to Objective 1 through an online household survey and follow-up telephone interviews with residents of Wuhan and Nanjing, and a complementary inventory of immediate policy measures. Building on the survey instruments and established connections developed through the Hungry Cities Partnership, we will address Objective 2 through a longitudinal analysis to evaluate changes in household food security before and after the COVID-19 epidemic. Objective 3 will be addressed through a policy analysis and in-depth interviews with diverse local stakeholders. Outcomes will be relevant to academics, international organizations, and policymakers involved in efforts to strengthen food provisioning amid the epidemic in China. Results will also be useful to policymakers in other countries at risk of food security during infection disease outbreaks. | ||
| Policy Implementation and Communication Lessons from Alberta's Acute and Primary Care Environments During the COVID-19 Response | Policy/Government | Leslie, Myles | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | As international, national, or provincial agencies develop policies to combat an outbreak like COVID-19, these policies will always be interpreted through the local context and culture of the healthcare workers on the front lines. Context and culture are important elements of any public health response, not just in communities, but in clinical settings as well. This project will use a mix of qualitative methods to evaluate how COVID-19 preparedness and response policies are being transmitted and implemented in acute and primary care facilities in the province of Alberta. Through site visits, task analyses, and interviews with public health professionals and clinicians at the provincial level, we will conduct a systematic assessment of how policies, protocols, priorities and communication channels are functioning. We will be asking our participants how they are implementing and prioritizing: staff, case, and space management policies; referral and isolation protocols; and surveillance and risk communication priorities in preparation for the appearance of COVID-19. As well as offering a detailed description of how things are playing out on the ground, our research will identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities for improving existing response efforts. We will be writing reports and papers that help Alberta and other provinces plan for future public health emergencies. These reports and papers will focus on how context and culture impact clinical capabilities for public health preparedness and policy implementation. | ||
| Understanding non-compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005): Recommended strategies to inform and strengthen global coordination of the COVID-19 outbreak response | Policy/Government | Lee, Kelley | Simon Fraser University | GoC* | British Columbia | Outbreaks such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) can result in inappropriate, excessive and counterproductive measures that hinder global coordination of outbreak response. Moreover, they compound loss of life and illness by contributing to unnecessary social and economic disruption, and can discourage countries from open reporting for fear of retaliation. For these reasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) included recommended, evidence-based measures for detection, containment and control based on available data. These measures adhere to International Health Regulations (IHR) principles concerning human rights, proportionality, and unnecessary interference with trade and travel. Yet preliminary analysis suggests a higher number and range of non-compliant measures are being adopted than previous PHEICs. The goal of this project is to strengthen global coordination of the COVID-19 outbreak response through a fuller understanding of crossborder measures adopted, their likely positive/negative impacts, reason(s) for adoption, and strategies to increase compliance. This project applies a mixed-methods approach to achieve 4 objectives: a) define, categorize and track crossborder measures adopted during the COVID-19 and previous outbreaks; b) systematically review existing evidence of their public health and wider impacts; c) understand decisions to adopt compliant or non-compliant measures in 4 case study settings (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and US); and d) identify strategies to encourage increased compliance. Working closely with key knowledge users, including WHO, we will collect and analyze new data, and combine it with our existing datasets to conduct real time quantitative cross-outbreak analysis. The key outcome of this project is to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 through practical, evidence-informed strategies that strengthen global coordination. | ||
| Developing integrated guidelines for health care workers in hospital and primary healthcare facilities in response to Covid-19 pandemic in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) | Policy/Government | Wei, Xiaolin | University of Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | The proposal responds to the CIHR call regarding public health responses to the 2019 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. We recognise the gap in LMICs where there is an under financed health system and low capacity of health care workers (HCWs) in hospitals, public and private primary care facilities and the community/ NGO to respond to the pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced technical guidance, but the guidance documents are broad, they have to be updated with new developments, and translated into guidelines for HCWs, i.e., doctors, nurses and community health workers for hospitals, primary care and community in LMICs. Here we choose the Philippines and Sri Lanka because they both reported Covid-19 cases, and we can quickly mobilize resources. We aim to develop an integrated plan for HCWs to respond to the pandemic, as well as role-specific guidelines to manage Covid-19 suspects and cases regarding hospital patient flow, infection control, patient supervision and support in communities. We will learn from frontline experiences in China and update our understanding. We will work with policymakers, HCWs and NGOs in the Philippines and Sri Lanka to develop the guidelines and training modules. We will pilot test the tools for feasibility and acceptability among HCWs in the Philippines, adapt in Sri Lanka, and generate a generic version for LMICs to respond to Covid-19 and any future similar pandemic. Our integrated response strategy aims to update skills of HCWs, reduce patient overload at hospitals, avoid hospital transmission, reduce community transmission and public panic, provide patient support and reduce stigma. Our professional team consists of researchers from Canada, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. The team has strong related experience and can quickly produce a draft guideline and materials within 2 months and finalize all work in 24 months. | ||
| Host Response Mediators in Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection | Fundamental Science | Russell, James A | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic continues to grow exponentially affecting over 71,429 individuals with 1775 deaths (February 17, 2020), mostly in China but also in other countries. WHO and others are launching clinical trials of novel anti-virals. We have a unique opportunity to complement trials of anti-virals with investigation of modulation of the human host response to improve outcomes of COVID-19. We are proposing to "repurpose" a class of drugs (ARBs) for hypertension (high blood pressure) that have been shown to prevent lung injury in influenza and could work on corona because influenza and coronavirus bind to the same cell receptor in the lung. ARBs are commonly prescribed for high blood pressure (50-70% of patients). To date, there have been no clinical studies of ARBs in COVID-19. We call our study ARBs CORONA. We believe that ARBs can decrease the severity of COVID-19 and mortality of hospitalized COVID-19 infected adults. We will evaluate safety and effectiveness of available ARBs in COVID-19 in a multicentre study of 497 hospitalized adult patients who are or are not already on ARBs. Key personnel are in place to expedite this study. If this study is successful, ARBs can potentially limit complications and mortality of COVID-19. Potential results: ARBs are inexpensive clinically available cardiovascular drugs. If this study is successful, ARBs can potentially be used globally to limit complications and death due to COVID-19. | ||
| COVID-19: Improving the Evidence to Treat an Emerging Infection Through Observational Studies and a Randomized Trial | Clinical Trials | Murthy, Srinivas | University of British Columbia | GoC* | British Columbia | The clinical management of COVID-19 remains unclear. First, we do not know what the disease is yet; we are still learning a great deal about what it causes in humans. We do not know what treatments to give, what risk factors are present for severe disease, and how long people are sick. We are proposing a national observational study of hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19, with an embedded randomized clinical trial of an antiviral agent. The observational study will build on work that we have been doing for the past four years, with pre-established protocols and data collection infrastructure just for this purpose. The randomized clinical trial will be with global collaborators to make sure that Canadian patients inform the world, and vice versa, about how to best treat this new disease. Alongside this, we will conduct surveys of clinicians, researchers, and the public about how they understand this new outbreak, how they feel about participating in research during a major outbreak, and what should be done differently; all of which will inform our clinical studies. Finally, we have been asked by the WHO to conduct a formal guideline for the management of COVID-19, which we will perform as data begins to emerge from the clinical trials that are ongoing. All of these proposals, put together, create a suite of approaches to better understanding and managing a new infection. Our team is large and diverse, and has been prepared for this outbreak for a number of years, and are ready to help Canadians respond in an evidence-informed way. | ||
| COVID-19 Ring-based Prevention trial for Undermining Spread (CORPUS) | Clinical Trials | Tan, Darrell H | Unity Health Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | Despite efforts to contain COVID-19, the potential for a global pandemic necessitates the rapid evaluation of strategies for prevention of COVID-19 in close contacts of new cases. Lab data, animal models and early clinical data suggest that a drug commonly used to treat HIV, called Kaletra, may have activity against COVID-19 and its closely related "cousin" coronaviruses, SARS and MERS. Kaletra is currently being tested in clinical trials in China for treatment. This drug has been safely used for over two decades in HIV treatment and also in post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for un-infected people with high-risk exposures. We propose a study that will address the immediate need for prevention interventions by testing whether or not giving Kaletra PEP to contacts exposed to COVID-19 will stop them from getting the disease. We expect to test this in three key groups of exposed contacts: the frail elderly in nursing/retirement homes, frontline health workers, and household/community contacts. Our trial employs a commonly used approach in vaccination studies called a ring design, which also allows us to collect detailed information about the natural history of the infection in exposed contacts. In addition to testing the effectiveness of our specific intervention, the master protocols and procedures developed can be used to test other prevention interventions including both medications and vaccines, once they become available. This ring design was a key part of the successful eradication of smallpox, and the evaluation of the vaccine used for Ebola. We will identify a ring of exposed close contacts around index cases and randomize these rings to a 14-day course of Kaletra PEP or a placebo control and will test contacts systematically to see if they develop COVID-19. Our study team members of Canadian experts on the frontlines with SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and HIV, are well connected to coordinate with existing clinical trials networks both in Canada and internationally. | ||
| Automated Oxygen Titration, Monitoring and Weaning in patients with infectious pneumonia requiring oxygen - impact on the number of interventions for healthcare workers. An innovative device to manage patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. COVID study (Closed-Loop Oxygen to Verify that healthcare workers Interventions Decrease during pneumonia) | Clinical Care | Lellouche, François | Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec - Ulaval | GoC* | Québec | Automated oxygen titration, weaning and monitoring (FreeO2 device) may be a solution to reduce the number of interventions of healthcare workers (which is directly related to the risk of transmission of COVID-19. There is a high risk of transmission of COVID-19 to healthcare workers. in a recent cohort, 29% of the patients hospitalized were healthcare workers. Among the main WHO's strategic objectives for the response to COVID-19, the first was to limit human-to-human transmission including reducing secondary infections among close contacts and health care workers. Every measures that potentially reduce the number of interventions during the management of patients infected by COVID-19 should be evaluated. Oxygen therapy is the first line respiratory support in all patients hospitalized for COVID-19 during initial management. Recent recommendations are to accurately titrate oxygen to avoid hypoxemia and complications-related to hyperoxia (local and systemic inflammation, vasoconstriction through reactive oxygen species production, acute myocardial infarction). In addition, around 1/3 of the patients will deteriorate their clinical condition and require admission to intensive care units; consequently, a close monitoring is required during initial management. We will conduct a randomized controlled study comparing Automated oxygen titration and monitoring (FreeO2) vs. Manual oxygen titration and weaning in patients hospitalized for infectious pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy. The patients will be included in Canadian sites within the first 3 days of admission and will be evaluated during 24 consecutive hours, including 4 hours at bedside. Two hundreds and sixteen patients will be included in the study. The primary endpoint will be the number of interventions for oxygen management Secondary endpoints will include the oxygenation parameters and the oxygen consumption. | ||
| Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Children Potentially Infected by SARS-CoV-2 Presenting to Pediatric Emergency Departments | Clinical Care | Freedman, Stephen B | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | The manifestations of COVID-19 in children are not yet well understood, and may be atypical when compared to adults. We propose to carry out a two-year global prospective study that will enroll and follow-up children with suspected COVID-19 from 50 participating emergency departments (ED) across 19 countries. Patient epidemiological and demographic information, clinical characteristics, and disease outcomes, will be collected at the time of ED admission, during the course of illness, and at three weeks and three months after enrollment, using WHO-compliant case report forms. Statistical analysis of the collected data will allow for the identification of risk factors associated with children having confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, and/or severe COVID-19 outcomes. In order to enable rapid implementation, this study will be built as a parallel study that borrows the infrastructure from an ongoing study - the called Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN)-Pneumonia study, which has ethics approval, a centralized database, data sharing agreements, and established study teams that are actively enrolling children in 70 sites worldwide. Our multidisciplinary team of investigators includes pediatric infectious disease and emergency medicine clinicians, epidemiologists, statisticians, and public health leaders (from PHAC and the CDC), all with extensive experience pertaining directly to the research topic. As data will be shared in real-time with appropriate national and international authorities, this study will enable policymakers to make rapid evidence-based adaptations to case screening and management procedures that will then allow for the earlier identification of children at high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes. Furthermore, the establishment of this global multi-site study will be the first trial of a rapid PERN response to a novel virus, which, applying lessons-learned, can be urgently reactivated for future public health emergencies. | ||
| Genomic biomarkers to predict outcome and treatment response in hospitalized COVID-19 patients | Fundamental Science | Cheng, Matthew | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Schurr, Erwin; Bourque, Guillaume | ||
| Production of COVID-19 testing reagents to backstop and supplement existing sources | Diagnostics | Schmeing, Martin | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Meyel, Don van | ||
| Colorimetric assisted microfluidic device for detection of SARS-Cov2 RNA | Diagnostics | Mahshid, Sara | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| PLpro as a target for the development of novel anti-COVID-19 agents | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Moitessier, Nicolas | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Mittermaier, Anthony | ||
| Targeting the gut microbiome to improve COVID-19 disease outcomes | Clinical Care | King, Irah | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Targeting coronavirus cation channels with antiviral drugs | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Hanrahan, John W. | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Development of a new Virus-like-Particle (VLP) vaccine against COVID-19. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Ortega, Joaquin | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Chung, Duane;Chou, C. Perry | ||
| Defining the protective host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 | Fundamental Science | Fritz, Jorg H. | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Piccirillo, Ciriaco A. | ||
| Post-exposure Prophylaxis or Preemptive Therapy for SARS-Coronavirus-2: A Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial (COVID19 PEP RCT – Canada) | Clinical Trials | Lee, Todd C. | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | McDonald, Emily G.; Cheng, Matthew P. | ||
| Management of Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System blockade in patients admitted in hospital with confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection: The McGill RAAS-COVID-19 randomized controlled trial.Partnership grant with the MUHC Division of Cardiology | Clinical Trials | Sharma, Abhinav | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| A Multi-centre, Adaptive, Randomized, Open-label, Controlled Clinical Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Investigational Therapeutics for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Hospitalized Patients in Canada (CATCO) | Clinical Trials | Murthy, Srin | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Cheng, Matthew P.;O. Parkes, Leighanne;Lee, Todd C.;McDonald, Emily G. | ||
| PCR-based testing to shorten self-isolation duration in COVID-19 exposed healthcare workers | Diagnostics | Benjamin Smith | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Assessing costs and benefits of different testing strategies for COVID-19 in Canada | Policy/Government | Menzies, Dick | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Campbell, Jonathon | ||
| Real-time modeling of COVID-19 transmission in Canada: epidemic intelligence for an effective public health response | Epidemiology/Modelling | Maheu-Giroux, Mathieu | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Panagiotoglou, Dimitra;Schmidt, Alexandra;Basta, Nicole;Buckeridge, David;Xia, Yiqing;Godin, Arnaud;Douwes-Schultz, Dirk | ||
| Law in Pandemic Times: Powers and Accountability when Facing Emergency | Policy/Government | Khoury, Lara | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Klein, Alana;Couture-Ménard, Marie-Eve | ||
| Mental health in an at-risk population during COVID-19: longitudinal study of risk factors and outcomes and embedded trial of an activity, education, and support intervention | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Thombs, Brett | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Kwakkenbos, Linda;Benedetti, Andrea;Bartlett, Susan;Varga,John; Patten, Scott;Culos-Reed, Nicole;Hebblethwaite, Shannon | ||
| Rapid, Ultrasensitive Clinical Detection of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (nCOVID-19) by Novel Microfluidic Electrochemical Nano-Biosensors | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Sanati Nezhad, Amir | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | |||
| Design and evaluation of novel inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 polymerase to create lead compounds to develop more effective treatments of COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Ng, Kenneth K. | University of Calgary | GoC* | Alberta | |||
| Responding to the Stigma, Fear, Discrimination, and Misinformation Related to the COVID-19 Disease Outbreak: A Novel Analyses and Intervention for a Novel Coronavirus. | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Gillis, Joseph R. | University of Toronto | GoC* | Ontario | |||
| A robotized platform for serology testing | Diagnostics | Gingras, Anne-Claude | Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health Systems | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| A Flexible Genome-Scale Resource of SARS-CoV-2 Coding Sequence Clones | Fundamental Science | Roth, Frederick | Sinai Health System | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| The International COVID-19 Awareness and Responses Evaluation (iCARE) study. Evaluating current global awareness, attitudes, and adoption of preventive measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: How to optimise strategies to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve. | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Lavoie, Kim L. | CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal and UQAM | Institutional Funding | Québec | |||
| CODE:AIR - COVID-19 Dilemma Evaluation: Artificial Intelligence and Radiomics | Diagnostics | Duchesne, Simon | Université Laval | Réseau de Bio-Imagerie du Québec | Québec | |||
| Optimized City Operations in the Face of COVID-19: A Hybrid Complex Network Theoretic-Machine Learning Approach | AI | El-Dakhakhni, Wael | McMaster University | Roche | Ontario | In this project, a novel City Dynamic Network Analysis (CityDNA) model will be developed to generate optimal city operation schemes in the face of COVID-19. By leveraging state-of-the-art techniques in network science, machine learning, systems analysis, and multi-objective optimization, the proposed CityDNA model will provide a unique decision support tool for optimizing the operation and/or reopening of municipal facilities (e.g. transit systems, parks, community centers, and schools) under complex constraints due to current and future COVID-19 pandemics. This project intends to provide innovative solutions to mitigate the risk of lasting economic and social damages caused by COVID-19 in cities across Canada. | ||
| Real-time Federated Search of Host and Viral Genomes | Fundamental Science | Fiume, Marc | DNAstack | Roche | Ontario | The risk factors for severe illness for COVID-19 are still being established. There is evidence that life-threatening immune responses (e.g. the cytokine storm syndrome) are mediated by the host human genome. At the same time, emerging data describes how multiple strains of the virus continue to evolve in different geographic areas, and experts around the world have called for a coordinated global approach involving genomic and epidemiological approaches. This project aims to develop technology to support fit-for-purpose real-time sharing, search, and analysis of viral and host genomes for COVID-19 and future disease outbreaks. | ||
| Testing Climate Conditions on SARS CoV-2 Transmission: What Will Be the Effect of Heat, Humidity, and Air Conditioning in Summer? | Fundamental Science | Arts, Eric J. | University of Western Ontario and Centerline Limited | Roche | Ontario | High heat and low humidity often reduces transmission of respiratory viruses and hopefully will provide some relief from the COVID-19 Canadian epidemic in the coming summer months. However, there is growing evidence that populations sharing public air-conditioned places in the tropical zone are still experiencing growing epidemics (e.g. United Arab Emirates, Australia). This team of virologists and engineers have designed an aerosolization chamber to test conditions of temperature and humidity on SARS-CoV-2 virus survival in the air and on various surfaces. | ||
| An Optimized COVID-19 Diagnostic Test Incorporating Host Responses for Predicting Disease Course and Healthcare Needs | Diagnostics | Hirota, Jeremy | McMaster University | Roche | Ontario | Understanding host immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection may yield prognostic indicators useful for optimizing healthcare delivery at the time of initial nasal swab collection for COVID-19 diagnosis. Nasal swabs are collected for COVID-19 clinical diagnosis, presenting a research opportunity to leverage remaining nucleic acids for host transcriptomic profiling and correlating with clinical outcomes. The objective is to correlate host transcriptome profiles from nasal swabs from COVID-19 +ve and -ve cases with clinical outcomes to generate algorithms for predicting patient morbidity/mortality and healthcare utilization, with the aim of optimizing COVID-19 diagnostic testing incorporating host responses. | ||
| Fast-Acting Touch Surface Antimicrobial | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Hodgson, Matt | Outbreaker Solutions North America | Roche | Alberta | This project focuses on the testing and commercialization of a patented and fast-acting antimicrobial surface made from compressed sodium chloride (CSC) for high hand traffic fixtures such as door handles and railings. The product provides a fast-acting antimicrobial effect without any behaviour change required for training or operation. Sodium chloride, the active ingredient in CSC, is the only antimicrobial surface that eliminates bacteria, fungi and viruses in under 5 minutes. Other surfaces take at least 2 hours, during which the surface is not safe to touch. A research partnership has been established for rapid SARS-CoV-2 testing on our CSC surface and additional virus strains. | ||
| AI-empowered Real-time COVID-19 Symptom Monitoring and Prediction among Senior Residents | AI | Rahimi, Samira | McGill University | Roche | Québec | Long-term care (LTC) homes are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. This project will implement proven remote monitoring technology empowered with Artificial Intelligence to track, monitor and predict senior residents’ symptoms. The detection and prediction of asymptomatic changes will facilitate rapid isolation and can save thousands of lives. The technology will alert the providers when COVID-19 symptoms are identified/predicted and monitor any decompensation. This project will monitor 60 senior residents in two LTC homes (Toronto and Montreal) and then scale up for the entire LTC homes, and intends to protect LTC home staff and frail residents from exposure to COVID-19 by enabling remote monitoring. | ||
| Gravity Ventilator | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Nguan, Christopher | University of British Columbia | Roche | British Columbia | Demand for ventilators to support critically ill COVID acute respiratory distress symptoms (ARDS) patients has the potential to exceed supply, resulting in excessive patient morbidity and mortality. British Columbia (BC) has an index of 10.3 ventilators per 100 000 persons, which is well below the national average of 14.9/100k. Using the concepts of water seals and pressure operated devices, a low cost, simple, mechanical positive-pressure ventilator for rapid production at scale was built: the gVent. The UBC SOS eVent Group’s mission is to build a simple, low-cost ventilator for use within the BC health system. | ||
| Post Discharge After Surgery Virtual Care with Remote Automated Monitoring technology (PVC-RAM) Trial | Clinical Care | Devereaux, P.J. | Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) | Roche | Ontario | To confront the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals need to maximize bed availability and minimize emergency department visits for non-COVID-19 reasons. Hospitals also have an obligation to treat non-COVID-19 patients with urgent conditions. Hospitals are continuing to provide surgery to patients for non-elective indications, and post discharge, these patients are at high risk of needing acute-hospital care. There is a strong rationale and promising data suggesting that virtual care with remote automated monitoring (RAM) technology will reduce the need for subsequent acute-hospital care, among adults discharged home after undergoing non-elective surgery. This project will undertake the PVC-RAM trial to directly inform this issue | Hamilton Health Sciences; St. Joseph’s Healthcare; London Health Sciences Centre; The Ottawa Hospital; Cloud DX | |
| Development of Standard Microneutralization and Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) Assays on Sera of COVID-19 Individuals | Fundamental Science | Ostrowski, Mario | University of Toronto | Roche | Ontario | We don’t know what causes the lung disease in COVID-19 infection, and this project will determine whether the COVID-19 virus can trick the immune system in making antibodies that damage the lungs rather than neutralize the virus. The project calls this situation “antibody dependent enhancement” or ADE, meaning that the immune system makes antibodies against the virus allowing it to grow faster and cause immune damage to the lung. This project will develop an assay that detects ADE in a person’s serum. Many companies are making vaccines against COVID-19, and this assay will test if vaccines against COVID-19 could also make ADE in serum. | ||
| Could Personalized Mobile Interventions “Flatten the Curve” of Stress, Anxiety and Depression among Frontline Healthcare Workers During the COVID Pandemic? | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Bhat, Venkat | UnityHealth Network, Toronto, Ontario | Roche | Ontario | Stress, anxiety, distress and depression are exceptionally high among healthcare workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors underlying distress and resilience are unknown and there are no evidence-based interventions to impact the mental wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers. This study will evaluate a novel mobile platform to gather the “distress experience” of frontline healthcare workers at Unityhealth Toronto in real time during the ongoing COVID pandemic, use automated personalized mobile interventions (e.g. routine, sleep, exercise) to nudge active/passive parameters to manage distress, and examine role of add-on remote cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) when automated mobile interventions do not suffice. | ||
| RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF THERAPEUTIC TARGETS TO OPTIMIZE CRITICALLY ILL COVID-19 PATIENT OUTCOMES | Diagnostics | Fraser, Douglas D. | Western University/Lawson | Lawson/LHSCF | Ontario | COVID-19 is spreading rapidly and intensive care units (ICUs) are being quickly overwhelmed. Patients admitted to the ICU have a high rate of death, and only supportive therapies are available. Our research team of international clinicians/scientists is uniquely positioned to rapidly identify novel therapeutic targets to optimize the care of critically ill COVID-19 patients. We are the first in Canada to generate a large repository of COVID-19 positive/negative blood samples obtained from critically ill patients. We propose that state-of-the-art targeted and untargeted analyses of these samples will allow us to rapidly identify immune, inflammatory and coagulation candidates/pathways to develop therapies to treat COVID-19. As this disease is strongly associated with lung pathology, and data from early patient observations shows altered microvascular function, we will also use our samples in functional studies with human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells. Both approaches are required to identify therapeutic targets and provide biomarkers for future interventional studies (i.e. patient stratification). Added benefits of our work include: (1) all data will be made publicly available to all qualified Scientists for mining, including RNA sequencing, proteomics and metabolomics data; and (2) the provision of samples to the Canadian Vaccine Initiative. Our Ontario-led research is positioned to identify novel COVID-19 therapies that will save lives provincially, nationally and around the world. | ||
| The Toronto Open Access COVID-19 Protein Manufacturing Center | Fundamental Science | Edwards, Aled | Structural Genomics Consortium and University of Toronto | University of Toronto | Ontario | The virus causing COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, encodes 25 proteins in its genome. Collectively, these proteins are responsible for all viral pathogenic functions, including cellular attachment and infiltration, translation of the viral RNA genome into the viral proteins, immune system evasion, assembly of new virions, and escape from the host cell. Most if not all of these proteins are under intense investigation by organizations world-wide into their basic biochemistry/biology, as targets for novel antiviral compounds, as targets for viral neutralizing antibodies, as reagents for diagnostics, and for vaccine development. A foundational component for all of these initiatives is access to high-quality purified viral protein. Since 2013, our group has been part of an NIAID (NIH)-funded project called Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID, https://csgid.org/). The mandate of CSGID is to purify proteins of relevance to biodefence and pandemics, and solve their crystal structures. As a part of this, we in Toronto have already purified 9 SARS-CoV-2 proteins and are acquiring the clones for all 25 from our partners at CSGID. We have deposited two SARS-CoV-2 structures in the Protein Data Bank (6W4H, 6W75). This proposal has two aims. First, we will focus on methyltransferase (nsp10/16 complex) drug discovery (with Takeda and CSGID). Second, our protein purification team will produce large quantities of pure viral proteins in a rapid fashion for distribution to any Canadian business or academic. Since making these intentions known to the community (March 30th), we have already been approached by 4 independent groups asking for purified protein (2 from academia, 2 from Canadian industry). Our existing platform can be rapidly (within days/weeks) scaled up at BioZone and at SGC to produce all SARS-CoV-2 proteins in larger quantities. The rationale to have both SGC and BioZone involved is to spread the risk between two sites. The risks include ill personnel, building shut-downs, reagent scarcity, and equipment failure. Adhering to open science principles, all our results and materials will be shared without restriction on use. | Peter Stogios, Masoud Vedadi | |
| iReceptor | Diagnostics | Breden, Felix | Simon Fraser University | CIHR, CFI, CANARIE, EU Horizon 2020 | British Columbia | iReceptor is a distributed data management system and scientific gateway for mining “Next Generation” sequence (NGS) data from the adaptive immune (antibody/B-cell or T-cell) receptor repertoire. We call this AIRR-seq data. The main goal of iReceptor is to connect a distributed network of AIRR-seq repositories (the AIRR Data Commons), allowing queries across multiple projects, labs, and institutions. Integrating these important AIRR-seq repositories will result in improvements to the design of vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and cancer immunotherapies. | ||
| Hydroxychloroquine treatment in SLE | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Bernatsky, Sasha | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | CIHR | Québec | Antimalarials (including hydroxychloroquine, currently being investigated for its benefit in COVID19 infection) are key therapies for systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) a potentially life-threatening condition affecting thousands of Canadians. Recently SLE patients have been threatened by the interruption of hydroxychloroquine supply. Patients thus may either be forced to lower their dose (to avoid completely running out of the drug) or to stop therapy. The risks of adverse events in such patients is incompletely understood. Our team was funded by CIHR to understand the risk of SLE flare rates after hydroxychloroquine dose is lowered or stopped. Information will include how often these patients are hospitalized or required intense immunotherapy, due to the loss of disease control when regular hydroxychloroquine treatment is interupted. As well as determining overall risk, we will identify which patients are at highest risk for adverse outcomes. | SLICC, CaNIOS | |
| Evaluating Neutrophil Extracellular Traps as a therapeutic target in COVID-19 patients | Fundamental Science | Spicer, Jonathan D. | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | COVID-19 can quickly turn into a life-threatening respiratory infection. Surgeon Dr. Jonathan Spicer and his team are investigating how a category of white blood cells called neutrophils influence the severity of COVID-19 infection. Much like a spider web, when stimulated, neutrophils can release their DNA into the small blood vessels of the body forming what are called Neutrophil Extracellular Traps, known as “NETs”. It is thought that COVID-19 causes massive amounts of NETs to be released in some patients and that this may be the reason why some get so sick. Dr. Spicer’s team will analyze the blood of patients infected with COVID-19 to determine if the presence of NETs predicts more severe illness. If this test is proven, it could help doctors deliver NET-directed therapies to prevent patients from becoming more sick from the infection and thus, save lives. | ||
| Health Communication, Sociocultural Diversity, and COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Rousseau, Cécile | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | How you are seen by society can affect how you react in a crisis. Around the world, countries have adopted measures such as social distancing, closing of schools and businesses and limited access to public spaces. Psychiatrist Dr. Cécile Rousseau, along with collaborators from Concordia University and University of Ottawa, will conduct surveys and interviews with 4,000 Quebecers to understand how minority status, low socioeconomic status, discrimination/stigmatization and mental health affect understanding and adoption of COVID-19 public health measures. The results will inform the best way to communicate about COVID-19 with different groups. | ||
| Success Rate and Timeline for Development of Vaccines for Emerging and Reemerging Viral Infectious Diseases | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Kimmelman, Jonathan | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | A vaccine is our end game for the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 outbreak, various political leaders, public health officials and news commentators have discussed the prospect of a vaccine to stem the pandemic. Some commentators have hinted at the prospect of a vaccine being available within a year. While numerous advances in immunology, infrastructure, and molecular biology have greatly accelerated the process of identifying and testing new vaccine candidates, vaccine development—as with any pharmaceutical development—is unpredictable and time-consuming. Biomedical ethicist Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, epidemiologist and vaccinologist Dr. Nicole Basta and pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jesse Papenburg will use historic success rates for viral vaccine development to provide publicly accessible, evidence-based projections for when a COVID-19 vaccine might be available. | ||
| Ethical tensions of implementing research during a crisis: Understanding moral experiences and developing supports for front-line healthcare providers who administer CoViD-19 research protocols | Policy/Government | Hunt, Matthew | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Herd immunity is an important factor in ending social isolation measures. If enough people are immune to COVID-19, the virus can no longer transmit effectively, so the spread of infection stops. McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) researchers Dr. Greg Matlashewski, Dr. Matthew Cheng, Dr. Momar Ndao and Dr. Cedric Yansouni are studying blood samples from COVID patients and asymptomatic people to determine when antibodies to the virus appear. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body in response to infections, such as COVID-19, that can protect against future exposures to the virus. In theory, if you have COVID-19 antibodies, you cannot contract the disease a second time. By understanding when antibodies form in patients with COVID-19 and asymptomatic carriers, the researchers will be able to recommend testing measures that can show us who is protected from disease. This knowledge is important because it allows us to assess how much herd immunity there is in the population. | ||
| Detection of anti- SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in sera from COVID19 patients | Serological Studies | Matlashewski, Greg | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Herd immunity is an important factor in ending social isolation measures. If enough people are immune to COVID-19, the virus can no longer transmit effectively, so the spread of infection stops. McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) researchers Dr. Greg Matlashewski, Dr. Matthew Cheng, Dr. Momar Ndao and Dr. Cedric Yansouni are studying blood samples from COVID patients and asymptomatic people to determine when antibodies to the virus appear. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body in response to infections, such as COVID-19, that can protect against future exposures to the virus. In theory, if you have COVID-19 antibodies, you cannot contract the disease a second time. By understanding when antibodies form in patients with COVID-19 and asymptomatic carriers, the researchers will be able to recommend testing measures that can show us who is protected from disease. This knowledge is important because it allows us to assess how much herd immunity there is in the population. | Cheng, Matthew; Ndao, Momar | |
| Emotion Regulation and Healthcare Professionals: Creating Research-informed Solutions | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Harley, Jason; Montreuil, Tina | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | COVID-19 presents an increased challenge to the psychological wellbeing of health care professionals. The added strains of caring for patients with COVID-19 and putting themselves at risk to contract the disease take an emotional toll. Affective Psychologist Dr. Jason Harley and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Tina Montreuil will investigate current coping strategies health care workers use to deal with stress, assess their effectiveness and use that information to recommend new measures to protect the mental health of health care professionals. We need frontline health care workers to get through this pandemic, and this study can help ensure their emotional wellbeing. | ||
| A spatial analysis of COVID-19 risk and recovery in Canadian cities | Public Health | Wachsmuth, David | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Which neighbourhoods in Canadian cities are most vulnerable to COVID-19 spread? Which are able to best implement social distancing? Urban governance expert Dr. David Wachsmuth and his team will analyze urban areas to create neighbourhood-level information on COVID-19 transmission risk. Their work will determine the opportunities and threats related to lifting social distancing measures. The results will help policymakers recommend the best measures for social distancing and travel restrictions in the months ahead. | ||
| Real-Time Tracking of COVID-19 Vaccine Development | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Basta, Nicole | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | When will we have a COVID-19 vaccine? This question is at the forefront of every discussion about COVID-19. Infectious disease epidemiologist and vaccinologist Dr. Nicole Basta and her team are developing an interactive online COVID-19 vaccine tracker to provide the public with real-time updates about progress towards developing a vaccine. This timely, critical resource will improve understanding of vaccine testing and manage expectations about when a vaccine may be available. It will also provide educational materials about the process of developing new vaccines and making them available to communities around the world. The goal of the project is to increase knowledge about and improve trust in vaccines. The platform will be updated in real-time to keep the public up-to-date. | ||
| Germicidal ultraviolet light to disinfect personal protective equipment to reduce nosocomial transmission of COVID-19 | Clinical Care | Menzies, Richard; Sagan, Selena | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Many countries including Canada are facing shortages of personal protective equipment. Face masks, gowns and face shields are essential to keeping health care workers safe, and preventing transmission of COVID19, but the huge increase in demand means that hospitals across Canada have no choice but to ask workers to re-use this vital equipment. Respirologist and epidemiologist Dr. Dick Menzies, virologist Dr. Selena Sagan and their team are studying whether masks can be sterilized using ultraviolet (UV) light. The research team will test whether UV light is effective in sterilizing N95 masks, surgical masks and plastic face shields. They will also test whether the light degrades the filtration quality of the masks. If the UV lights are found to be effective, hospitals will have a made-in-Canada way to safely reuse much needed personal protective equipment. | ||
| Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Living Systematic Review of Symptom Levels, Factors Associated with Symptoms, and Intervention Effectiveness | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Thombs, Brett | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of people across the world and raised concerns about serious mental health implications. There is almost no evidence from previous infectious disease to inform understandings of mental health in COVID-19. Mental health evidence from COVID-19 is being produced very rapidly, but much is of very poor quality. Health practitioners and policymakers need to understand how COVID-19 is affecting mental health and have options to intervene in order to make decisions that best serve the population. Psychologist Dr. Brett Thombs and biostatistician Dr. Andrea Benedetti will conduct a living systematic review to curate all mental health evidence during COVID-19 on the impact of the outbreak on mental health, mental health risk factors, and effective interventions. Their results will be important in helping health care providers to support the mental health of Canadians. | Benedetti, Andrea | |
| Use of OPAL-COVID, a mobile application, for real-time at home follow-up of people who test positive for COVID-19 at the Glen site: a feasibility study | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Lebouche, Bertrand | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | A mobile app can monitor COVID-19 patients. A primary aim of public health agencies is to identify, monitor, track, isolate, and treat anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 to prevent transmission. Around 90% of those who test positive for COVID-19 stay home after diagnosis. Infectious disease primary care specialist Dr. Bertrand Lebouché is teaming up with Opal app creators Dr. John Kildea and Dr. Tarek Hijal to create an app that provides resources for COVID-19 patients isolating at home. Patients will be able to self-monitor symptoms and connect with health care providers if their illness worsens. This innovation will improve safety for those isolating at home with COVID-19 and provide critical data on COVID-19 illness to help us better understand the disease. | ||
| Factors affecting positive and negative adaptation to quarantine in children and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Hechtman, Lily; Hwang, Philippe; Parr, Lindsay | McGill University | Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation | Québec | Quarantine measures put strain on us all. Evidence suggests that self-isolation has negative effects on mental health, including stress, anxiety and PTSD-like symptoms. These problems are worsened by quarantine-specific stressors like fear and financial strain. Dr. Lily Hechtman and her team have identified that the strain of social isolation can particularly affect families. This research project will explore child, parent, and family factors which may influence positive vs negative adaptation to quarantine. This will help identify children and families at risk and develop interventions to help them cope during and after the self-isolation period. | ||
| Expert and Lay Perceptions of Translation of COVID19 Treatment and Vaccine Development | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kimmelman, Jonathan | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Worldwide, there are many inaccurate beliefs about medicines and preventative measures that are effective against COVID-19. The result is that some people are self-medicating, hoarding potential treatments, not adhering with self-isolation measures or refusing to participate in critical COVID-19-related studies, all of which can be harmful to themselves and others. Bioethicist Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman and his team are comparing how well researchers’ estimates of when COVID-19 treatments will be available align to the perceptions of the Canadian and US populations. The results of this study will help develop more effective communications regarding COVID-19 treatments to the Canadian and US public to ensure they have the best and most accurate information. | ||
| Anticoagulant treatment and risk of adverse outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients | Clinical Care | Filion, Kristian | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Blood thinning drugs may be an important treatment for COVID-19. New evidence shows that those with severe cases of COVID-19 develop abnormal blood clotting that can endanger their lives. Dr. Kristian Filion and his team, which includes several collaborators from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, are combing through a Korean health care database to determine whether administering anti-coagulant (blood thinning) drugs to COVID-19 patients eases their symptoms and increases chances of survival. If the research team determines that anti-coagulation drugs are effective, they could be a new tool to treat severe cases of COVID-19. | ||
| Exosomal mimetics of COVID-19 as viral models and therapeutics | Fundamental Science | Rak, Janusz | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Understanding how the coronavirus infects the body could help us prevent it. Dr. Janusz Rak and his team are harnessing vesicles, small cellular structures that move biological materials from one cell to another inside the body, to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects the body. The SARS-CoV-2 virus moves around the body similarly to vesicles. It attaches to cells, allowing the virus content to enter them. Eventually, enough cells are infected to cause illness. By understanding how the coronavirus ‘pretends’ natural vesicles to infect the body, and how to stop its penetration into cells, the team will bring us one step closer to understanding how to stop the virus from spreading throughout the population. | Divangahi, Maziar; Choi, Dongsic | |
| Effect of coronavirus pandemic and health care system response on non-COVID-19-related mortality, post pandemic myocardial infarction and heart failure rates in Quebec; a collateral damage in this war? | Clinical Care | Rinfret, Stéphane | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Have heart attacks decreased since social isolation began? Cardiologists Dr. Stéphane Rinfret and Dr. James Brophy have noticed an unexpected decrease in heart attacks since the COVID-19 pandemic started. They are conducting research to determine whether people suffering from cardiac episodes are avoiding hospitals for fear of contracting COVID-19, or if social isolation has indeed reduced the incidence of heart attacks due to reduced physical activity and work-related stress. To determine the answer, the team will contact cardiology units across the country to learn whether there has been a reduction in cardiac surgeries (placement of stents, valve replacements, etc.) Their findings will help cardiologists across the country take steps to ensure their patients are receiving the treatment they need. | ||
| COVID-19 Vaccines - Novel Approaches to Tackle a Novel Disease | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Ndao, Momar; Reed, Michael | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Thinking outside the box—and quickly—is critical if we are to generate solutions for the current COVID-19 crisis. To protect the population in the short and long-terms, infectious diseases experts Dr. Momar Ndao, Dr. Michael Reed and Dr. Martin Olivier are working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by adapting and testing two established approaches based on the tuberculosis vaccine and adenovirus. Because both of the existing systems are approved for use in humans, developing a COVID-19 vaccine using the same principles could lead to a more rapid solution. | ||
| Use of Technology to Improve Effects of Social Isolation on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients (TIES-COVID) | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Colmegna, Inés; Bessissow, Amal; Meger, David | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Isolation is not conducive to health and wellbeing. Upon hospitalization, patients with COVID-19 are physically isolated. Only essential health care personnel interact with these patients, and for restricted periods of time. This isolation, though essential to avoid spreading the disease, can lead to loneliness, depression, anxiety, and fear. Rheumatologist Dr. Inés Colmegna, internal medicine physician Dr. Amal Bessissow and computer scientist Dr. David Meger are studying whether video calls from isolated patients to their loved ones can reduce negative emotions and whether this strategy can be used post-COVID-19 to combat loneliness and improve mental health in older adults. | ||
| A Multi-centre, Randomized, Open-label, Controlled Clinical Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Hospitalized Children in Canada (CATCO-Kids) | Clinical Trials | Papenburg, Jesse; Fontela, Patricia | McGill University | Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation | Québec | Can anti-malaria drugs help children with COVID-19? CATCO is a Canada-wide study that is testing the efficacy of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat adults hospitalized with COVID-19. Now, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jesse Papenburg and pediatric critical care expert Dr. Patricia Fontela are performing a similar study on children to determine whether the drug can reduce the severity of the COVID-19 infection, and lead to faster recovery and shorter hospital stays. This study will be the first randomized trial in children with COVID-19, and has the potential to save young lives. | ||
| Novel Small Molecule Antiviral Agents for Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID 19 coronavirus disease: Target Identification and Structural Optimization | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Cosa, Gonzalo | McGill University | McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | Creating new drugs to treat COVID-19 could save lives. Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a chemical compound that prevents RSV, a respiratory virus, from being infectious. McGill chemist Dr. Gonzalo Cosa is partnering with the University of Alberta to investigate whether the compound can be adapted to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from being infectious, slowing the spread of the disease. If successful, this new compound could be developed into a drug that effectively treats COVID-19. | ||
| Helping Retailers and Customers to Cope with Surge demands under COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Khern-am-nuai, Warut | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Differences in public policy responses and citizens reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative study of Canada, Sweden, Italy abnd the Republic of Korea. | Policy/Government | Massi, Anthony | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Responding to Child Protection-Involved Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Policy/Government | Collin-Vezina, Delphine | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Experienes with food acquisition in Quebec during COVID-19 pandemic: risk perceptions, access barriers, and insight to prepare for the future. | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Nielson, Daiva | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| The COVID-19 Crisis: An Investment Law Perspective | Policy/Government | Gelinas, Fabien | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Ancient Narratives of Viral Contagion and the Aftermath of COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Gladhill, Charles | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| The Political Economy of Governments' Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic | Policy/Government | Baccini, Leonardo | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Quebec Data Central for Impact of Covid-19 on Society and Business and for a Post-pandemic world | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Serpa, Juan Camilo | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Of Biobanking and Policy: Emerging Ethical and Legal Challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic | Policy/Government | Zawati, Ma'n Hilmi Mohammad | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian mental health care system. | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Khoury, Bassam | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| Changing the Social Value of Work? The Effects of Covid-19 on Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Elrick, Jennifer | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| COVID-19's Essential Workers: Rethinking Social Protection Beyond the Employment Relationship | Policy/Government | Blackett, Adelle | McGill University | SSHRC, McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity (MI4) | Québec | |||
| GeoSentinel Network detection of COVID-19 disease | Fundamental Science | Libman, Michael | McGill University | CIHR | Québec | Dr. Libman will optimize the screening process for COVID-19. With the support of the McGill-led GeoSentinel network, which monitors travel-related illnesses in thousands of travelers, Dr. Libman and his team will screen returning travelers and track the spread of COVID-19 in the many countries around the world that lack the medical infrastructure to diagnose coronavirus infections. | ||
| Tobacco-based production of a COVID-19 Vaccine | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Ward, Brian | McGill University | CIHR | Québec | Professor Ward, who is the Chief Medical Officer at Medicago, has been working with company scientists to develop a COVID-19 virus-like particle vaccine from the day after Chinese authorities released the first genetic information for the novel coronavirus in mid-January. | ||
| To create multiple vaccines for COVID-19 using novel strategies for delivering coronavirus proteins directly to the critical cells required to generate an effective immune response. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Bell, John | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To study the immune basis of COVID-19 related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDs) via longitudinal study of patients undergoing placebo and convalescent plasma treatment in order to inform evidence-based repurposing of targeted immunotherapies to improve outcomes for critically-ill patients affected by COVID-19. | Clinical Trials | Biernaskie, Jeff | University of Calgary | Fast Grants | Alberta | |||
| To accelerate the CONNECT study (COVID-19 and diabetes: Clinical Outcomes and Navigated NEtwork Care Today) to define the relationship between diabetes and adverse COVID-19 outcomes and improve care for individuals with diabetes. | Clinical Care | Booth, Gillian | University of Toronto | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| The ACT program design using innovative and adaptive methodology to find a safe, effective treatment to slow the progression of COVID-19 across 80 sites in 8 countries over 6 months. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Eikelboom, John | McMaster University | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| A comparative study to validate saliva as a test for SARS-CoV-2, as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swab testing and its associated problems, including depletion of swabs and personal protective equipment, and risk of nosocomial infection from close proximity of health care worker and patient being tested | Diagnostics | Friedman, Steven Marc | University Health Network, University of Toronto | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| The discovery of CoV-2 particle entry in absence of ACE2 and genome-wide gain-of-function screening to identify new secondary receptors/co-receptors/auxiliary proteins that facilitate viral entry/fusion. | Fundamental Science | Giguère, Patrick | University of Ottawa | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To support the Antithrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Complications of COVID-19 (ATTACC) trial. This international, multicenter, adaptive, open-label randomized clinical trial will examine the impact of therapeutic anticoagulation in comparison to standard venous thromboprophylaxis on the risk of intubation and death in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. | Clinical Trials | Goligher, Ewan | University Health Network, University of Manitoba | Fast Grants | Ontario, Manitoba | |||
| The TURQUOISE Ottawa COVID-19 study profiling immune responses of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), with a focus on the potential immunomodulatory function of mesenchymal stem cells. | Clinical Care | Hsin-Ju Mei, Shirley | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| Three-month multi-site randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study to assess safety and efficacy of hydroxy-chloroquine (HCQ) Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the prevention of COVID-19 infections in high-risk Health Care Workers. | Clinical Trials | Kain, Kevin | University Health Network | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| High-throughput screening of repurposed FDA-approved drugs for their efficacy to prevent SARS-CoV2 entry by modifying endosomal pH and testing in preclinical hamster and ferret models of Covid-19 in collaboration with the Kozak and Falzarano labs. | Fundamental Science | Melnyk, Roman | University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To summarize rapidly emerging clinical research evidence and generate comparative efficacy and safety profiles for candidate interventions. | Clinical Care | Mills, Edward | McMaster University | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To identify the most potent compound from a class of rocaglates for activity against SARS-CoV-2. Our previous work has shown that these compounds are effective against the non-pathogenic coronavirus 229E strain. | Fundamental Science | Pelletier, Jerry | McGill University | Fast Grants | Québec | |||
| To use two cutting-edge screening technologies to identify new drug targets for the treatment of COVID-19, and the identification of FDA-approved drugs with activity against SARS-CoV-2. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Raught, Brian | University Health Network | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| The discovery of human antibodies blocking ACE2 binding by the viral S protein through screening of libraries of billions of human antibodies and their further validation to move them towards clinical trials as an antiviral drug to fight COVID-19 directly. | Fundamental Science | Sidhu, Sachdev | University of Toronto | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To investigate the the diversity and longevity of T cell immunity to SARS-COV2 through longitudinal study of Covid-19 patients. | Serological Studies | Watts, Tania | University of Toronto | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| Evaluating the use of cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) to study myocardial injury in COVID-19 patients. | Clinical Care | Saw, Jacqueline | Vancouver General Hospital | Fast Grants | British Columbia | |||
| To further develop a clinically validated COVID diagnostic point-of-care test. | Diagnostics | Pillai, Dylan | University of Calgary | Fast Grants | Alberta | |||
| The COVID-19 Study of Children and Families, a longitudinal observational study to evaluate the key epidemiological characteristics and spectrum of disease severity of COVID-19 among parents and children. | Public Health | Maguire, Jonathon | University of Toronto | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| To correlate host transcriptome profile from clinical nasal swabs from positive and negative COVID-19 cases with clinical outcomes | Fundamental Science | Hirota, Jeremy | McMaster University | Fast Grants | Ontario | |||
| Understanding how the immunity correlates to protection in infected individuals with a mild form of COVID-19 versus those with the severe form of the disease is essential for therapeutic interventions or vaccine design. | Serological Studies | Elahi, Shokrollah | University of Alberta | Fast Grants | Alberta | |||
| High containment tools: translational virology | Fundamental Science | Samira Mubareka | University of Toronto and Sunnybrook | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Our ability to isolate infectious virus from clinical samples at Sunnybrook allows us to share samples as needed within the Canadian research and diagnostic community. This work builds significant capacity for other investigators focused on translational and fundamental questions around vaccine and antiviral development and host-pathogen response, which depend on whole live or inactivated virus. For this effort, we intend to fortify the current capacity in the containment level 3 (CL3; located at the University of Toronto) with intra-mural genome sequencing and analysis, which will leverage the tools established in the Frontline just-in time pathogenomics and high containment translational tools for COVID-19 (project 1 A.). In addition to providing a resource to the Canadian research community, we propose to use the CL3 animal facility to establish animal models for vaccine and therapeutic medical countermeasure development. | Robert Kozak | |
| Understanding, Forecasting and Communicating Risk During the COVID-19 Epidemic | Epidemiology/Modelling | David Fishman | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | The past several weeks have seen the emergence of a novel infectious disease (COVID-19) in China, but many of the features of this public health emergency are familiar. Emergence of a zoonotic pathogen, local transmission with high case-fatality, abundant misinformation about the epidemiology and spread of the virus, emergence of xenophobic behaviors in the public and social media spheres, disruption of trade and travel, and concerns about long-term endemicity are all characteristics of COVID-19, but were also features of the 2015 Ebola epidemic, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. As experienced infectious disease researchers with a track record of successful analysis, forecasting, disease modeling, knowledge translation, and risk communication in each of these scenarios, we recognize that many important gaps during these disease events have related to risk: its quantification, forecasting, and communication. We will develop a portfolio of tools and approaches that allow public health practitioners to answer common questions about epidemics: “when will it peak?”; “when will it end?”; “how big/severe will it be?”. These tools are simple and transparent but robust, with accuracy comparable to complex models relying on substantial computing power. They can be parameterized using inferences drawn from publicly available data, to provide frameworks for understanding, prediction, and monitoring of epidemic spread and control. Overestimation of risk with emerging infectious diseases often relates to lack of knowledge and fear of loss of control: our tools will serve as a means to empower those anxious about possible health and economic impacts. Rational planning and assuaging fear are of primary importance in epidemic situations, as fear itself can have important impacts on epidemic dynamics.Our objective is to use available information to build the quantitative and graphical tools that Canada will need to move from data to understanding during the COVID-19 epidemic, and to use these tools to inform both decision makers and the general public. Our group has already made substantial contributions in areas linked to the objectives of this program, including rapid epidemic characterization, education of local and provincial public health agencies on COVID-19 disease dynamics, and development of tools for epidemic forecasting. Our specific aims are:(i) to build a simple forecasting tools to provide timely estimates of epidemic growth, to forecast peak and end dates, and to identify changes in epidemic dynamics;(ii) to use Bayesian methods to infer age, sex, and geography-specific disease severity and case-fatality, rapidly and in a manner that accounts for biases in ascertainment, likely undercounting of mild cases, lags between disease onset and hospitalization or death; and (iii) to re-parameterize existing Canadian population disease dynamic transmission models for COVID-19, allowing rapid projection of the effectiveness of control strategies (social distancing, vaccination, antiviral drugs), and estimate the health and economic impact of COVID-19 should it become epidemic in Canada.Our specific aims are well-aligned with identified research areas including developing estimates of differential susceptibility by age and sex (aims 2 and 3) and mathematical modeling (aims 1 and 3); but we also address other identified research areas, including evaluation of vaccines (aim 3), development of tools for surveillance (aims 1, 2 and 3), and understanding the social dynamics of transmission and vulnerability (aim 3). The application of mathematical epidemiology to emerging infectious diseases has gained greater acceptance by non-mathematicians. However, highly complex models and dense equations make work like ours inaccessible to many end-users. As such, translation of our findings into outputs that both practitioners and the general population can understand is a key focus of this proposal. Construction of interactive, graphical, web-based tools (e.g., using the R Shiny environment) serves as a means of sharing insights and findings, in a way that does not require prior mathematical expertise and can increase end-user engagement with research outputs. We will continue to engage with local, national and international news outlets to translate our findings into terms that lay audiences find easy to understand. Our team has an exceptional track record in science and risk communication related to COVID-19 in the weeks since this disease emerged. | ||
| Molecular and cellular therapies against COVID-19 using angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Zhang, Haibo | St Michael's | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| Inhibitors of COVID‐19 virus infection and replication | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Sachdev Sidhu | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| T cell assays to detect and monitor COVID19 immunity and immune memory in people | Diagnostics | Tania Watts | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | The Watts lab has obtained funding (FAST grant) to study T cell responses to COVID19 in healthy donors (recovered patients or healthy community members). | ||
| Immune responses to COVID-19: Correlates across the age spectrum | Fundamental Science | Upton Allen | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| Synthetic Chemistry as a Core Technology Platform for the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Chemistry COVID-19 Core Facility (CCCF) | Fundamental Science | Robert Batey | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Yudin, Andrei; Rousseaux, Sophie; Mark Lautens; Mark Nitz; Taylor, Mark S.; Woolley, Andrew | ||
| The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Response for People who are Marginalized | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Ahmed Bayoumi | Unity Health | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Caudarella, Alexander; Du Mont, Janice; Durbin, Anna; Firestone, Michelle; Holness, Linn; Hwang, Stephen; Maguire, Jonathon; Mason, Robin; Matheson, Flora; Nisenbaum, Rosane; O'Campo, Patrica; Persaud, Nav; Strike, Carol; Werb, Dan; Kolla, Gillian; Long, Cathy; Young, Samantha; Yakubovich, Alexa | ||
| Careful Ventilation in Patients with ARDS induced by COVID-19. The CAVIARDS 19 trial | Clinical Care | Laurent Brochard | Unity Health | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Slutsky, Arthur; Jüni, Peter; Ferguson, Niall; Thorpe, Kevin | ||
| Convalescent plasma for COVID-19 research trial | Serological Studies | Jeannie Callum | Sunnybrook | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| A quantum dot portable diagnostic device for COVID-19 | Diagnostics | Warren Chan | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| The Ontario COVID-19 Prospective Cohort Study | Clinical Trials | Angela Cheung | UHN | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Herridge, Margaret; Rawal, Shail; Strug, Lisa; Verma, Amol; Razak, Fahad; Tomlinson, George; Ghassemi, Marzyeh; Dos Santos, Claudia; Tang, Terence; Weinerman, Adina; Fralick, Mike; Lapointe-Shaw, Lauren; Batt, Jane; Lawler, Patrick | ||
| Enzyme-free, one-step nucleic-acid detection for point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic screening | Diagnostics | Leo Chou | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| Evaluation of a small, gas powered, patient-responsive automated resuscitation/ventilation | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Paul Dorian | Unity Health | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Katria, Bhushan; Marquez, Alexandra; Brochard, Laurent; Slutsky, Arthur; Jonkman, Annemijn; Schreiber, Annia; Mohindra, Rohit; Lin, Steve | ||
| Interferon Lambda for Immediate Antiviral therapy at Diagnosis (ILIAD): A phase II randomized, open-label, multicenter, trial to evaluate the effect of peginterferon lambda for the treatment of COVID-19 | Clinical Trials | Jordan Feld | UHN | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Humar, Atul; Kandel, Christopher; Kumar, Deepali; Coburn, Bryan; Ostrowski, Mario; Tan, Darrell; Fan, Eddy; Juvet, Stephen; Wong, David; Gehring, Adam; Janssen, Harry; Kozak, Robert; Hansen; Bettina | ||
| Building a Real-Time Health System COVID Collaborative Data and Analytics Hub in Ontario | Data Science | Benjamin Fine | Trillium Health Partners | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Rosella, Laura; Carter, Michael; Chan, Timothy; Rudzicz, Frank; Essensoy, Ali Vahit; Ghassemi, Marzyeh | ||
| Accelerated, Centralized Development of Diagnostics and Therapeutics to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic | Diagnostics | Shana Kelley | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Paradee, Keith; Liu, Xinyu; Houry, Walid A.; Cochrane, Alan | ||
| Development of models of pathogenesis and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 | Epidemiology/Modelling | Robert Kozak | Sunnybrook | Institutional Funding | Ontario | This project involves pre-clinical studies of candidate therapies and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 that have the potential to be advanced into human trials if the data is promising. Considering the urgent need for both therapeutics and vaccines to help reduce the impact of this pandemic, there is a critical need to continue this work. This work expands on the recent direct isolation of SARS-CoV-2 in the CL3 facilities here from patient samples collected at Sunnybrook Hospital, in which I was centrally involved. Moreover, we have initiated several collaborations with groups here at University of Toronto who are pursuing pathogenesis studies or investigating potential treatments. By allowing our team to work, and leveraging the collaborative partnerships with other SARS-CoV-2 researchers on campus, we are able to reduce the number of researchers required to be on-campus and in CL3, which helps with social distancing. Critical personnel: Robert Kozak (PI), Chandrika Senthilkumaran (post-doc). Both individuals have had extensive training in high-containment laboratories prior to this. Dr. Senthilkumaran worked at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in both CL3 and CL4 laboratories performing work that involved both in vitro experiments and animal studies. Additionally, she is a trained veterinarian with experience working with large and small animal models. She has begun the training process to work in the CL3 facility at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kozak also worked at the National Microbiology Laboratory in both CL3 and CL4 laboratories on a range of viral pathogens including MERSCoronavirus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, and Ebola virus, performing both cell culture work and animal studies. Additionally, Dr. Kozak has commenced his training at the CL3 facility in Toronto. The proposed project will have three main objectives: 1) Evaluating monoclonal antibodies for therapeutic efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture systems 2) Developing a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 disease 3) Evaluate vaccines for protection against SARS-CoV-2 in a small animal model of disease | Mubareka, Samira; Ostrowski, Mario; Melnyk, Roman | |
| Going Viral: COVID-19 and Risk in Young Adult Health Behaviour Models | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Madeleine Mant | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| Digital technologies and Chinese Interpersonal Communication on the Mainland and in the Diaspora – the Case of COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Rhonda McEwen | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Tang Anthony; Zhao Zhao; Zhao Yaxi | ||
| Control of COVID-19 outbreaks in long term care (COTROL-COVID) | Aging/Elder Care | Allison McGeer | Sinai | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Tan, Darrell; Chan, Adrienne; Simor, Andrew; Juni, Peter; Mazzulli, Tony; Mubareka, Samira; Katz, Kevin; Daneman, Nick; Da Costa, Bruno; Thorpe, Kevin; Kandel, Christopher; Coomes, Eric; Jamal, Alainna; Mozafarihasjin, Mohammad | ||
| Using Prosocial Behavior to Safeguard Mental Health and Foster Emotional Well-Being | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Andrew Miles | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Andiappan, Meena | ||
| Identification of host dependency factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication to accelerate drug repurposing efforts | Fundamental Science | Jason Moffat | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Gray-Owen, Scott; Greenblatt, Jack; Blencowe, Ben; Taipale, Mikko; Mubareka, Samira; Kelley, Shana | ||
| Just-in-time pathogenomics for SARS-CoV-2, data for immediate action | Data Science | Samira Mubareka | Sunnybrook | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Sunnybrook and the University of Toronto have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic since the first Canadian case was identified. On March 10, 2020, Sunnybrook Research Institute researchers isolated SARS-CoV-2 from two patients. The first patient’s SARS-CoV-2 virus was the first to be cultured in Canada (VIDO-Intervac) and is anticipated for use in vaccine development. Whole-genome sequencing of this isolate as well as SARS-CoV-2 isolates collected directly from patient samples were completed within a week, entirely on premise at the frontline at Sunnybrook. With this crucial tool in hand, we propose an ambitious research program that builds upon existing facilities and expertise.Our goal is to generate just-in-time SARS-CoV-2 genomic data within three months and to roll this out with national and international partners subsequently. De-identified sequence data will be made available on public servers (GISAID, NCBI) to the global research community as they become available within 1-2 weeks of case identification. This will provide insight into the range of genetic diversity among SARS-CoV2 isolates and improve surveillance. The protocols and standard operating procedures will be available open access within 6 months. This will enable our East African collaborators to also contribute sequences to global databases and share protocols regionally as well. This approach also provides precision genomic data for Sunnybrook patients, which will be essential for nosocomial outbreak investigation. | Lee, Robyn; Kozak, Robert; McGeer, Allison; Gubbay, Jonathan; Simpson, Jared; Patel, Samir | |
| Reducing the Moral Distress of Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic | Ethics/Law | Elizabeth Peter | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | MacIver, Jane | ||
| Keeping everyone safe: Using contactless transdermal optical imaging to obtain patient vitals and symptom report in the time of COVID-19 | Clinical Care | Mohammad Qadura | Unity Health | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Lee, Kang; Rotstein, Ori | ||
| Toronto Emergency Device Accelerator | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | Matt Ratto | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Keyvan Karkouti; Azad Mashari; Hani Naguib; Yu Zou | ||
| COVID-19 Impacts on the Quality of Work and Economic Life in Canada | Finance/Economics/Business | Scott Schieman | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Milkie, Melissa; Alergia, Sharla; Boeckmann, Irene | ||
| Healthcare Worker seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies | Serological Studies | Michelle Science | SickKids | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Campigotto, Aaron; McGeer, Allison; Kazmi, Kescha; Upton, Allen; Bolotin, Shelly; McAllister, Mary; Katz, Kevin; Kandel, Christopher; Muller, Matthew; Craig, Jeffery; Downing, Mark; Vaisman, Alon; Leis, Jerome; Johnstone, Jennie; Cohn, Ronald | ||
| Improving & Evaluating Aerosol PPE & Containment Devices for COVID-19 Virus | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies/ Digital Technologies | James Scott | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Brook, zJeff; Bozek, Paul; Evans, Greg; Arrandale, Victoria; Urch, Bruce; Kirkham, Tracy; Gu, Frank; Siegel, Jeffrey; Masood, Samir; Cafazzo, Joseph; Mubareka; Adisesh, AnilJain, Devika; Yan, Ning | ||
| Rapid Implementation of a Shared COVID-19 Tracking and Response Platform for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Populations in Canada | Indigenous Research | Janet Smylie | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Stewart, Suzanne; Mishra, Sharmistha; Shoush, Suzanne; Muir, Nicole; Walker, Jennifer; Kwong, Jeff | ||
| Immunotyping of COVID-19 Patient Sera Using Novel Protein Complementation-Based Assays | Serological Studies | Igor Stagljar | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Nikdel, Ali; Kramer, Glenna; Gray-Owen, Scott; Mubareka, Samira; Stagljar, Igor | ||
| Mental Health Outcomes in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Rima Styra | UHN | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Hawryluck, Laura; McGeer, Allison; Gold, Wayne; Lorrelo, Gianni | ||
| A massively parallel, ultra-high throughput next-generation sequencing platform for widespread screening of COVID-19 and associated risk factors | Diagnostics | Jeff Wrana | Sinai | Institutional Funding | Ontario | Blencowe, Ben; BREMNER, ROD; PELLETIER, LAURENCE; MAZZULLI, TONY; ATTISANO, LILIANA | ||
| Privacy-preserving contact tracing app | Diagnostics | Yun William Yu | University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | |||
| Cellular Immune Phenotype in Patients with Severe COVID Disease Before and After COVID-19 Treatment | Clinical Care | Dr. Lisa Barrett | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study aims to better understand COVID-19 immune disruption and reversibility by examining global and SARS-CoV-2 specific immune dysregulation before, during and after therapy. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | |
| NeuroCOVID: a Prospective, Longitudinal MRI Examination of Brain Involvement in COVID-19 | Fundamental Science | Dr. Steven Beyea | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will use the new 0.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner at the QEII Health Sciences Centre to determine whether evidence of brain abnormalities among COVID-19 inpatients is associated with the need for ventilation, and whether there are consistent features in the brains of COVID-19 patients that could inform treatment. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | |
| A Comparison of Novel Integrated Gown, Hood and Face Shield (Halifax Gown) Personal Protective Equipment With Standard Personal Protective Equipment. | Dr. Peter MacDougall | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will test whether a new type of personal protective equipment (PPE) made in the Maritimes of reusable material can be put on faster and more safely than standard PPE. | |||
| Understanding How Grades of Frailty Affect the Evolution of COVID | Dr. Kenneth Rockwood | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will investigate how differences in frailty and fitness among people being assessed for COVID-19 are related to the development, progression, and outcomes of the disease. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Screening of CTP Synthase Inhibitors to Augment Antiviral Drugs for the Synergistic Treatment of COVID-19 Infections | Dr. Stephen Bearne | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will rapidly assess the potential of active derivatives of known antiviral drug compounds to inhibit the production of one of the building blocks the COVID-19 virus requires to replicate itself. | |||
| A Device that Could Assist in Proning Anesthetized Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients | Dr. Stephen Beed | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will develop and test a device to aid the safe repositioning of critically ill, heavily sedated, intubated, and/or pharmacologically paralyzed COVID-19 patients. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Development and Evaluation of Lead DNA Vaccine Candidates for COVID-19 | Dr. Roy Duncan | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will provide the necessary pre-clinical assessment and validation of second-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates required to meet Public Health Agency of Canada and World Health Organization guidelines for ethical first-in-human clinical assessment on an expedited timescale. | |||
| Innovations in Sustainable PPE Fabric: Local Solutions for a Global Issue | Dr. John Frampton; Mr. Gary Markle | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will develop a prototype textile that can be used to locally manufacture personal protective equipment such as surgical masks and respirators to deal with shortfalls in global supply chains. | NSCAD University | ||
| A Multiplex Platform for Higher Sensitivity Detection of SARS-CoV2 | Dr. Todd Hatchette | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will develop a new, digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) COVID-19 test and determine whether it is more sensitive than the existing real-time PCR test. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| A Microbiome-Based COVID-19 Risk-Assessment Tool | Dr. Morgan Langille | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will identify microbes associated with COVID-19 disease severity and create and assess the accuracy of a microbiome-based COVID-19 risk assessment tool. | |||
| Temperature Effects on Coronavirus Replication | Dr. Craig McCormick | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will determine how temperature affects both coronavirus propagation and cellular response to infection, allowing for better interpretation of ongoing vaccine research. | |||
| COVID-19 Viral Shedding Study | Dr. Glenn Patriquin | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will determine the optimal upper respiratory tract specimen for detecting virus in COVID-19 patients, the point at which the virus is no longer detected in infected individuals’ upper respiratory tracts, the point at which recovered patients are no longer infectious, and how antibody titres correlate with viral shedding and disease severity. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Expression and Purification of the Spike Protein (S) of Covid19 Virus for Diagnostic Purposes and Production of Live Attenuated Viral Vaccines | Dr. Christopher Richardson | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will generate large quantities of coronavirus spike proteins that can be used to produce immune diagnostic kits and in subunit vaccines directed at COVID-19. | IWK Health | ||
| Development of Airborne Pathogen Containment Device for Airway Instrumentation | Dr. Ana Sjaus | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study aims to protect health care workers from contracting COVID-19 by developing a device that could be placed over potentially infectious patients like a ‘bubble’ to hold infected air during intubation. | IWK Health, Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| UV Disinfection Protocol for N95 Masks | Dr. Amina Stoddart | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will develop an approach to disinfect N95 masks with ultraviolet light so that they can be reused in the event of supply issues. | |||
| Developing a Fast-Track COVID-19 Vaccine and an Antibody ELISA Assay with High Specificity and Sensitivity | Dr. Jun Wang | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will determine whether a pentavalent COVID-19 vaccine can be quickly developed by formulating SARS-CoV-2 antigen with a commercial quadrivalent influenza virus vaccine. | IWK Health | ||
| Bowtie Analysis for COVID-19 Risk Reduction | Dr. Paul Amoyette | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will use a barrier-based risk management approach called Bowtie Analysis to develop a series of graphics to accurately and rapidly convey essential information on threats, consequences, prevention barriers, and mitigation barriers for the COVID-19 pandemic response. | |||
| Primary Care and Pandemics: How Do We Get Care to Those Who Need It? | Dr. Fred Burge | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will use novel data mining approaches to analyze primary care electronic medical record data in order to better meet the needs of patients during and after the pandemic. | |||
| Use of a Learning Health System Framework to Examine Quality and Safety Improvement at the IWK Health Centre During COVID-19 Planning | Dr. Janet Curran | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will use a Learning Health System framework to examine the IWK Health Centre COVID-19 pandemic planning work and identify strategies that we can use to be prepared for future pandemics. | IWK Health | ||
| Employing Hyperheurisitics to Provide Direction on Deployment of COVID-19 Tests and other Interventions | Dr. James Hughes | St. Francis Xavier University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will employ a type of artificial intelligence called a hyperheuristic to provide direction on how to deploy COVID-19 tests, vaccines, or other interventions. | |||
| Identifying the Occurrence Rate and Complicating Factors Related to a COVID-19 Diagnosis in the Mi’kmaq People of Nova Scotia | Dr. Margot Latimer | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study, co-led by Mi’kmaq community health leaders, will use a Mi’kmaq-developed health data linking registry to determine the prevalence and health experience of Mi’kmaq community members in Nova Scotia diagnosed with COVID-19. | IWK Health | ||
| Targeted Health Law & Policy Interventions for an Efficient, Effective and Equitable Response to COVID-19 | Dr. Constance MacIntosh, Dr. Matthew Herder | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will identify solutions that can be implemented to address health law- and policy-related deficiencies and gaps that have been caused or revealed by COVID-19. | |||
| Dalhousie Faculty of Dentistry: Guiding the Phased Reopening of Primary Oral Health Care Service Delivery in Nova Scotia During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Dr. Mary McNally | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will determine what changes in practice will be required to ensure a safe return of the routine delivery of oral healthcare services to the Dalhousie University Faculty of Dentistry teaching clinic and to dental practices throughout Nova Scotia. | |||
| Right Care, Right Time, Right Place: Leveraging a Virtual Care Solution in the Delivery of Community-Based Care for COVID-19 Patients | Dr. Ashley Miller | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will evaluate, refine, and implement a virtual patient-centered platform to guide COVID-19 patient care in the community, and examine clinical predictors of COVID disease progression. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Physical Distancing and Medical Distancing: Reducing the Cardiac and Neurovascular Impact of COVID‐19 | Dr. Ratika Parkash | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will investigate the degree to which Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 pandemic response has affected morbidity and mortality in patients with known or new onset cardiovascular or neurovascular disease. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Internists Crisis Support for PCPs in LTC: making connections during COVID19 | Dr. Nabha Shetty, Dr. Paige Moorhouse | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will develop and implement a “one stop shop” for medical specialist consultation by primary care providers working with long-term care residents to manage COVID-19 outbreaks ,with real-time evaluation of feasibility and effectiveness using an implementation science methodology. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 Among Hemodialysis Patients | Dr. Karthik Tennankore | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will describe and compare clinical characteristics of hemodialysis patients with known or suspected exposure to COVID-19 with those of hemodialysis patients with no known or suspected exposure to COVID-19, and describe the clinical outcomes of hemodialysis patients who develop COVID-19 with those who do not. | Nova Scotia Health Authority | ||
| Evidence to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Community-Based Dementia Care in Nova Scotia | Dr. Katie Aubrecht | St. Francis Xavier University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will contribute to, clarify, and enhance the best evidence-in-the-moment about programs and supports for vulnerable older adults living with dementia and their caregivers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. | |||
| The Role of Environmental Determinants and Social Mobility in Viral Infection Transmission in Halifax | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Dr. Yigit Aydede | Saint Mary's University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will analyze the relationships between COVID-19 transmission rates, meteorological and air quality, and the fluctuations in social mobility in Nova Scotia to allow for better calibration of spatial spread in simulation models that are used to inform policy making. | ||
| Culturally Responsive Healthcare to Reduce Gender Based Violence | Sen Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard, Dr. Nancy Ross | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will determine how lessons from the impact of COVID-19 can inform social policy and healthcare measures to better respond to gender-based violence (GBV) within the African Nova Scotian communities and how health care systems can incorporate culturally appropriate programming, resources, and services to support better responses to GBV and other adverse childhood experiences in African Nova Scotian communities. | |||
| The Ties that Bind: Interpersonal Relationships as a Source of Risk and Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Dr. Karen Blair, Dr. Kathryn Bell | St. Francis Xavier University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will compare Nova Scotians’ well-being and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic with other jurisdictions, assess LGTBQ+ Nova Scotians’ well-being and coping during the pandemic relative to LGBTQ+ individuals in other jurisdictions, and examine Nova Scotians’ experiences with intimate partner violence during the pandemic in comparison to other jurisdictions. | Acadia University | ||
| The Intrapersonal Traits Associated with a Person’s Willingness to Work with COVID 19 Patients (Resilience and Empathy) | Ms. Megan Brydon | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will measure the degrees of ‘willingness’, resilience, and empathy among medical radiation and imaging department professionals, and examine the relationship between resilience, empathy, and willingness to persevere and adapt in times of crisis. | IWK Health | ||
| COVID-19 Impact of Neonatal ICU | Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo, Dr. Jon Dorling | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will assess the needs of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) families at the IWK Health Centre during the COVID-19 pandemic, identify barriers and facilitators to implementing virtual care options for these families during the pandemic, and evaluate one potential virtual care platform for NICU families. | IWK Health | ||
| Don’t Count Us Out! | Dr. OmiSoore Dryden | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will identify the determinants of trust that African Nova Scotians have with the COVID-19 pandemic strategy and response, and demonstrate how race-based data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic can establish foundational capacity to extend race-based analysis to other health and health care issues. | |||
| Preventing Burnout Among Front-Line Care Workers to Fight Covid-19: Screen and Intervene | Dr. Debra Gilin | Saint Mary's University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will rapidly develop tailored screening and intervention tools to support mental health and prevent elevated job burnout or safety risks in COVID-19-responding health care staff in Nova Scotia. | |||
| The Consequences and Outcomes of Cultural Stigma from COVID-19 Ordinances | Dr. Robert Huish | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will examine the consequences and outcomes of cultural stigma from COVID-19 ordinances in three jurisdictions of Nova Scotia, New Zealand, and Australia. | |||
| Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA):Building a COVID-19 Platform for Research in Canada | Dr. Susan Kirkland | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | As part of the existing Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), this study will determine individual factors that increase risk of COVID-19 symptoms and severity, understand the impact of pre-COVID factors such as socioeconomic status on health outcomes, and assess the long-term health and social consequences of COVID-19 and associated mitigation strategies on older adults. | |||
| Use of an App to Determine Mental Health of Population and Health Providers During COVID | Dr. Sandra Meier | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will link mobile sensing and clinical data to assess the impact of social distancing and counterbalancing behaviours on mental health during the COVID-19 crisis and 3 months later. | IWK Health | ||
| A Culturally Specific COVID -19 Response Strategy for African Nova Scotians in the Prestons | Dr. Ingrid Waldron | Dalhousie University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will provide solution-oriented recommendations for how clinical services, health promotion, and the collection of disaggregated race-based health data can improve access to COVID-19 testing and health services, and reduce infections in the Prestons by identifying the social determinants that create exposure to and risk for COVID-19 infections and its exacerbation of current illnesses experienced by African Nova Scotians in the Prestons. | |||
| Exploration of Potential Impacts of the COVID-19 State of Emergency Measures on Infant Feeding in Nova Scotia | Dr. Kyly Whitfield | Mount Saint Vincent University | Nova Scotia Health Authority Research & Innovation, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, IWK Foundation, DGHF, Research Nova Scotia | Nova Scotia | This study will assess the self-perceived stress of primary caregivers of infants under 6 months old, and how the COVID-19 State of Emergency has impacted infant feeding in Nova Scotia. | |||
| Innovative chemical strategies to help Nova Scotian pulp mills explore ways to transition into the production of medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production | Dr. Christa Brosseau | Saint Mary's University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | N95 respirators are critical in the fight against COVID-19. N95 masks are typically composed primarily of synthetic polymer materials (polypropylene, polyester) with cellulose sometimes incorporated into one of the many layers that make up the respirator. At present, limited numbers of mills in Canada are producing medical grade pulp and they are struggling to keep up with the increased demand.Dr. Christa Brosseau’s project intends to explore innovative chemical strategies to help Nova Scotian pulp mills explore ways to transition into the production of medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production. | |||
| Studying the impact of public health control policies and implementation on the NGO and NFP community in Canada | Dr. Scott Halperin | Dalhousie University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | While public health policies are required to control an infectious disease outbreak, these policies can adversely affect individuals and communities. Quarantine, limitations in movement and public gathering, and other restrictive measures can put a social and economic burden on individuals, which may be disproportionate depending on their socioeconomic status and other factors.Dr. Scott Halperin’s project will examine the cultural dimensions of the COVID-19 epidemic. This will include examining how individuals and communities understand and react to the disease; studying the response of public health; and exploring how public health policy affects individuals and communities.The findings from this multi-province, multi-country study in Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia), Bangladesh, and China (Guangdong) will be used to improve the process by which public health policies are created and implemente | |||
| Organizational Response to Disease Outbreak | Dr. Kevin Kelloway | Saint Mary's University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | Dealing with a pandemic on this scale is a massive social challenge that has dramatically changed the nature of workplaces. The study will look at employee perceptions of their employers’ management of these two goals, with a focus on examining how the organizational response to disease outbreaks influences employees’ own health and health-promoting behaviours.Along with a large national survey representative of Canadian workers, which Dr. Kelloway says will be longitudinal, following employees as they go through this experience, the team is also planning more focused studies on the role of leaders (managers and supervisors) in managing this crisis as well as more in-depth studies of employees who have transitioned to working at home.Dr. Kelloway’s team also includes Dr. Jane Mullen (Mount Allison University), Dr. Stephanie Gilbert (Cape Breton University) and Dr. Jennifer Dimoff (University of Ottawa) as well as PhD students Tabatha Thibault, Rachael Jones Chick and Vanessa Myers – all PhD students in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Saint Mary’s. | |||
| Identification of Biomarkers that Predict Severity of Infection in COVID-19 Patients | Dr. David Kelvin | Dalhousie University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | One of the major concerns with outbreaks like COVID-19 is overwhelmed emergency rooms, hospitals and ICU wards. Dr. Kelvin is developing a point-of-care device that can be used by emergency room doctors to quickly predict whether someone presenting with the disease will have a mild or severe case.This is part of an international effort to find a set of biomarkers and gene expression assessment of COVID-19 patients. The data from these screenings will be used to determine which biomolecules are associated with mild, severe and critically ill patients.Dr. Kelvin’s research is being conducted through the Canadian COVID-19 Research Network, which includes researchers from China, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique, the U.S. and Canada. | |||
| Development of Point-of-Care Rapid SARSCoV-2 Detection System based on Surface Acoustic Wave Technology Platform | Dr. Martin Mkandawire | Cape Breton University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | Dr. Martin Mkandawire is a solid-state chemist and chemistry professor in the School of Science and Technology at Cape Breton University. His team’s project aims to rapidly diagnose COVID-19 from a person’s oral and nasal fluids with the entire detection protocol being completed within 5 to 10 minutes.Teams around the world are racing to develop a rapid testing method. A key to solving this critical problem is research into many different candidate approaches. Dr. Mkandawire has been developing a unique specialization which brings a fresh perspective to developing a rapid test. | |||
| Working on the impact of COVID-19 on Nova Scotia primary care providers and vulnerable patient populations | Dr. Jeanna Parsons Leigh | Dalhousie University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | Infectious disease outbreaks pose a severe threat to the physical and mental health of individuals and populations worldwide. A better understanding of the social and cultural factors that contribute to public knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19 is needed to develop evidence-informed strategies to combat misinformation, stigma and fear.Dr. Parsons Leigh will develop a national knowledge translation (KT) campaign that is centered on understanding and describing the knowledge base, perceptions and associated implications of the COVID-19 outbreak for the Canadian public to develop targeted interventions to close top identified public knowledge gaps. The ultimate goal of her work is to educate, engage and empower members of the public to be informed stewards of their health knowledge in relation to the current outbreak. | |||
| Sociocultural and behavioural factors affecting communities’ response to countermeasures for COVID-19 epidemic: identifying interventions to build trust | Dr. Audrey Steenbeek | Dalhousie University | GOC* | Nova Scotia | As public health authorities increase efforts to address the new coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19), rumours, misinformation, and xenophobic online posts are spreading faster than the virus. Fear and misinformation have direct implication on the implementation of effective public health measures to control the epidemic. With this research, we will examine the individual and sociocultural factors that impact individual’s and communities’ adoption of public health recommendations. This study will use qualitative and quantitative methods to describe online discourses related to COVID-19 in Canada (Tweets and comments on news media report) and to describe individual/ community understanding of disease, priorities, fears, etc. including public health messaging that may impact the acceptance of measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. We will also identify interventions that will help build public trust in authorities responsible for disease spread and management, while dispelling unfounded rumours and xenophobic discourse.Dr. Steenbeek’s team also includes Dr. Eve Dube (NPI) Laval University, Dr. Julie Bettingers (UBC), Drs: Janet Curran, Janice Graham & Noni MacDonald (Dalhousie University); Dr. Samantha Meyer (University of Waterloo) & Drs: Wayne Xu and Devon Greyson University of Massachusetts. | |||
| anXcea: PANdemic Prediction with X-ray-based COVID-19 External Analysis | Data Science | Marzyeh Ghassemi, Joseph Paul Cohen, Chris McIntosh | Vector Institute, University of Toronto, Mila, Université de Montréal | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| COVIDEX - Advanced Information Retrieval for Clinical and Academic Literatures | Data Science | Cho, Kyunghyun; Lin. Jimmy | New York University, Vector Institute, University of Waterloo | CIFAR | Ontario, U.S. | |||
| Leveraging Biomedical Knowledge Graphs for COVID-19 Drug Repurposing Strategies | Data Science | Tang, Jian; Hamilton, William; Yoshua, Bengio; Wolf, Guy; Li, Yue | Mila, HEC Montreal, McGill University, Université de Montréal | CIFAR | Québec | |||
| COVID-Net: An Open Source Deep Learning Platform for COVID-19 Detection and Risk Stratification | Data Science | Wong, Alexander; Lee, James; Wang, Linda; Lin, Desmond | University of Waterloo | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| Rapid, Automated Assembly of SARS-CoV-2 Phylogenies | Data Science | Morris, Quaid; Wintersinger, Jeffrey; Wrana, Jeff; Blencowe, Ben | Vector Institute, University of Toronto | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| Modeling the Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Between Zoonotic Sources on a Gene Level | Data Science | Rabusseau, Guillaume; Makarenkov, Vladimir; Mazoure, Bogdan | Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University, Mila | CIFAR | Québec | |||
| MyTrace / MaTrace: A Privacy-Compliant Contact-Tracing Mobile App for COVID-19 | Data Science | Aspuru-Guzik, Alán; Ghassemi, Marzyeh | Vector Institute, University of Toronto | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| Machine Learning Against COVID-19: Accelerating Small Molecule Drug Discovery | Data Science | Chandar, Sarath; Taylor, Matthew; Krishna, Sri; Thomas, Karam; | Mila, Polytechnique Montréal, Amii, University of Alberta, 99andBeyond | CIFAR | Alberta, Québec | |||
| Guarding At-Risk Demographics with AI (GuARD-AI) | Data Science | Baumgart, Daniel; White, Martha; Goebe, Randy; Rockwell, Geoffrey; Haywad, Robert; Amlani, Shy; Choy, Jonathan; Webster, Sara; Hall, Sara | University of Alberta, Amii, Kule Institute for Advanced Study, Alberta Health Services, Virtual Health | CIFAR | Alberta | |||
| Detecting and Monitoring Pneumonia in COVID-19 Patients Using Machine Learning and Ultrasound Imaging | Data Science | Punithakumar, Kumaradevan; Greiner, Russell; Jaremko, Jacob; Meuser-Herr, Nathaniel; Zonoobi, Dornoosh | University of Alberta, Amii, Upstate Health Care Centre, MEDO.ai | CIFAR | Alberta | |||
| AI-Driven Identification and Validation of Drug Repurposing Candidates to Treat COVID-19 | Data Science | Julien, Jean-Philippe; Antonescu, Costin | Univeristy of Toronto, Ryerson University, Cyclica Inc., Phoenox Pharma | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| Preventing COVID-19 Infection in Families: The COVID-19 Child and Family Study | Data Science | Maguire, Jonathon; Goldenberg, Ana; Ghassemi, Marzyeh; Birken, Catherine; Jüni, Peter; Thorpe, Kevin; Keown-Stoneman, Charles; Aglipay, Mary | SickKids, Vector Institute, University of Toronto, St. Michael's Hospital, Sunnybrook | CIFAR | Ontario | |||
| Tracking Mental Health During the Coronavirus Pandemic | Data Science | Fyshe, Alona; Lizotte, Daniel; Chunara, Rumi | Amii, University of Alberta, Western University, New York University | CIFAR | Alberta, Ontario, U.S. | |||
| Planning as Inference in Epidemiological Dynamics Models | Data Science | Wood, Frank; Bloem-Reddy, Benjamin; Bouchard, Alexandre; Campbell, Trevor | Mila, University of British Columbia | CIFAR | British Columbia, Québec | |||
| COVID-19: Improving the Evidence to Treat an Emerging Infection Through Observational Studies and a Randomized Trial | Clinical Trials | Srinivas Murthy; Alex Wong | University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, CIHR | British Columbia, Saskatchewan | We are proposing a national observational study of hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19, with an embedded randomized clinical trial of an antiviral agent. The randomized clinical trial will be with global collaborators to make sure that Canadian patients inform the world, and vice versa, about how to best treat this new disease. Alongside this, we will conduct surveys of clinicians, researchers, and the public about how they understand this new outbreak, how they feel about participating in research during a major outbreak, and what should be done differently; all of which will inform our clinical studies. Finally, we have been asked by the WHO to conduct a formal guideline for the management of COVID-19, which we will perform as data begins to emerge from the clinical trials that are ongoing. All of these proposals, put together, create a suite of approaches to better understanding and managing a new infection. | ||
| Learning in a Time of Crisis: Creating a Canadian COVID-19 Registry | Digital Solutions | Corinne Hohl | University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, Genome BC | British Columbia, Saskatchewan | Evidence-informed decision-making is crucial to ensure optimal care delivery and resource allocation in EDs as treatment decisions are often made early (e.g., on intubation) or in vulnerable individuals (e.g., homeless). In China and Italy, 80% of patients evaluated for COVID-19 were discharged from the ED. Our goal is to develop a national registry of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients who present to Emergency Departments (ED) across Canada. This study has the potential to have a significant impact on resource allocation and planning by characterizing the burden, prognosis and resource utilization of ED patients evaluated for COVID-19, including for vulnerable populations. We anticipate that this study will have a significant impact on clinical decision-making by identifying early (ED) risk factors and treatments (e.g., oxygen delivery mode, ventilation strategy) associated poor outcomes and for vulnerable populations. By developing clinical decision instruments, we will help ED clinicians ensure optimal early clinical decision-making and rationalize resources. | Phil Davis | |
| Understanding and Managing COVID Stress Syndrome | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Gordon Asmundson | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 is having a significant mental health impact globally. Findings from our survey of a large sample of residents of Canada and the United States indicate that about one quarter, totalling many millions, are significantly impacted by the mental health challenges of COVID-19. We are developing an online assessment system to educate the public about the mental health impacts of COVID-19 and help individuals identify the best methods for managing their pandemic-related distress. This online assessment system will assist in mitigating the mental health impacts of COVID-19 as well as potential future waves of COVID-19 infection and other viral outbreaks. | ||
| Virtual Primary Health Care Delivery in Saskatchewan during the COVID-19 Pandemic | Digital Solutions | Angela Baerwald | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a significant impact on the health of Saskatchewan residents. Virtual care has been widely adopted to reduce exposures. We are in the midst of conducting a Quality Improvement project to evaluate the utility, practicality, and safety of virtual primary care. The next step is to mobilize the knowledge acquired to patients, providers, educators, trainees, governance and the public. Timely sharing of this information will inform the public of risks versus benefits of virtual care and guide administrative decisions regarding the use of safe and effective virtual care during the pandemic and beyond. | ||
| Translating ‘Protecting Our Home Fires Strategy’ Fact Sheets | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Bourassa, Carrie | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Morning Star Lodge developed two fact sheets in response to COVID-19 (Protecting Our Home Fires; COVID-19 Fact Sheet for Indigenous Communities), based on existing health research. The fact sheets have been requested and distributed across health networks nationally and internationally to support a rapid response to COVID-19. To facilitate the sharing, use, and integration of this knowledge, requests have been received by various communities to translate the fact sheets into 8 other languages to date. Translation will provide a model for culturally-informed decision making while increasing the public’s knowledge of COVID-19 and its related effects on the four health quadrants. | ||
| Long-term Care Nutrition COVID-19 Knowledge and Practice Sharing Network | Nutrition/Food | Cammer, Allison | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | We propose a formal knowledge and practice sharing network made up of researchers and registered dietitians (RDs) working in the long-term care (LTC) settings of Saskatchewan. This network will coordinate RD practitioners to facilitate sharing of key information, resources, and evidence-based practices to support resident and family-centered nutrition care during the COVID-19 pandemic. This coordinated effort will allow for rapid communication and uptake of innovations that support care. The network will span both SHA’s public and affiliate LTC homes in all areas of the province and will work to create safe, nourishing experiences for the residents and staff of LTC. | ||
| BridgePoint Mental Health RecoverED Text Line | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Chabot, Carla | BridgePoint Center for Eating Disorders | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | During the COVID19 pandemic, many individuals across Saskatchewan are experiencing collective trauma with an impact on their mental health. BridgePoint has created a texting program called "BridgePoint RecoverED" that delivers daily supportive text messages to subscribers’ mobile phones. Through a set of daily messages, people receive advice and encouragement that helps develop healthy personal coping skills and resiliency. For approximately 5 cents per day per user, this program is a cost-effective service that increases the capacity of existing mental health supports, especially for those in self-isolation who can’t access face-to-face services, as well as those in remote locations. | ||
| COVID-19 Basics/Diagnosis/Treatment and Related Research/Innovations in Saskatchewan | Diagnostics | Chen, Xiongbiao (Daniel) | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious threat to human health and safety worldwide. As a rapid response, this project aims to collect and mobilize existing knowledge/information on (1) COVID-19 basics, diagnosis, and treatment and (2) COVID-19-related research and innovations, particularly highlighting work in Saskatchewan. The collected knowledge/information will be presented in audio-visual and written formats, and then be delivered and mobilized among the public (both children and adults) and Saskatchewan knowledge users (including health professionals, government and health authorities, industries, researchers, and students), equipping them with knowledge and confidence to better fight COVID-19 and foster further collaborations. | ||
| Rapid Social Media Dissemination of Evidence-Based Self-Care, Wellness, & Coping Resources for Health Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Cummings, Jorden | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | With COVID-19 health care workers are facing workplace stress and burden in a manner not known in most of our lifetimes. There has never been a greater need for access to self-care, wellness, and coping resources for this population. Fortunately, evidence-based principles in all 3 exist. However, they are often disseminated in burdensome ways (e.g., entire continuing education courses) that are not currently appropriate for a workforce already stretched thin. This project will use social media to disseminate these principles in brief, easy to follow infobites, as well as connect and support health workers around this common cause. | ||
| Connecting Amidst COVID-19: A Role for USask Therapy Dogs | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Dell, Colleen | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic involving animals are trending on-line. Companion dogs, like Pluto the schnauzer, are sharing tips on healthy social isolation. People are using social media to find connection with others, including therapy dogs. Our team’s on-line activity is designed for USask students to continue to connect and receive comfort and support from St. John Ambulance therapy dogs in the absence of on-campus visits, as well as gain credible information on mental health self-care tips during a pandemic. Therapy dog events will be held on-line for USask students and the greater Saskatchewan community – tune in to connect! | ||
| Maintaining neuro-'connectivity': a virtual approach | Digital Solutions | Donkers, Sarah | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | “Neuro net-wheeling: Active and connected. A virtual program tailored to people with neurological conditions for physiotherapy-guided exercise and social-connection during COVID-19. The doors to your local group may be closed, but we are open for active connection.” Research shows that being physically active and socially connected are especially important in neurological conditions. Benefits include decreased rate of disease progression, prevention of co-morbidities, and improved quality of life. This initiative will share knowledge on evidence-based health promoting behaviours and support social-connectedness in this time of physical distancing - applicable to more than 7000 individuals living with MS, PD and SCI in Saskatchewan. | ||
| Supporting Saskatchewan Healthcare Professionals Navigating Drug Shortages During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Clinical Care | Evans, Charity | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Pharmacists are confronted with the same challenges as all front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but are also facing two unique challenges: unprecedented drug shortages, and a role expansion to provide therapeutics substitution in anticipation of limited physician resources. Neither of these would be easy to navigate in a normal practice environment and are further complicated by the current COVID-19 situation. medSask is a medication information service that supports appropriate prescribing and medication safety by providing accurate, evidence-based information (https://medsask.usask.ca/index.php). This proposal is to temporarily increase medSask capacity to help support pharmacists and other prescribers during the COVID-19 crisis. | ||
| A COVID-19 Evidence Support Repository: an innovative approach to knowledge mobilization | Digital Solutions | Groot, Charity | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The pandemic of novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) was announced by WHO on March 11, 2020. When the province of Saskatchewan declared a state of emergency, it became important to communicate rapidly and translate the latest knowledge to make informed decisions. We propose to maintain a continuously updated source of COVID-19 information. Our intention is to have this information for use by administrators, clinicians and policy makers. The long-term goal for this evidence repository will be to enable researchers to expand initial searches to translate findings on relevant COVID-19 questions to multiple audiences. | ||
| Community-based Organization Capacity Effectiveness and Response to COVID-19 in Saskatoon | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Hanson, Lori | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | SHRF funding will enhance integrated knowledge sharing in the Saskatoon COVID 19 Community Response – Vulnerable Sector Strategy among 120 community-based organizations (CBOs) working to provide services in Saskatoon at two inner city service HUBs. Current minimal funding from the USASK DSA is supporting data analysis and real-time knowledge sharing for prompt procurement of resources (financial, human, information) needed to provide services to marginalized populations at the HUBs. SHRF funding will be used 1) to adapt that information for use by service users, the Emergency Measure Network and the general public 2) to provide a monitoring and evaluation mechanism. | ||
| Knowledge Mobilization Tool to Promote, Protect and Support Breastfeeding during COVID-19 | Digital Solutions | Hirani, Shela | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Breastmilk is essential for the growth and development of young children. Considering its benefits, breastfeeding is recommended at all times for young children, especially during crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this knowledge mobilization project is to develop and disseminate an animated video on "Breastfeeding during COVID-19". This video will provide need-based information to breastfeeding mothers who may lack breastfeeding support and access to information during the current state of emergency and self-isolation. This activity will also clarify misconceptions surrounding breastfeeding during COVID-19 and will raise public awareness on safe infant feeding practices during this pandemic. | ||
| The experience of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan: The knowledge translation plan | Digital Solutions | Hubbard Murdoch, Natasha | Saskatchewan Polytechnic | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | As part of a research program on the experience of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan, we have collected, and continue to seek, data from nurses, paramedics, police, nursing educators in clinical, seniors isolated because of #StayAtHome and nursing students. To date, we have collected data from approximately 300 individuals. This project will share the findings with the professionals, citizens, and students who would find the information valuable for adapting in an unprecedented time. This first stage of knowledge sharing, over the next six months, delivers the pre-pandemic Saskatchewan experience and response. The next stage will be future assessment for post-pandemic experiences. | ||
| Establishing a patient-oriented research network to support knowledge mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic | Digital Solutions | Hunter, Paulette | St. Thomas More College | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | We have created a network of residents, family members, clinicians, and researchers to respond to the needs of the LTC sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The perspectives we contribute represent out members’ past, present, and future engagement in supporting quality of care in LTC. This network has been integrated into the Saskatchewan Health Authority COVID-19 response planning. Our work will help to ensure that COVID-19 response planning for the LTC sector attends to resident, family, and clinician voices and that planned actions are feasible and relevant to resident- and family- centered care. | ||
| Community Vital Information Delivery for Read Saskatoon knowledge users | Digital Solutions | LaBrash, Joanne | READ Saskatoon | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | We need your support during this unstable time to reach out to our literacy learners re: COVID-19 to: a) ensure that accurate and current COVID-19 information has been received in a format that those experiencing literacy challenges can understand (e.g. plain language, phone call for those who may not be connected to social media) b) identify ways to address literacy barriers to service and information for low literacy learners during times of community crisis in future (how best to get the needed health and literacy supports and information to our knowledge users) | ||
| A social media campaign to enhance food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan | Digital Solutions | Lieffers, Jessica | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 has resulted in food security concerns as businesses close, unemployment skyrockets, and social distancing measures make procuring food harder. The goal of this project is to share strategies used by Saskatchewan residents to cope with food security challenges during COVID-19 using social media. Through Eat Well Saskatchewan (EWS) social media accounts, Saskatchewan residents will be encouraged to submit stories on this topic. These stories along with related educational content will be shared on EWS social media accounts by our dietitian. This campaign is designed to help Saskatchewan residents become more resilient when faced with COVID-19-related food security challenges. | ||
| 360 Degree Immersive COVID Training for Paramedics | Digital Solutions | Messer-Lepage, Jacqueline | Saskatchewan College of Paramedics | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Paramedics are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing care to patients that may be infected with COVID-19 presents specific challenges because of the possibility of airborne transmission of the virus. Special precautions need to be taken to ensure the safety of both the patients and healthcare providers. The Saskatchewan College of Paramedics (SCoP) and Luxsonic Technologies Inc (Luxsonic) are proposing the creation of two immersive medical education videos, related to the safe care of COVID-19 patients. These include the proper donning and doffing of personal protective equipment and safe intubation of a patient. These videos will be made freely available to paramedics in Saskatchewan and will provide important knowledge needed to keep both patients and healthcare providers safe. | ||
| Dissemination of Virtual Connection Information and Resources for Older Adults in the Era of COVID-19 | Digital Solutions | O'Connell, Megan | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The necessary physical distancing due to COVID-19 has reduced many older adult’s social connections. As a group older adults are a group at risk of social isolation, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently published articles on COVID-19 raised concerns about social disconnection and the impact on mental health and called for use of technologies to help reduce social isolation in the times of physical distancing. Our currently funded work can reduce social isolation with use of technology, and we need help mobilizing this knowledge to reduce health burden for SK older adults from COVID-19. | ||
| Staying Connected with Social Media During Social Distancing | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Pandey, Mamata | Saskatchewan Health Authority | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Language barriers and limited health literacy can limit newcomers’ access to, and utilization of preventative healthcare services. Employing social media and social networks, COVID-19 related information will be communicated to newcomers. This will enhance acceptability of, and participation in the national strategy implemented to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Language assisted, culturally responsive virtual workshops on COVID-19 related risks, prevention, social distancing and self-efficacy strategies will be disseminated among newcomers. Participants will be recruited from English language classes offered through Regina Immigrant Women Centre (RIWC). Effectiveness of this health promotion strategy will be evaluated through data collected from surveys and interviews. | ||
| The Impact of COVID-19 Knowledge Support on Rural and Remote Saskatchewan Nurses’ Mental Health | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Pavloff, Michelle; Labrecque, Mary Ellen | Saskatchewan Polytechnic, University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The goal of the proposed activity is to provide support to rural/remote nurses in Saskatchewan by meeting their personal and communities’ knowledge needs. Using online asynchronous discussion groups, nurses will be provided with the opportunity to request information for themselves or their communities. Through this activity, the research team will monitor the discussion groups daily and seek out the existing health research knowledge to support the nurses. Through provision of evidence informed knowledge sharing, rural/remote Saskatchewan nurses will be empowered to make informed decisions for their practice and communities. | ||
| A Distance Access to Prevention, Treatment and Response (ADAPT-R): An agile approach to COVID-19 | Digital Solutions | Skinner, Stuart | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely limited as the current health system is ineffective in meeting the unique needs of Indigenous peoples, especially on-reserve and in geographically isolated areas. Our aim is to work in partnership to co-create enabling in-community care environments to share knowledge and data to minimize the overall incidence of COVID-19 in partner communities and at-risk sub-populations (i.e., immune compromised; co-morbidities; elderly). Providing integrated, collaborative, multidisciplinary care in a virtual and in-community care (VCC) environment, the Wellness Wheel team is well-equipped and well-positioned to connect to a responsive care network that can be replicated. | ||
| Creating a Digital Connections Hub to Support Children in Care in Saskatchewan During COVID-19 and Beyond | Digital Solutions | Reid, Nathalie; Milne, Lise | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 has been especially challenging for highly vulnerable children in out-of-home care in Saskatchewan, whose past trauma is likely to be reactivated during this stressful period. To ensure service providers have the knowledge and resources to meet their complex health, social, psychological, educational, and environmental needs, this project will draw on a socio-ecological scan of existing and emerging research to establish a dynamic Digital Connections Hub through the University of Regina Child Trauma Research Centre (CTRC) to facilitate the mobilization of these resources to relevant stakeholders, including caregivers. | ||
| Coping with COVID-19 Pandemic: Information for Arabic-Speaking Communities, particularly for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, in Saskatchewan | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Vatanparast, Hassanali | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | We will develop an infographic style Arabic language resource containing COVID-19-specific information for our intended audience of recently settled Arabic-speaking individuals with limited English proficiency. Key health and safety messages from provincial, federal, and international sources will be summarized and translated into Arabic, providing information on how to live, cope, and protect themselves and the community from COVID-19. The Saskatoon Open Door Society will facilitate dissemination, using our combined networks in the settlement sector and relevant stakeholders. Having accurate and understandable COVID-19 information available to this community will help to safeguard the health and well-being of Saskatchewan residents. | ||
| Evidence to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Community-Based Dementia Care in Nova Scotia | Dr. Katie Aubrecht | St. Francis Xavier University | Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition | Nova Scotia | This study will contribute to, clarify, and enhance the best evidence-in-the-moment about programs and supports for vulnerable older adults living with dementia and their caregivers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. | Dr. Marilyn Macdonald, Dr. Janice Keefe, Dr. Christine Kelly, Dr. Elaine Moody, Dr. Barbara Hamilton-Hinch, Dr. Meaghan Sim, Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, Dr. Kristin Hadfield, Dr. Maria Pertl, Dr. Jacqueline Gahagan, Dr. Rachel Herron, Ms. Bernadette Rock, Sacha Nadeau, Dr. Susan Hardie | Alzheimer Society Nova Scotia; Alzheimer Society Ireland; Eviance; V.O.N. Nova Scotia | |
| 3 minute health care worker survey (Saskatchewan) | Sean Tucker | University of Regina | Scholar funding | Saskatchewan | None | |||
| Knowledge Mobilization Tool to Promote, Protect and Support Breastfeeding during COVID-19 | Shela Hirani | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Breastmilk is essential for the growth and development of young children. Considering its benefits, breastfeeding is recommended at all times for young children, especially during crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this knowledge mobilization project is to develop and disseminate an animated video on "Breastfeeding during COVID-19". This video will provide need-based information to breastfeeding mothers who may lack breastfeeding support and access to information during the current state of emergency and self-isolation. This activity will also clarify misconceptions surrounding breastfeeding during COVID-19 and will raise public awareness on safe infant feeding practices during this pandemic. | Amanda Lanoway | United Way Regina | |
| Computational modeling and simulation of municipal waste generation and risk assessment during COVID-19 | Kelvin Tsun Wai Ng | University of Regina | NSERC Alliance | Saskatchewan | A deviation in the production of municipal solid waste has been observed in the City of Regina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic began, and during the time control measures were put into place by the City and the Government of Saskatchewan. The change in waste generation rates could begin to impact the daily operation of the City's municipal waste collection and disposal service, as well as the safety of the solid waste collections and operations staff. Proper waste collection and disposal is vital to health and safety of the residents at any time, let alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our municipal partner states that the elevated waste quantities has slowly begun to impact the revenue stream in the past few weeks. The goals of the project are to (i) conduct temporal analysis of municipal waste generation before and during the outbreak, and (ii) develop various scenarios and generate different forecast models for waste generation during and after the outbreak. Accurate waste data forecast helps the city to better manage its budgetary resources and plans their collection and disposal services accordingly. The proposed models will also be used to estimate the demand of the sanitation workers' personal protective wears. It is believed that the said simulation models will be useful to other cities and towns of similar socio-economic conditions as Regina. No tool is currently available to forecast waste generation during and after a pandemic, and we would like to work with City of Regina team to fill the gap in literature. The proposed models will be of great benefit to the City in maintaining its leadership in sustainable waste management and evidence-based waste policy. It is also of interest to the City to assist in the growth of this market segment, both within Canada and abroad. | Golam Kabir | ||
| Towards Play at Home | Whitney Blaisdell | University of Regina | Community Research Unit | Saskatchewan | The COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of society. Through the loss of access to designated playspaces, public libraries, family centres, and the ability to gather socially there will certainly be a lasting impact on play, which is incredibly important to the development of human beings and their overall health. Many families are facing new stresses and challenges possibly including balancing work, play, rest, and family relationships all in one space. This study will begin with an exploration of the impact of COVID-19 on play, and will evolve into the co-construction of resources and materials to support play at home. The Regina Early Learning Centre will be using findings from the study to inform how their organization can continue to support families to play in and around their homes. | The Regina Early Learning Centre | ||
| A Distance Access to Prevention, Treatment, and Response (ADAPT-R): An agile approach to COVID-19 | Stuart Skinner | University of Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely limited, as current mainstream health programs are ineffective in meeting the unique needs of Indigenous peoples, especially for on-reserve and geographically isolated areas. Our objective is to co-create and connect socially, culturally, and enabling in-community care environments which will minimize the overall incidence of COVID-19 in targeted First Nations (FN) communities and at-risk sub-populations (i.e., immune compromised; co-morbidities; elderly). By providing integrated, collaborative, multidisciplinary care in a blended virtual and in-community care (VCC) environment, the Wellness Wheel team is well-equipped and well-positioned to build a care network that is responsive and can be replicated. | JoLee Sasakamoose | ||
| Establishing a Virtual Care Clinic for COVID-19 Screening and Treatment in First Nation Communities in Saskatchewan | JoLee Sasakamoose | University of Regina | Community Partnership Grant, First Nations and Métis Health Research Network | Saskatchewan | This funding source will provide the infrastructure for the virtual care clinics and they willbe utilized for engagement. We will expand the Peer Health Advocacy and Research Wellness Network (PHArWN) that was a community-driven research response focused on health advocacy with FN people who have lived experience with HIV, HCV, or STBBIs and will extend to include diabetes, mental health and addictions, COVID-19 and traditional wellness. Peer health navigation is a promising solution to improving access to culturally responsive prevention, diagnosis and integration of care. We will launch the PHAWN and examine the process of the local adoption of a Peer Health Advocacy network as a virtually supported, culturally-responsive model (CRM) of care in the FN partner communities. Recognizing that we are in a new, COVID-19 era, we must build an integrated, collaborative, virtual clinic to assist FN CCHTs in disease screening, treatment and intervention clinics (VCC) within the FN partner communities. | Stuart Skinner, Jarol Boan | ||
| Nutrition Transition: Preventing, Reversing, and curing diabetes in partnership with indigenous communities | Stuart Skinner | University of Saskatchewan | Community Partnership Grant, First Nations and Métis Health Research Network | Saskatchewan | The aim is to work in partnership with five Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan for knowledge sharing between Western clinicians and traditional medicinal people toward the prevention, reversal, and cure of diabetes and COVID prevention. Traditional medicine and Knowledge Keepers will work with nurses, physicians, diabetologist to develop a comprehensive diabetic prevention program for implementation and Elders will work toward supporting immune system development for COVID-9 prevention. The Knowledge Keepers will council and inform band members of the work and will drive the program to deliver and adhere to traditional lifestyles and diets, in partnership with Western medical approaches. | JoLee Sasakamoose | ||
| The role of psychological factors in the spreading of disease, discrimination, and distress | Gordon Asmundson | University of Regina | CIHR | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 arose in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and has rapidly spread throughoutChina and other parts of the world, and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. For bothepidemics and pandemics, psychological factors play a major role in the spreading andcontainment of infection (e.g., nonadherence with hygiene guidelines, social distancing) and in societally disruptive behavior (e.g., infection-related xenophobia, excessive fear and worry,overuse of healthcare resources); as such, psychological factors have important public health significance. We are conducting a series of studies, funded by CIHR, with the end goal of developing a rapid assessment system (assessment battery and online delivery platform) that can be used to assess, for any pandemic or major epidemic, infection-related excessive anxiety and xenophobia, and risk factors for these problems. To achieve this end goal, we are conducting a web-based longitudinal self-report survey with a specific focus on COVID-19 using population-representative samples from Canada and the United States. Wave 1 data collection occurred between March 21 and April 1 and comprises a sample of 6868 participants. We are in the process of developing and validating measures of COVID-19-related anxiety and xenophobia and using these scales to identify the correlates of these constructs, which can then be used to identify their downstream impacts. Data for Waves 2 and 3 will be collected one month and three months following the completion of Wave 1. Once the risk factors are identified, we plan to test interventions to reduce the risk factors, such as online treatments and online public health educational materials. The resulting assessment system will then be used to (a) monitor the psychological impact (as a public health problem) of the pandemic or epidemic, (b) identify people in need of psychological services, and (c) implement interventions for reducing infection-related xenophobia and excessive anxiety. | Steven Taylor | University of British Columbia | |
| Understanding and managing COVID Stress Syndrome | Gordon Asmundson | University of Regina | SHRF | Saskatchewan | N/A | Steve Taylor | University of British Columbia | |
| Computational modeling and simulation of municipal waste generation and risk assessment during COVID-19 | Kelvin Tsun Wai Ng | University of Regina | NSERC Alliance Grant | Saskatchewan | A deviation in the production of municipal solid waste has been observed in the City of Regina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic began, and during the time control measures were put into place by the City and the Government of Saskatchewan. The change in waste generation rates could begin to impact the daily operation of the City's municipal waste collection and disposal service, as well as the safety of the solid waste collections and operations staff. Proper waste collection and disposal is vital to health and safety of the residents at any time, let alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our municipal partner states that the elevated waste quantities has slowly begun to impact the revenue stream in the past few weeks. The goals of the project are to (i) conduct temporal analysis of municipal waste generation before and during the outbreak, and (ii) develop various scenarios and generate different forecast models for waste generation during and after the outbreak. Accurate waste data forecast helps the city to bettermanage its budgetary resources and plans their collection and disposal services accordingly. The proposed models will also be used to estimate the demand of the sanitation workers' personal protective wears. It is believed that the said simulation models will be useful to other cities and towns of similar socio-economic conditions as Regina. No tool is currently available to forecast waste generation during and after a pandemic, and we would like to work with City of Regina team to fill the gap in literature. The proposed models will be of great benefit to the City in maintaining its leadership in sustainable waste management and evidence-based waste policy. It is also of interest to the City to assist in the growth of this market segment, both within Canada and abroad. | Golam Kabir | ||
| Protecting Those Who Protect Us: An evaluation and synthesis of resources deployed to support firefighter mental health during COVID-19 | Kathryn Sinden | Lakehead University | Canadian Insitutes for Health Research | Ontario | Firefighters as front-line emergency response personnel during COVID-19 are often “first-on-scene” during public emergency calls and are required to provide public protection services that increase their exposure to transferable diseases including COVID-19. In addition to transferable disease exposure, firefighters are also exposed to a confluence of factors that increase their risk for mental illness including post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI), depression, difficulties with alcohol, and chronic fatigue. Events associated with heightened injury/illness risk (i.e., SARS, post-911) are associated with adverse impacts on individual mental health. Exposure to inherent risk factors linked to mental illness and PTSI compounded with potential exposure to COVID-19 has unknown impacts on first responders’ physical and mental health. Firefighters have been provided various resources by their professional associations towards preventing COVID-19 illness exposure, however, less clear are implementation and best-evidence strategies to assist firefighters with exposure to cumulative mental health trauma associated with working in a pandemic environment. Consequently, the project objective is to conduct synthesis and evaluation of various knowledge sources (academic and non-academic) that are available and/or have been communicated to firefighters to assist with mental health management during COVID-19. | Regan BolducJoy MacDemid | ||
| Detection of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 in Children and Adults and Transmission Dynamics | Mohamed Eltorki | McMaster University | Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization | Ontario | Children and adults may be asymptomatically colonized with SARS-CoV-2. As community transmission increases it becomes increasingly important to identify, quantifyand track asymptomatic colonization and to understand transmission dynamics and the risk to family members and healthcare providers. We will carry out asurveillance program and a prospective cohort study from the Emergency Department (ED) at McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) by collecting up to 20 daily oralswabs for 100 days from asymptomatic children and their adult caregivers, which we will test for SARS-CoV-2. Household member symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 status willbe tracked. Information will be shared with policy and decision makers, which will inform policies and the risk posed by asymptomatic children to household contactsand healthcare providers. This will be a collaborative project with Hamilton Public Health Services, St Joseph’s Healthcare state-of-the-art research virology laboratoryand Alberta Children’s Hospital ED funded-surveillance program in Calgary, Alberta. | Jeff Pernica, Douglas Sider, Marek Smieja, Wael El-Dakhakhni and Stephen Freedman. | ||
| Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation | Timothy Caulfield | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The spread of health misinformation and disinformation are a serious threat to public health, including in the case of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Addressing the spread of COVID-19 misinformation involves identifying the misinformation in circulation, understanding the public impact, and designing and implementing evidence-based solutions to combat the harmful discourse. We propose conducting research into COVID-19 misinformation from multiple angles, developing effective communication and education tools, countering misinformation strategically, and providing policy recommendations to deal with COVID-19 and future outbreaks. Our interdisciplinary team of experts is led by Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair and Health Law Institute Research Director, who has been studying health and science misinformation for over 20 years. Our team will conduct systematic content analyses of traditional and online social media and empirical psychological research on how individuals respond to COVID-19 information. The objective is to assemble and execute a depth-of-analysis sufficient to enact positive outcomes for COVID-19 while establishing a blueprint for future misinformation events. The impact of this course of research will be significant, enabling the development of strategies to combat misinformation, stigma, and fear, to address their underlying drivers, and to improve public awareness, knowledge, and trust. We will meet the call's objectives of contributing to the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak, strengthening the understanding of its public impacts, and providing evidence to inform public health planning, decision making and response. Deploying our expertise and networks will maximize outputs, including to those in health care, government, popular media, and the public at large. | Gordon Pennycook, Cheryl Peters, Christen Rachul | ||
| Mucoadhesive micelles for delivery of drugs to the lung for the prophylactic treatment of COVID-19 | Heather Sheardown | McMaster University | NSERC COVID-19 Alliance | Ontario | The soaring death tolls from COVID-19 and the non-sustainability of the current economic situation pose an urgent worldwide need for an innovative solution to protect the public upon the anticipated restart of the economy. This project will focus on the development of a nasal spray formulation for post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19 which will help control the number of infections and, in turn, hasten the safe return of the public to normal life as well as being useful for control in the anticipated second wave. This proposal offers an innovative, straightforward and scalable prophylactic approach that can be self-administered by combining anti-viral drugs with proprietary and patented mucoadhesive micelles to provide a prolonged protective effect against infection. We will focus on the formulation of a nasal spray containing either hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) or a novel Angiopoietin-Tie2 inhibitor, which is proprietary to our partner Mannin Research Inc. Each drug will be incorporated into the patented mucoadhesive micelle delivery system from theSheardown lab. These formulations will act as a prophylactic, either preventing entry of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, into the respiratory tract or minimizing its impact and severity. They will then be developed for clinical use in partnership with Mannin. | Mannin Research Inc. | ||
| Translating Knowledge for Child Welfare Organizations Across the Prairies: Managing the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Children, Families, and Workers | Dr. LIse Milne and Dr. Nathalie Reid | University of Regina | Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Saskatchewan | Project Background and RationaleThe shifting circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have led to a rapid proliferation of research and resources. However, organizations responsible for meeting the urgent needs of children and families within the child welfare system typically have little time to find, evaluate, and translate knowledge to inform services for vulnerable children and families. These children are currently experiencing or have histories of abuse and neglect, which are linked to a multitude of behavioural and mental health problems. Often, caregivers have themselves experienced impacts of childhood maltreatment and other marginalizing conditions, such as poverty, substance abuse, and mental health problems. Exacerbating the situation, the conditions brought on by COVID-19 have increased the possibility of separation, isolation, and reduced social support, education, mental, and physical health services. Thus, children and families are at heightened risk for trauma reactivation and deteriorating family conditions. Workers are also challenged in their efforts to rapidly change practices to respond to increasing demands and the growing complexity of cases, to ensure the safety and well-being of children and families.Project ObjectivesIn close consultation with our existing and new partners, this project entails a rapid, month-long scan, knowledge synthesis and subsequent knowledge mobilization initiative related to child welfare and COVID-19. Knowledge users will include community organizations, government sectors, and other child-serving organizations from across the Canadian Prairies. Our synthesis will go beyond mainstream knowledge to include knowledge specific to Indigenous communities, which will be informed by consultations with Elders, as well as existing resources. Attention will be given to gender and sex in knowledge, in light of the compounding effect of COVID-19 on existing inequalities for females. We will pay particular attention to the Canadian Prairie context, where there is a gross overrepresentation of Indigenous families involved with child welfare, including children in out-of-home care. We will locate and translate content and resources for the large cohort of French-speaking individuals across the Prairies, who are often underserved. Finally, the rural Prairie geographies contribute to a lack of available services and increased isolation, especially during this period.Our project will highlight and produce accessible, updatable knowledge translation resources in order to meet the urgent needs of children, youth and families within the child welfare system, as well as service providers. We will use a variety of mobilization outlets including, but not limited to a Digital Connections Hub, which will be organized into policy, systems, and best practice responses to meet the mental, physical, and social health needs of children, families and workers. The project, which builds upon a current initiative involving children in care in Saskatchewan, will take place over the six months of CIHR funding, with the majority of knowledge acquisition, evaluation, and synthesis taking place within the first month to respond to immediate and urgent needs. ImpactSeeking their input, our project will support knowledge users from over 100 Prairie child-serving organizations employing thousands of staff. Given the diversity of individuals served within child welfare, we will respond to the wide range of needs of the following CIHR-identified priority populations: (1) Families, children and youth at risk of or experiencing maltreatment, family violence, mental health, substance use, and other issues; (2) Marginalized populations, including Indigenous families, and other diverse racial, cultural, linguistic, gender and sex groups, immigrants, refugees, and newcomers; and (3) Front-line workers and essential personnel engaged in directly responding to COVID-19. Using an established infrastructure, affiliation with several research centres, and a well-connected, experienced research team, this initiative will contribute significant benefits by providing a forum for access to synthesized, vetted research and resources to increase knowledge and support for child and family services providers. This will in turn improve the physical and mental health of vulnerable children and families during COVID-19, and beyond. | |||
| Creating a Digital Connections Hub to Support Children in Care in Saskatchewan During COVID-19 and Beyond | Dr. Nathalie Reid & Dr. Lise Milne | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 has been especially challenging for highly vulnerable children in out-of-home care in Saskatchewan, whose past trauma is likely to be reactivated during this stressful period. To ensure service providers have the knowledge and resources to meet their complex health, social, psychological, educational, and environmental needs, this project will draw on a socio-ecological scan of existing and emerging research to establish a dynamic Digital Connections Hub through the University of Regina Child Trauma Research Centre (CTRC) to facilitate the mobilization of these resources to relevant stakeholders, including caregivers. | |||
| Cannabis Use, Mental Health, and Social Media: The Influence of COVID-19 & Social Isolation | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Alfonso Abizaid; Kim Hellemans | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This study will investigate how the current COVID-19 pandemic has influenced cannabis use, stress, and mental health among university students. Taking advantage of an ongoing research study examining these behaviours and outcomes prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will create a new “post-COVID-19” participant pool that will allow the comparison in our measures before and after COVID-19. Findings from this study will highlight how COVID-19 is affecting cannabis use, stress, and various mental health indicators, and will help inform Carleton University’s strategy for creating and implementing mental health supports for students in the current COVID-19 climate. Results will also determine how social media platforms (e.g., Twitter) can serve as tools to predict vulnerability as reflected in posts within these platforms. In addition, we will outline the development and dissemination of targeted knowledge mobilization tools and resources to help maximize the impact of this research. | ||
| Semi-Autonomous Mobile Robotic Systems for Remote Assessments of COVID-19 Patients | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Mojtaba Ahmadi | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This collaborative research project between Carleton University’s Advanced Mechatronics Laboratory (ABL) and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) proposes robotic remote patient assessment to enable physical distancing, thus preventing disease outbreaks. The ABL’s expertise in medical robotics will be complemented by CHEO’s medical expertise in developing and testing this technology. Carleton’s existing robotic platform will be enhanced by additional medical instrumentation, advanced sensing and control tools, teleconferencing capability, and the required hardware and software infrastructure. Moreover, small-size UV-based disinfection apparatus will be considered for integration. This short-term project focuses on developing a proof-of-concept platform and conducting preliminary experiments at CHEO’s simulation environment. This will allow medical researchers with various expertise to conduct early research in preparation for more systematic clinical trials to be funded by further joint research applications. | Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) | |
| Social Learning in Economic Networks: Evidence from COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Mohamed Al Guindy | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | One of the negative consequences of COVID-19 has been the rapid and sudden decline in the stock market. This decline adds to existing economic, social, and psychological aspects of the pandemic. My research examines the learning process in economic social networks as viewed on social media: How do investors learn about COVID-19? And later, how do they make trades in response to this news? My project will also examine the propagation of this news to investors’ networks, identifying hubs and critical nodes in the networks. The research will apply network theory, textual analysis, and statistical techniques to a large dataset of 20 million financial tweets encompassing all publicly-listed North American firms. The goal of this work is two-fold: first, to learn about the proliferation of fear shocks in economic social networks; and second, to inform policy changes, particularly economic policy, in the recovery phase, and in the aftermath of COVID-19. | ||
| Identifying Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Changes on Academic and Social Experiences of Autistic University Students | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Natasha Artemeva | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic-related isolation measures have caused rapid changes in academic instructional delivery and social interactions. Similar changes and measures are known to have a long-lasting impact on the general population, with autistic individuals experiencing even greater difficulties than their nonautistic peers. Autistic individuals are now facing an unprecedented change in their daily routines. Given a growing enrollment of autistic students in universities worldwide, there is a need to develop an understanding of the effects of COVID-19 related to: a) rapid changes in the mode of academic instruction delivery, and b) unexpected isolation measures on this student population. By drawing on interviews with and a survey of autistic university students in Canada and internationally, this study will have direct implications on the mitigation of the academic and social challenges that the autistic student population experiences and, ultimately, on the retention of autistic students under rapidly changing conditions. | ||
| Online Assessment of Pandemic-Triggered Traumatic Stress: Towards Developing Assistive AI Technologies | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kenta Asakura; Amedeo D'Angiulli | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | In the face of uncertainty and disruption to normalcy, the COVID-19 pandemic is causing much stress in people’s lives. Due to physical distancing measures, mental health therapists have shifted to providing services using videoconferencing platforms (e.g., Zoom). While these platforms will likely remain a predominant service delivery model for the time being, little is known about whether and how therapists can accurately assess clients’ mental health when having to rely on their 2-D images on screen. To lay the groundwork for ultimately designing assistive AI technologies for online therapies, this interdisciplinary (social work and neuroscience) team will collaborate with Spreedix, a local AI start-up, and identify the level of severity and the types of stress responses to pandemic trauma presented online. We will collect data from therapists’ assessment of simulated clients (i.e., trained actors) on Spreedix’s mobile app and employ various AI algorithms to identify verbal and non-verbal stress signals. | Spreedix | |
| The Short-Term Economic Consequences of COVID-19: Exposure to Disease, Remote Work, and Government Response | Finance/Economics/Business | Louis-Philippe Beland | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project investigates the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on labour market outcomes in Canada and the United States. It investigates which workers, industries, and occupations are most affected by COVID-19. Using the monthly Canadian labour force survey and the current population survey in the U.S., we will answer the following questions: What are the short-term impacts of COVID-19 on employment and wages in Canada and the U.S.? Are the labour market effects larger for areas with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths? How largely, if at all, do the economic consequences vary across demographic groups? What are the effects for immigrants, self-employed workers, and for different occupations and industries? | ||
| Development of Peptide Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2: Human Protein Interaction | Fundamental Science | Kyle Biggar; James Green | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has led to catastrophic loss of life and the necessity to implement quarantines globally to contain the virus’s propagation. In order to reduce the transmission of the virus between people, three strategies can be used: wide-spread vaccination, wide-spread use of anti-viral medication, and social distancing (immediately applicable, though highly disruptive). Our work focuses on the second strategy by using algorithms developed here at Carleton University to study the novel coronavirus and to produce novel peptide-based anti-viral drugs designed to inhibit virus-human interactions. This research represents a collaboration between two bioinformatics labs: The Green Lab will focus on the computational goals, while the Biggar Lab will confirm and characterize novel-predicted targets using experimental techniques. By understanding and controlling the interactions that exist between the SARS-CoV-2 virus and humans, this research will identify new ways to disrupt the virus-host relationship. | CU's Biggar Lab; CU's Green Lab | |
| COVID and Seniors at Home: Addressing Diverse Needs, Supporting Seniors' Service Innovation | Aging/Elder Care | Susan Braedley; Renate Ysseldyk | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | How are seniors and their carers coping during the COVID-19 crisis? What are services for seniors doing to help? What promising practices are being deployed to ensure service delivery while also protecting the health of seniors, carers, and services staff? For seniors aging at home, services such as home care, day programs, and meal programs have become essential supports; yet COVID-19 pandemic measures have closed or restricted these services. Building on a research study with Ottawa’s seniors’ services, completed in June 2019, this project will follow up with research participants, including seniors, carers, and services, to address these urgent questions. The project will produce and share a timely portrait of how diverse seniors and carers in Ottawa are faring, identify promising practices in service delivery, and include analysis of how seniors’ services funding, staffing, and services models may support and/or restrain crisis response. | ||
| Canadian Autonomous Rapid Test Center (CUCART) | Digital Solutions | Scott Bucking | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The Community Design Lab (CDLAB) recently completed development of a rapidly deployable, autonomous, tiny home. An industry partner approached CDLAB with a request to adapt the design for use as a decentralized COVID-19 testing facility. The purpose of the proposed project is a pedestrian flow study of the modified design, to increase testing capacity by maximizing the number of patients processed per hour. The placement of key areas will be coordinated through an iterative approach, accommodating social distancing limits and occupant separation, as required. As governments reopen economies, the need for pre-screening populations will exceed projected test capacity. A rapidly deployable autonomous unit, or Centre for Unitary, Contained and Autonomous Rapid Testing (CUCART), with integrated equipment, could help meet this demand. In combination with an NSERC Alliance proposal for digital design of the facility, and support from an industry partner well-versed in medical testing, the CDLAB intends to develop and assess the CUCART. | "unnamed industry partner" | |
| Attending (to) Class: An Intersectional Study of COVID-19 Adaptation in Universities in Canada and Africa | Digital Solutions | Doris Buss; Blair Rutherford | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | With universities across the globe rapidly moving their curriculums online, this pilot study examines the gendered, socio-economic, racialized, and rural/urban contexts that shape access and participation in distance education for women and men students. Focused on one university in each of Canada, Kenya, and Sierra Leone, this project will examine access and use of the technology (phones, computers, internet) needed for distance education, and the differences in class, race, and rural/urban locations, alongside other obligations, including caring roles, that women and men students navigate when undertaking their studies. The four lead researchers, Professors Aisha Ibrahim (University of Sierra Leone), Sarah Kinyanjui (University of Nairobi), Blair Rutherford and Doris Buss (Carleton University), together with student researchers from each university, will conduct interviews and focus group discussions with students and university administrators at each institution. The resulting data on intersecting inequalities and student access to distance learning will inform ongoing COVID-19 responses. | Aisha Ibrahim; Sarah Kinyanjui | University of Sierra Leone; University of Nairobi |
| SARS-CoV-2-Host Interactions: Implications for Secondary Bacterial Co-infections | Fundamental Science | Edana Cassol; Joerg Overhage | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Respiratory viral infections – including human corona viruses – have been shown to predispose patients to bacterial co-infections, which can lead to increased disease severity and mortality. Up to 50% of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia have secondary bacterial infections, but it is unclear if these super infections contribute to disease. In this study, we will use in vitro and in vivo models to investigate if and how SARS-CoV-2 (causative agent of COVID-19) reprograms host immune responses to bacteria. We will also evaluate if this reprogramming drives excessive inflammation and increased lung destruction and damage. These studies will provide critical insights into the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to modulate the host immune responses and may identify new opportunities to inhibit inflammatory damage and prevent the development of secondary bacterial pneumonias in those most at risk. | ||
| Piece of Cake: Food Choices During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Melissa Chee; Hymie Anisman; Kim Matheson | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | COVID-19 has produced pronounced stress as we manage physical distancing or self-isolation. Feeling stressed leads some of us to crave comfort foods, which might serve as a way of coping, regardless of whether we are aware of it or not. When stress is chronic, the increased consumption of tasty comfort foods may lead to weight gain and even obesity. Inflammatory factors produced by fat cells, particularly around the belly, increase the risk for immune- and inflammatory-related diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. Notably, obesity and its comorbid diseases are serious risk factors for COVID-19 complications. This online research survey will gather data on the effects of stress, mood, and mental state on our food choices during the COVID-19 quarantine. This is concerning not only because of potential effects on the severity of COVID-19, but also because the ramifications for mental and physical health may persist during the post-pandemic period. | ||
| COVID-19 and Anti-Chinese Racism | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | Xiaobei Chen | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The upsurge of anti-Chinese, anti-Asian racism amid COVID-19 is a growing social crisis. The research question of this project is: How do Chinese Canadians from mainland China understand their experiences with racism associated with COVID-19 and consider possible actions pushing back racism? Its objectives are: 1) to examine how mainland Chinese Canadians make sense of the rising anti-Chinese racism and respond; 2) to develop sociological analyses that connect individual experiences and perspectives with societal and historical conditions; 3) to mobilize knowledge to contribute to the efforts of the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) to offer public education programs; 4) to prepare a larger project proposal for funding from external sources. This qualitative study uses textual data, interview data, and auto-ethnographic accounts and is conducted by a researcher with extensive experience in relevant fields, linguistic competency for fieldwork, and ongoing community engagement. | Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) | |
| Reopening Retail: Architectural Strategies for Adapting Retail Environments to Physical Distancing Protocols | Finance/Economics/Business | Zachary Colbert | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This research will develop adaptive architectural design standards and recommendations to accommodate physical distancing measures in Ottawa retail environments that will protect public health while bolstering customer confidence. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 3 in every 10 Canadian workers are employed in trades or manufacturing. Of the trades, retail is the largest sector of the Canadian economy, employing approximately 2.7 million people. Research outcomes will contribute to developing architectural design standards and recommendations for retailers in Canada and internationally that safely incorporate physical distancing practices into their stores. | ||
| Mapping Indigenous Economic Venture Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis | Indigenous Research | Rick Colbourne | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Indigenous-led economic development initiatives are crucial to achieving greater prosperity for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The current COVID-19 crisis is threatening to disrupt Indigenous economies and negatively impact Indigenous peoples, communities, and individual health and socioeconomic well-being across Canada. The goals of this project are two-fold: 1) to develop new insights and understandings, through co-creation of knowledge; and 2) to explore and provide insights into the composition of Indigenous economic venture and development corporation responses that mitigate and address risks, issues, and challenges to community health and socioeconomic well-being presented by the COVID-19 crisis. Our expectation is that this research will stimulate further dialogue, innovation, and action on how Indigenous economic ventures, economic development corporations, and their non-Indigenous partners collaborate to practice resilience through adopting practical governance and risk mitigation strategies that address the unique challenges manifested by the COVID-19 crisis. | ||
| Longitudinal Monitoring of Lung Function in COVID-19-Induced Pneumonia | Clinical Care | Jeff Dawson; Andy Adler | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) rapidly and non-invasively provides graphical and quantitative lung function data. Knowing where air is in the lungs during the rapid deterioration of ventilatory capacity is necessary for understanding COVID-19-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We will use these funds for a longitudinal study (diagnosis to discharge) of 10 patients over the course of their stay in the hospital and/or ICU. We have two research objectives: 1) to obtain EIT data (imaging) to better understand the progressive changes in regional ventilation (pulmonary shunting) occurring in COVID-19 specific ARDS, and 2) to further develop and enhance existing software tools for the analysis of EIT data, to increase its accessibility and clinical usefulness. We will take advantage of our established collaborations with front-line physicians and nurses at The Ottawa Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute for data collection, allowing our team to work remotely toward our goals. | The Ottawa Hospital; The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) | |
| Experiencing COVID-19 Through Science and Technology: Adjusting, Adapting, Innovating | Social and Behavioural Sciences | David Dean | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project documents how people have adjusted their lives to the realities of home-bound living during COVID-19 through the lens of science and technology. This lens has become integral to our understanding of everyday experiences of COVID-19: How much are we relying on science and how are we depending on new and old technologies? How have people adjusted their expectations of daily life during their experience of social distancing, of lockdown, and of quarantine? What adaptations have they been forced to contemplate and put into effect? How have they needed to innovate in their use of technologies in everyday life? By creating an archive of changes in domestic and other home-based technologies, and generating content for future exhibitions (virtual/physical) associated with the Carleton Centre for Public History and Ingenium, our project will help individuals, families, communities, and institutions learn from this experience and prepare for future outbreaks and new pandemics. | Carleton Centre for Public History; Ingenium | |
| SARS CoV2 Aptamer Development for Surface Testing | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Maria C. DeRosa | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | COVID-19 testing demand is outstripping capacity and testing supplies are limited. Current virus detection methods require hours-to-days, as well as proper sample handling and storage for optimal performance. There is also an urgent need for surface testing methods for hospitals, homes, and workplaces. Ideally, these should not add to the clinical testing backlog by using the same scarce resources employed in diagnosis. Aptamers are short DNA or RNA sequences that can be used to capture a variety of molecular targets, including viruses, which could be employed for surface testing without depleting resources needed for clinical testing. We propose to leverage our expertise in aptamer discovery for viruses and our experience preparing aptamer-based detection tests on cloth and paper to develop a SARS CoV2 test strip or “wipe-test” that could be employed for surface testing with minimal training and equipment. | ||
| Toward Crowd-Sourced and Anonymous Contact Tracing | Digital Solutions | Babak Esfandiari | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project will develop a database of social events and gatherings attended by people potentially infected with COVID-19, in order to trace the spread of disease and focus testing on those most likely to be infected. Contact tracing has proven to be useful for reducing the spread of disease and could be instrumental in re-opening the economy. The database must be developed in a very short time frame so it can be presented to interested stakeholders — such as healthcare providers and software companies — as soon as possible and adopted for immediate use. Once the system is deemed useful and usable, future developments include the ability to automatically populate the database by hooking onto existing contact apps that will detect and identify large gatherings where contact has taken place, such as sporting events, concerts, and religious gatherings, as a means of preventing community spread. | ||
| Social Wearables – Crowdsourcing eHealth Technology | Digital Solutions | Paulo Fernando Rocha Garcia | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Wearables are now commonplace as monitoring devices for personal health information. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that we must move from a personal to a social approach to health. This social approach must be supported by adequate technology, beyond what is currently available. We believe wearable technology will play a key role in preventing future pandemics by crowdsourcing health information (likely through connections to our phones), thereby creating networks of contact that help in identifying and preventing contagion, and correlating personal health information to identify suspected infections, etc. For this to be realized, we must address privacy concerns at a fundamental level of wearable hardware and software, and design trusted wearable devices with the required level of computational power and communication, whilst maintaining lasting battery life. This project will research the technologies that support social wearables towards a social response to the COVID-19 pandemic. | ||
| Development of Anti-COVID-19 Peptide Drugs | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Ashkan Golshani | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | We plan to make directed peptides capable of interfering with the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. If successful, these peptides can be used to treat COVID-19. This is an important research endeavour as currently no cure or vaccines are available to combat SARS-CoV-2. We plan to use the principles of protein-protein interactions to design specific peptides that can bind to a region of viral protein S, known to be important for virus replication. This is a collaborative work with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). We plan to further test our peptides in a pseudoviral system that resembles SARS-CoV-2 infection. The continuation of this work will be to test the peptides in a mouse system. | The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI); University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) | |
| Risk, Resilience, and Recovery: A Path Forward for Canadian Charities in a Post-COVID-19 World | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Nathan Grasse; Susan Phillips | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The charitable sector is as important to Canada’s economy as the extractive or manufacturing industries, and Canadians rely on charities to provide essential services during the COVID-19 crisis. The loss of events, fundraising revenues, and volunteers has already put many charities near collapse, although a lack of data has prevented us from knowing what makes some charities vulnerable and others resilient. This project analyzes vulnerability and resilience across the charitable sector in two stages. First, it forms a base by studying recovery from previous crises using financial data. Second, through online discussions with charity and foundation leaders, it provides a deeper understanding of the emerging challenges they are facing, how they are adapting, and how philanthropic foundations can provide more effective supports. By widely communicating the findings promptly, the project will assist charities and foundations to be optimally adaptive in managing through and recovering from the crisis. | Paloma Raggo | Elizabeth Searing (University of Texas – Dallas), Dallas |
| The Psychological Consequences of Social Distancing Measures for Single People During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Cheryl Harasymchuk; Nassim Tabri | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has created widespread anxiety and stress and has rearranged people’s lifestyles. The psychological implications are profound, particularly for people that are single and living alone. The purpose of this study is to examine the consequences of social distancing measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic with a sample of single people living alone. In this project, our goal is to identify psychological factors among single people that help differentiate those who are more resilient (vs vulnerable) to pandemic-related stress and its consequences (e.g., loneliness, lower life satisfaction, poor coping such as substance use, gambling, binge eating, overworking). More specifically, we will examine the buffering roles of social support strategies (e.g., communicating with others to feel cared for, validated, and understood) and secure attachment style (comfort with intimacy and trusting others) in reducing potential negative consequences associated with the pandemic. | ||
| Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Canadian University Reddit Communities: A Text Mining and Visualization Approach | Digital Solutions | Mike Hine | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Canadian universities have over 1.4 million students, employ over 300,000 people, and are a $35B enterprise. The impact of COVID-19 on higher education has been immense and will be long-lasting. This project examines the impacts of COVID-19 on the most important university stakeholder: the student. It relies on text mining and network visualization techniques to explore the 20 most active Canadian university Reddit sites. Reddit provides real-time authentic student community response to the COVID crisis and is increasingly being used for studies of online communities. Results from this project will include an understanding of what COVID-related topics student communities are talking about during the COVID crisis; whether/how topics discussed changed through critical event periods experienced during the crisis; and whether/how student community topics are similar/different than what were experienced during a similar time frame in the previous non-COVID year. This project will have widespread impacts for educators, administrators, government legislators, academics, and students. | ||
| Pandemic Pedagogies: Using Writing as a Tool to Develop the Citizen Scholar | Social and Behavioural Sciences | David J. Hornsby | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | COVID-19 has forced universities around the world to move their learning online to ensure teaching and learning continue. This shift provides an opportune time to rethink pedagogical practices in the academy. Thus, as we shift to online learning at universities in three different socio-economic contexts (Durban, Johannesburg, and Ottawa), this study investigates how faculty members are enabled and constrained to implement evidence-informed pedagogy that effectively introduces their students to the tacit knowledge and communication practices in their disciplines. Students’ continuing struggles to employ these tacit practices, which will only be exacerbated in these new online learning contexts, will prevent them from gaining membership to their disciplinary communities and will also result in low rates of graduation. Guided by these findings, we will determine if and how faculty development practices, particularly in online teaching, can be implemented to ensure faculty are explicitly teaching their students how knowledge is constructed and communicated in their disciplines of study. | universities in Durban, Johannesburg, and Ottawa | |
| Surviving and Managing in a Post-COVID-19 World: Implications for International Business Activities of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) | Finance/Economics/Business | Diane Isabelle | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This research explores global disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on the international operations of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with an emphasis on global value chains and management post pandemic. Drawing from relevant academic literature and employing artificial intelligence-based modeling, the goal is to identify determinants of successful international activities, business model innovation, and integration of technology such as digitalization for an effective recovery. The research will also address effective policy responses globally and their applicability to Canadian international SMEs in selected industrial and service sectors of importance to Canada. The research will expand academic knowledge in the critical area of SMEs’ international activities post COVID-19, and generate future areas of research, as well as provide an extensive application of AI-based approaches to social sciences. The research outcomes will enhance business strategies and improve public policies to deal with COVID-19 impacts in the shorter and longer terms. | ||
| Border Protection for COVID-19 Through Symptom Analysis | Policy/Government | Chris Joslin | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that while Canada is capable of defending its borders against illegal immigration, smuggling, guns, and other nefarious unwanted elements, it is only able to deny entry to those carrying disease by almost completely shutting down borders (bar trade goods). And while Canadians are proud of their national health service, this same service faces tough challenges when dealing with pandemics such as COVID-19. Therefore, it is important for Canada to strengthen its borders to these viral agents and provide quarantine to carriers where necessary, to secure the health of its population while maintaining trade and tourist routes alike. This research program will deliver methods of monitoring the key health factors of people entering the country (whether returning or simply visiting) so that COVID-19, and future potential diseases, can be kept out of the country. | ||
| Racial Discrimination and the Well-Being of Asian Canadians in the COVID-19 Context | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | Dennis Kao | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Recent news has highlighted the increased incidences of racial discrimination in the COVID-19 context, specifically targeting Asian Canadians. The economic turmoil faced by millions of Canadians, high levels of uncertainty and anxiety, and the unfortunate framing of COVID-19 as “the Chinese virus” may all be contributing to the current environment of hostility towards Chinese Canadians, as well as towards individuals who “look Chinese.” Racial discrimination—both overt and subtle—has been shown to have adverse effects on one’s health and mental health; however, relatively limited research has focused on Asian Canadians. This study seeks to understand and build public awareness regarding the impact of racial discrimination among Asian Canadians in the COVID-19 context. An online survey will be broadly distributed to Asian Canadians across Ontario to solicit information about their recent experiences with discrimination, levels of vigilance, resilience and coping mechanisms, and health and well-being. | Kenta Asakura | |
| Developing a Macro Model of COVID-19 for Canada: Interaction of Monetary, Fiscal, and Health Policies | Finance/Economics/Business | Hashmat Khan | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | We will develop a unified framework integrating a social-distancing-augmented Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological model of COVID-19 and its evolution with a state-of-the-art macroeconomic model, thus overcoming a major modelling gap. This integrated model will study: (i) public health interventions to slow the spread of disease, (ii) sequentially restarting economic activity in different sectors, and (iii) the interaction between health, fiscal, and monetary policies. Our diverse and experienced international research team, involving two PhD students, is well poised to take on this challenge and develop a model that can be rapidly deployed for quantitative scenario-analyses for Canada using aggregate and provincial data, and to inform decision-making and planning at the Bank of Canada. A key innovation in our research is to introduce age-specific social distancing within a multi-sector economic model. This model will help determine “road maps” to economic recovery, and how the interaction among policy responses can support them. | ||
| Consumer Food Purchasing Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Irena Knezevic | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Our survey, titled “Consumer food purchasing behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic” will collect qualitative and quantitative data to gain insights on food access, food purchasing, and consumption behaviour, including the food-related perceptions and concerns of Ontario consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research will contribute to the call by food systems experts (concerned with reports of outbreaks in processing plants, and food dumping in the midst of this crisis) to urgently transition into a more reliable and resilient regional food system, especially since small and local producers, processors, and distributors are faring better, while large operations are having distribution problems. This research is part of a coordinated comparative regional research project with food scholars and civil society actors in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces to inform food systems planning and policy during and post crisis. | Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS), Kwantlen Polytechnic University, British Columbia; The Dalhousie University Food Policy Lab, Dalhousie University, Halifax; Mary Beckie (University of Alberta), Edmonton; Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE), Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo | |
| User Trust: The Key Issue in the Application of the Autonomous System Embedded with Ambient Intelligence for Protecting Elderly People | Digital Solutions | Vinod Kumar; Uma Kumar | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | COVID-19 has caused havoc on the elderly population; their number of deaths is staggering. An autonomous care system embedded with ambient intelligence can ensure independence for elderly people and increase cooperation, social interaction, and adaptation. However, the degree of innovation and the level of independence of any autonomous system vary significantly by the vendors’ strategy, design criteria, and, most importantly, consumers’ adaptability and behavioural attitudes. This study seeks to understand the level of trust elderly people must have to accept autonomous systems instead of human support, and how trust and personal characteristics can improve the intent to adopt autonomous systems. Through this empirical study of elderly people in Ontario and the structural equation modeling analysis, we will develop an understanding of how trust can be enhanced in these less-familiar living machine systems. This study will have significant implications on the design and understanding of the support requirements of future autonomous elderly care systems. | ||
| Airworthiness Effects of Decontamination Processes on Drone Aircraft | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Jeremy Laliberté | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | In this project, we will examine industry-accepted decontamination methods and chemicals used in the traditional manned aviation industry and assess their applicability, operational impact, and potential to degrade the airworthiness of large and small remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS or “drones”). The short-term goal is to identify and develop an acceptable decontamination process for these aircraft for immediate deployment while identifying long-term design modifications and improvements to simplify decontamination of future drone aircraft of all types. | ||
| Tracing COVID-19 Data | Digital Solutions | Tracey Lauriault | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | There is much official COVID-19 data reporting by federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous communities. As the pandemic evolves, and more information comes to light, there is a call to add data attributes about Indigenous, Black, and racialized groups, and the affected labour force, and to report where cases predominate. The pandemic has also revealed that foundational datasets are missing, such as a national list of elder care homes, maps of local health regions, and data about the digital divide. This project will embrace technological citizenship, adopt a critical data studies theoretical framework, and employ a data humanitarian approach to rapidly assess data shortfalls, identify standards, and support the building of infrastructure. This will involve training students, conducting rapid response research, developing a network of experts, learning by doing, and garnering a trans-disciplinary team of peer reviewers to assess results. The knowledge will be mobilized in open access blog posts, infographics, policy briefs, and scholarly publications. | ||
| Mathematical Modeling of the Spread of COVID-19 in Canada | Epidemiology/Modelling | Emmanuel Lorin | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project is devoted to the mathematical modeling of the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. The main objective is to develop a hierarchy of accurate epidemiological models, and a corresponding simulation code, for the space and time propagation of COVID-19 in Canada using: i) the most recent available data (infection, susceptibility, recovery rates, etc.), and ii) machine learning techniques to include the parameters in the mathematical models. We will explore different scenarios (quarantine, tracing, testing, border control…) and take into account different types of population by age and health condition. Ultimately, this tool is expected to guide public health decisions, based on rigorously derived models and simulations. | ||
| Staying Green vs. Staying Safe: Consumer Attitude Towards Sustainable Consumption During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Irene Lu; Ernest Kwan | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The acceptance of recycled or second-hand products is important for ecological sustainability. Recent findings show that Canadians have become increasingly concerned about the environment. Nevertheless, research also suggests that humans’ instinctual fear of contagion can make recycled or used products unappealing. This fear may be especially compelling for consumers grappling with a pandemic. We propose a study to examine Canadians’ attitude towards sustainable products during the COVID-19 pandemic. Past research has identified factors that can alleviate and aggravate a consumer’s fear of contamination. We examine the extent to which such factors continue to have an impact during a pandemic. We also examine the generalizability of this impact across four types of sustainable products. Our findings could help retailers adapt their current marketing strategies. Our study also offers guidance to policymakers and green marketers on how to promote conservationism and sustainability, while addressing a heightened sensitivity of contagion in Canadian society. | ||
| Assessment of Masks and Aerosol Characterization from Cough, Sneeze, Speech, and Breath | Public Health | Edgar Matida | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | COVID-19 can be spread by sneezing, coughing, and possibly even through normal conversation. The proposed research comprises numerical, in vitro, and in vivo fundamental studies of the characterization (size and velocity) of droplets and aerosols during sneezing, coughing, talking, and breathing as functions of time and distance from the source. An adjustable cough and sneeze aerosol generator will be created and used to test filtration levels of popular designs of homemade masks. During the in vivo portion of the work (planned for when the present pandemic has subsided and social distancing regulations have eased), plume visualization using high-speed shadowgraph imaging techniques will be performed to complement the simultaneous measurement of aerosol size and velocity using phase Doppler anemometry at determined distances from the airborne material source. Numerical simulations of aerosol dispersion, validated against the experimental data, will provide a complete spatial characterization of the plumes. | ||
| Habit Formation in Changing Circumstances | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Marina Milyavskaya; Rachel Burns | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | With the rise of COVID-19, a large proportion of the population has had to make changes to their daily routines, from work to social activities to health behaviours such as exercise. This affords a unique opportunity to examine contextual mechanisms of habit formation over time, and will allow researchers and public health officials to provide evidence-based advice on how people can maintain healthy habits (e.g., exercising, washing hands regularly) and reduce or avoid developing bad habits (e.g., snacking too much, touching face). Data from approximately 500 participants will be collected via monthly surveys over the course of 6 months. This will allow us to: 1) Examine the prevalence of trying to adapt new habitual behaviours and reducing unwanted behaviours; 2) Understand the nature of these behaviours; 3) Examine changes in the frequency and automaticity of these behaviours over time; and 4) Examine predictors of successful habit formation/reduction. | ||
| Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater to Minimize/Prevent Future Outbreaks | Epidemiology/Modelling | Banu Örmeci | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | SARS-CoV-2 is present in the guts of COVID-19 patients and shed with their stool. As a result, the virus is present in raw (untreated) sewage and recent studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be detected in sewage much earlier than the first confirmed case in a community. Thus, monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage provides an effective tool for early warning surveillance and understanding the prevalence of the disease in a community. Until a vaccine is found, COVID-19 will likely come back in waves and there is a need for noninvasive, effective, and easy-to-employ monitoring tools to effectively manage future outbreaks. This research will monitor the SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in raw sewage as an early warning surveillance tool and at wastewater treatment plants to investigate the presence, fate, and removal of the virus. | Richard Kibbee | |
| Expansion and Scaling of Electronic Health Services for Rural Communities: An International Analysis | Digital Solutions | Paul Peters | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, eHealth was promoted as a solution for equitable provision of rural health services. However, most eHealth programs did not live up to the promise over the long term. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the immediate and widespread expansion of eHealth services in Australia, Canada, and Sweden (as elsewhere). As the pandemic spread between countries, virtual visits shifted to the norm for many regions of the world, often in a matter of weeks or even days. Numerous reviews have highlighted barriers to effective implementation of eHealth, but the issues identified in these reviews have not yet been addressed, despite widespread adoption of eHealth as a primary mode of service. This project is concerned with scaling-up rapid rural eHealth expansion and building a framework to strengthen health and care systems in rural locations during and beyond the pandemic. This project is engaged with rural physicians, communities, and researchers. | ||
| Point-of-Care Sensor Device for Early Stage Detection of COVID-19 Using Isothermal DNA Amplification | Digital Solutions | Ravi Prakash | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global healthcare crisis which necessitates extensive, rigorous, and early stage screening of the virus. A significant challenge in monitoring community spread is that over 50% of carriers can be asymptomatic and still spread the infection. As a result, extensive testing at centralized laboratories would be challenging. Existing DNA and antibody biomarker-based COVID-19 tests have also been limited due to their complexity and dependence on benchtop instruments. There is a strong push towards designing rapid point-of-care (POC) nucleic acid test (NAT) systems to extract and amplify the viral RNA using improved DNA molecular probes to facilitate miniaturization and reduce screening time. Our interdisciplinary research team possesses expertise in POC NAT system design for influenza and arboviruses, and novel DNA biomarker discovery. We have initiated a sustainable partnership to significantly improve the existing sensor device design and incorporate novel isothermal DNA amplification primers for COVID-19 testing. | ||
| Automatic and Continuous Assessment of Blood Pressure Waveforms for Cardiac Health Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients | Clinical Care | Sreeraman Rajan; Yuu Ono | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | There is a need for non-invasive, inexpensive, disposable, automatic, continuous sensing of vital signs during the COVID-19 pandemic – both in hospitals and homes – due to the rapid deterioration of vital functions. This project will deliver a low-cost, continuous automatic sensing system for arterial functions, such as blood pressure waveforms, using a disposable ultrasonic sensor with machine-learning-based signal processing algorithms that can be used in hospitals and homes. Such a system is not currently available. The deliverables of this project will reduce the workload of the healthcare system, help health authorities to guide and manage better treatment plans, and provide home-care patients and caregivers with a tool to make better decisions regarding hospital visits. Furthermore, this system will improve safety for healthcare workers and for those in long-term care facilities. This system will have future use by helping in long-term monitoring of cardiac health beyond the pandemic and in emergency situations. | ||
| Public Health Enforcement, Social Justice, and the Uneven Geographies of COVID-19 Containment | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | Jennifer Ridgley | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project focuses on the social geography of pandemic management. Using a social justice lens, it will examine the effectiveness of municipal efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 through the regulation of public space, and the impact these efforts have had on marginalized communities and residents in Ottawa, Ontario. An in-depth case study of municipal pandemic management in Ottawa will help inform public health, policy, and community responses to COVID-19, and will serve as a pilot study to develop an effective methodology for comparative research in other cities. | ||
| Coronavirus, Sex Work, and Mutual Aid in Latin America | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Megan Rivers-Moore | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Sex workers in Latin America are some of the most precarious and vulnerable workers in a region already defined by high levels of informal labour. This project explores how they are experiencing and responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Paying attention to the ways that sex workers in Latin America have practiced mutual aid, and how their efforts to practice collective care have shifted during the current crisis, will provide a useful example of how marginalized groups respond to complex social problems. Centring the perspectives and knowledges of those most discounted, oppressed, and disempowered within current social relations, this research explores the ways Latin American sex workers’ mutual aid strategies have shifted during the coronavirus crisis, and aims to record and disseminate their practices because they hold key lessons that are useful to other marginalized groups in the global south and beyond. | ||
| Design and Performance Assessment of Fast-Built Hospitals with Modular Construction | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Vahid Sadeghian; Jeffrey Erochko | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Because of COVID-19, construction of fast-built temporary hospitals has gained significant attention. One effective solution for building such structures is to use modular construction with prefabricated components. However, currently there are not any specific design and construction guidelines for modular hospitals and the research in this area is limited. In the proposed project, a multi-disciplinary research team will systematically investigate the safety and performance of modular buildings under different operational conditions for pandemic response; propose a series of modular designs that vary in capacity, deployment range, and construction materials; and evaluate and optimize the designs using computer models. The expected impacts of the project include providing accessible medical resources for remote northern and rural communities, ensuring safety and improving efficiency of temporary hospitals, reducing the risk to medical professionals and minimizing outbreaks, and providing unique training and highly employable skills for HQP. | ||
| CDSN COVID-19 CAF Rapid Assessment Project | Digital Solutions | Stephen Saideman; Stephanie Carvin | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Recently, the Canadian Defence and Security Network (CDSN) hosted a virtual workshop involving nearly 60 academics from across Canada, and across various disciplines, on the roles, both domestically and internationally, of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in addressing and combating COVID-19. We had solicited questions from the Department of National Defence (DND) so that our conference would have immediate policy relevance. The webinar produced a series of recommendations for a short briefing note for immediate policy impact. We now have funds to do the research necessary to explore and further develop our policy recommendations. This project will consider five issues that DND identified as important – ranging from international implications, to the impact of the CAF on Canadian communities, to the budgetary implications, and to the impact on the CAF itself. | Department of National Defence (DND) | |
| The Changing Nature of Work Due to COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Linda Schweitzer | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated significant and widespread changes in how most people work. The current work-at-home directive has resulted in the sudden collision of work and home life for many individuals. The rapid and urgent shift to remote work has forced many people who would not otherwise have had the opportunity and/or desire to work remotely to do so. As we collectively confront the challenges and opportunities afforded by the mass movement to remote work, this study investigates what working at home through the COVID-19 pandemic reveals about the future of working. Specifically, we explore the short-, medium-, and long-term shifts associated with people’s adjustment to working remotely from home, including the nature of work (employer expectations, hours, workspace), professional identity and career aspirations, the interaction of work and personal life, the division of labour in the home (housework, caregiving), and physical and psychological boundaries. | Sean Lyons; Katarina Lauch | |
| Are they Effectively Learning? Enhancing Student Learning Experience Using LMS Analytics Amid and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Omair Shafiq | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | In the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, education delivery through online learning management systems (LMS) has become crucial for educational institutions, now more than ever. Online delivery of education has benefits and challenges. One of the challenges is to find out if students are effectively learning and are connected with course material and, eventually, with their study program. In this research, we will design and develop a solution that will seamlessly monitor and track engagement patterns and learning experiences of students with course materials via online LMS. Our research will allow instructors, academic support staff, and students to gain deeper insights into student interaction, engagement, and learning experience through online LMS. The proposed research will also open up new possible ways to carry out early predictions of students who may be at risk of failing, thus allowing educators to take measures to improve student performance. | ||
| Sequential Classification Under Uncertainty: A Mathematical Toolkit for Decision Makers | Epidemiology/Modelling | Tom Sherratt | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Problems individuals face during a pandemic include whether a patient should present themselves for testing, whether a healthcare professional should recommend testing, whether a clinician should declare a test positive, and whether a policy maker should recommend relaxing social distancing. In each instance, the decision maker has to classify signals (the symptoms, the test result, the number of confirmed cases) in a binary manner (suitable/unsuitable for testing, infected/uninfected, discontinue/continue social distancing), but with uncertainty about their correct choice and different associated payoffs. The standard framework for these classificatory problems is signal detection theory (SDT). However, in an epidemiological setting, several discriminative decisions are made sequentially. Our project will apply sequential SDT to classification problems in epidemiology to directly estimate parameters of greatest value to decision makers. By combining this approach with classical SIR models, we will provide tools for signal classification that will serve decision makers dealing with COVID-19. | ||
| A Secure Privacy-Preserving Quarantine Notification System | Digital Solutions | Wei Shi; Jean-Pierre Corriveau | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Due to a large number of asymptomatic carriers, the COVID-19 contagion is complex to monitor. Consequently, confirmed patients, as well as potentially infected individuals, are required to quarantine in order to control the spread of the virus. When a person is confirmed infected, a Contact Tracing System (CTS) is used by health authorities to determine this person’s whereabouts and obtain a list of individuals with “close” encounters so these individuals can be advised to self-quarantine. Several countries – such as China, South Korea, and Singapore – have developed and already use CTSs. However, these CTSs do not preserve the privacy of their users. That is, health authorities keep track of everyone’s whereabouts and can identify confirmed cases and their “close” contacts. Such an approach is not acceptable in Europe and North America. Consequently, several CTS proposals have been put forth to improve privacy. Proprietary closed-source solutions (e.g., from Apple/Google) are not acceptable in light of recent breach-of-privacy scandals. Some have inherent security vulnerabilities. Others (e.g., from UK’s NHSX and from the MILA lab in Montreal) require human intervention. We have developed a Privacy-Preserving Quarantine Notification System. Through the use of Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled mobile devices, a user can receive a notification to quarantine if this user has encountered a confirmed COVID-19 patient 14 days before or after the lab confirmation date of this patient. A future version will also support IoT sensors. Our system is the only one we know that fulfills the following requirements: 1) secure (i.e., resilient to cyber attacks) 2) fully automated (i.e., not reliant on human intervention, except for its easy installation) 3) privacy preserving (i.e., prevents unlawful identification of an individual) 4) efficient (i.e., quarantine notifications must be timely) The guarantees of our system with respect to security and privacy favour its widespread adoption by Canadians, which, in turn, will ensure we stop the spread of the virus and successfully restart our economy. | ||
| WAAM WEB: An Online Interface for Telematic Community Music Making | Digital Solutions | Jesse Stewart | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Building on the success of the We Are All Musicians (WAAM) research-creation project, this project will develop an innovative online musical interface known as WAAM WEB that will allow multiple people to control a mechanical percussion system remotely while they shelter in place during the pandemic and beyond. A live video feed of the WAAM WEB percussion installation will allow people to see and hear the results of their interactions with the system and with each other in real time. After the successful creation of this telematic musical interface, I will use it to conduct research into the nature and impact of telematic community music making on health and well-being, building on concepts and methodologies drawn from the emergent fields of community music studies and digital ethnography. | ||
| How to Help? A Review of Community Group Responses to Collective Trauma | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Sophie Tamas | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | This project aims to provide research support to help community groups in the small town of Almonte, Ontario, figure out how to respond to a high concentration of local COVID-19 deaths. It will do so by employing a skilled research assistant to review pertinent academic and practitioner sources in order to gather key points from the literature and translate them into plain language reports tailored to local needs. | ||
| COVID-19 – Design of Long-Term Care Homes (LTC) – Learning for the Future | Aging/Elder Care | Chantal Trudel | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The appropriate design of long-term care (LTC) homes is crucial in balancing infection prevention and control (IPAC) with residents’ quality of life and care, particularly during pandemic conditions such as COVID-19. While hospital IPAC protocols are relatively well-established, LTC protocols are not well developed and may not “fit,” and may even clash, with the unique characteristics of LTC. To address this, and support the redevelopment of Canada’s aging LTC infrastructure, we will develop short-term and long-term design studies focused on IPAC in LTC to explore front-line cognitive aids that can be readily deployed to support healthcare workers, as well as concepts to support future new builds and redevelopments of LTC homes. Such studies will be instrumental in helping us break ground in understanding the impact of COVID-19 in LTC homes and will also help provide impetus to build a dedicated program at Carleton focused on design and engineering for LTC. | ||
| Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM): A Novel Mechanical Ventilator Designed for Mass Scale Production in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Simon Viel | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic creates an urgent need for mechanical ventilators. Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM) is the product of an international collaboration of physicists and engineers in partnership with medical doctors on the front line. This new ventilator is designed to provide pressure-controlled and pressure-supported breathing modes needed for intensive care, with as low cost as possible, and suitable for rapid large-scale production. For all these reasons, there is interest in MVM from industrial partners worldwide. MVM prototypes are now under test to ensure that the ventilator is safe and effective. Carleton University has taken responsibility for leading the MVM-Canada data analysis team towards certification by Health Canada, and during the mass production of this life-saving equipment. | Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM) | |
| Impacts of COVID-19 on Ambient Concentrations of PM2.5 in Ottawa and Nationally | Fundamental Science | Paul Villeneuve | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted human health on a global scale and necessitated major changes in human behaviour. The implementation of physical distancing practices in Canada, and elsewhere, has resulted in a greater number of individuals working from home, and substantial reductions in use of industrial processes, and motor vehicles. This, in turn, has impacted concentrations of outdoor air pollution. Decreases in air pollution levels since the pandemic began have been reported in several countries; however, Canadian analyses have been limited. Specifically, there has been no comprehensive effort to describe changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. PM2.5 is the most widely studied pollutant in terms of human health and has been estimated to cause 10,000 deaths annually in Canada. This project will extract daily data for PM2.5 in 2020 from a comprehensive series of monitoring stations and satellite imaging data to quantify how COVID-19 has impacted PM2.5 concentrations nationally and in select cities. | ||
| Platform for Experimentation with Indoor Spatial Models of COVID-19 | Epidemiology/Modelling | Gabriel Wainer | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | In recent years, we built various simulation models based on the traditional Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) equations that are being used worldwide to predict the pandemic dynamics. We also have experience on integrating simulations and complex spatial visualization engines to allow decision makers to study how the virus spreads. This research will study how viruses expand indoors. We will use detailed 3D models of the buildings on campus and adaptations of the SIR model for indoor environments. We will also study how the virus expands on larger areas. We will use Geographical Information Systems and Carleton’s Digital Campus map to build spatial versions of the SIR model with adaptations and improvements. The models will be available through the web for remote collaboration and for use by decision makers. This tool will permit studying different strategies for returning to campus at the end of the pandemic and for dealing with future outbreaks. | ||
| Robust Solutions for Online Music Ensemble Pedagogy | Digital Solutions | Ellen Waterman | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Musicians everywhere are seeking new ways to make music together under COVID-19 physical distancing. University music students are critically affected because ensemble music pedagogy develops core skills: listening, timing, blend, expressiveness, and teamwork. An effective methodology for online choir, band, and ear-training is urgently needed. This research project will develop, test, and assess a robust networked ensemble music methodology that combines current best practices in online music pedagogy, technologies for networked music performance (making music together online in real time from separate physical locations), and innovative teaching and learning strategies, including improvisation. With leading expertise in improvisation, music performance pedagogy, and music technologies, our Carleton team is uniquely positioned to create a resource hub for networked ensemble music that will have wider benefits for educational, community, and professional music ensembles. This research makes an original contribution to studies in teaching and learning, improvisation studies, and community music. | ||
| Longitudinal Assessment of Changes in Gambling and Co-morbid Substance Use and Risky Online Behaviours During the COVID-19 Pandemic Casino Closures | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Michael J.A. Wohl | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | In late March 2020, due to mounting concern over the COVID-19 pandemic, the gambling industry took the unprecedented step to close gambling venues worldwide. The result for gamblers was a sudden reduction in access to gambling. A recent survey of gamblers in Ontario, conducted by the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC), found high rates of negative economic impacts, increased reports of depression, anxiety, and substance use, as well as risky behaviours such as online gambling. In the proposed program of research, we will conduct a secondary analysis of the RGC data and a second wave of data collection with the participants from the RGC study to examine changes in mood, anxiety, substance use and a variety of online behaviours, including gambling, occurring throughout the pandemic and the continued closure of land-based gambling venues. Results will yield critical information about possible addiction substitution during COVID-19, and the means of mitigating casino-closure associated harms. | Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) | |
| Environmental Sampling of SARS-CoV-2 in a Healthcare Setting | Clinical Care | Alex Wong | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | Rapid person-to-person spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is known to occur primarily via respiratory droplets. We know little, however, about whether SARS-CoV-2 is present in, and can be transmitted through, the built environment, especially in high-density areas like hospitals. Under the current opportunity, we will develop molecular techniques for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in environmental samples, and we will carry out a pilot study to detect the virus on surfaces in The Ottawa Hospital. This project has the potential for immediate impact in the healthcare setting by supporting infection control and facility disinfection practices. | The Ottawa Hospital | |
| A Statistical Learning Tool as Decision Support to Control the Spreading of COVID-19 and its Resurgence | Digital Solutions | Yiqiang Q. Zhao | Carleton University | Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants | Ontario | We propose to develop a novel statistical learning tool as decision support to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its resurgence. The main objective is to develop a new model based on the recent progress in network science and machine learning. This new model will allow us to adequately analyze the data stream related to COVID-19 and thus to precisely understand the evolution of the situation and the degree of the threat on our province (and across Canada and beyond). Compared to other available models, our approach is expected to be robust and dynamic, and parameters can be easily updated through learning processes according to decision mitigation measures. Such a tool is needed in both the short and long terms to inform effective and objective policies and strategies to be adopted in order to minimize morbidity and mortality, and societal and economic disruption at the same time. | ||
| Mapping and disrupting the SARS-CoV-2 protein interactome. | Fundamental Science | Brian Raught, Fritz Roth, Anne-Claude Gingras | University Health Network, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto | Institutional Funding | Ontario | While generic treatments for RNA virus infections are under investigation, no specific, effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2 is currently available. A lack of knowledge regarding how each of the ~26 SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins interact with the human host cell protein machinery significantly hampers our ability to rationally identify promising drug targets, and understand SARS-CoV-2 pathobiology at the molecular level. Using two complementary approaches - proximity-dependent biotinylation (BioID) and yeast two hybrid (Y2H) screening – here we propose to: (1) Conduct a global, systematic identification of SARS-CoV-2 virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). (2) Combining the BioID and Y2H datasets, we will prioritize 100 validated PPIs that will be screened for disruption by FDA-approved drugs. (3) Drugs that disrupt virus-host PPIs will be tested for their ability to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in human airway epithelial cells in culture. | Scott Gray-Owen, Samira Mubareka, Yves Jacob, Étienne Coyaud | |
| COVID rates and risk factors in systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases | AI | Sasha Bernatsky | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | Singer Family Fund for SLE research | Québec | Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases are complex chronic conditions characterized by an overactive immune system, and requires long-term therapies with immunomodulating agents. A key example of one such disease is systemic lupus (SLE) which is characterized by B and T cell abnormalities and the production of autoantibodies that results in organ damage. The majority of SLE patients are treated with hydroxychloroquine but in addition many receive more profound immunosuppressant therapy. They also are often treated with NSAIDs, ACE inhibitors, and ARBs. Our study will assess the incidence of COVID19 infection and ensuing complications (hospitalization, ARDS, death) as well as factors potentially associated with these outcomes (hydroxychloroquine, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, immunosuppressants, ACEI inhibitors, ARBs). | Evelyne Vinet, Christian A. Pineau, SLICC, CaNIOS | |
| Hydroxychloroquine shortages in Canada | Public Health | Evelyne Vinet, Arielle Mendel | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | Singer Family Fund for SLE Research | Québec | Hydroxychloroquine is currently being investigated for its benefit in COVID19 infection. This drug is a cornerstone treatment for severe chronic rheumatic diseases including systemic lupus (SLE) a potentially life-threatening condition affecting thousands of Canadians from every stage of life. Interruption of treatment places these already vulnerable individuals at great risk for disease flares and major health complications. Policies recently put in place have already caused difficulties with hydroxychloroquine across many jurisdictions including Canada. Our project will survey Canadian rheumatologists to identify how many patients have already been affected by these issues. | Sasha Bernatsky | |
| Evidence to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Community-Based Dementia Care in Nova Scotia | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Dr. Katie Aubrecht | St. Francis Xavier University | Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition | Nova Scotia | This study will contribute to, clarify, and enhance the best evidence-in-the-moment about programs and supports for vulnerable older adults living with dementia and their caregivers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. | Dr. Marilyn Macdonald, Dr. Janice Keefe, Dr. Christine Kelly, Dr. Elaine Moody, Dr. Barbara Hamilton-Hinch, Dr. Meaghan Sim, Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, Dr. Kristin Hadfield, Dr. Maria Pertl, Dr. Jacqueline Gahagan, Dr. Rachel Herron, Ms. Bernadette Rock (Alzheimer Society Ireland), Sacha Nadeau (Alzheimer Society Nova Scotia), Dr. Susan Hardie (Eviance), V.O.N. Nova Scotia | |
| 3 minute health care worker survey (Saskatchewan) | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Sean Tucker | University of Regina | Scholar funding | Saskatchewan | |||
| Knowledge Mobilization Tool to Promote, Protect and Support Breastfeeding during COVID-19 | Public Health | Shela Hirani | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | Breastmilk is essential for the growth and development of young children. Considering its benefits, breastfeeding is recommended at all times for young children, especially during crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this knowledge mobilization project is to develop and disseminate an animated video on "Breastfeeding during COVID-19". This video will provide need-based information to breastfeeding mothers who may lack breastfeeding support and access to information during the current state of emergency and self-isolation. This activity will also clarify misconceptions surrounding breastfeeding during COVID-19 and will raise public awareness on safe infant feeding practices during this pandemic. | Amanda Lanoway (United Way Regina) | |
| Computational modeling and simulation of municipal waste generation and risk assessment during COVID-19 | Public Health | Kelvin Tsun Wai Ng | University of Regina | NSERC Alliance | Saskatchewan | A deviation in the production of municipal solid waste has been observed in the City of Regina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic began, and during the time control measures were put into place by the City and the Government of Saskatchewan. The change in waste generation rates could begin to impact the daily operation of the City's municipal waste collection and disposal service, as well as the safety of the solid waste collections and operations staff. Proper waste collection and disposal is vital to health and safety of the residents at any time, let alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our municipal partner states that the elevated waste quantities has slowly begun to impact the revenue stream in the past few weeks. The goals of the project are to (i) conduct temporal analysis of municipal waste generation before and during the outbreak, and (ii) develop various scenarios and generate different forecast models for waste generation during and after the outbreak. Accurate waste data forecast helps the city to better manage its budgetary resources and plans their collection and disposal services accordingly. The proposed models will also be used to estimate the demand of the sanitation workers' personal protective wears. It is believed that the said simulation models will be useful to other cities and towns of similar socio-economic conditions as Regina. No tool is currently available to forecast waste generation during and after a pandemic, and we would like to work with City of Regina team to fill the gap in literature. The proposed models will be of great benefit to the City in maintaining its leadership in sustainable waste management and evidence-based waste policy. It is also of interest to the City to assist in the growth of this market segment, both within Canada and abroad. | Golam Kabir | |
| Towards Play at Home | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Whitney Blaisdell | University of Regina | Community Research Unit | Saskatchewan | The COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of society. Through the loss of access to designated playspaces, public libraries, family centres, and the ability to gather socially there will certainly be a lasting impact on play, which is incredibly important to the development of human beings and their overall health. Many families are facing new stresses and challenges possibly including balancing work, play, rest, and family relationships all in one space. This study will begin with an exploration of the impact of COVID-19 on play, and will evolve into the co-construction of resources and materials to support play at home. The Regina Early Learning Centre will be using findings from the study to inform how their organization can continue to support families to play in and around their homes. | The Regina Early Learning Centre will be using findings to inform how they support the families that typically access their centres. | |
| A Distance Access to Prevention, Treatment, and Response (ADAPT-R): An agile approach to COVID-19 | Indigenous Research | Stuart Skinner | University of Saskatchewan | Sackatchwan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | The rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely limited, as current mainstream health programs are ineffective in meeting the unique needs of Indigenous peoples, especially for on-reserve and geographically isolated areas. Our objective is to co-create and connect socially, culturally, and enabling in-community care environments which will minimize the overall incidence of COVID-19 in targeted First Nations (FN) communities and at-risk sub-populations (i.e., immune compromised; co-morbidities; elderly). By providing integrated, collaborative, multidisciplinary care in a blended virtual and in-community care (VCC) environment, the Wellness Wheel team is well-equipped and well-positioned to build a care network that is responsive and can be replicated. | JoLee Sasakamoose | |
| Establishing a Virtual Care Clinic for COVID-19 Screening and Treatment in First Nation Communities in Saskatchewan | Indigenous Research | JoLee Sasakamoose | University of Regina | Community Partnership Grant, First Nations and Métis Health Research Network | Saskatchewan | This funding source will provide the infrastructure for the virtual care clinics and they willbe utilized for engagement. We will expand the Peer Health Advocacy and Research Wellness Network (PHArWN) that was a community-driven research response focused on health advocacy with FN people who have lived experience with HIV, HCV, or STBBIs and will extend to include diabetes, mental health and addictions, COVID-19 and traditional wellness. Peer health navigation is a promising solution to improving access to culturally responsive prevention, diagnosis and integration of care. We will launch the PHAWN and examine the process of the local adoption of a Peer Health Advocacy network as a virtually supported, culturally-responsive model (CRM) of care in the FN partner communities. Recognizing that we are in a new, COVID-19 era, we must build an integrated, collaborative, virtual clinic to assist FN CCHTs in disease screening, treatment and intervention clinics (VCC) within the FN partner communities. | Stuart Skinner, Jarol Boan | |
| Nutrition Transition: Preventing, Reversing, and curing diabetes in partnership with indigenous communities | Indigenous Research | Stuart Skinner | University of Saskatchewan | Community Partnership Grant, First Nations and Métis Health Research Network | Saskatchewan | The aim is to work in partnership with five Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan for knowledge sharing between Western clinicians and traditional medicinal people toward the prevention, reversal, and cure of diabetes and COVID prevention. Traditional medicine and Knowledge Keepers will work with nurses, physicians, diabetologist to develop a comprehensive diabetic prevention program for implementation and Elders will work toward supporting immune system development for COVID-9 prevention. The Knowledge Keepers will council and inform band members of the work and will drive the program to deliver and adhere to traditional lifestyles and diets, in partnership with Western medical approaches. | JoLee Sasakamoose | |
| The role of psychological factors in the spreading of disease, discrimination, and distress | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Gordon Asmundson | University of Regina | CIHR | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 arose in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and has rapidly spread throughoutChina and other parts of the world, and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. For bothepidemics and pandemics, psychological factors play a major role in the spreading andcontainment of infection (e.g., nonadherence with hygiene guidelines, social distancing) and in societally disruptive behavior (e.g., infection-related xenophobia, excessive fear and worry,overuse of healthcare resources); as such, psychological factors have important public health significance. We are conducting a series of studies, funded by CIHR, with the end goal of developing a rapid assessment system (assessment battery and online delivery platform) that can be used to assess, for any pandemic or major epidemic, infection-related excessive anxiety and xenophobia, and risk factors for these problems. To achieve this end goal, we are conducting a web-based longitudinal self-report survey with a specific focus on COVID-19 using population-representative samples from Canada and the United States. Wave 1 data collection occurred between March 21 and April 1 and comprises a sample of 6868 participants. We are in the process of developing and validating measures of COVID-19-related anxiety and xenophobia and using these scales to identify the correlates of these constructs, which can then be used to identify their downstream impacts. Data for Waves 2 and 3 will be collected one month and three months following the completion of Wave 1. Once the risk factors are identified, we plan to test interventions to reduce the risk factors, such as online treatments and online public health educational materials. The resulting assessment system will then be used to (a) monitor the psychological impact (as a public health problem) of the pandemic or epidemic, (b) identify people in need of psychological services, and (c) implement interventions for reducing infection-related xenophobia and excessive anxiety. | Steven Taylor, UBC | |
| Understanding and managing COVID Stress Syndrome | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Gordon Asmundson | University of Regina | SHRF | Saskatchewan | Steve Taylor (UBC) | ||
| Computational modeling and simulation of municipal waste generation and risk assessment during COVID-19 | Data Science | Kelvin Tsun Wai Ng | University of Regina | NSERC Alliance Grant | Saskatchewan | A deviation in the production of municipal solid waste has been observed in the City of Regina since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic began, and during the time control measures were put into place by the City and the Government of Saskatchewan. The change in waste generation rates could begin to impact the daily operation of the City's municipal waste collection and disposal service, as well as the safety of the solid waste collections and operations staff. Proper waste collection and disposal is vital to health and safety of the residents at any time, let alone during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our municipal partner states that the elevated waste quantities has slowly begun to impact the revenue stream in the past few weeks. The goals of the project are to (i) conduct temporal analysis of municipal waste generation before and during the outbreak, and (ii) develop various scenarios and generate different forecast models for waste generation during and after the outbreak. Accurate waste data forecast helps the city to bettermanage its budgetary resources and plans their collection and disposal services accordingly. The proposed models will also be used to estimate the demand of the sanitation workers' personal protective wears. It is believed that the said simulation models will be useful to other cities and towns of similar socio-economic conditions as Regina. No tool is currently available to forecast waste generation during and after a pandemic, and we would like to work with City of Regina team to fill the gap in literature. The proposed models will be of great benefit to the City in maintaining its leadership in sustainable waste management and evidence-based waste policy. It is also of interest to the City to assist in the growth of this market segment, both within Canada and abroad. | Golam Kabir | |
| Protecting Those Who Protect Us: An evaluation and synthesis of resources deployed to support firefighter mental health during COVID-19 | Occupational Health/Physiotherapy | Kathryn Sinden | Lakehead University | Canadian Insitutes for Health Research | Ontario | Firefighters as front-line emergency response personnel during COVID-19 are often “first-on-scene” during public emergency calls and are required to provide public protection services that increase their exposure to transferable diseases including COVID-19. In addition to transferable disease exposure, firefighters are also exposed to a confluence of factors that increase their risk for mental illness including post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI), depression, difficulties with alcohol, and chronic fatigue. Events associated with heightened injury/illness risk (i.e., SARS, post-911) are associated with adverse impacts on individual mental health. Exposure to inherent risk factors linked to mental illness and PTSI compounded with potential exposure to COVID-19 has unknown impacts on first responders’ physical and mental health. Firefighters have been provided various resources by their professional associations towards preventing COVID-19 illness exposure, however, less clear are implementation and best-evidence strategies to assist firefighters with exposure to cumulative mental health trauma associated with working in a pandemic environment. Consequently, the project objective is to conduct synthesis and evaluation of various knowledge sources (academic and non-academic) that are available and/or have been communicated to firefighters to assist with mental health management during COVID-19. | Regan BolducJoy MacDemid | |
| Detection of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 in Children and Adults and Transmission Dynamics | Child Health and Human Development | Mohamed Eltorki | McMaster University | Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization | Ontario | Children and adults may be asymptomatically colonized with SARS-CoV-2. As community transmission increases it becomes increasingly important to identify, quantifyand track asymptomatic colonization and to understand transmission dynamics and the risk to family members and healthcare providers. We will carry out asurveillance program and a prospective cohort study from the Emergency Department (ED) at McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) by collecting up to 20 daily oralswabs for 100 days from asymptomatic children and their adult caregivers, which we will test for SARS-CoV-2. Household member symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 status willbe tracked. Information will be shared with policy and decision makers, which will inform policies and the risk posed by asymptomatic children to household contactsand healthcare providers. This will be a collaborative project with Hamilton Public Health Services, St Joseph’s Healthcare state-of-the-art research virology laboratoryand Alberta Children’s Hospital ED funded-surveillance program in Calgary, Alberta. | Jeff Pernica, Douglas Sider, Marek Smieja, Wael El-Dakhakhni and Stephen Freedman. | |
| Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation | Policy/Government | Timothy Caulfield | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The spread of health misinformation and disinformation are a serious threat to public health, including in the case of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Addressing the spread of COVID-19 misinformation involves identifying the misinformation in circulation, understanding the public impact, and designing and implementing evidence-based solutions to combat the harmful discourse. We propose conducting research into COVID-19 misinformation from multiple angles, developing effective communication and education tools, countering misinformation strategically, and providing policy recommendations to deal with COVID-19 and future outbreaks. Our interdisciplinary team of experts is led by Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair and Health Law Institute Research Director, who has been studying health and science misinformation for over 20 years. Our team will conduct systematic content analyses of traditional and online social media and empirical psychological research on how individuals respond to COVID-19 information. The objective is to assemble and execute a depth-of-analysis sufficient to enact positive outcomes for COVID-19 while establishing a blueprint for future misinformation events. The impact of this course of research will be significant, enabling the development of strategies to combat misinformation, stigma, and fear, to address their underlying drivers, and to improve public awareness, knowledge, and trust. We will meet the call's objectives of contributing to the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak, strengthening the understanding of its public impacts, and providing evidence to inform public health planning, decision making and response. Deploying our expertise and networks will maximize outputs, including to those in health care, government, popular media, and the public at large. | Gordon Pennycook, Cheryl Peters, Christen Rachul | |
| Mucoadhesive micelles for delivery of drugs to the lung for the prophylactic treatment of COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Heather Sheardown | McMaster University | NSERC COVID-19 Alliance | Ontario | The soaring death tolls from COVID-19 and the non-sustainability of the current economic situation pose an urgent worldwide need for an innovative solution to protect the public upon the anticipated restart of the economy. This project will focus on the development of a nasal spray formulation for post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19 which will help control the number of infections and, in turn, hasten the safe return of the public to normal life as well as being useful for control in the anticipated second wave. This proposal offers an innovative, straightforward and scalable prophylactic approach that can be self-administered by combining anti-viral drugs with proprietary and patented mucoadhesive micelles to provide a prolonged protective effect against infection. We will focus on the formulation of a nasal spray containing either hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) or a novel Angiopoietin-Tie2 inhibitor, which is proprietary to our partner Mannin Research Inc. Each drug will be incorporated into the patented mucoadhesive micelle delivery system from theSheardown lab. These formulations will act as a prophylactic, either preventing entry of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, into the respiratory tract or minimizing its impact and severity. They will then be developed for clinical use in partnership with Mannin. | Mannin Research Inc. | |
| Translating Knowledge for Child Welfare Organizations Across the Prairies: Managing the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Children, Families, and Workers | Child Health and Human Development | Dr. LIse Milne and Dr. Nathalie Reid | University of Regina | Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Saskatchewan | Project Background and RationaleThe shifting circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have led to a rapid proliferation of research and resources. However, organizations responsible for meeting the urgent needs of children and families within the child welfare system typically have little time to find, evaluate, and translate knowledge to inform services for vulnerable children and families. These children are currently experiencing or have histories of abuse and neglect, which are linked to a multitude of behavioural and mental health problems. Often, caregivers have themselves experienced impacts of childhood maltreatment and other marginalizing conditions, such as poverty, substance abuse, and mental health problems. Exacerbating the situation, the conditions brought on by COVID-19 have increased the possibility of separation, isolation, and reduced social support, education, mental, and physical health services. Thus, children and families are at heightened risk for trauma reactivation and deteriorating family conditions. Workers are also challenged in their efforts to rapidly change practices to respond to increasing demands and the growing complexity of cases, to ensure the safety and well-being of children and families.Project ObjectivesIn close consultation with our existing and new partners, this project entails a rapid, month-long scan, knowledge synthesis and subsequent knowledge mobilization initiative related to child welfare and COVID-19. Knowledge users will include community organizations, government sectors, and other child-serving organizations from across the Canadian Prairies. Our synthesis will go beyond mainstream knowledge to include knowledge specific to Indigenous communities, which will be informed by consultations with Elders, as well as existing resources. Attention will be given to gender and sex in knowledge, in light of the compounding effect of COVID-19 on existing inequalities for females. We will pay particular attention to the Canadian Prairie context, where there is a gross overrepresentation of Indigenous families involved with child welfare, including children in out-of-home care. We will locate and translate content and resources for the large cohort of French-speaking individuals across the Prairies, who are often underserved. Finally, the rural Prairie geographies contribute to a lack of available services and increased isolation, especially during this period.Our project will highlight and produce accessible, updatable knowledge translation resources in order to meet the urgent needs of children, youth and families within the child welfare system, as well as service providers. We will use a variety of mobilization outlets including, but not limited to a Digital Connections Hub, which will be organized into policy, systems, and best practice responses to meet the mental, physical, and social health needs of children, families and workers. The project, which builds upon a current initiative involving children in care in Saskatchewan, will take place over the six months of CIHR funding, with the majority of knowledge acquisition, evaluation, and synthesis taking place within the first month to respond to immediate and urgent needs. ImpactSeeking their input, our project will support knowledge users from over 100 Prairie child-serving organizations employing thousands of staff. Given the diversity of individuals served within child welfare, we will respond to the wide range of needs of the following CIHR-identified priority populations: (1) Families, children and youth at risk of or experiencing maltreatment, family violence, mental health, substance use, and other issues; (2) Marginalized populations, including Indigenous families, and other diverse racial, cultural, linguistic, gender and sex groups, immigrants, refugees, and newcomers; and (3) Front-line workers and essential personnel engaged in directly responding to COVID-19. Using an established infrastructure, affiliation with several research centres, and a well-connected, experienced research team, this initiative will contribute significant benefits by providing a forum for access to synthesized, vetted research and resources to increase knowledge and support for child and family services providers. This will in turn improve the physical and mental health of vulnerable children and families during COVID-19, and beyond. | ||
| Creating a Digital Connections Hub to Support Children in Care in Saskatchewan During COVID-19 and Beyond | Child Health and Human Development | Dr. Nathalie Reid & Dr. Lise Milne | University of Regina | Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation | Saskatchewan | COVID-19 has been especially challenging for highly vulnerable children in out-of-home care in Saskatchewan, whose past trauma is likely to be reactivated during this stressful period. To ensure service providers have the knowledge and resources to meet their complex health, social, psychological, educational, and environmental needs, this project will draw on a socio-ecological scan of existing and emerging research to establish a dynamic Digital Connections Hub through the University of Regina Child Trauma Research Centre (CTRC) to facilitate the mobilization of these resources to relevant stakeholders, including caregivers. | ||
| Optimizing polar, small inhibitors of a viral cysteine protease to identify a lead for an oral COVID-19 treatment. | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Mary Joanne Lemieux | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incredible social, personal and economic upheaval and as of May 2020 has already killed almost 275 000 people world-wide and, tragically, is projected to kill millions more. COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV2 (SARS2) virus, which is a coronavirus. Currently there is no therapy or vaccine available to treat or prevent the spread of COVID-19 and so the development of a treatment is of paramount importance. For coronaviruses, like SARS2, to enable viral replication in infected cells a virally encoded cysteine protease is required to liberate the viral proteins from a translated polyprotein. The main enzyme responsible is the 3CL protease (3CLP) and, due to its importance, represents a key target to develop antiviral drugs. Drugs targeting proteases are well precedented, which suggests that developing drugs to treat or prevent COVID-19 by inhibiting 3CLP has a strong chance of being successful.In April 2020, compounds from a former Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute (LKSAVI) norovirus project were tested in our newly developed SARS2 3CLP assay and multiple compounds with potent activity were observed, including one with an IC50 of 19.5 nM, good SARS2 antiviral activity and no cytotoxicity. This compound is novel, low molecular weight (< 500 Da) and low lipophilicity (ClogP = -0.31) making it an excellent starting point for a small molecule, drug discovery project. The proposed project is an aggressive one year effort to design and synthesize analogs of the starting compound to identify a “Lead” compound toward creating an oral antiviral drug. We have a multidisciplinary team that brings together the capacity to develop a Lead compound, with protein purification, assay development and testing, virology, in silico drug discovery, and protein crystallization, which will be required during optimization. A Lead compound demonstrates an impressive balance of properties that include good SARS2 antiviral activity, excellent potency and selectivity for SARS2 3CLP, acceptable preliminary toxicity and pharmacokinetics, and demonstrates in vivo efficacy in an animal coronavirus model. In other words, a Lead indicates the relatively high probability that the molecule can be refined further to identify one suitable for clinical trials.The LKSAVI and the University of Alberta have world-class facilities and personnel ready to achieve the aggressive objective in this proposal. Outsourcing, as is done by big pharma and biotech companies, is already in place to guide optimization of the compounds. Team leadership has over 40 years of drug discovery experience, much of it in industry, that includes identifying 5 clinical candidates, three of which have been/are being evaluated in Phase II clinical trials (epetraborole, taltobulin, and SXC-2023) and one that is marketed (lamivudine for HBV). The team also consists of experienced chemists, biochemists and virologists. The chemical starting point, scientists, leadership, facilities and proposed project are all in place and, together with this grant, will allow a Lead for an oral COVID-19 drug to be identified. | James Nieman, Lorne Tyrrell | |
| Rapid bench-to-human development of safe and effective aerosol vaccine strategies against COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Zhou Xing, Brian Lichty, Fiona Smaill | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | The pandemic of Covid-19 caused by respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection has brought the world to a standstill. The physical-distancing strategy currently implemented in the pandemic aims to prevent the majority of Canadians from being infected by SARS-CoV-2. While this is an essential short-term strategy to save lives, it will paradoxically leave the majority of our citizens without protective immunity against Covid-19. Thus, the majority of Canadians will be susceptible to the next waves of Covid-19. The only effective way to prevent new outbreaks from getting out of control is to establish herd immunity via implementing a safe and effective vaccination program prior to the next waves of Covid-19. High-risk Canadians including healthcare workers and seniors are especially in need of such vaccine-induced protective immunity. A global effort has been initiated to identify effective Covid-19 vaccines, testing a variety of vaccine platforms and strategies. Unfortunately, only a few of them are being developed and tested in Canada and almost none of them are designed to target respiratory mucosal immunity. To fill the gap, via the effort from a multi-disciplinary McMaster Team we have been rapidly developing innovative recombinant viral-vectored Covid-19 vaccine strategies to target the desired respiratory mucosal immunity. Our Team has internationally recognized reputation in bench-to-human translational vaccine research. Particularly relevant to the proposal is our strong expertise in advanced viral vector bioengineering, vaccine efficacy testing in small animal models at CL3 facility, clinical-grade vaccine production at GMP manufacturing facility, optimized inhaled aerosol vaccine delivery method, and clinical vaccine trials. We are confident that our project will make available to Canadians a superb, needle/pain-free vaccine strategy capable of potent respiratory mucosal protection against Covid-19. | Matt Miller, Karen Mossman, Gail Gauvreau, Maria Medina, Yonghong Wan, Amy Gillgrass | |
| Spatial and social patterning of COVID-19 prevention and transmission in Canada: Investigating the impacts of risk perception and preventive behaviour on individual activity space | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | Dr. Lu Wang | Ryerson University | CIHR | Ontario | As the most populous metropolitan area and the largest immigrant gateway in Canada, the GTA has been a significant receiving geography of a number of infectious diseases in recent decades. It is well recognized that human movement in the spatial and temporal dimensions has direct impact on disease transmission at global and local scales (Qi and Du, 2013). Giving the increasing population density and sophisticated social network, transmission is directly influenced by individual activity space and the effectiveness of preventive measures taken, which is largely shaped by perception of the disease and risk (Leppin and Aro, 2009; Tizzoni M et al. 2014; Wesolowski et al. 2016; Lai et al., 2019). These relationships are further complicated by population mobility, transnational ties, ethno-cultural background and socioeconomic status. The proposed project aims to examine the relationships among health risk perception, preventive behaviour and individual activity space during the on-going global COVID-19 outbreak in The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) by capturing the temporal dimension of the pandemic and the public responses. The objectives are to: 1) explore the changing perception of COVID-19 health risks within the Chinese community in comparison with non-Chinese community in the GTA; 2) examine how risk perception shapes individual prevention behaviour in different phases of the outbreak; 3) explore how the pandemic has impacted individual activity space; and 4) assess how movement patterns and daily mobility are shifted and shaped by risk perception, prevention practices, immigration status and socioeconomic-demographic (SED) characteristic. | Dr.Lixia Yang and Dr.Dongmei Chen | |
| COVID-19 test chip for simultaneous detection of SARS-CoV-2 and antibodies using a single non-invasive sputum sample | Diagnostics | David Juncker | McGill University | NSERC | Québec | We propose a rapid COVID-19 test integrated within a mass-producible microfluidic chip that automates all fluidic operations, from reagent delivery and incubation to signal readout, without external equipment and power. The test uses a single self-collected, non-invasive sample by coughing, to simultaneously (1) detect the viral particles in ~30 min, and (2) quantitatively measure host generated antibodies in ~10 min, with a single simple operation like a pregnancy test. While PCR detects RNA packaged in the matured virus, our test detects directly the viral particle, resulting in a simplified test without the need for nucleic acid extraction, while potentially increasing sensitivity. Combined with host-generated antibody measurement, our test can detect active and past infections, and those that would have been missed by PCR. Our solution strikes a balance between established technologies and innovation to meet the short timelines. With our industrial partner Sensoreal Inc. specializing in mass production and commercialization of chip-based diagnostic devices, our research is designed to address manufacturing and regulatory challenges for rapid scale-up and deployment. While 3D printing allows rapid development and testing with patient samples, Sensoreal has strong interest to further develop the validated test toward mass-production to thousands chips per day. We expect this project will lead to the fastest test that is low-cost, easy-to-use and non-invasive. Validation using patient samples will be pursued upon completion of this 6-month project along with application for regulatory approval. This test, being instrumentation-free and high-throughput, could accelerate widespread testing, rapidly identify infected individuals, including asymptomatic ones, and thus determine the true scope of the pandemic. | Industrial Partner - Sensoreal Inc. | |
| Detection and community-wide prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool samples of adult and pediatric patients | Child Health and Human Development | Dr. Nikhil Pai | McMaster Children's Hospital | McMaster University COVID-19 Research Fund and Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund | Ontario | Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that is increasingly recognized as affecting multiple organ systems, including the gastrointestinal tract. While respiratory manifestations continue to be most recognized and associated with acute mortality, gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea may also present. Shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus known to cause COVID-19, has been demonstrated in feces. A novel PCR-based assay was recently developed through our regional laboratory program to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool. By performing screening for COVID-19 on all diarrheal samples submitted to our regional microbiology laboratory for infectious disease testing, we will be able to generate importance community-wide prevalence data that can be compared to diagnostic test results from other sources, and patient clinical characteristics. These results may be used to establish a community-wide prevalence of COVID-19 fecal viral shedding among patients with diarrhea, establish differences in these results between adults and children, determine how these results may differ based on respiratory symptoms, or positive COVID-19 detection through nasopharyngeal swab (NPS), and whether fecal viral shedding represents a potential source for community and iatrogenic transmission via fecal-oral routes. | Dr. Nikhil Pai, Dr. Jeff Pernica, Dr. Marek Smieja, Dr. Lee Hill, Ms. Michal Moshkovich, Ms. Emily Hartung, Ms. Melanie Figueiredo, Ms. Jelena Popov | |
| Disseminating strategies to support the mental health of long-term care workers during COVID-19 | Aging/Elder Care | Sarah Neil-Sztramko | McMaster University | Regional Geriatric Program, central | Ontario | The proposed research will develop and disseminate evidence-based recommendations to support those working in the long-term care (LTC) sector in coping with the significant burden posed by COVID-19. Through this work, we aim to support organizations in adapting policies and providing supports to ensure staff are adequately and effectively supported in the short to medium term in managing the psychological impacts of serving during COVID-19, as well as mechanisms in place to identify and support those suffering from psychological distress or other adverse psychological or mental health outcomes. We anticipate this will have a direct effect on employees and result in indirect benefits to the older adults whom they care for. | Maureen Dobbins, Laura Anderson, Emma Apatu, Emily Belita, Olivier Bellefleur, Sharon Kaasalainen, Lydia Kapiriri, Diana Sherifali, Jean-Eric Tarride | |
| Triangulating Neighborhoods A Research Note on Improving Links Between People and Places in Smaller Cities and Rural Areas | Rural and Remote Health | Paul Peters | Carleton University | Carleton University | Ontario | Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, eHealth was promoted as a solution for equitable provision of rural health services. However, most eHealth programs did not live up to the promise over the long-term. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the immediate and widespread expansion of eHealth services in Australia, Canada and Sweden (as elsewhere). As the pandemic spread between countries virtual visits shifted to the norm for many regions of the world, often in a matter of weeks or even days. Numerous reviews have highlighted barriers to effective implementation of eHealth, but the issues from these reviews have not yet been addressed despite widespread adoption of eHealth as a primary mode of service. This project is concerned with scaling-up rapid rural eHealth expansion and building a framework to strengthen health and care systems in rural locations during and beyond the pandemic. This project is engaged with rural physicians, communities, and researchers. | ||
| Frailty & the Incidence and Course of COVID-19 among 500,000 Older Adults in the UK BIOBANK | Aging/Elder Care | Fuller-Thomson, Esme R; Davison, Karen M | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| Population-estimable frailty using ‚??big data‚?? to predict Covid-19 infection and illness severity, Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences | Aging/Elder Care | Lee, Douglas S; Wijeysundera, Harindra C | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| Assessing the Association Between Frailty and Outcome of COVID-19 Infection | Aging/Elder Care | Mcgeer, Allison J; Andrew, Melissa K; Simor, Andrew E | Sinai Health System | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| COVID-19 Associated Outcomes of Critical Illness in Patients with Frailty | Aging/Elder Care | Rolfson, Darryl; Bagshaw, Sean M; Montgomery, Carmel; Rewa, Oleksa G | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | |||
| Exploring the care needs of Canadians living with frailty and the role of primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic | Aging/Elder Care | Stolee, Paul; Giguère, Anik; Mallinson, Sara L; Rockwood, Kenneth; Sims-Gould, Joan | University of Waterloo | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| Developing a Frailty Cohort in the Ontario COVID-19 Prospective Cohort Study | Aging/Elder Care | Verma, Amol; Cheung, Angela M; Detsky, Michael E; Razak, Fahad | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | |||
| Accessibility as Collaborative Practice | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | Dr. Katie Aubrecht | St. Francis Xavier University | Maple League of Universities Research Award | Nova Scotia | The overarching goal of the project is to assess and improve accessibility within the university sector in Eastern Canada by generating evidence about current accessibility policy and practice in Maple League Universities within the COVID-19 context. The project involves a review of knowledge, policy and practice, with a focus on accessibility as collaborative practice. As part of this project, we will also conduct interviews and accessibility surveys with various stakeholders on each campus; one survey will be designed to include accessibility experts and/or champions, while another survey will be designed specifically for students. Information from the surveys will identify accessibility practices currently in use on each campus, practices that are being considered, and what the perceived impact of COVID-19 is. This data will also identify common accessibility needs that are not currently being met, as well as the tools or types of support needed to fill those gaps. | Dr. Erin Austen, Dr. Cynthia Bruce, Dr. Jane Dryden, Dr. Mary Ellen Donnan | |
| CRISM Urgent Guideline Activities Related to COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Bruneau JulieRehm, Jürgen TWild, Cameron TWood, Evan | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) | CIHR | Québec | |||
| The Canadian Critical Care Trials Group | Clinical Care | Fowler, Robert A; Burns, Karen E; Choong, Karen; Cook, Deborah J; Gilfoyle, Elaine; Lamontagne, Francois; Marshall, John C; McIntyre, Lauralyn A; Meade, Maureen O; Muscedere, John; Seely, Andrew J; Sinuff, Tasnim; Turgeon, Alexis F | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) | CIHR | Québec | Martin, Claudio M; Hall, Richard I; Hutchison, James S | ||
| CanVECTOR (Canadian Venous Thromboembolism Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research) Network | Clinical Trials | Kahn, Susan R; Rodger, Marc A | Jewish General Hospital | CIHR | Québec | Afilalo, Marc; Anderson, David R; Bates, Shannon M; Blostein, Mark D; Carrier, Marc; Castellucci, Lana; Chagnon, Isabelle; Chitsike, Rufaro; Conway, Edward M; Crowther, Mark A; de Wit, Kerstin; Demers, Christine; Dolan, Sean; Douketis, James D; Duffett, Lisa; Emed, Jessica D; Fergusson, Dean A; Gandara, Esteban; Geerts, William H; Ginsberg, Jeffrey S; Gonsalves, Carol L; Grad, Roland M; Gross, Peter L; Guindon, Godefroy E; Haynes, Robert B; Hirsch, Andrew M; Iorio, Alfonso; Kassis, Jeannine; Kearon, Clive; Kovacs, Michael J; Lang, Eddy S; Lazo-Langner, Alejandro; Le Gal, Grégoire; Lee, Agnes Yuet Ying; Levinson, Anthony J; Levy, Adrian R; Liaw, Patricia C; Lim, Wendy; Linkins, Lori-Ann; Louzada, Martha D; McLeod, Anne G; Moodley, Uthaman; Pai, Menaka; Pluye, Pierre; Ramsay, Timothy O; Ray, Joel G; Roussin, André; Routhier, Nathalie; Schulman, Sam; Selby, Rita; Shivakumar, Sudeep P; Siegal, Deborah M; Smith, Reginald E; Solymoss, Susan; Tagalakis, Vicky; Takach Lapner, Sarah; Thavorn, Kednapa; Weitz, Jeffrey I; Wells, Philip S; Wu, Cynthia M; Zarychanski, Ryan | ||
| Awake Prone Position in Hypoxemic Patients with Coronavirus Disease 19 | Alhazzani, Waleed; Cook, Deborah J; Parhar, Ken Kuljit S; Stelfox, Henry T; Weatherald, Jason | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can cause low oxygen levels and life-threatening lung failure. Many COVID-19 patients will need treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with life support and a breathing machine. A possible treatment that could stop patients in hospital from developing lung failure is prone positioning. Prone positioning is when a patient lays on their stomach and rests for several hours. The risks of prone positioning in COVID-19 are not known. We designed a clinical trial to test if prone positioning before patients need life support can prevent death or the need for a breathing machine. Patients with COVID-19 and low oxygen levels will be treated with either prone positioning or normal positioning. The clinical trial will be performed at 34 hospitals across Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. If prone positioning saves patients' lives or prevents the need for breathing machines, it will be used in hospitals across Canada and around the world. | Bagshaw, Sean M; Stickland, Michael K; Zuege, Dan; Al Duhailib, Zainab; Archambault, Patrick; Belley-Côté, Emilie Prudence; Duan, Erick H; Fan, Eddy; Fiest, Kirsten M; Lauzier, François; Lewis, Kim; Meade, Maureen O; Niven, Daniel; Perri, Dan; Rochwerg, Bram N; Solverson, Kevin; Soo, Andrea; Thabane, Lehana | ||
| SARS-CoV-2 immunization strategies to enhance protective immunity with reduced risk of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Archambault, Denis | Université du Québec | CIHR | Québec | A pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged from China late in 2019 is currently underway resulting in worldwide severe morbidity and mortality. Thus, a safe and effective vaccine is urgently needed to fight virus propagation. In this project, after identifying and engineering the immunogens, we will translate towards SARS-CoV-2 a versatile, potent and immunostimulating nanotechnology platform recently developed in our laboratory, which not only will adequately present the vaccine materiel to the host immune system but also enhance its immunogenicity, while eliminating the risk associated with the so-called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). The gathered investigative team integrates a unique set of complementary knowledge including biophysics, protein engineering, virology and immunology, which is perfectly suited to rapidly address the health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has the necessary expertise and state-of-the-art infrastructure to conduct the proposed research. | Bourgault, Steve; Kobasa, Darwyn; Pickering, Bradley | |
| A Randomized Open-Label Trial of CONvalescent Plasma for Hospitalized Adults With Acute COVID-19 Respiratory Illness (CONCOR-1) | Clinical Trials | Arnold, Donald M; Bégin, Philippe; Callum, Jeannie L | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has affected over 4 million people and caused over 300,000 deaths worldwide. There is no known treatment for COVID-19 and it can take many months before a vaccine becomes available. There is a fairly significant body of anecdotal evidence that suggests the plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients - called convalescent plasma - may be an effective method of treating the virus. Convalescent plasma contains proteins called antibodies that can fight off the virus. Taking convalescent plasma from a person who has recovered from COVID-19, and infusing it into someone else who is sick in the hospital with COVID-19 infection might help them get better. The CONCOR-1 trial will tell us if convalescent plasma can help patients with COVID-19 avoid needing a respirator or dying. For the trial, COVID-19 patients who are admitted to the hospital will receive either convalescent plasma or the current standard of care by random selection, like flipping a coin. Patients will be watched for 30 days to see if convalescent works and whether it causes side effects. The CONCOR-1 trial will include 1200 patients from 60 hospitals across Canada and in 3 hospitals in New York City. It is important that we study convalescent plasma properly so that we can know if it is something that blood banks and blood suppliers should be providing to other patients with COVID-19. With our large team of experts from across Canada and a network of hospitals already in place, we plan to complete this large clinical trial quickly in the span of 9 months. | Bazin, Renée; Chasse, Michael; Cook, Richard J; Daneman, Nick; Devine, Dana V; Fergusson, Dean A; Finzi, Andrés; Fralick, Michael P; Glesby, Marshall J; Heddle, Nancy M; McGeer, Allison J; Robitaille, Nancy; Scales, Damon C; Schwartz, Lisa J; Shehata, Nadine; Tinmouth, Alan T; Turgeon, Alexis F; Xie, Feng; Zarychanski, Ryan; Zeller, Michelle P | |
| SUrveilling Prospective Population cOhorts for COVID19 pRevalence and ouTcomes in Canada (SUPPORT-Canada) | Digital Solutions | Awadalla, Philip; Abelson, Sagi; Bhatti, Parveen; broet, philippe; Cheung, Angela M; Dick, John E; Dummer, Trevor J; Lettre, Guillaume; Mclaughlin, John R; Simpson, Jared T; Sweeney, Ellen; Turner, Donna C; Vena, Jennifer E | Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | The ability to assess the spread and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is central to our ability to inform a targeted and proportional public health response, both now and in the future. Here, we will leverage major prior investments into Canadian health platforms to enable the rapid development of a Canadian COVID-19 cohort and research resource that will enable the real-time assessment of population susceptibility and prevalence and act as a critical resource to support both population and clinical-level research at a national scale. The initiative titled SUrveilling Prospective Population cOhorts for COVID19 pRevalence and ouTcomes in Canada (SUPPORT-Canada) aims to capture data and biologics to enable population-level surveillance, and enable researchers and clinicians to find factors contributing to COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, thus identifying high risk individuals or communities across Canada. Building on partnerships between the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health, Canada's largest population cohort, the University Hospital Network, and regional partners, SUPPORT-Canada is a collaborative effort, with both national and global partners, that will and capture critical short- and long-term COVID-19 clinical features from affected and unaffected Canadians. Our platform has been designed to integrate with national and global research efforts to support clinical, immunological and genetic studies of COVID19. Our integrated approach will enable rapid data sharing and translation of findings to the public health and research community. The identification of diagnosed and symptomatic participants within the Canadian population will enable rapid surveillance that can support our public health agencies at the community and the individual level. Capturing COVID-19-specific information will enable us to provide the research community timely data to support surveillance, prevention and risk factor research. | Gingras, Anne-Claude; Kirsh, Victoria; Lerner-Ellis, Jordan P; Wouters, Brad | |
| Rapid research in the CHILD Cohort to inform Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic: investigating the prevalence and predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the health and psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian families | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Azad, Meghan; Mandhane, Piush; Moraes, Theo; Subbarao, Padmaja; Turvey, Stuart E | University of Manitoba | CIHR | Manitoba | The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone. Millions of Canadians will be infected by the novel coronavirus, but only a few will develop severe COVID-19 disease. Others will have mild symptoms, or none at all. We don't know why some infected people get very sick and others do not, and we don't know the true rate of infection in the population. Social distancing policies and school and business closures have helped slow the spread of COVID-19, but we don't know how they will affect mental health and wellbeing (especially in children) in the long term. These are urgent questions that must be answered quickly to control outbreaks and minimize the unintended consequences of pandemic management policies. We will study the direct effects of coronavirus infection and the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the existing CHILD Cohort Study. CHILD involves 3500 families in BC, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario who have been followed since before their children were born in 2008-2010. Most recently, children provided detailed health data and blood samples in 2018-2020 (just before the pandemic), providing a unique opportunity to study how children's pre-pandemic health and immune status influences the risk and outcome of coronavirus infection. We will now ask all CHILD family members to report COVID-19 symptoms using a text messaging system, and provide a few drops of blood for COVID-19 antibody testing using a simple at-home collection kit. Families will also complete surveys about their physical and mental health, behaviours and emotions during the pandemic. This study will help us understand how Canadian families are being affected - both directly through infection and indirectly through pandemic management policies. Our research will provide important real-time data to Public Health authorities about coronavirus infection, symptoms, transmission and immunity in 12,000 Canadians in 4 provinces (CHILD children, siblings, parents) to inform Canada's COVID-19 response. | Bolotin, Shelly; Bullard, Jared; Ogden, Nicholas H; Sbihi, Hind; Amenyogbe, Nelly A; Brinkman, Fiona S; Brook, Jeffrey R; Di Ruggiero, Erica; Hsiao, William; Julien, Jean-Philippe; Kollmann, Tobias R; Lou, Wen-Yi W; Moffitt, Terrie; Patrick, David M; Simons, Elinor; WANG, BO | |
| Development of SARS-CoV-2 Peptide Therapeutics and Point-of-Care Salivary Diagnostics for Rapid Viral Detection | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Babu, Mohan; Siqueira, Walter L | University of Regina (Saskatchewan) | CIHR | Saskatchewan | SARS-CoV-2 (the causative agent of COVID-19) poses a generational threat, with no licensed vaccines or effective therapies to date. Further, the scarcity in reliable diagnostics, especially when testing asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic cases, is of grave concern. Accordingly, our proposal tackles 2 of the 3 research areas of this call, and addresses all 5 objectives, by developing and testing SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics and also prototyping convenient point-of-care (POC) COVID-19 diagnostics with scaling-up feasibility. For the therapeutic arm, we will innovatively design and test peptide disruptors of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein interaction with the human ACE2 receptor during viral entry, and other peptide inhibitors of viral-human interactions required for SARS-CoV-2 establishment. These will be tested in vitro using cell-based assays, with promising disruptors validated in SARS-CoV-2 hamster models. In addition, we will screen our in-house synthetic compounds targeting chaperones as potential SARS-CoV-2 replication inhibitors in both cell-based assays and animal models. On the diagnostic front, we will develop new diagnostic solutions for effective detection of even mild/asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers at home and/or in remote locations. This POC lab-on-a tip technology will specifically detect SARS-CoV-2 peptides from patient saliva, with our clinician collaborators taking the lead in scaling-up both peptide therapeutics and our POC diagnostic device through ongoing coordination with the federal government and Saskatchewan Health Authority. This proposal brings together leading Canadian scientists and clinicians to fulfill our objectives by generating high-quality data to diagnostically and therapeutically accelerate the detection and prevention of COVID-19 and foster nationwide collaborations, with a clear scaling-up path that will refine decision-making across Canadian jurisdictions for effective and timely containment of the COVID-19 outbreak. | Falzarano, Darryl; Golshani, Ashkan; Houry, Walid A; Kobasa, Darwyn; Prasad, Bhanu; Yang, Jun | |
| Long-Term Care in Crisis: The Reality of COVID-19 | Aging/Elder Care | Baumann, Andrea | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Long-term care (LTC) in Canada is in crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, 82% of all recorded COVID-19 deaths nationwide are connected to LTC and retirement homes. This research will accelerate the availability of high-quality and real-time evidence to support Canada's rapid response to the global pandemic in order to better manage COVID-19 and position Canada to meet future health threats with particular reference to LTC. The goal of this research is to conduct a thorough examination of the LTC system. The limited capacity of LTC homes in Canada to manage COVID-19 has been emphasized in the media. The challenge facing governments is to understand what went wrong and to create policies that ensure improvements across the LTC sector. The transdisciplinary research team comprises experts in health services, political science, organization and management, finance, health law and health economics, sociology and labour studies. The research findings will provide comprehensive information on critical factors necessary for decision making in LTC. The evidence will provide tangible solutions for multiple stakeholders, including governments, service providers and healthcare workers. | Berta, Whitney B; Bourgeault, Ivy L; Deber, Raisa S; Kurmi, Om Prakash; Laporte, Audrey; Lavoie-Tremblay, Mélanie; Roblin, Blair A | |
| Development of Vaccines to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection of High Risk Individuals | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Bell, John C; Ilkow, Carolina S; Lapointe, Réjean; Mahoney, Douglas J | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | CIHR | Ontario | The physical-distancing strategy currently implemented in the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada has been very effective in preventing the vast majority of Canadians from being infected by SARS-CoV-2. This essential short-term strategy is saving lives, but paradoxically will leave most of our citizens without protective immunity and a recurrent outbreak is both predictable and likely without an effective Canadian vaccine strategy. A global effort has been initiated to identify an effective Covid-19 vaccine, testing a variety of vaccine platforms and strategies. Unfortunately, few of these are being developed, tested or manufactured in Canada leaving our population in a very perilous situation where our vaccine needs could be de-prioritized by foreign governments. This project is aimed at bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and clinicians to rapidly create and manufacture a vaccine to prevent a second wave of infections. We are using scientists and infrastructure, already available in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary and the US (Covington Louisiana) to rapidly create, compare and contrast different vaccine strategies in animal models. Our best candidate will then be manufactured in a pure enough form to inject in humans. We will complete all of the data and regulatory documents to prepare an application to Health Canada to allow the initiation of a clinical trial in healthy volunteers. | Angel, Jonathan B; Auer, Rebecca Ann C; Bohm, Rudolf P; Cailhier, Jean-Francois; Cameron, D.William; Diallo, Jean-Simon; Jamieson, Michael; Jenne, Craig N; Russell-Lodrigue, Kasi E | |
| La réorganisation des services institutionnels et communautaires auprès des personnes en situation d'itinérance et les besoins des personnes en situation d'itinérance pour faire face à la pandémie de COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Bellot, Céline | Université de Montréal | CIHR | Québec | Considérant les mesures de confinement adoptées par le gouvernement, les restrictions en termes de rassemblement et de déplacement, les fermetures des espaces publics mais également les espaces privés à caractère public comme les commerces, les centres commerciaux, les bibliothèques, etc.. , la réalité des personnes en situation d'itinérance (PSI) a profondément changé dans les dernière semaines tout comme celles des pratiques d'intervention dans ce champ. Or, peu d'étude s'intéressent à comprendre les impacts tant sur les organisations, les services, les intervenants que les personnes concernées tout comme les mécanismes et les stratégies d'adaptation mis en place. L'objectif de cette étude est donc de comprendre cette résilience des organisations, des intervenants tant institutionnels que communautaires et des personnes en situation d'itinérance. En observant et comparant dans les différentes régions du Québec, les adaptations, les transformations mises en place ainsi que les résistances rencontrées pour répondre à cette pandémie, le projet vise à documenter et faire circuler les réponses offertes en termes d'intervention dans le champ de l'itinérance, les impacts de la COVID sur les intervenants et leurs pratiques dans différents milieux d'intervention et sur les PSI dans leurs routines et leurs besoins en contrastant sur les dimensions du sexe, du genre, de l'orientation sexuelle, de l'âge, du type d'itinérance vécu et des difficultés personnelles associées notamment santé mentale et consommation de drogues) Par la création d'un Observatoire Itinérance-COVID19, cette étude vise à produire des analyses axées sur l'utilisation des résultats par les professionnels et les décideurs, et un transfert des connaissances orienté vers le partage des leçons apprises ici pour mieux soutenir ailleurs afin de soutenir et renforcer la résilience de tous dans le contexte de cette pandémie. | Côté, Philippe-Benoit; Fontaine, Annie; Goyer, Marie-Eve; Greissler, Elisabeth; Grimard, Carolyne; MacDonald, Sue-Ann | |
| COVID-19 and COPD: Important knowledge gaps in subclinical pulmonary disease in the Canadian population | Clinical Care | Bourbeau, Jean; Tan, Wan | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | CIHR | Québec | The rapid outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in a public health emergency of unprecedented international concern. To adequately guide clinical and public health responses to current and future outbreaks, the World Health Organization has established identifying groups of individuals at high risk of severe infection as an urgent research priority. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a prevalent underlying co-morbidity and a leading risk factor for complications of COVID-19, but little is known on specific pulmonary risk factors for COVID-19 severity. We propose to mobilize an existing resource, the CanCOLD longitudinal cohort, to address this knowledge gap. CanCOLD is a population-based cohort of 1561 individuals aged > 40 years categorized as healthy, "at-risk" (ex- & current smokers) and COPD recruited in 9 of Canada's largest cities, where COVID-19 transmission is the greatest. We will leverage this established cohort to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 and its presentation (asymptomatic and symptomatic) in COPD, at-risk and healthy controls via serological antibody test. We will also exploit pre- and post-outbreak data and biosamples collected by CanCOLD to characterize prevalence and hazard of COVID-19 hospitalization (with/without ICU) and death according to four pre-morbid pulmonary risk factors: pre-existing pulmonary disease (COPD, asthma, chronic bronchitis), severity of airflow obstruction, lung structure abnormalities, and use of respiratory medication. We will identify and characterize the immunologic profile of CanCOLD participants and its relationship with COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Finally, we will investigate the impacts of social isolation and confinement on mental health amongst Canadians with chronic airway disease. Ultimately, this study will provide an integrated perspective on COVID-19 susceptibility that can guide recommendations for clinical practice and public health strategies. | Van Dam, Anne; Aaron, Shawn D; Benedetti, Andrea; Chapman, Kenneth R; Hernandez, Paul; Maltais, François; Marciniuk, Darcy D; O'Donnell, Denis E; Rousseau, Simon; Sin, Donald; Smith, Benjamin M; Walker, Brandie L | |
| Living network meta-analysis and Rapid Recommendations for the treatment of COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Brignardello Petersen, Romina; Guyatt, Gordon H; Siemieniuk, Reed A | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Patients and clinician worldwide need trustworthy, rapidly updated guidelines to inform their treatment of patients with COVID-19. This project will produce such guidelines. Trustworthy guidelines need trustworthy evidence summaries. These summaries need to be up to date and need to differentiate will done studies producing valid results from poorly done studies that are likely to be misleading. Some of the studies of COVID-19 treatments will be trustworthy, and others will not. The evidence needs to be interpreted properly by considering all the relevant studies addressing each treatment, and their strengths and limitations. In addition, it will be important to revise evidence summaries frequently as new information is published. We will publish trustworthy summaries of the evidence that will be updated continually as new studies are published. We will search many databases to detect and include all relevant trials COVID-19. We will evaluate how well designed and conducted the studies were. We will also combine the results from all of the most trustworthy studies in a single analysis that will allow users to compare all options. These optimal evidence summaries will inform trustworthy practice guidelines. We will create trustworthy guidelines by constituting a panel that includes experts in COVID-19, experts in assessing evidence, front-line clinicians treating COVID-19, and patients who have lived experience of COVID-19. Panel members will be free of conflict of interest. These recommendations will be produced quickly and revised constantly as researchers publish new data. Finally, we will publish our summaries and recommendations in websites that will be freely available to all. The work will be conducted in collaboration with a leading medical journal, the British Medical Journal, and will be published there. The work will also be conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization, that will use our guidelines directly or with minor changes. | Agarwal, Arnav; Agoritsas, Thomas; Bartoszko, Jessica J; Foroutan, Farid; Lamontagne, Francois; Lytvyn, Lyubov O; Murthy, Srinivas; Rochwerg, Bram N; Thabane, Lehana; Tomlinson, George A; Zeraatkar, Dena | |
| CODA-19: a Collaborative Data Analysis Platform to Improve Clinical Care in Patients with COVID-19 | Digital Solutions | Chasse, Michael; Afilalo, Jonathan; Archambault, Patrick; Buckeridge, David L; Cavayas, Yiorgos Alexandros; Pineau, Joelle; Turgeon, Alexis F; Wang, Han Ting | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) | CIHR | Québec | COVID-19 is a highly contagious acute respiratory illness that has undergone rapid global spread in the beginning of 2020. There is a pressing need to develop tools that can help physicians diagnose COVID-19 rapidly, determine if different disease presentations warrant different types of treatment, flag patients at high risk of deteriorating, and ensure healthcare resources are attributed efficiently and equitably. Through an established partnership with 9 hospitals, a collaborative analysis platform has been developed to pool data from multiple sites while minimizing the exchange of patient-level information. This collaboration is building on a large database of biological data from patients tested for COVID-19 that is being collected in these hospitals. Risk prediction models will be developed to identify patients at high risk of COVID prior to the availability of definitive testing, characterize distinct disease trajectories, intervene pre-emptively in patients at high risk of clinical deterioration, and make forecasts to plan hospital resources and staffing. The accuracy of predictions will be continuously verified using new cases, which will be identified from different hospital sites in real time. These predictive models will be used to build tools that can help physicians better treat patients with COVID-19, and provide actionable recommendations to support Canada's response to COVID-19. | Afilalo, Marc; Carrier, François M; Charbonney, Emmanuel; Chartrand-Lefebvre, Carl; Cohen, Joseph Paul; Durand, Audrey; Durand, Madeleine; English, Shane W; Jouvet, Philippe A; Mullie, Louis-Antoine; Osmanlliu, Esli; Plourde, Guillaume; Richards, Brent; Robert, Antony; Sauthier, Michaël S; Sauthier, Nicolas; Tang, An | |
| Computer-aided discovery of synergistic drug combinations with Remdevisir for COVID-19 through mechanism-based drug repurposing and combinatorial organoid screening. | Clinical Trials | Cherkasov, Artem; Jean, François | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | With more than 4 million cases and over 300,000 deaths worldwide, it is critical to find an effective treatment against COVID-19 and to find it fast. Hopes for ending the pandemic largely rely on new vaccines, however the development of vaccines typically takes years and even if one is available today (which is not), its approval will take more than a year in the most optimistic scenario. Thus, the only realistic option for rapid COVID-19 treatment is drug repurposing. Drug reprofiling (repurposing) implies the use of existing drugs approved for other indications, and yet showing useful activity against SAR-CoV-2 virus. One well-known example of this strategy is remdesivir, currently the most promising treatment against COVID-19, and which was originally developed as Hepatitis C drug. Although very promising, remdesivir is still modestly efficient against COVID-19 and hence, if one could further boost its effectiveness by using it in a synergetic combination with another reprofiled drug, the pandemic might finally see the resolution. This consortium of national and international scientists wants to identify such much-needed SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor among known drugs, which then will be used either as stand-alone therapy for COVID-19 or a synergetic 'booster' for remdesivir. This team of scientists was recently awarded four COVID-19 rapid response grants to build a state-of-the-art organoid-based screening platforms established at UBC CL3 infectious disease facility, working in sync with high-resolution crystallography and artificial intelligence-enhanced molecular modeling and imaging platforms. We are ready and prepared to push forward this project even in this extremely condensed 1-year timeframe. The proposed research will generate high quality data on COVID-19 treatments shared through extensive international collaborations, will initiate critical clinical trials, and will position Canada as a world leader in the global fight against the pandemic. | Andersen, Raymond J; Hamarneh, Ghassan; Hubbard, Basil P; Nabi, Ivan R; Reichman, Melvin; Shi, Pei-Yong; Strynadka, Natalie C; Vogl, Adalbert W; Young, Robert N | |
| Canadian COVID-19 Prospective Cohort Study (CanCOV) | Cohort Studies/Biobanking | Cheung, Angela M; Ahmed, Sofia B; Batt, Jane Andrea E; Binnie, Alexandra; Dos Santos, Claudia C; Ghassemi, Marzyeh; Herridge, Margaret S; Lamontagne, Francois; Morin, Suzanne N; Palepu, Anita; Razak, Fahad; Stelfox, Henry T; Strug, Lisa J; Tsang, Jennifer L; Verma, Amol; Yeung, Rae S | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | The Canadian COVID-19 Prospective Cohort Study (CANCOV) is the first Canadian study to provide a comprehensive evaluation of early to 1-year outcomes in 2000 patients with COVID-19 infection and their family caregivers. This study will be conducted in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, the hardest hit provinces in Canada. CANCOV is built on the GEMINI (GEneral Internal Medicine INpatient Initiative) and RECOVER (REhabilitation and reCOVERy after critical illness) established research platforms. Through the CANCOV program of research, we will: 1) characterize the myriad health consequences of COVID-19 including their short and long-term outcomes (recruited from the community and hospitals) and those of their family caregivers, 2) determine the clinical risk factors, timing and pace of recovery across the spectrum of COVID-19 disease, 3) provide detailed clinical descriptions for genetic, basic science, translational and multi-omics research inquiry, and 4) facilitate the creation of prediction models and tools using machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as secondary clinical studies. Our senior and diverse team of investigators, many with extensive research experience during SARS, will shorten the time to translate knowledge into practice through multiple rapid knowledge to action cycles throughout this project. Insights from this large-scale project will enable Canada to improve COVID-19 clinical care and decision-making regarding service provision, and response to this global pandemic. | Lawless, Bernard; Misak, Cheryl; Abbey, Susan E; Abdelhalim, Tarek; Abrahamyan, Lusine; Adhikari, Neill K; Awadalla, Philip; Barwick, Melanie A; Bayley, Mark T; Bernard, Francis; Bessissow, Amal; Bosma, Karen J; Boyd, John G; Brochard, Laurent J; Burns, Karen E; Burns, Stacey; Cameron, Jill I; Chan, Adrienne; Cook, Deborah J; Daneman, Nick; Del Sorbo, Lorenzo; Detsky, Michael E; Doig, Christopher; Downar, James; Ferguson, Niall D; Filewod, Niall; Flannery, John F; Flockhart, Linda; Fowler, Robert A; Fox-Robichaud, Alison E; Fraser, Ian M; Friedrich, Jan; Giangregorio, Lora Marie; Gilbert, Penney M; Goldstein, Roger S; Goligher, Ewan C; Grant, Chris; Greenwood, Sarah E; Hatcher, Simon; Honarmand, Kimia; Hornstein, David; Huszti, Ella; Katzberg, Hans; Keller, Heather H; Kho, Michelle E; Khwaja, Kosar; Krahn, Murray D; Kredentser, Maia S; Lapointe-Shaw, Lauren; Lawler, Patrick R; Lipes, Jed; Lo, Vincent; MacMillan, Thomas E; Maham, Nava; Marshall, John C; Maslove, David; Mathur, Sunita; McCredie, Victoria A; Mclaughlin, John R; Meggison, Hilary E; Mehta, Sangeeta; Moisey, Lesley; Munshi, Laveena; Muscedere, John; Olafson, Kendiss P; Parotto, Matteo; Rawal, Shail; Rewa, Oleksa G; Richards, Brent; Robinson, Lawrence; Robles, Priscila G; Rozenberg, Dmitry; Rudkowski, Jill C; Rush, Raphael; Scales, Damon C; Serri, Karim; Simpson, Robert; Slessarev, Marat; Soong, Christine; Spiegle, Gillian; Tagalakis, Vicky; Tan, Adrienne; Tang, Terence; Tile, Lianne E; Tomlinson, George A; Tran, Jake; Wunsch, Hannah | |
| Integrated multi-omic delineation of SARS-CoV-2-dysregulated cellular processes | Fundamental Science | Coombs, Kevin M | University of Manitoba | CIHR | Manitoba | As of May 10 2020, there were a reported >4 million confirmed cases and > 285,000 deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus (CoV) SARS-CoV-2, causing the COVID-19 disease. Our understanding of the molecular factors that are responsible for the virulence and the selection of host cells to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 that could explain the emerging variety of clinical symptoms reported in COVID-19 patients is rudimentary at best. All strategies of rapidly developing tools to mitigate this catastrophic SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are fundamentally dependent on us identifying and controlling those proteins that execute the cellular mechanisms critical for SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect and replicate in host cells. We will use a powerful novel tool, called SOMAscan, to rapidly determine how COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus), and a variety of other coronaviruses, affect large numbers of proteins in different human lung cells, the normal target of the COVID-19 virus. By examining how non-pathogenic, and highly pathogenic, coronaviruses, such as SARS-1, MERS and SARS-CoV-2 specifically and differentially affect cellular proteins, we will learn the unique ways in which the deadly coronaviruses can cause disease. We also will examine how these cellular proteins, and virus infection, are influenced by treatment with a variety of anti-viral agents, some of which are currently in clinical trials, to improve the information gained in these complementary clinical trials. Finally, we also will determine how affecting some of the proteins we identify can impact coronavirus-mediated growth and disease processes. Results obtained in this research will provide vital fundamental information about the molecular replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will form the foundation for more in-depth studies, all of which will pave the way for more effective therapeutic interventions to improve human health. | Bader, Gary D; Kirshenbaum, Lorrie A; Klonisch, Thomas; Kobasa, Darwyn; Krzyzanowski, Paul M; Moraes, Theo; Tran, Anh T | |
| A Rapid Research Platform to Inform Prevention and Improve the Clinical Management of COVID-19 Illness for Priority Older Adult Groups: The Ontario Multi-Regional Hospital Coronavirus Registry (COREG) | Aging/Elder Care | Costa, Andrew P; Beauchamp, Marla K; Duong, Mylinh; Kruisselbrink, Rebecca | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Older adults are the more vulnerable to developing COVID-19 and its complications, particularly home care and retirement home residents. Older persons are also less likely to regain full functional and health recovery after a COVID-19 illness. We have little information on why some people develop severe COVID-19; and how COVID-19 may affect older adults in Canada. There is no information on the medium- and long-term outcomes in survivors and how we can improve their recovery rate and prevent health and functional loss. Rapid large-scale Canadian data platforms, with detailed information on patients with COVID-19 and their clinical course, are needed to address these questions and help plan strategies that can limit the spread and the impact of COVID-19 in older adults now and in the future. We are launching the Ontario Multi-Regional Hospital Coronavirus Registry (COREG), a platform that collects detailed case data on confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and outpatients, in collaboration with the World Health Organization. We will address these critical gaps, with linkage to provincial data to identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 and death in older adults in the general population, home care, and retirement homes in Ontario. The COREG platform will document the clinical course to 9 months, to study the functional recovery and the need for targeted rehabilitative treatments. COREG will provide rapid high-quality evidence to improve the prevention and clinical management of COVID-19 for older adults in Canada, and internationally. COREG will also provide researchers and partners with complete and in-depth regional and individual-level clinical data on COVID-19 to inform rapid decision-making and projections, sub-studies, extensions, and linkage for all affected populations. | Ciccotelli, William; Farjou, George; Griffith, Lauren E; Haider, Shariq; Hanmiah, Rajendar; Ho, Terence; Jones, Aaron T; Junek, Mats L; Liu, Theresa T; Marcucci, Maura; Markle-Reid, Maureen Frances; Martin, Leslie; Patel, Mohammed A; Pitre, Tyler; Raghavan, Natya; Raina, Parminder S; Raza, Samir; Schumacher, Connie; Srivaratharajah, Kajenny; Vrkljan, Brenda H; Wald, Joshua | |
| Liver as a bioreactor for robust production of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies | Fundamental Science | Cullis, Pieter R | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Passive immunization is when the serum of recovered patients is transferred to patients suffering from the disease. This serum contains the necessary antibodies produced by the recovered patient's immune system to fight-off the infection. However, this approach to treating infections requires large amounts of convalescent serum, which is difficult to obtain. A novel and promising strategy would be to artificially produce the selected antibodies that would fight-off the infection. However, antibody manufacturing at large scales is a fundamentally slow and laborious process lacking the infrastructure within Canada. Here, we use a more scalable, well understood, already established and approved platform technology, namely lipid nanoparticles, to deliver messenger RNA to the liver, where this antibody will be produced through the natural biochemical processes of the human body and secreted into the systemic circulation. The liver naturally produces over 90% of proteins in blood circulation and has the remarkable ability to produce antibodies also. We will modify the mRNA sequence that encodes the antibody so that it can access the lumen of the lungs where it is most needed to protect epithelial cells from being infected by the virus. The end result is a formulation that generates the antibody in the liver and will afford robust immune protection against virus in the blood and in the lungs. Our proposal requires funding to support the generation of the mRNA material, preparation of the nanoparticles using well-established and scalable procedures, and subsequently testing them in mice. This technology expands upon existing lipid nanoparticle technology that is currently being evaluate as a COVID-19 vaccine in phase II clinical trials (Moderna, CureVac, BioNTech). | Kastrup, Christian J | |
| Population-based seroprevalence of prior infection with COVID-19 in Canada: implications for testing, economic revitalization and population health. | Serological Studies | Drews, Steven J | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | Canadian Blood Services blood donors are healthy people from cities and smaller urban areas in all provinces in Canada except Quebec. Left over blood samples from blood donations will be randomly selected and tested for antibodies to COVID-19. Antibodies are part of the body's response to an infection and are specific for the infecting virus. The presence of antibodies to COVID-19 means that the person previously had COVID-19. They may or may not have immunity to prevent them from getting COVID-19 again (that is, have functional immunity). Over 12 months, 1,500 samples will be tested each month. All samples that test positive for COVID-19 antibodies will have additional testing to measure the antibody concentration (titer) and how effective the antibodies are at binding to COVID-19 virus (neutralization). These will help to understand how likely people who had COVID-19 are to have immunity against re-infection. Tests that can be used for large numbers of samples will be compared to help Canada develop tests suitable for large scale testing. Monitoring functional immunity over the course of the pandemic will help to understand if people start to lose their immunity over time. Monthly data reports will be made available to public health staff (federal and provincial) to inform policy over the course of the pandemic. Mathematical modelling will refine estimates of immunity in the population which is fundamental to public health policy formulation. | Evans, David H; Fisman, David N; Gingras, Anne-Claude; Hobman, Tom C; O'Brien, Sheila F; Tuite, Ashleigh | |
| PRevention of COVID-19 with high dose Oral Vitamin D supplemental Therapy in Essential healthCare Teams (PROTECT) | Clinical Trials | Ducharme, Francine M; Tremblay, C√©cile L | Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine | CIHR | Québec | During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite personnel protection equipment, healthcare workers are 10 times more likely to contract the infection due to their exposure to patients and co-workers with unknown or confirmed COVID19 infection. Any one withdrawn due to infection has an amplified negative impact on care delivery, further increasing the burden on those remaining and on our healthcare system. Studies have shown that Vitamin D supplementation decreases the risk of common respiratory illnesses by about 20%, particularly in those with lower vitamin D levels. Lower Vitamin D levels is a common occurrence among Canadians, particularly in the fall and winter, that is, at the expected of the second wave of infection. Whether high-dose vitamin supplementation can help decrease the risk of COVID 19 infection in health care workers is yet to determined. In this 16-week randomized clinical trial to be started in September 2020, 2414 healthcare workers in the greater Montreal area will be allocated by chance to receive: (i) a high bolus dose of vitamin D followed by weekly doses of vitamin D or (ii) placebo bolus and placebo weekly dose, for 16 weeks. Every two weeks, participants will perform a nasal swab to be send to analysis. This study will examine whether healthcare workers receiving vitamin D have a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, milder infection, and/ or a shorter infection duration, compared to the control group. If vitamin D proves effective to decrease COVID 19 infections, severity, and duration, it may be the cheapest, most easily applicable approach (in addition to social distancing and personal prevention equipment) to prevent COVID-19 infection in at-risk healthcare workers. If the benefit also translates in fewer and shorter withdrawals from the workforce, it may consubstantially reduce the burden on healthcare system and ensuring sufficient healthcare workforce to better tackle the current pandemic. | Coviello, Decio; Golchi, Shirin; Longo, Cristina M; Platt, Robert W; Quach-Thanh, Caroline; Ste-Marie, Louis-Georges; White, John H | |
| Semaglutide to reduce Myocardial injury in PATIents with COVID-19 (SEMPATICO): An exploratory randomized controlled clinical trial | Clinical Trials | Dzavik, Vladimir | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | The current COVID-19 pandemic has now affected over 4.1 million people with almost 300,000 deaths. In Canada, there are almost 70,000 cases and over 5100 deaths. There is no decline in the spread of this infection. The virus can cause heart damage in up to 28% of affected patients, with over half of these patients who develop heart damage not surviving their infection. Scientists believe that the virus may cause direct damage of heart cells, or a storm of molecules that cause inflammation, and small blood vessel clots that starve the heart of oxygen. In animal studies, damage is reduced by new diabetes drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) already approved for the treatment of diabetes. Important studies show that GLP-1RA lower the risk of heart attack, stroke and death in patients with diabetes, and that small molecules generated by GLP-1RA directly protect cell of heart blood vessels. The clinical data are so promising with GLP-1RA, that this drug class is now being studied in obese non-diabetic patients at high risk of CV disease. Based on this evidence our hypothesis is that the GLP-1RA semaglutide (Ozempic - Novo Nordisk) will reduce heart damage caused by COVID-19, by protecting heart blood vessels cells. We hypothesize that these effects will reduce the need for patients to need a hospital, a ventilator, and reduce the risk of death. Our target population includes symptomatic COVID-19 patients who are at home or hospitalized, but not (yet) in an intensive care unit (ICU). By random assignment (by chance), they will be assigned to receive a once-weekly simple-to-self-administer painless "pen-click" subcutaneous injection of semaglutide or placebo for a total of 4 weeks. We will keep track of how many patients have heart muscle damage, how many need hospitalization, a ventilator to support breathing or medicine to support blood pressure in the ICU, and how many die. We will conduct the study in 15 centres in Canada and other countries. | Coburn, Bryan A; Connelly, Kim A; Farkouh, Michael E; Goodman, Shaun G; Granton, John T; Husain, Mansoor; Jüni, Peter; Lawler, Patrick R; McDonald, Emily G; Thorpe, Kevin E; van Diepen, Sean | |
| Anti-Coronavirus Therapy (ACT) to prevent COVID-19 disease progression: a clinical trial platform | Clinical Trials | Eikelboom, John W; Anand, Sonia S; Avezum, Alvaro; Bangdiwala, Shrikant I; Belley-Côté, Emilie Prudence; Chan, Noel; Choudhri, Shurjeel; Dans, Antonio L; Diaz, Rafael; Farkouh, Michael E; Felix, Camilo; Gerstein, Hertzel C; Healey, Jeff S; Jolly, Sanjit S; Leong, Darryl; Loeb, Mark B; Lopéz, Jose P; Paré, Guillaume; Whitlock, Richard; Yusuf, Salim | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 has been diagnosed in millions of persons and has caused several hundred thousand deaths. Effective treatments are urgently required. We have created the "Anti-Coronavirus Therapies (ACT) to prevent COVID-19 disease progression" trials platform to rapidly evaluate whether several commonly available interventions can be repurposed for the treatment of COVID-19 disease. The specific aims of our research are to determine whether treatments that: (a) reduce the levels of virus in the body, (b) reduce the response by the body to the infection (i.e., inflammation), and (c) prevent blood clotting can prevent COVID-19 disease progression. We will test these treatments alone and in combination in two trials: (1) Outpatient trial: here we are trying to patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from needing to go to hospital. (2) Inpatient trial: here we are trying to prevent patients with COVID-19 who are already hospitalized from being admitted to the intensive care unit and from dying. The trial started in Canada on April 21 and will eventually include about 4,000 patients from at least 100 centres and at least 12 countries around the world. | ||
| The COVID-19 Ontario Pregnancy Event (COPE) Network: Assessing the impact of COVID-19 in pregnancy on maternal, fetal and newborn health | Child Health and Human Development | El-Chaar, Darine; Langlois, Marc-Andre | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | CIHR | Ontario | Data collection and research on COVID-19 in pregnancy are urgently needed to fill the many knowledge gaps about the impact of COVID-19 on maternal, fetal and newborn health. We propose to leverage Ontario's birth registry, and the COVID-19 Ontario Pregnancy Event (COPE) Network - a collaboration of 12 obstetrical hospitals in 5 of Ontario's largest cities - to launch a series of seroprevalence, vertical transmission and surveillance investigations that will generate rapid, rigourous evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 in pregnancy. We will achieve this by (1) implementing universal screening of all pregnant women to assess the prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection; (2) generating complete infection and antibody profiles of maternal and newborn tissues to assess the mother-to-infant transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2 among mothers affected by COVID-19; and (3) generating in-depth obstetrical profiles of pregnancies affected by COVID-19 to assess clinical characteristics, case management and maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with infection during pregnancy. Our multi-disciplinary, high-qualified team has an established track-record in pregnancy and birth cohorts, molecular virology and infectious diseases, and are well-positioned to fulfill these objectives. Our findings will inform strategies to optimize processes in care, patient counselling and health systems management specific to the obstetrical and neonatal population, and will lay the foundation for follow-up studies to assess the longer-term health implications of COVID-19 on infant health. The relevance of our findings will not be limited to Ontario but will be of value to clinicians and families across Canada and globally. | Cook, Jocelynn L; Millar, David; Sprague, Ann; Bainbridge, Shannon A; Barrett, Jon; Berger, Howard; Brophy, Jason C; Cameron, D.William; Crawley, Angela M; De Vrijer, Barbra; Dy, Jessica G; El Demellawy, Dina; Fell, Deshayne B; Gaudet, Laura M; LaRoche, Andre; Lawrence, Sarah L; McDonald, Sarah D; McGuinty, Michaeline; Mei-Dan, Elad; Muldoon, Katherine A; Murphy, Malia S; palerme, stephanie; Snelgrove, John W; Thampi, Nisha; Thorne, Susan; Walker, Mark C | |
| Advancing healthcare for COVID-19 in Ontario: Strengthening providers' capacity for best practices in African, Caribbean and Black community service provision | Public Health | Etowa, Josephine B; Nelson, LaRon E | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge for healthcare systems across the world. African, Caribbean and Black communities (ACB) include some of the most vulnerable populations in terms of their susceptibility to COVID-19 and their access and receipt of necessary and appropriate health care. The goal of this study is to improve the health system's response to COVID-19 by minimizing its spread and consequences in ACB communities. Specific objectives are to: 1) Engage ACB communities and health provider stakeholders in research and decision-making processes 2) Examine the contextual vulnerability and challenges experienced by ACB communities 3) Identify the adequacy and non-intended consequences of current health care practices on ACB communities 4) Increase individual, community and organizational capacity and leadership and generate strategies to address COVID-19 related-health outcomes, and 5) Share new knowledge and support its translation into policy and practice models to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on ACB communities. The project will take place in four phases in two sites in Ontario (Toronto and Ottawa). A local advisory group will ensure consistent community engagement and capacity building. Our research team is comprised of influential and committed researchers, community leaders, healthcare providers and knowledge users from diverse backgrounds and disciplines across Ontario. The expected impacts of the proposed research that will be felt locally and globally by strengthening ACB community responses to COVID-19, identifying evidence-based interventions to strengthen the health system's capacity to care for ACB members, and generating knowledge to reduce COVID-19-related health inequities in ACB communities. | KEMEI, JANET J; Loemba, Hugues; Taylor, Robin; Tharao, Wangari E; AJIBOYE, WALE T; Dabone, Charles; Lalonde, Michelle M; Yaya, Sanni | |
| The Anatomy, Determinants and Impacts of the Cargill COVID-19 Outbreak Among Newcomers and their Families in Canada | Public Health | Fabreau, Gabriel; Hinshaw, Deena; Pottie, Kevin | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | Alberta Occupational Health and Safety has reported that the High River Cargill Meat Processing Plant did not engage workers or their representatives in its investigation of Canada's largest single-site COVID-19 outbreak. With nearly 1600 infections, this outbreak makes up a quarter of all the COVID-19 infections in Alberta to date and is the largest COVID-19 outbreak cluster in North America. Our health project will study: 1) How the outbreak spread?; 2) Why it spread? and; 3) What was the response? To do this, we will work closely with the Alberta Health Services Public Health team, healthcare workers and social services that responded to this outbreak. We will also work closely with the UCFW Union Local 401, engage community members and work with Cargill employees to do this proposed research. Our embedded mixed-methods case study will collect and share all health-related data and stories from Cargill employees and their families to understand why this rapid outbreak occurred and understand how it affected these workers and their families. This work will advance our understanding of how the outbreak began, what factors led to its rapid spread, and why it affected mostly new immigrant, refugee and temporary foreign worker (newcomers) employees and their communities. The ongoing COVID-19 response and future Canadian public health responses require a detailed investigation to prevent similar outbreaks and create knowledge the public health, healthcare and social services systems need to improve care and community trust during COVID-19 outbreaks. | Friesen, Brent T; Hu, Jia; Alberga, Amanda; Attaran, Amir; Aucoin, Michael W; Bharwani, Aleem; Coakley, Annalee; Doroshenko, Alexander; Kennedy, Christine A; Lee, Nelson L; Magwood, Olivia; McBrien, Kerry; Milaney, Katrina; Parrilla Lopez, Maria Jose; Peters, Cheryl E; Ronksley, Paul E; Snedeker, Kate G; Talavlikar, Rachel K; Tugwell, Peter S | |
| Understanding and managing the effects of COVID-19 restricted visitation policies on the families and healthcare providers of critically ill patients | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Fiest, Kirsten M; Foster, Nadine K; Parsons Leigh, Jeanna J; Sept, Bonnie G; Stelfox, Henry T | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | There is worldwide spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Right now there is no vaccine or cure for the coronavirus. This means that most people can get sick with the coronavirus. Many hospitals around Canada developed visiting rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus and save masks, gowns, and gloves. Some visiting rules do not allow any family members to visit a patient in the hospital. When a patient is in the intensive care unit (ICU), they might be too sick to make decisions for themselves. This means that their family members might have to make important decisions for them. If a family member is not visiting the ICU, they may have to make these decisions over the phone. Making important decisions over the phone may be hard on the family member and the doctors or nurses. Visiting rules are important to prevent the spread of coronavirus and save masks, gowns, and gloves. We aim to understand what effect these visiting rules have on families, doctors, and nurses. We want to know what support they need while these visiting rules exist. First, we will see which Canadian hospitals have visiting rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus. We want to know how many hospitals do not allow family to visit a patient in the hospital during the coronavirus outbreak. Next, we will talk with patients, families, doctors, and nurses about how hard it is to not have families visit a patient during their hospital stay. We also want to know if these new visiting rules caused any mental health symptoms in family members. Last, we will ask families, doctors, nurses, and hospital leaders what they think would have helped make these visiting rules easier. It is important that we understand how hard these visiting rules are on patients, families, doctors, and nurses. Our goal is to work with hospitals to improve how they support families, doctors, and nurses when visiting rules are in place. | Burns, Karen E; West, Andrew; Ahmed, Sofia B; Bagshaw, Sean M; Barnes, Tavish; Cook, Deborah J; Doig, Christopher; Fowler, Robert A; Fox-Robichaud, Alison E; Kredentser, Maia S; Krewulak, Karla D; Murthy, Srinivas; Niven, Daniel; Olafson, Kendiss P; Parhar, Ken Kuljit S; Patten, Scott B; Rewa, Oleksa G; Rochwerg, Bram N; Sareen, Jitender; Soo, Andrea; Spence, Krista; Spence, Sean A; Straus, Sharon E | |
| COVID-19 trilogy: ARDS, inflammation and coagulopathy. | Fundamental Science | Flamand, Louis | Université Laval | CIHR | Québec | The current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has taken the world by surprise at the end of 2019. TH virus is highly transmittable and causes severe infections mostly in elderly and people with comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cardia disease. The most evident medical complication initially reported and associate with the infection is acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS). Recent data clearly indicates that in addition to the lungs, other organs such as the heart and kidneys are affected by the infection. One common finding is the presence of blood clots in veins and arterioles of patients, pointing out to a deregulated coagulation process. In addition to study the inflammation during SARS-CoV-2 infection, our goal is to understand why such blot clots are formed. We will be using different mouse models to address how platelets may get activated and from undersized blood clots. Lastly, we will explore the potential benefits of administrating anti-platelet and anti-coagulant drugs to mice in oder to protect them from the disease. | Boilard, Eric; Flamand, Nicolas | |
| Mitigating the long-term impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on cancer control and care | Clinical Care | Franco, Eduardo L | McGill University | CIHR | Québec | The COVID-19 pandemic is causing major disruptions to several activities related to cancer control, prevention, and care. Cancer screening and prevention are now scaled back to prevent exposure of participants to the coronavirus. Many cancer diagnostic procedures and treatments have been delayed, modified, or suspended. As the containment measures are extended over several months, losses in the quality and quantity of cancer control and care will eventually lead to increases in incidence of cancers preventable via screening and vaccination, more advanced disease at diagnosis, and lower survival. The proposed research aims to study the long-term impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on cancer prevention, screening, and care to design evidence-driven mitigation strategies. First, we will assess the spectrum of cancer control and care activities that have been suppressed or altered because of the epidemic. Via a panel of oncologists from all subspecialties, public health experts, nurses, and pathologists we will identify processes of cancer control and care and estimate quantitatively the extent of influence on these processes by the epidemic and associated actions by the healthcare system. Second, we will conduct an in-depth literature review to obtain estimates of screening effectiveness and of the effects of delays in cancer diagnosis on clinical outcomes, such as stage at diagnosis and disease-free survival. Thirdly, based on the quantitative parameters obtained in the latter two research activities, we will develop models representing the population of Canada to estimate the impact of the pandemic on site-specific cancer trajectories. The models will be used to estimate the pandemic's impact in terms of cancer incidence (due to delays in diagnosis and suspended/deferred screening) and survival (due to delays in diagnosis and altered/suspended treatments) and based on these projections, we will propose strategies to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality. | Aprikian, Armen G; Batist, Gerald; Miller, Wilson H; Strumpf, Erin C | |
| Household Transmission Dynamics and Vial Load among Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infected Children | Transmission Dynamics | Freedman, Stephen B; Florin, Todd A; Funk, Anna; Kuppermann, Nathan | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | Children have milder disease than adults and many have no symptoms even when infected by SARS-CoV-2. At present, we do not know how likely asymptomatic-infected children are to transmit the infection. Gaining an understanding of this issue is crucial to determining the role children play in transmission and what the risks will be to other children and adults when children return to school. To answer these questions we will enroll children who are brought for care due to non-infectious reasons (e.g. fall, cut, injury, pain) to 20 emergency departments across Canada and the United States. These sites are participating in the CIHR-funded, 57-site, Pediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN)-COVID-19 study, and currently perform screening of select asymptomatic children for SARS-CoV-2. Participating sites will enroll 400 asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 positive children and 1,200 uninfected children (3:1 ratio of uninfected to infected child). Study aims: 1) Household Transmission Dynamics: Data will be collected regarding exposures and symptoms at baseline and again at 14 days for enrolled children (infected and uninfected) and their household members. Household members who develop symptoms of COVID-19 will be encouraged to have SARS-CoV-2 testing done (if not already) and the results will be obtained. Analyzing and modeling this information, comparing households with transmission versus those without, will help us understand the transmission risk posed by asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected children. In particular this information will inform social distancing policies (e.g. school re-opening) 2) Viral Load Quantification: All SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens will have viral load quantification performed. These results will be analyzed alongside those from aim #1 to determine the relationship with household transmission. Viral load quantification data will also be analyzed alongside symptom evolution data to inform our understanding of the presymptomatic state. | Berenger, Byron M; Kellner, James D; Klassen, Terry P; Lee, Bonita E; Mahmud, Salaheddin; Malley, Richard; Neuman, Mark I; Pang, Xiaoli L; Payne, Daniel C; Salvadori, Marina I; Tancredi, Daniel J | |
| Mise en œuvre de mesures de santé publique pour les populations vulnérables lors de la pandémie COVID-19 dans les pays africains francophones en conflit : Étude de cas au Mali et au Burkina Faso | Public Health | Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Ag Ahmed, Mohamed Ali; Kadio, Kadidiatou; Ly, Birama A | Université Laval | CIHR | Québec | Le premier cas de COVID-19 en Afrique a été confirmé le 14 février 2020 et, en quelques semaines, le virus s'est propagé à tous les pays. L'impact de la pandémie de COVID-19 pourrait être dévastateur dans les pays africains, surtout ceux fragilisés par des conflits, qui comptent des milliers de réfugiés, de personnes déplacées internes (PDI) et de migrants. En l'absence de traitements ou de vaccins, les gouvernements et les acteurs humanitaires ont implanté des mesures de santé publique pour ralentir la propagation du virus. Au Mali et au Burkina Faso, ces mesures incluent l'isolement des patients COVID-19 et la mise en quarantaine à domicile des cas suspects. Des mesures de distanciation sociale et de confinement sont aussi implantées afin d'atténuer la pandémie. Pour les PDI et les migrants, la mise en œuvre de ces mesures est plus difficile en raison des conditions de promiscuité et de manque d'hygiène dans lesquelles elles vivent. De plus, plusieurs personnes ne sont pas au courant de l'existence de ces directives, ne les comprennent pas ou ne sont pas convaincues de leur importance. Cette recherche permettra de mieux comprendre les défis auxquels sont confrontées les autorités et les acteurs humanitaires dans la mise en œuvre des mesures de santé publique en riposte à la COVID-19, de même que les difficultés que rencontrent les PDI et migrants pour adopter ces mesures. Elle étudiera la pertinence de chaque mesure par rapport au contexte spécifique dans lequel vivent les PDI et les migrants et proposera des ajustements appropriés. Nos résultats permettront d'identifier les meilleures pratiques et d'offrir une assistance adaptée aux besoins des PDI et des migrants afin qu'ils puissent mieux appliquer les mesures de distanciation sociale et de confinement. Nos résultats pourront contribuer à accroître l'adaptation des mesures de santé publique dans d'autres contextes, afin de ralentir les épidémies en général. | Lapierre, Judith; Yaya, Sanni | |
| Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a well-characterized African cohort | Transmission Dynamics | Gantt, Soren M | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | COVID-19 poses unique risks to communities in resource-limited regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). So far, little is known about the incidence, risk factors or outcomes of COVID-19 in SSA, or how these might differ from other areas with different resources, household structures and cultural practices. Elsewhere, COVID-19 is strongly associated with increasing age, male sex, and medical problems. Unexpectedly, children rarely get severe COVD-19 and do not appear to major contributors to spreading the infection, unlike with other respiratory viruses. Detailed household transmission studies of SARS-CoV-2 have the potential to reveal invaluable insights into how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted, and have been recommended by the World Health Organization. We will take advantage of a CIHR-funded prospective cohort of 210 households in Nairobi, Kenya, which began in early 2019 and was designed to study the transmission of other viruses, to determine the local patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among children and adults. Serum samples were collected from women (half of whom have HIV) who were enrolled during pregnancy, their newborn infants, and all other household members (895 people total), before the pandemic began. Blood collected every 3 months will be tested by different methods to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to see how often infection occurred. Weekly saliva, urine and stool samples are also collected from 100 of the households, which will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 to see how the virus is spread. Because we have all the approvals to do the work and the cohort is already being followed, this study is a highly efficient way to study SARS-CoV-2 transmission in an African setting, where age-structure, household and community practices, and rates of HIV and other co-infections differ from other parts of the world. Thus, this work will provide timely insight into the global COVID-19 pandemic, and guide public health interventions in resource-limited settings. | Coombs, Daniel; Harrigan, Richard P; Jassem, Agatha N; Sadarangani, Manish | |
| Development of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for the treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Gatignol, Anne | CIUSSS de Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal-Jewish General | CIHR | Québec | SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for which there are no treatments yet available. We propose to rapidly design and test several drugs that could be delivered intranasally to treat SARS-CoV-2. We will also analyze the immune response to the virus in patient cells to determine a possible correlation between the early response and the outcome of the disease. The technology we will use is called RNA interference and it works by using what are called small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). siRNAs can direct a person's existing RNA interference machinery to attack any harmful RNA sequence such as the RNA genome of SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, by reducing the viral burden, siRNAs could contribute to mounting a patient's natural immune response to the virus. We will also design siRNAs to target any factor that would prevent the immune response in the early phase of the disease. siRNAs are easy to design, manufacture and are stable for long-term storage and transport. An advantage for their use as therapy for respiratory infections is that they remain in the lungs when administered intranasally and therefore have low potential to cause side-effects in other parts of the body. We expect that from our project we will identify a safe and effective treatment that could be used in the fight against the current pandemic and future outbreaks of related coronaviruses. | Scarborough, Robert J | |
| CovidFree@Home: Development and validation of a multivariable prediction model of deterioration in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are managing at home | End of Life/Palliative | Gershon, Andrea S; de Lara, Eyal; Wu, Robert | Sunnybrook Research Institute (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | Millions of Canadians are anticipated to be infected with COVID-19 during this pandemic and many more will contract it in ongoing community transmission and/or a possible second wave. The majority of people who test positive for COVID-19 are sent home to isolate. In this population, deterioration of their disease can happen quickly and without warning, and we currently cannot accurately predict the approximately 20% who deteriorate and need hospitalization. From discussions with our patients and patient advisor, we know that people who are isolating at home feel terrified and alone. We need an effective and safe ambulatory care and research strategy for people with COVID-19 isolating at home. We are a team of heath care workers, patients, researchers and computer scientists (WearCOPD.ca; Can-BREATHE.ca) with five years of experience developing and using remote monitoring systems for respiratory disease. We have already built a smartphone application to facilitate the care of people with COVID-19 at home by allowing them to report their symptoms to their physician. With this project, we will expand our system to also include continuous smartwatch-based monitoring of heart rate, respiratory rate, cough, speech and other parameters. Sensor data will provide us with large volumes of objective data and allow us to build accurate real time machine learning models for predicting who needs to go to hospital. We will integrate these models into a dashboard that alerts clinicians of any patients that area getting worse, so that they can be called into hospital. Patients can be reassured that they are being followed thoroughly even though they are at home. Our system will also provide a platform for further research into how to prevent long term sequalae and preserve the health of people with COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization. | Andany, Nisha; Chan, Adrienne; Daneman, Nick; Falk, Tiago H; Lam, Philip W; Masood, Sameer; Rudzicz, Frank; Simor, Andrew E; To, Teresa | |
| Engage-COVID-19: A mixed methods study of biomedical, behavioural, and psychosocial aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Canada | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Grace, Daniel; Jollimore, Jody; Cox, John J; Hart, Trevor A; Lachowsky, Nathan J; Lambert, Gilles; Moore, David M | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) have historically experienced significant disparities in physical, mental, and sexual health, amplified by systemic marginalization and high barriers to healthcare. This context of inequity creates heightened vulnerabilities to COVID-19. Failure to respond to the health and wellness needs of GBM may have significant negative effects on COVID-19 outcomes and exacerbate existing health disparities. We propose the Engage-COVID-19 Study to rapidly respond to current and pressing knowledge gaps concerning the COVID-19 pandemic among GBM in Canada. This study will be embedded within the Engage Cohort Study, which is the only study with comparable biobehavioural data on HIV/STI prevalence and risk behaviours for GBM in Canada. To date, baseline data collection has been completed with 1842 GBM who are enrolled in the Engage Cohort Study (565 in Vancouver, 388 in Toronto, and 889 in Montreal). All of these participants will be invited to have SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing and complete an in-depth survey that will include COVID-specific quantitative questions. We anticipate recruiting a total sample of 1695-1768 participants. In addition, from this group we will recruit 90 GBM participants for qualitative interviews in Vancouver (30), Toronto (30), and Montreal (30) to assess the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian GBM. These data are necessary both to understand COVID-19 risks, vulnerabilities, and prevention strategies, as well as the impacts of COVID-19 on health service access and different levels of HIV/STI risk across provinces. By making efficient use of available research infrastructure, our proposed study will ascertain the occurrence of COVID-19 by documenting SARS-CoV-2 immunity within both HIV-positive and -negative participants and produce rapid, high-quality evidence for preventing the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 for this population across multiple jurisdictions. | Gilbert, Mark P; Brennan, David; Burchell, Ann N; Cheng, Matthew P; Ferlatte, Olivier; Gaspar, Mark A; Papenburg, Jesse; Perez-Brumer, Amaya G; Salway, Travis; Skakoon-Sparling, Shayna P; Tan, Darrell H; Yansouni, Cedric P | |
| Deferred Care Outcomes in Canadian Children and Youth: Measuring and Mitigating Risk during COVID-19 | Child Health and Human Development | Guttmann, Astrid; Brownell, Marni D; Cohen, Eyal; Saunders, Natasha R | Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | Early data from Canada and other countries around the world suggest that children are less likely to be directly affected by COVID-19 compared to adults. However, there are concerns that children may suffer important health implications related to efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, such as limited or suspended in-person physician appointments as well as parental concerns about contracting the virus in doctor's offices or Emergency Departments. The areas of highest concern are missed immunizations and important primary care visits such as those for newborns directly after birth, and delayed care for illnesses which result in children being critically ill. Currently, there are no data or studies that have investigated these unintended consequences of the pandemic in Canada. Using the well-established health data systems in Ontario and Manitoba, the goal of this project is to provide a robust and timely understanding of whether such responses to the pandemic have negatively impacted the health of children in these provinces. This assessment will include outcomes such as a reduction in routine vaccination and increases in serious illness and death. We will also examine whether specific subgroups of children, such as those with complex medical conditions and recently arrived refugee and immigrant children are at particularly increased risk of poor outcomes. We will prepare reports of these outcomes by local health regions and public health units and work with policymakers in both provinces to inform mitigation strategies. We will develop a core set of measures that we will report on over the course of the pandemic and its related restrictions. We will share data definitions and codes for conducting these analyses with national organizations such that other provinces may conduct similar analyses. | Moore Hepburn, Charlotte; Hanlon-Dearman, Ana C; Katz, Alan; Mahar, Alyson L; Rayner, Jennifer; Stukel, Therese A; Wanigaratne, Susitha; Wilson, Sarah | |
| Contribution of genetic variation of ACE2, the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, to COVID-19 disease expression and development of therapeutics | Fundamental Science | Haas, Kurt | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic infects by binding to a receptor called ACE2 on the surface of cells lining the lung. One reason for the virulence of this new virus is the strength of its binding to ACE2. However, one of the leading mysteries of the outbreak has been the wide range of responses to infection, from a complete absence of disease in some, to life-threatening pneumonia in others. Regional difference across the world in disease expression have also been reported, as has a striking increased severity of COVID-19 in men compared to women. Here, we propose to investigate whether genetic variation in the human ACE2 receptor protein underlies these differences. We will test this by making all possible mutations in the ACE2 gene and testing impact on binding to the viral protein. Results from our study will have important impact on new development of therapeutics by improving computational models of ACE2-virus interactions used to design drugs blocking this binding. Another important outcome from our study would be the identification of genetic variants of ACE2 with heightened binding affinity for the viral protein. Such variants can be used as novel therapeutics by out competing virus in a patient's system, preventing virus from infecting host cells. Critically, once established, our platform will be highly versatile and readily allow testing new strains of the COVID-19 virus for increased or decreased infectivity. This platform will also be invaluable to provide a more rapid response to any new virus that appears in the future that infects cells by binding the ACE2 receptor. | ||
| Diagnosing the onset of severe Covid-19 disease | Fundamental Science | Hancock, Robert Ernest W | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | A recent report from China has indicated that many or most individuals who die from severe Covid-19 infections have sepsis. Sepsis is broadly defined as an abnormal host response to infection that causes life-threatening organ dysfunction, and was responsible for 19.7% of global deaths in 2017. Sepsis is a very complex disease, consisting of phenotypic clusters of patients, that constitute distinct endotypes, which are biologically driven and relevant to clinical outcomes. We have defined 5 sepsis endotypes in a large clinical study and propose to extend this here to severely ill Covid-19 patients. We will collect blood from up to 200 patients in BC and Quebec, and analyze the genes that are expressed in these cells (which will enable us to discriminate endotypes). This will allow us to define a set of genes for which the levels of expression correlate with future disease severity. This information will allow the development of a diagnostic that will enable a physician to predict the likely severity of a patient's disease and apply knowledge-driven clinical management. Furthermore, since endotypes operate under distinct mechanisms this knowledge will enable the discovery, by others, of targeted therapies to treat Covid-19 associated sepsis. | Boyd, John H; Lee, Amy H; Levesque, Roger C | |
| Youth mental health and substance use in the context of COVID-19: A rapid response multi-component program of youth-engaged research and action | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Henderson, Joanna L; MacEachern, Shauna; Barbic, Skye P; Hawke, Lisa D | Centre for Addiction and Mental Health | CIHR | Ontario | There is minimal research on mental health and substance use (MHSU) among youth during pandemics, limiting our ability to meet the needs of youth. COVID-19 presents a time-sensitive opportunity to rapidly enhance knowledge about the impacts of a public health crisis on MHSU among youth, reduce negative impacts and amplify coping strategies, and improve readiness to respond to future pandemics. This project addresses these challenges in four ways. 1) A survey will be conducted to rapidly understand how COVID-19 is affecting youth MHSU over time, how youth are coping, what challenges they have overcome, and what public health response strategies they recommend. We have already surveyed 622 youth and produced preliminary results; funding will enable us to track the experience of these youth for a year. 2) We will conduct interviews with youth over 9 months to further understand impacts over time. 3) Based on each wave of findings, we will partner with our Youth Engagement Initiative to develop innovative materials and interventions to address expressed youth needs. 4) We will conduct participatory action research summits in Ontario and British Columbia to mobilize the perspectives and voices of youth with MHSU concerns to examine youth-designed pandemic response materials, plan for future pandemic responses, and collect any further insights about the pandemic's impacts. This rapid-response study provides high-quality, real-time evidence to support the management of youth MHSU impacts of COVID-19 via a patient-oriented research approach. By collecting and immediately responding to youths' recommendations regarding the clinical, health, and public health responses that would be most meaningful to them, this study will inform MHSU pandemic decision-making and planning within Canada. | Cheung, Amy H; Cleverley, Kristin D; Courtney, Darren; Iyer, Srividya N; Szatmari, Peter; Voineskos, Aristotle N | |
| Canadian COVID-19 Emergency Department Rapid Response Network | Clinical Care | Hohl, Corinne M; Berger Pelletier, Elyse; Manns, Braden J; Moore, Kieran M; Lang, Eddy S; Morrison, Laurie J; Perry, Jeffrey J; Rosychuk, Rhonda J | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in more than 4 million infections and 275,000 deaths globally. Yet, pressing questions about its prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and resource allocation remain unanswered. This hinders evidence-based clinical decision-making, particularly in Emergency Departments. The Emergency Department is a place where the sickest patients present for early evaluation and care. Emergency providers are making decisions on whether and when to discharge patients or put patients on life-sustaining measures, such as artificial ventilation. However, these decisions are currently based on subjective judgement. We have created a national network of collaboration to address these knowledge gaps. Our network includes 51 collaborating Emergency Departments in 8 provinces. We will collect prospective and retrospective data on short-term outcomes from Emergency Department patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19, follow patients by telephone after discharge to see if they developed complications and ask them about their quality-of-life after COVID-19. We will use these data to develop and test clinical decision rules, which are simple user-friendly algorithms or point-scoring systems that predict an outcome, for example which patients have COVID-19 in advance of diagnostic testing, or safe Emergency Department discharge. We are a team of health researchers, clinicians, patients and knowledge users with expertise in international networks, clinical decision rules, diagnostic testing, registries, and knowledge translation. Our work will enhance local and national collaborations to mitigate COVID-19 and its consequences by improving Emergency Department treatment and decision-making. We will also link with other ongoing studies to enable our group and others to take advantage of the rich dataset we are creating to answer more questions to help answer local, national and international questions about COVID-19. | Chabot, Christian; Archambault, Patrick; Brooks, Steven C; Davis, Philip J; Fok, Patrick T; Jelic, Tomislav; McRae, Andrew D | |
| Establishing A Research Platform for Investigating and Optimizing PPE Filtration/Barrier Efficiencies Against Aerosolized Bacteria and Viruses in Clinical Healthcare Settings | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Hosseinidoust, Zeinab; Scott, Donald E; Dolovich, Myrna B | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | The state of emergency brought about by the pandemic has mercilessly exposed the shortfalls of our healthcare system, one of the most pressing being the severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). To meet an urgent need for PPE, the government has taken several measures, such as increased import, repurposing of existing manufacturing lines, and approving methods of decontamination and re-use. Whether imported, locally manufactured, or decontaminated and reused, protective gear must provide an effective barrier against infectious aerosols. However, currently no Canadian lab has the capability to quantify the effectiveness of PPE against biological aerosols in accordance with regulatory standards, which means PPE samples must be sent to labs in the US, with lead times of weeks to month. We have addressed this issue by developing a standardized test setup for determining the barrier efficiency of PPE material against biological aerosols. We propose to expand and extend our Nationally unique workflow to address 3 critical gaps in knowledge and, as a result, create knowledge and capacity for developing a National standard for protective gear: (1) Quantification of filtration efficiency of locally manufactured and imported PPE against aerosolized viruses and correlating the data to standardized bacteria filtration efficiency tests, with focus on suppliers to the 5 major hospitals in Hamilton and local industrial partners, as a representative of the PPE market in Ontario; (2) Investigating the effect of Health Canada-approved sterilization/reuse protocols on barrier of PPE material against airborne viruses, both for single use PPE and PPE designed to be reusable (e.g., cloth masks); (3) A clinical study focused PPE fit, specifically focused on fit based on sex and ethnical background, that will inform general public and policy makers of whether the current design of PPE meets the needs of the entire Canadian population and match our rich cultural landscape. | Kanlic, Milan; Magee, Robert R.; Perri, Dan; Clase, Catherine M; Fox-Robichaud, Alison E; Selvaganapathy, Ponnambalam R | |
| Sedating With Volatile Anesthetic Agents in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients in ICU: Effects On Ventilatory Parameters And Survival (The SAVE-ICU trial) | Clinical Care | Jerath, Angela; Cuthbertson, Brian H; Martin, Claudio M; Slessarev, Marat | Sunnybrook Research Institute (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | Up to 40% of COVID-19 patients can incur severe lung failure needing life-saving supportive care using a ventilator (breathing machine) to treat dangerously low oxygen levels. Unfortunately, 40 to 80% of ventilated patients with COVID-19 will die despite best medical care. All patients needing a ventilator require intravenous sedative or sleep inducing medications to tolerate this uncomfortable procedure. High volume of COVID-19 patients needing life saving ventilation and high quantities of sedative medications consumed by these patients has led to a worldwide shortage in intravenous sedative drugs. An alternative method for delivering sedation that can ease pressure on intravenous sedation stocks and possibly accelerate patient recovery is by using inhaled volatile anesthetic agents. Inhaled volatiles are used safely every day in operating rooms, widely available and cheap when providing sedation to ventilated COVID-19 patients. Inhaled volatiles have also shown to reduce lung inflammation and improve oxygen levels that may reduce time spent on a ventilator and improve survival in COVID-19 patients with severe lung injury. Our objective is to evaluate differences in time spent on a ventilator, time spent in intensive care units and survival in adult patients with known or suspected COVID-19 who receive either inhaled or intravenous sedation. After hospital discharge, we will also interview survivors and assess for any differences in satisfaction and activities of daily living between patients who received the two types of sedation. This study is unique and first to addresses the drug shortage issue that all hospitals are facing, and provides a readily available and tested solution. It also provides a potentially effective treatment to improve outcomes for our sickest COVID-19 patients in the absence of an effective vaccine or other therapy. | Burry, Lisa D; Carrier, François M; Chapman, Martin G; Ferguson, Niall D; Hegazy, Ahmed F; Lamontagne, Francois; Martin, Janet; Pinto, Ruxandra; Rewa, Oleksa G; Scales, Damon C | |
| A Randomized trial to determine the effect of vitamin D and zinc supplementation for improving treatment outcomes among COVID-19 patients in Mumbai, India | Kain, Kevin C; Dholakia, Yatin; Fawzi, Wafaie W | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has an unprecedented scale of spread. There is urgent need for effective treatments, and research has focused on development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. However, since host immune response is a critical determinant of disease severity for life-threatening infections, interventions that modify deleterious host responses (for e.g. immune activation, endothelial dysfunction, micro-vascular injury and pro-coagulant responses) may also play a critical role in decreasing progression to severe and fatal COVID-19. Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly vitamin D and zinc, have been associated with dysregulation of these host responses and may play an important role in COVID-19. Nutritional status is critical especially in older individuals and those with chronic disease including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in whom COVID-19 is often more severe. While supplementation is important in other infections, there are no well-designed studies on the potential effect of such supplements in COVID-19. In line with CIHR's call for testing therapeutics for COVID-19, we propose a 2x2 factorial randomized trial to examine the effectiveness of vitamin D and zinc supplements as immune-based therapy among 700 patients in Mumbai, India. We will also examine the immunological response to COVID-19 and the effect of the intervention on specific biomarkers of immune and endothelial activation (e.g. Angiopoietin-2) that are independent and quantitative predictors of severity and mortality in other severe infections (e.g. sepsis, pneumonia). | Bromage, Sabri; Mistry, Nerges F | ||
| Serological Testing to Outline Protocols for COVID19 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: STOP COVID-19 in IBD | Kaplan, Gilaad G; Mawani, Mina; Morrin, Louise; Benchimol, Eric I; Tipples, Graham A; Zelinsky, Sandra | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | As provinces begin to ease up on physical distancing restrictions, people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who are immunocompromised due to their medications are faced with a difficult dilemma: Do they continue to follow strict isolation protocols until a vaccine is available (possibly more than 18 months), or do they risk potentially severe complications from COVID19-eg. hospitalization or death. At present, we do not know the true risk that COVID19 poses to this population, or if having COVID19 once makes an individual immune to reinfection. This study will follow a cohort of immunocompromised people with IBD for one year to determine infection rates, susceptibility to reinfection, and risks of severe complications from COVID19 by age, sex/gender, pregnancy status, medication type, and disease type (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis). As real-world data is accumulated and assessed, we will update Canadians with IBD and their healthcare team with the most up-to-date information available on risk through weekly webinar series and an online interactive dashboard for personal risk assessment. Do immunocompromised people with IBD need to continue strict isolation protocols for the next 18 or more months, and do those who have already had COVID19 need to worry about reinfection? This study seeks to answer exactly these questions through routine blood tests conducted at the time of regular, ongoing treatment so we can provide the best evidence-based advice to patients possible. | Lee, Kate; Veldhuyzen Van Zanten, Sander J; Barrett, Lisa; Bernstein, Charles N; Charlton, Carmen L; Coward, Stephanie; Debruyn, Jennifer; Fowler, Sharyle A; Griffiths, Anne Marie; Jelinski, Susan; Jones, Jennifer L; Khanna, Reena; Lu, Cathy; Ma, Christopher; Mack, David R; Marshall, John K; Novak, Kerri L; Panaccione, Remo; Seow, Cynthia H; Targownik, Laura E; Wilson, Kumanan; Windsor, Joseph W | ||
| Social frailty interventions that can best support vulnerable older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review | Kastner, Monika; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna M | North York General Hospital (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | By the year 2050, two billion people worldwide will be 60 years of age and older. Global life expectancies are also on the rise, leading to an increased number of seniors who will develop chronic conditions and frailty. Given these projections, frailty is fast becoming a public health concern. Frailty is multidimensional (it affects biological, psychological, and social processes of a person's life), and therefore can lead to reduced functional ability, falls, disability, decreased quality of life, and death. Of the three types of frailty (physical, psychological, and social), social frailty is the least well understood. It is defined as "a continuum of being at risk of losing, or having lost, social and general resources, activities or abilities that are important for fulfilling one or more basic social needs during the life span". During public health emergencies such as COVID-19, social vulnerabilities such as social frailty represent an even greater threat to the health of older adults. However, we know very little about the risk factors and interventions that may prevent or reverse social frailty. Therefore, our research goals are to better understand interventions addressing social frailty in older adults by conducting a systematic review and a realist review. The results of this work will help decision makers understand which social frailty interventions can best address the needs of vulnerable older adults impacted by isolation during COVID-19 or other disease outbreaks requiring similar public health measures. | Greiver, Michelle; Liu, Barbara; Marr, Sharon A; Papaioannou, Alexandra; Straus, Sharon E; Dainty, Katie N; Graham, Ian D; Hamid, Jemila; Hayden, Leigh; Munce, Sarah E; Perrier, Laure | ||
| Psychological First Aid Training to Address COVID-19 Related Stressors | Kimber, Melissa S; Harms, Sheila C; Soreni, Noam | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Emerging evidence tells us that the COVID-19 pandemic will have far-reaching impacts on the emotional and psychological well-being of adults and children. Recent reports also indicate that COVID-19 is likely to result in an economic recession and that the psychological and emotional effects of the pandemic for vulnerable populations - namely children and their families - will endure well beyond the virus' physical impacts. Despite the fact that there is evidence that Psychological First Aid (PFA) could minimize the emotional and psychological toll related to COVID-19, PFA training has not been a focus of the pandemic response in Canada. According to the World Health Organization, PFA is a brief-intervention that provides targeted and practical psychological support to help individuals manage distress related to large crises, such as a pandemic. PFA is widely endorsed by global public health authorities, including the WHO and the United Nations, and has been used to provide widespread psychological and emotional support to the public during extreme events (e.g., Hurricane Katrina) and other viral pandemics (e.g., the Ebola Outbreak). We have chosen to implement and evaluate a PFA training program for mental health counselors - called LIVES for Families - to see if it supports them to address COVID-19 emotional and psychological stressors experienced by caregivers and their children. Reducing the potential burden of child and family suffering attributed to COVID-19 remains a crucial public health challenge. Our work will provide information about: (a) the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the LIVES for Families PFA Training Program with mental health counselors to address COVID-19-related stressors among caregivers and their children; and (b) generate the initial research necessary to develop an evidence-based, COVID-19 PFA training program for widespread implementation and evaluation in the Canadian context. | Acai, Anita; Drossos, Alex; Inrig, Maggie; Lipman, Ellen L; Macmillan, Harriet L; Sassi, Roberto B; Streiner, David L | ||
| COVID-19: Comprehensive biomarker analysis for prediction of clinical course and patient treatment outcomes (COVID-BEACONS) | Fundamental Science | Kim, Paul Y; Yeh, Calvin H | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm. In Canada alone, there are more than 60,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,000 deaths. Despite its global impact, there are no specific therapies. While most patients display mild or no symptoms, a significant number result in severe disease, and sometimes death. We do not know what causes some patients to die from the infection. Developing a test that can identify patients who are at high risk of severe disease would help save lives. Early clinical reports noted that COVID-19 patients have a high risk of developing blood clots in the body including in the brain and lungs, thus hinting at how it makes people ill. We believe that this likely stems from a severe immune response to being exposed to the virus, SARS-CoV-2. This inappropriate response leads to a vicious cycle of damage to the blood vessels. Therefore, measuring when and how clotting problems develop may allow us to learn how severe COVID-19 disease progresses, find new treatment targets, and identify the patients that need to be treated earlier to prevent progression. To achieve this, we have assembled a collaborative effort between the largest intensive care hospital networks in Canada with the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI), the largest and most comprehensive Canadian facility dedicated to the study of inflammation and blood clotting diseases. We will measure biomarkers from the biological pathways that control inflammation, blood vessel integrity, blood clotting, and blood clot breakdown. We will then identify which markers can predict disease progression. By understanding which pathways are disrupted over the development of severe COVID-19 disease, we may be able to identify those patients requiring aggressive therapy earlier in the course of the disease. | Fox-Robichaud, Alison E; Gross, Peter L; Karkouti, Keyvan; Kretz, Colin A; Liaw, Patricia C; Mccluskey, Stuart A; Trigatti, Bernardo L; Weitz, Jeffrey I; Werstuck, Geoffrey H | |
| Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social and health outcomes among young people: A mixed-method comparative analysis in Canada and France | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Knight, Rodney E | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Youth (<30 years) are among the most at risk for longer-term social and health consequences due to COVID-19-related public health measures (e.g., physical distancing) and the associated social and economic impacts, including unemployment, as well as isolation from their social networks and disruption to their education during key periods of the early life course. To advance evidence and to inform adaptive social, economic and public health responses among youth, we are prepared to rapidly launch a one-year multi-site mixed-methods study. Our aim is to generate new context-sensitive and population-specific data to document how policy and program responses can be optimized to improve the lives of youth in two key international settings: Canada and France. While both Canada and France share some commonalities (e.g., high-income countries, publicly funded health care systems), there are many important contextual differences (e.g., severity and evolution of national and regional COVID-19 curves, economic support/employment insurance programs, community-based responses) that will benefit from empirical investigation as they relate to youth population health. We will conduct a multi-site concurrent mixed-methods study that includes: (i) a series of longitudinal qualitative research activities including semi-structured interviews with youth from across different jurisdictions in Canada (n=30) and France (n=30); (ii) interviews with key stakeholders (n=10 in each setting); and (iii) two national online cross-sectional surveys in both Canada and France with youth (at 6-month intervals). Throughout the duration of the proposed study we will engage in integrated knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) activities to systematically engage in rapid-cycle evaluation and advance actionable findings, including findings that are of relevance to national, federal and local policies and programs that can have an impact on youth social and health outcomes. | Bertrand, Karine; Blanchette, Maxime; Coulaud, Pierre-julien; Fast, Danya; Ferlatte, Olivier; Filipe, Estelle; Jauffret-Roustide, Marie; Salway, Travis | |
| Longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on clinical practice and well-being of global mental health professionals | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Kogan, Cary S; Reed, Geoffrey | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers face highly stressful and rapidly changing work environments, often caring for those with COVID-19 without adequate protective equipment while coping with their own fears of getting sick or infecting others. Studies from other pandemics tell us that health care workers often experience impairing psychological symptoms such anxiety, sadness, insomnia and general distress, which can be long lasting and lead to reduced quality of care and safety or to leaving their jobs. Mental health concerns in the population have increased because of the pandemic (e.g., isolation, anxiety, substance use), but accessing services is more difficult. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals face increased demands and substantial stress; it is critical to understand their experiences to ensure the availability of high-quality services, including those using telehealth technologies like videoconferencing. This study uses detailed online surveys in 6 languages to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice and well-being of global mental health professionals. The survey will be implemented at three time points to look at changes over time. Participants will be members of the World Health Organization's Global Clinical Practice Network, including 15500 mental health clinicians from 159 countries. The study assesses: 1) Effects of COVID-19 on work circumstances and services; 2) Work-related stress and distress; 3) Use of telehealth services and related concerns; and 4) Expectations, resource needs, and recommendations. The study responds to the CIHR call by providing evidence to inform clinical and health system management and public health response. Findings will inform CIHI (co-applicant knowledge user), the Government of Canada, WHO, professional associations and health systems as they work to ensure continuity of care for people with mental illness and to protect and retain the mental healthcare workforce. | Denny, Keith | |
| The Response of Provincial Health Systems to COVID-19: Service Provision and Costs Across Health Sectors, First Nations and other populations | Public Health | Krahn, Murray D; Kulkarni, Girish S | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected not only health, but also health systems. In Canada, cancer surgery, joint replacements, angioplasties and other procedures have been delayed or cancelled. Changes have occurred across the health system. Patients too have adapted, avoiding care out of personal fear of COVID. These unprecedented changes have not been measured yet. In our study, we plan to measure, in British Columbia and Ontario: - health resource utilization and medical costs for patients with mild, moderate, and severe COVID. -how hospitalizations, physicians services, home care, long term care, and other resources have changed in patients without COVID through the COVID epidemic. In particular, we are interested in the effects on women and men, remote regions of British Columbia and Ontario, and First Nations peoples. We will conduct this study using data from British Columbia and Ontario that describe almost every interaction with the health system. This allows us to have a "population level" look at the health system as a whole. IMPLICATIONS The pandemic is not over yet. We must plan for recurrence, and think about how it will affect other countries who have not yet borne the brunt of infection. Our estimates of COVID costs will be very useful to health modelers who are trying to help develop public policies such as introduction and relaxation of social distancing. Also, looking at health systems as a whole will allow us to plan for system stresses related to COVID resurgence and future pandemics, and ensure that we can meet the needs of Canadians even under conditions of health system strain. | Cheung, Douglas; Del Giudice, Lisa M; Finelli, Antonio; Hillmer, Michael; Lapointe-Shaw, Lauren; McGrail, Kimberlyn M; Mendlowitz, Andrew B; Peacock, Stuart J; Perlis, Nathan; Rabeneck, Linda; Tomlinson, George A; Walker, Jennifer; Wong, William Wai Lun | |
| Imaging COVID-19 Lungs to Uncover Therapies | Clinical Care | Kubes, Paul; Corcoran, Jennifer A; Gillrie, Mark R; Jenne, Craig N; Kelly, Margaret M; McDonald, Braedon A; Mody, Christopher H; Peters, Nathan | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | The clinical and scientific community are at a complete loss trying to understand what happens inside patients that are infected with SARS-CoV-2. They may have some clotting in blood, some platelet clumping and some inappropriate inflammation but what is causing this is unclear and so right now clinical trials are designed on best guesses on what is going on. If researchers could look inside the patients and had all the different cell types color coded, they would know exactly what is going on. Our team proposes to do this in special humanized mice so they behave much more like humans in response to SARS-CoV-2, in hamsters a natural animal model of SARS-CoV-2 and finally in human blood vessels and human lung organoids which are small versions of real human lungs that can be perfused with human blood from COVID-19 patients or infected directly with SARS-CoV-2. We have stained endothelium, neutrophils, platelets, monocytes, macrophages and NK cells different colors so we can watch using a special intravital microscope what each of these cells do during infections. These are the key responders during an infection and because there is clotting and platelet clumps forming and inflammation, we know that the lining of blood vessels the endothelium is likely involved in this inappropriate response. We will look at whether the immune cells and platelets are interacting to determine whether this leads to hyper-activation of the immune cells leading to the release of many toxic molecules into the blood stream. We have a number of lead compounds that we believe can prevent this from happening. Dr Paul Kubes leads this team of immunologists, virologists, pathologists, ICU doctors and lung specialists. Dr Kubes is one of maybe 2-3 labs in the world publishing on visualizing immune responses in lung infections in living animals and together with the various experts they will unveil the intricate problems SARS-CoV-2 causes and find therapies to cure this problem. | Kubes, Paul; Corcoran, Jennifer A; Gillrie, Mark R; Jenne, Craig N; Kelly, Margaret M; McDonald, Braedon A; Mody, Christopher H; Peters, Nathan | |
| Assessing the impact of COVID-19 response on malaria control and malaria burden in rural Tanzania | Public Health | Kulkarni, Manisha A | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | The World Health Organization has warned that deaths from malaria could double across sub-Saharan Africa this year if malaria control programs are disrupted by COVID-19. Currently, 94% of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with children and pregnant women amongst the most vulnerable groups. Given recent estimates that predict a return to mortality levels last seen 20 years ago, it is critical that countries can maintain the delivery of insecticide-treated nets and access to antimalarial medicines in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. To better understand the COVID-19 response in Tanzania and its impacts on malaria control and burden, we will collect information on COVID-19 and malaria prevention practices, malaria care-seeking behaviours and health system impacts in a rural district where a large-scale malaria vector control trial is underway. Data will be collected using a mixed methods approach through (1) repeated cross-sectional surveys with 4200 households in January 2020, July 2020 and January 2021, (2) focus group discussions with women and men in randomly selected communities, and (3) key informant interviews with multiple health systems stakeholders. We will apply a sex and gender based analysis plus (SGBA+) approach to identify vulnerable population sub-groups. We will conduct spatial and trend analyses of survey data and thematic analysis of qualitative data to characterize individual and health systems level responses to COVID-19 and estimate gaps in malaria intervention coverage. We will use simulation models to estimate the potential impacts of changes in malaria control on the burden of malaria disease and death using the 'OpenMalaria' simulator of malaria epidemiology and control. Our results will inform strategies to tailor malaria control strategies in the context of COVID-19 in Tanzania to ultimately prevent a resurgence in malaria cases and deaths while ensuring effective pandemic response. | Feng, Cindy Xin; Labonté, Ronald; Manjurano, Alphaxard; Mosha, Franklin W; Mosha, Jacklin F; Protopopoff, Natacha | |
| Analysis of Antibody Neutralization Efficiency and Cellular Immunity in SARS-CoV-2-Positive Individuals Identified in At-Risk Individuals | Fundamental Science | Langlois, Marc-Andre | University of Ottawa | CIHR | Ontario | As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its deadly course around the globe, research efforts are closely focused on viral immunity, antibody responses, and vaccine development. Increasing data from multiple reputable international medical sources now indicate that exposure to the COVID-19 virus induces an antibody response in nearly all exposed individuals. However, questions remain about the protective value of these antibodies against repeat exposure to the virus and how long this protection will last. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are differences in the virus-neutralizing ability of antibodies produced by asymptomatic carriers of the virus and individuals that develop severe COVID-19 infection. Answers to these important questions will enable us to predict the likelihood of additional waves of COVID-19 as well as inform public health efforts and vaccine development. For our study we will recruit a total of 1,000 healthy primary school teachers, daycare personnel, frontline medical workers in hospitals, and elderly people living in retirement homes. We will monitor them every two weeks for the virus and monthly for antibodies. We will regularly report back the data to the participants. The information learned from our laboratory will have five major outcomes: 1) It will enable early detection of infection and thereby greatly reduced the spread of the virus; 2) We will acquire a better sense of the numbers of asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals exposed to COVID-19; 3) Antibodies in the blood of those infected will be tested to see how well it can neutralize the virus; 4) Critical information about immunity to COVID-19 and how long the immunity will last will be shared with the scientific community and local/regional/national health authorities; and 5) This new knowledge will help vaccine developers make the right decisions about how to create their vaccines and how to give them to all of us. | Bennett, Steffany A; Booth, Ronald A; Cooper, Curtis L; Crawley, Angela M; Durocher, Yves; Little, Julian; McGuinty, Michaeline | |
| BLT-Lung mice for the rapid evaluation of COVID-19 therapeutics | Fundamental Science | Lavender, Kerry J | University of Saskatchewan | CIHR | Saskatchewan | Controlled animal studies of candidate anti-COVID-19 therapies are required to rapidly identify the most promising drugs and safely advance them to trials in human subjects. The animal models that best predict what therapies will perform similarly in humans are those that closely replicate the human condition. Primates closely resemble humans but rapid high-throughput evaluation of drugs in this animal model is not feasible for economic and ethical reasons. We are producing a unique mouse model that contains human lung implants that support SARS-CoV-2 infection and a human immune system capable of responding to the infection. This animal model thus closely replicates COVID-19 disease seen in humans. These mice are in high demand to evaluate drugs that have already proven safe for the treatment of other diseases and drugs showing strong anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects in the laboratory. We will produce these mice and rapidly assess some of the most promising therapeutic candidates that have been identified as potential treatments of COVID-19. These studies will allow us to rapidly determine the impact of numerous promising compounds in a sophisticated animal model that closely resembles human COVID-19 disease in order to better predict their success in humans and speed their course towards clinical use. | Falzarano, Darryl | |
| Developing strategies to support First Nation communities' decision-making during COVID-19 outbreaks | Indigenous Research | Lavoie, Josée G; Phillips-Beck, Wanda; Star, Leona | University of Manitoba | CIHR | Manitoba | Although Manitoba First Nation (FN) reserve communities have yet to experience a positive COVID-19 case, communities are preparing for disproportionate severe outbreaks, based on the experience of H1N1. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of modeling in estimating the course of the infection over time, the potential impact of public health measures and the resources required to meet response needs. We developed this proposal at the request and in full partnership with the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba (FNHSSM). We are a seasoned team of FN organization-based and university-based researchers with a long history of collaborating. We are already working together on a number of projects, and many of us worked together on the H1N1 pandemic. For this project, we plan to, 1.Construct/update detailed community profiles of Acute Respiratory Infections, community size, remoteness, access to health care, risk factors associated with severe COVID-19 infection, and local infrastructure limitations impacting communities' ability to respond (safe drinking water, crowding, existing facility to be used for isolation), to support FN-centric model developments; 2.Develop a FNHSSM-based agile platform, for modeling community pandemics, to be updated with live data. Models will be developed with data from community profiles, evidence of transmission and severity derived from the literature and approaches co-created through knowledge exchange via a series of monthly meeting; and 3.Estimate the potential financial and social burden on FN communities, in view of ensuring adequate resourcing to support local responses; We have mobilized FN leadership, modeling, health services research and health economic expertise to support FN planning and decision-making on COVID-19 management in their communities and at the provincial level. Our unique project will strengthen an existing platform and make scalable to other Indigenous contexts. | Beaudry, Alain; Moghadas, Seyed M; Nickel, Nathan C; Romanescu, Razvan G | |
| Utilizing Health System Data to Respond to COVID-19 in Seven Resource Poor Countries | Data Science | Law, Michael R; Bernal-Serrano, Daniel; Boley, Emma J; Connolly, Emilia; Hedt-Gauthier, Bethany L; Jeune, Marc Antoine; Kachimanga, Chiyembekezo; Kateera, Fredrick; Ndayizigiye, Melino | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Given challenges with poor health infrastructure and limited testing capabilities, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are more vulnerable to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is critical for national health programs in LMICs to use existing data resources to optimize the COVID-19 response and to assess the direct and indirect effects of this response on health care access more broadly. Here, we propose to use national health systems data to a) establish COVID-19 syndromic surveillance to rapidly identify local hotspots to inform efficient testing strategies and resource allocation and b) assess the impact of the COVID-19 response on health care access across a range of maternal and child health and infectious diseases services. Teams from seven LMICs - Haiti, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Rwanda and Sierra Leone - are engaged in this work, and we are leveraging ongoing research and implementation partnerships between The University of British Columbia, Harvard Medical School, and Partners In Health. This work will inform the national strategies in these seven countries, and through international dissemination of this work and the accompanying annotated code, will facilitate replication of these methods in other LMICs for optimal response to the COVID-19 and future outbreaks. | Grépin, Karen A; Mugunga, Jean Claude; Murray, Megan | |
| Improving Canadian Outcomes Research On the Novel SARS-CoV-2 using Analytics: the CORONA Consortium | Fundamental Science | Lee, Douglas S; Mcalister, Finlay A | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | Despite the major impacts of Covid-19 on all of society and medicine, relatively little is known about this disease. Early reports indicated that those with cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, may be at higher risk of Covid-19 infection. However, there have been few studies of populations of people who are at risk of, or have developed, Covid-19. In this proposal, we will study people living in Ontario and Alberta, and examine the following important questions. First, we will determine who in the population is at risk of developing Covid-19 infection. We will also determine the factors that influence prognosis, among those who have developed a positive test for the virus. We will do this by using methods of artificial intelligence, called machine learning, and sophisticated statistical techniques to consider the very large electronic datasets that have accumulated over each person's lifetime. Second, we will evaluate if medications that have been used to treat people with conditions such as hypertension or diabetes can predispose to the development of Covid-19 infection. Alternatively, we will determine if some medications may potentially reduce the risks associated with Covid-19 infection. These analyses will be performed by linking the large databases described above with prescription drugs that have been prescribed to people in Ontario and Alberta. Finally, we will determine the impacts of the major changes in healthcare that were instituted as a response to the pandemic. Specifically, we will determine if the changes to healthcare had unintended collateral effects on those living with chronic cardiovascular conditions, such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and heart failure. We will focus on whether there was an increase in death rates and concomitant changes in hospital visits in people living with these conditions. | Khan, Nadia A; Krahn, Andrew D; Lindsay, Mary Patrice; Nagpal, Seema; Zieroth, Shelley R; Abdel-Qadir, Husam-Eldin M; Austin, Peter C; Bainey, Kevin R; Bakal, Jeffrey A; de Mestral, Charles; Ezekowitz, Justin A; Goodman, Shaun G; Greiner, Russ; Ha, Andrew C; Jackevicius, Cynthia A; Kapral, Moira K; Kaul, Padmaja R; Ko, Dennis; Kwong, Jeffrey C; Liu, Peter P; Rochon, Paula A; Roifman, Idan; Ross, Heather J; Sandhu, Roopinder; Schull, Michael J; Sun, Louise; Udell, Jacob A; van Diepen, Sean; WANG, BO; Welsh, Robert C; Wijeysundera, Harindra C; Yu, Amy Ying Xin | |
| Optimizing polar, small inhibitors of a viral cysteine protease to identify a lead for an oral COVID-19 treatment | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Lemieux, Joanne M | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incredible social, personal and economic upheaval and as of early May 2020 killed 275 000 people world-wide and, tragically, is projected to kill millions more. COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV2 (SARS2) virus, which is a coronavirus closely related to SARS. These viruses infect cells and using the host's enzymes and virally encoded proteins create copies of themselves. These viral proteins are different than the host ones and are key targets to stop the viral replication. One such protein for SARS2, nicknamed 3CLP, is key to liberating the viral proteins in order to enable viral replication. Last month compounds we tested strongly inhibited the SARS2 3CLP and were able to inhibit SARS2 replication in a cell-based assay. This proposal is to design and make modifications of those compounds to better inhibit SARS2 and also optimize drug-like properties to discover a Lead compound for the ultimate development of an oral drug to treat COVID-19. | Nieman, James A; Tyrrell, D. Lorne J | |
| PURE SARS-CoV-2: A Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) Substudy | Epidemiology/Modelling | Leong, Darryl; Chifamba, Jephat; Dans, Antonio L; Lop√©z, Jose P; Maha Lakshmi, Pinnaka V; Mony, Prem K; Nyakunga, Gissela B; Viswanathan, Mohan | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | In this study, we aim to find answers to 2 important unknowns about COVID-19: 1) We do not know if there are factors that increase the risk of people getting infected by COVID-19 or that protect against infection; 2) What are the long-term health effects of getting infected by COVID-19. Specifically, we want to know whether having had COVID-19 infection - even if symptoms were not severe - can lead to long-term lung damage and other complications, like pneumonia, heart attacks, heart failure, stroke. We will find these answers by studying 40,000 adults from 30 communities in 13 high-, middle- and low-income countries. These individuals have already agreed to participate in an ongoing study called the PURE study. They have already provided us with a lot of information about their health, behaviours and medications and we have performed physical measurements and tested their lung function. In this study, we propose testing the blood of these individuals for signs of COVID-19 infection. We can then see if people who had COVID-19 exhibited particular characteristics, such as smoking, alcohol use or low physical activity that increased their risk of getting COVID-19. Because people with bad COVID-19 infection often get damaged lungs, we will test the lung function of participants to see if silent or mild infection lead to injured lungs as well. Finally, we will follow the study participants up for 3 years more to see whether people who had COVID-19 infection develop late complications such as lung disease, heart or circulatory problems more often than people who did not get COVID-19. This unique study will provide information to guide us as individuals and as communities on how best to avoid getting COVID-19 and on potential harmful long-term consequences of infection that we need to prepare for. | Bangdiwala, Shrikant I; Duong, Mylinh; Loeb, Mark B; Miller, Matthew S; Paré, Guillaume; Poirier, Paul; Yeates, Karen; Yusuf, Salim | |
| Implementation of serological and molecular tools to inform COVID-19 patient management | Serological Studies | Lerner-Ellis, Jordan P; Taher, Jennifer | Sinai Health System (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel virus that causes COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is considerable variability in symptom severity and outcomes among patients infected by SARS-CoV-2. Linking genome and viral sequencing information to antibody (immune) response and other biological information (sex, age, ancestry, symptom severity, comorbidities, and outcome) may identify characteristics of patients that are associated with poor and favourable outcomes. This study will address three aims. Aim 1: Identify the characteristics of the antibody response that result in maintained immune response and better patient outcomes. Aim 2: Determine impact of genetic differences on COVID-19 infection severity and immune response. Aim 3: Determine impact of different viral strains on antibody response and patient outcomes. Patients with COVID-19 will be recruited from Sinai Health System, University Health Network, Baycrest Health Sciences and William Osler Hospital System. Patients seen in the emergency department with mild symptoms as well as hospital in-patients with more severe symptoms will be consented. Blood samples will be collected when patients are in hospital and 6 months and 1 year after COVID-19 diagnosis. Neutralizing antibody levels will be measured at all time points. Patient and viral genomes will be sequenced. Statistical analysis will be used to test for associations between antibody levels, genetic variation, viral genome variation, and patients' characteristics including age, sex, ancestry, comorbidities, and symptom severity. This study will link serological, genomic and patient characteristics to provide a comprehensive understanding of factors that contribute to variability in clinical symptoms and outcomes among COVID-19 patients. Evidence from this study will determine if immune response, viral strain and genome sequencing are effective for the diagnosis, prognosis and management of patients with COVID-19. | Borgundvaag, Bjug; Chertkow, Howard M; Devine, Luke A; Faghfoury, Hannaneh; Friedman, Steven M; Gingras, Anne-Claude; Kulasingam, Vathany; Mazzulli, Tony; McGeer, Allison J; McLeod, Shelley L; Pugh, Trevor J; Richardson, David C; Simpson, Jared T; Strug, Lisa J | |
| Rapid Prototyping and Deployment of a Therapeutic Pan-Coronavirus Fusogenix DNA Vaccine Engineered to Eliminate ADE | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Lewis, John D | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | In this project, this team will rapidly develop, validate and clinically evaluate a novel DNA Vaccine against COVID-19 utilizing well-validated Fusogenix proteolipid vehicle (PLV) intracellular delivery platform. The use of a plasmid DNA vaccine will allow us to utilize multiple epitopes from key immunogenic SARS-COV-2 proteins, generating protection against structural components of the novel coronavirus, which should not only protect against viral entry but provide a robust cell-based response during active infection. Working with an international multi-disciplinary team including investigators at University of Alberta, Dalhousie University, Entos Pharmaceuticals, VIDO, EpiVax, Virscio and a pharmaceutical partner, we will rapidly prototype, validate and clinically evaluate a pan-coronavirus DNA vaccine. Clinical trials will be initiated at the Canadian center for Vaccinology in Halifax within 8 weeks of project initiation, with the goal of a commercial release within one year. | Duncan, Roy; Halperin, Scott A; Kelvin, Alyson A | |
| A central role for the vascular endothelium in COVID-19 pathogenesis | Fundamental Science | Licht, Christoph | Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that can lead to a severe lung infection and death in seniors and patients with additional illnesses. Recent studies have recognized severe cardiovascular injury mainly in children and young adults even in the absence of the typical lung disease. Importantly, there are currently no validated vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. Serious and life-threatening cases of COVID-19 involve uncontrolled immune responses. One important part of the immune system's first line of defense is the complement system, which typically helps to clear invaders and damaged cells. Recent studies implicated complement as important in COVID-19, as it is known to activate the inner lining of blood vessels, the vascular endothelium. Endothelial activation leads to the attraction of inflammatory cells, which adds to an "inflammatory storm" and increases the risk of blood clotting, together closing a vicious cycle of blood vessel destruction and poor outcome. In a health care system crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic, identification of patients in highest need for treatment and early determination of likely patient outcomes are urgently needed. We aim to address these needs by (i) investigating the mechanisms, by which complement injures and activates the endothelium, and (ii) identifying the resulting biological markers (biomarkers) reflecting inflammation and endothelial injury, and correlating them with the outcome of COVID-19 patients, thus establishing a COVID-19 risk score. Our study will help to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic in two ways: (i) identifying complement as important mechanism of inflammation and blood vessel injury will allow for trialing available complement blockers in COVID-19 patients; (ii) identifying biomarkers predicting patient outcomes will help determining patients in biggest need for help, and - in a desperate shortage of resources - identifying the ones who might have a chance to survive. | ||
| Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Covid-19 Study: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Brain Health | Aging/Elder Care | Liu-Ambrose, Teresa Y; Raina, Parminder S; Smith, Eric E | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The COVID-19 pandemic is a defining global health crisis and our greatest challenge since World War II. While patterns are emerging with respect to the characteristics of individuals with symptomatic infections requiring hospitalization, much remains unknown, including the impact of COVID-19 on our cognition and brain. The virus that causes COVID-19 belongs to a family of viruses that possess the capacity to directly impact the brain. COVID-19 patients are presenting with a wide variety of neurological signs and symptoms, including stroke, confusion, and the loss of smell; these observations support the notion that COVID-19 can have significant consequences for our cognitive function and brain health, including increased dementia risk. Thus, we aim to measure the possible impact of COVID-19 on cognitive function, brain structure, and brain function in adults aged 55 to 70 years who are also participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). The CLSA is the largest and longest Canadian study on adult development and aging. Participants will undergo repeated cognitive testing (i.e., baseline, 5, and 10 months) and brain scanning (i.e., baseline and 10 months). Results will inform the clinical management of COVID-19, such as the need to monitor cognitive function over time and timely deployment of preventative and therapeutic approaches to promote brain health. | Griffith, Lauren E; Hogan, David B; Kirkland, Susan A; Menec, Verena H; Wolfson, Christina M | |
| Development of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Liu, Jun | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | The current COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide threat. Moreover, the ability of asymptomatic carriers to transmit the disease is making it very difficult to contain and control. As such, safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are urgently needed. The goal of this research project is to develop effective vaccines to combat COVID-19. Combining our expertise in coronaviruses, vaccine development and viral vector engineering, we plan to take novel approaches to develop highly effective vaccines against COVID-19. We will use a helper-dependent adenoviral (HD-Ad) vector to deliver antigens and we will also generate a bacterium-based BCG-COVID-19 compound vaccine. The HD-Ad vectors that we will use offer several advantages over the conventional Ad vectors: 1) they are safer for human use and potent in the delivery of specific antigens, 2) they have a large DNA carrying capacity for expressing multiple antigen genes without the expression of non-specific antigens from the vector and 3) they produce antigens in their native folded form with proper glycosylation and may not require boosting. BCG is an attenuated bacterium and the approved vaccine against tuberculosis in humans. In addition to its specific immune protection against TB, BCG has non-specific benefits as it prevents about 30% of infections with pathogens including viruses. We will construct a recombinant BCG that secretes a fusion protein composed of the bacterial protein antigen 85A fused to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD. This recombinant vaccine will not only retain BCG's nonspecific anti-viral benefits but will also produce specific immune protection against COVID-19. The success of this project will allow us to proceed with the production of the clinical grade vaccines for further testing clinically more than one vaccines while establishing a collaboration with a Canadian biotech that can oversee the licensing and large-scale production of this vaccine for the Canadian market. | Hu, Jim; Rini, James M | |
| Improving Outcomes in Individuals with COVID-19 with Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibition: The COVID-RASi Trial | Clinical Trials | Liu, Peter P; Birnie, David H; Goodman, Shaun G | Ottawa Heart Institute Research Corporation (Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | Cardiovascular disease is not only the #1 killer chronically, but is also the #1 killer in COVID-19. Elderly patients with previous heart attack or stroke, or hypertension or diabetes, have high risk of getting infected. Surprisingly they also suffer 3 to 5 times the chance of dying compared to other infected patients. A clue may lie in a group of commonly used medicines, called renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, including ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blocks or ARBs, usually extremely protective for our cardiovascular patients. But they have come under attack because they are suspected to increase the levels of ACE2 in the body, also part of RAS, which is the receptor for the virus, or the doorway for virus to enter our body. So are these agents safe or dangerous? This has become a major source of fear for both patients and physicians alike, and a raging controversy. To answer this question, we analyzed data from Wuhan, and found that these agents actually to be extremely protective. This finding was also replicated in another study examining patients in Europe and America. However, these data looked backwards at events past, which can be fraught with hidden biases. Therefore, the world desperately needs a proper forward-looking trial to evaluate these agents in COVID-19. Together with our Canadian and international partners experienced in COVID-19 research, we are starting this large trial to evaluate whether adding ACE inhibitors, or ARB's, compared to no added treatment in high risk COVID-19 patients, can decrease the chance of dying, requiring ventilators or ICU. A positive trial showing benefit will potentially save many lives in the world, using a very simple and cheap set of medications. Even if we found the medications to be safe, it will be very reassuring for millions of patients. We want to answer this question with urgency to benefit Canadians and cardiovascular patients worldwide in this COVID-19 era. | Chow, Chi-Ming; Ezekowitz, Justin A; Farkouh, Michael E; Forster, Alan J; Healey, Jeff S; Lawler, Patrick R; Lee, Douglas S; Mcalister, Finlay A; McDonald, Emily G; Oudit, Gavin Y; Patel, Rakesh V; Sharma, Abhinav; So, Derek Y; Sun, Louise; Tu, Karen; Wells, George A | |
| A rapid at-home test for SARS-CoV-2 | Diagnostics | Li, Yingfu; Brennan, John D | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | As governments move toward re-opening Canada, it is critical that we have in place fast and simple tests for COVID-19. Canada needs cost-effective diagnostic technologies that allow for accurate and real-time mass testing in a variety of places, such as homes, airports, doctors' offices, borders, long-term care facilities and remote locations without access to centralized testing facilities. The goal of this proposal is to adapt and optimize existing technologies, originally developed by a team of researchers at McMaster University for bacterial detection, into a rapid point-of-need test for COVID-19. The test targets two classes of unique biomarkers - RNA and proteins - from COVID-19 to increase the test accuracy. It targets the RNA using molecular scissors made of DNA (called DNAzymes) and the proteins using molecular hands made of DNA (called DNA aptamers). These molecular scissors and hands will convert the presence of viral RNA and proteins to a DNA output, which is then massively amplified via an equipment-free room-temperature amplification method, known as "rolling circular amplification" (RCA), making the test highly sensitive. The device for the test is very simple and cheap, resembling a home pregnancy test. The test uses saliva as the sample source and fast chemical and biochemical reactions so that the test can be performed easily within 30 minutes by untrained users at home or any other points of need. Test reagents are contained in tablets for user convenience and high stability. Our team has already obtained proof-of-concept for most of the components of the test and will aim to optimize and integrate these components into a test kit, and validate the test by working with clinicians at the frontline of COVID-19 diagnostics and treatment. We are also working with Canadian industrial partners who can help with manufacturing and distribution of tests and recording of test results. | Balion, Cynthia M; Capretta, Alfredo A; Filipe, Carlos; Mossman, Karen L; Salena, Bruno J; Soleymani, Leyla; Yamamura, Deborah L | |
| Determinants of Community COVID Transmission: Learning from the Hutterites | Transmission Dynamics | Loeb, Mark B | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Synopsis Achieving a better understanding of the determinants of community transmission of COVID-19 is one of the most important challenges facing governments both in Canada and worldwide. This is best studied in actual communities. To do this, it is critical to understand factors such as the role of children and herd effect in community transmission, the role of pre-existing immunity, and the role of physical distancing. Filling these gaps will go far towards reducing the burden of disease to Canadians and others worldwide. Data and Methods Prospective cohort studies where members of multiple entire cities or towns are enrolled are usually not feasible. To this end, we propose a unique Canadian model. Hutterites, along with the Mennonites, were founded as Protestant sects in the 16th century Anabaptist movement of Switzerland. The majority of Hutterites live in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba where they practice communal farming on small colonies relatively isolated from towns and cities. Within these homogeneous, moderately sized colonies, regular respiratory virus transmission is facilitated by a communal lifestyle. We propose to conduct a cohort study on COVID-19 in Hutterite colonies to understand community determinants of COVID-19 transmission. We will examine the role that children play in transmitting COVID-19, the role of physical distancing, the role of co-infection with influenza, and the role of virus strain variation. Impact Findings from this cohort study will inform policy makers about the determinants of community transmission. The study will also give vital information about the role of children in creating herd immunity as well as data on diagnosis, the impact of influenza, and SARS-Co-V-2 strain circulation in communities. | Babiuk, Lorne A; Chokani, Khami; Fonseca, Kevin; Mcarthur, Andrew G; Miller, Matthew S; Pullenayegum, Eleanor M; Russell, Margaret L; Smieja, Marek J | |
| Medical Masks versus N95 Respirators to Prevent COVID-19 in Healthcare Workers: A Randomized Trial | Device Manufacturing/Medical Supplies | Loeb, Mark B | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Little is known about the effectiveness of respiratory protective devices in protecting healthcare workers from 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Epidemiologic data to support the superiority of an N95 respirator, preferentially recommended by U.S CDC and European CDC for prevention for COVID-19, over the less expensive and readily available medical mask, are sparse. In contrast, the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) recommend use of a medical mask for the routine care of patients with COVID-19. As the pandemic has evolved, a serious concern has been that there is not a sufficient stockpile of N95 respirators available for aerosol generating procedures. Moreover, compliance with N95 respirators could overtime decrease as they have been associated with headaches and discomfort. This could lead to a lack of compliance, which during SARS increased the risk of infection. Although for aerosol generating procedures, N95 respirators are the preferred method of protection, for non-aerosol generating patient care, it is not clear that N95 respirators offer greater protection than medical masks based on the two small existing observational studies that addressed this. Furthermore, the requirement for fit testing may be a barrier in low and middle-income countries. It is therefore of prime importance during this pandemic to conduct a head-to-head comparison of medical masks and N95 respirators. For this reason, we propose a randomized controlled trial in which healthcare workers in healthcare facilities in three provinces will be randomized to either medical masks or N95 respirators when providing care to patients with COVID-19. We will detect confirm COVID-19 in both groups. We hypothesize that medical masks offer similar protection for routine care than N95 respirators for COVID-19. | Boyd, Hugh; Castellucci, Lana; Conly, John M; Kim, Joseph; Larios, Oscar E; Lee, Nelson L; Mansour, Sarah; Mertz, Dominik; Missaghi, Bayan; Muller, Matthew P; Parkes, Leighanne O; Pullenayegum, Eleanor M; Smith, Stephanie W; Somayaji, Ranjani; Vayalumkal, Joseph V | |
| Kukaa Salama (Staying Safe): A Pre-Post Trial of a WhatsApp Social Group for Increasing COVID-19 Prevention Practices with Urban Refugee and Displaced Youth in Kampala, Uganda | Digital Solutions | Logie, Carmen; Hakiza, Robert | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | THE ISSUE: Poverty, overcrowded living conditions, and poor sanitation increase COVID-19 risks in humanitarian settings while limiting the ability to practice prevention strategies (e.g. physical distancing, hand washing). There is an urgent need for tailored COVID-19 responses with refugee/displaced persons. We address knowledge gaps regarding COVID-19 prevention in humanitarian contexts. We focus on urban refugee/displaced youth in Uganda, where 1.4 million refugees are hosted-Sub-Saharan Africa's largest refugee hosting nation and the 3rd largest globally. Our study is located in Kampala, Uganda that hosts 90,000 urban refugee/displaced persons living in informal settlements. Adolescents and youth comprise half of the world's 70.8 million refugee/displaced persons yet are understudied in pandemics. OUR IDEA: We will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a WhatsApp social group intervention in increasing COVID-19 prevention practices (hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing) among our existing CIHR Project Grant cohort of urban refugee/displaced youth aged 16-24 living in informal settlements in Kampala. Our project involves: 1) qualitative phone interviews with refugee/displaced youth (n=24) and key informants (n=6) to understand barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 prevention, following the RANAS (risk, attitude, norms, ability, self-regulation) approach to behaviour change; 2) integration of the qualitative findings to develop Kukaa Salama (Staying Safe), a 16-week COVID-19 prevention intervention (weekly SMS and moderated WhatsApp discussions); 3) conducting a single arm, pre-test/post-test trial to test the effectiveness of Kukaa Salama in improving COVID-19 prevention with refugee/displaced youth aged 16-24 (n=340); 4) knowledge mobilization, including a think tank to produce a refugee policy analysis. Findings will advance the COVID-19 global response with new knowledge of mHealth approaches for COVID-19 prevention in humanitarian contexts. | Kyambadde, Peter; Mwima, Simon; Baral, Stefan D; Chemutai, Doreen; Gittings, Lesley B; Hankivsky, Olena; Lester, Richard T; Mbuagbaw, Lawrence C; Okumu, Moses; Perez-Brumer, Amaya G | |
| Inferring undiagnosed sources of COVID-19 infections using viral genomes | Fundamental Science | Long, Quan; van Marle, Guido | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is believed to be significantly influenced by asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 patients. Understanding the role that asymptomatic patients play in the spread of the disease is vital for informing testing procedures. This project aims to build a tool to identify asymptomatic or undiagnosed patients by examining infected people around them without the need to directly test them, allowing health authorities to make rapid and better informed decisions. Viral genomes accumulate small changes, mutations, which usually are neutral in terms of disease progression. These can be used to trace transmission networks - individuals within the network will have acquired the disease from a single source and so will share the same variants. Current approaches do not detect utilize all variants especially the low-frequency ones and so rate less robust in building accurate transmission networks, and inferring transmission by asymptomatic carriers. By utilizing our previously developed tools and expertise in inferring HIV transmission networks, we will develop new mathematical models that are able to infer SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The sequencing data needed to map viral transmission will be acquired through a project funded by the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) and Genome Alberta, which aims to sequence 1,900 COVID-19 patients. In collaboration with our partner organization, Public Health Laboratory under Alberta Health Services (ProvLab) who performs COVID-19 diagnostics for the province of Alberta, we will obtain information on asymptomatic patients who have tested positive for the virus, remove them from our data, and then see if we can retrospectively identify them as likely contacts between the symptomatic individuals.. The resulting tools can be extended for use across Canada, and potentially even model future outbreaks of infections diseases in humans, livestock, and wildlife. | Gill, Michael J; Gordon, Paul; Ware, Antony | |
| Vaccination in a pandemic: The impact on routine vaccinations and future COVID-19 vaccine acceptance | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Macdonald, Shannon E; Tunis, Matthew C; Gagneur, Arnaud A | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | Canadians are asking: During the pandemic, should my children or myself receive our regular vaccines? Is it safe to go to my vaccination appointment? Could COVID-19 make me seriously ill? Will new COVID-19 vaccines be safe, since they are being made so quickly? Will there be enough COVID-19 vaccines for everyone? Like everyone else in the world, Canadians face many concerns about COVID-19, and Canadian health care systems are grappling with the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. Physical distancing measures that have been put in place to reduce spread of COVID-19 have led to challenges in providing, and accessing, routine vaccines for all ages, such as those for measles or meningitis. At the same time, one of the primary options for containment of the pandemic is through future COVID-19 vaccines. However, public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is already being questioned in the media, and initial vaccine shortages will require prioritization of who receives the vaccine first. An understanding of Canadians' acceptance of future vaccines and their perspectives on vaccine prioritization will be critical before vaccines are rolled-out. The aim of this project is to support the public health system in these tasks. We will begin by assessing how provincial and territorial health systems are delivering routine vaccinations during the pandemic, examining what the public think about routine vaccines during this time, and then measuring whether less/more people are getting vaccinated with routine vaccines during the pandemic. Second, since population support for a vaccination program is critical to its success, we will examine public acceptability of new COVID-19 vaccines and the determinants of acceptability. The project will provide Canada's public health system with essential information to organize the distribution of routine vaccines during the pandemic and to prepare for the inevitable COVID-19 mass vaccination program that is on the horizon. | Brousseau, Nicholas; Naus, Monika; O'Brien, Celine Y; Benzies, Karen M; Bettinger, Julie A; Driedger, S. Michelle; Dubé, Eve; Humble, Robin M; Kiely, Marilou; Macdonald, Nora (Noni) E; Meyer, Samantha; Rafferty, Ellen; Robinson, Joan L; Sadarangani, Manish; Svenson, Lawrence W; Wilson, Sarah | |
| Gig couriers delivering people, food and packages in a pandemic: Containment strategies to mitigate the occupational and public health impact | Public Health | Maceachen, Ellen | University of Waterloo (Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | Gig courier workers, such as Uber Eats, Amazon Flex, and Lyft drivers, have been busier than ever during the Canadian COVID-19 pandemic as the public attempts to avoid illness by ordering take-away food, shopping online and taking ride-hails rather than public transportation. This places gig courier workers in a unique position to become infected with COVID-19 and transmit it to others as they move people, food and packages from one location to another. Although gig couriers are key vectors between where people live (e.g. homes, care facilities) and the outside world, formal strategies do not exist to protect them from exposure and to mitigate their role in disease transmission. Importantly, this risk is not expected to change anytime soon as the high use of couriers will likely not decline as the economy re-opens. This study will contribute to coronavirus containment strategies by identifying disease transmission risks embedded in gig work contexts and practices, developing clear and tailored interventions for gig courier workers about gig courier disease-related safety and transmission, and widely disseminating results, in live time, as they are identified. Using framework analysis explicitly geared towards generating policy- and practice-orientated findings within limited time periods, we will: document existing courier safety organisational policy; map gig courier worker work, disease exposure and transmission conditions (with attention to gendered dimensions) via social media forums and in-depth interviews with workers and courier firm representatives; and categorise disease transmission risks. Supported by our Strategic Advisory Committee of unions, government municipalities, employers, and vulnerable worker advocates, and using real-time public health communications, this study will create effective national interventions to reduce gig courier disease exposure and protect the public health of Canadians using these courier services. | Majowicz, Shannon E; Meyer, Samantha | |
| Utilization of an Existing Longitudinal Observational Cohort of Community Adults to Characterize the Mental Health and Substance Use Impacts of COVID-19 | Social and Behavioural Sciences | MacKillop, James | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic is causing historic disruptions worldwide. Previous epidemics have increased mental health problems and evidence of such impacts is already present in China. Thus, there is a high need to characterize the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in Canadians to "flatten the mental health curve." To address this, we propose to examine the impact of COVID-19 on mental health in an existing longitudinal observational cohort of 1502 community adults. This group has been assessed over four waves to date, three prior to COVID-19 and one during COVID-19. Leveraging these existing pre-pandemic and intra-pandemic data, we will ascertain the pandemic's effects on high-priority areas of mental health and substance use. Specifically, we propose four primary aims. The first and second are to examine the impacts on mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder) and substance use (alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, and illicit drug use), respectively. The third aim is to examine the mechanisms by which these effects arise, including impacts of the pandemic and interrelationships among mental health and substance use. The fourth aim is to address where vulnerabilities exist by identifying high-risk and high-resilience subgroups within the larger cohort of individuals. We will also pursue two secondary aims, including sex/gender differences (separately) and targeted qualitative interviews of individuals exhibiting high-risk or high-resilience profiles. Our findings will be informed by Knowledge Users including a clinical psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, and leaders from the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, and Veterans Affairs Canada. Collectively, the research will provide a critical longitudinal perspective on the mental health impacts of COVID-19 that will provide substantive insights for government and healthcare responses in Canada and beyond. | Brasch, Jennifer S; Holshausen, Katherine; Busse, Jason W; Frey, Benicio N; McKinnon, Margaret; Van Ameringen, Michael | |
| COVID-19 incidence rates among Canadian dentists as they return to work: a cohort study | Cohort Studies/Biobanking | Madathil, Sreenath A; Allison, Paul J; Siqueira, Walter L | McGill University | CIHR | Québec | Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in Canada, in March 2020, dental regulatory authorities (DRAs) in provinces and territories across Canada obliged dentists to close their offices to routine care and provide emergency care only. The guidelines for dentists on the use of personal protective equipment or high-risk procedures (e.g., aerosol-generating procedures; AGPs), during the pandemic, vary between jurisdictions. Recently, some provinces have started allowing dentists to reopen their offices. However, guidelines on infection control, treatment and other procedures as dentists return to work have minimal evidence to support them. The overarching goal of this project is to estimate the incidence rate of COVID-19 among dentists and its risk associated with AGPs and N95 masks during the reopening phase of dental care services across jurisdictions in Canada. We are proposing a prospective cohort study of dentists during the reopening phase of dental services in Canada. An online questionnaire, adopted from WHO Unity Study protocols for assessment of COVID-19 risk among healthcare workers, will be used to collect information on socio-demographics, details of dental care provided to patients in the previous week, as well as symptoms related to COVID-19 and viral status (e.g., COVID-19 positive test). Saliva samples for detecting COVID-19 cases will also be collected at baseline and every four weeks. Participants will be followed on their viral status, clinical activities and COVID-19 status every two weeks post-baseline for a period of 12 months. Statistical analysis of the collected data will allow for the estimations of the incidence and prevalence of COVID-19 cases among Canadian dentists, and to identify the risk associated with AGPs and N95 masks. Our results will help the DRAs to monitor disease occurrence among dentists as they return to work and in developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and, as a result, prevent further spread of COVID-19. | Glogauer, Michael; Mcnally, Mary E; Quiñonez, Carlos R | |
| Dietary change during COVID-19: A population-based study in Atlantic Canada to build evidence for government economic and social policy responses | Policy/Government | Mah, Catherine L | Dalhousie University | CIHR | Nova Scotia | Consumer food environments have been transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early monitoring suggests people may be changing their consumer habits and dietary choices in unprecedented ways. Poor diet is already a leading cause of death and disability in Canada. Inadequate physical and economic access to food can have serious adverse effects on diet-related health and increase health care costs. Existing government monitoring in Canada will not be able to capture the dietary information we need to understand the breadth of dietary compromises being made, and the differential impact of COVID-19 for different populations, including important risk predictors such as age, sex and gender, income, employment, receipt of economic relief, and rural residence. To respond most rapidly and feasibly with a robust study design, we will focus on residents of the four Atlantic region provinces, who have among the highest burden of diet-related chronic diseases and obesity in Canada. This study is based in methodological approaches from nutritional epidemiology but draws substantially from our expertise in spatial and social epidemiology, and health economics. It leverages Canada Research Chair-and national agency funded teams, with links internationally. This population-based research will help us to better understand dietary risks and disparities resulting from COVID-19. The evidence we build will support governments across Canada to design economic and social policies and population interventions to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19. | Brimblecombe, Julie; Foster, Karen R; Fuller, Daniel L; Hajizadeh, Mohammad; Jago, Emily; Luongo, Gabriella M; Peeters, Anna; Taylor, Nathan G; Wranik, Dominika W; Yi, Yanqing | |
| Broad-spectrum Antiviral Nasal Spray to Prevent and treat Infection by SARS-CoV2 and Seasonal Respiratory Viruses in High Risk Patients and Health Care Providers | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Marchant, David J; West, Frederick G | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | Respiratory virus infections kill hundreds of thousands of people a year around the World. During pandemics this number can increase by over 100-fold. We are developing a nasal spray that has a compound in it that is antiviral against a broad spectrum of different pandemic and seasonal viruses. This antiviral, that we have named RespVirex targets the central replication engine of most viruses, called the polymerase. That means that if the central engine is stopped then the infection is slowed or it is prevented entirely. The throat is the first place that respiratory viruses take hold in the body. Therefore, we are developing RespVirex into a nasal/throat spray and aerosol that can be conveniently dosed by health care professionals and high risk patients to protect them from a broad range of viruses that circulate every flu season and during pandemics. RespVirex is being tested by an international team across Canada and at the Institute Pasteur in Senegal to test its usefulness on African SARS-CoV2 and other tropical viral infections. | Cosa, Gonzalo; Finlay, Warren H; Götte, Matthias; Peyrefitte, Christophe N | |
| PUPPY Study - Problems Coordinating and Accessing Primary Care for Attached and Unattached Patients Exacerbated During the COVID-19 Pandemic Year: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study with Rapid Reporting and Planning for the Road Ahead | Clinical Care | Marshall, Emily G; Breton, Mylaine; Green, Michael E; Isenor, Jennifer; Mathews, Maria | Dalhousie University | CIHR | Nova Scotia | The majority of health care visits are to primary care providers such as family physicians, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists. These individuals make up the core care team for most people. They normally help coordinate and manage health care. COVID-19 has caused significant changes in primary care. In Canada, many walk-in clinics and family practices have closed. Pharmacies remain open but with restrictions on patient interactions. Other major changes in care (e.g., virtual care, reduced referrals) have been made to respect public health and emergency orders. During these times with significant restrictions, patients can be unclear or unaware of how to get the right care, at the right time, from the right provider. Patients also fear getting COVID-19 and avoid care settings. Some will also avoid seeking care for COVID-like symptoms due to fear and a lack of access to a primary care provider. Understanding the rapid changes in primary care and how to navigate these is challenging for everyone, but more so for people without a regular primary care provider to help guide them. This is especially true for vulnerable groups (e.g., those with serious mental illness) and those with chronic health conditions that require ongoing, frequent care (e.g., bloodwork, scans, medication changes). COVID-19-related disruptions may lead to significant delays in treatments or unmet health care needs for many people. This may negatively affect population health outcomes and increase costs to health and social systems. The proposed study builds on existing research with an experienced team. The team will work to understand critical gaps in primary care access and coordination by comparing data from before, during, and after the pandemic. Multiple sources of data will be used such as policy makers, primary care providers, patients, waitlist data, healthcare billings, and prescribing data. The results are critical for strengthening primary care during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. | Edwards, Lynn H; Andrew, Melissa K; Ashcroft, Rachelle R; Bayoumi, Imaan; Bishop, Andrea C; Bowles, Susan K; Burge, Frederick I; Christian, Erin; Cossette, Benoît; Dahrouge, Simone; d'Entremont-MacVicar, Eden; Dolovich, Lisa R; Duhoux, Arnaud; Gibson, Richard; Grant, Amy K; Guénette, Line A; Harris, Michelle; Kiran, Tara; Lawson, Beverley J; Lenskjold, Anders; MacKenzie, Adrian; Martin-Misener, Ruth; Mccarthy, Lisa; McDougall, Erin E; McKay, Madeleine; Morrison, Bobbi; Murphy, Andrea; Sampalli, Tara; Smithman, Mélanie Ann | |
| Pandemic Planning for Primary Care: Lessons from Four Provinces | Clinical Care | Mathews, Maria; Hedden, Lindsay K; Lukewich, Julia; Marshall, Emily G | University of Western Ontario | CIHR | Ontario | Family physicians (FP) play an important role in pandemic response and recovery. However, existing pandemic plans do not adequately incorporate FP. What are the roles of FP during a pandemic? What facilitates and hinders FP from fulfilling these roles? The goal of the project is to inform the development of pandemic plans for FP by examining experiences in four regions in Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia. The project is a multiple case study of regions in four provinces. Each case consists of a two-part mixed-methods design consisting of: 1) chronology of FP roles in the COVID19 pandemic response and 2) qualitative interviews with FP. In each province, we will create the chronology through a document review (supplemented, as needed, by key informant interviews) to describe key milestones in COVID19 pandemic and FP roles and responsibilities at each stage of the pandemic. Using the chronology as common frame of reference, we will conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with FP who work in each region. In the interview, for each pandemic stage, we will ask FP to describe the facilitators and barriers to performing the proposed, actual and potential roles FP, and the influence of their gender on roles, facilitators and barriers. Results will provide government ministries, public health units, other health organizations, and FP evidence and tools (such as checklists) with which to respond to a second COVID19 wave and plan for future pandemics. | Asghari, Shabnam; Aubrey-Bassler, F. Kris; Brown, Judith B; Christian, Erin; Freeman, Tom; Gill, Paul; Kim, George P; McCracken, Rita; Ryan, Bridget L; Schacter, Gordon B; Sibbald, Shannon L; Strydom, Nardia; Terry, Amanda L; Thind, Amardeep; Wong, Eric | |
| Weathering adversity: toward mitigating the impact of prolonged school closure and social isolation on mental health and lifestyle behaviours of elementary school children | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Maximova, Katerina; Orfei, Marisa; Veugelers, Paul J | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the world, leading to drastic measures to limit the spread of the virus. These measures included closure of schools and orders to stay home for many weeks. Although these measures are necessary to prevent the virus from spreading, they also created a lot of hardship, particularly among school-aged children. This research builds on our 12 year partnership with a program called APPLE Schools (http://www.appleschools.ca/) which delivers a very successful intervention to promote healthy living and mental health to vulnerable kids from disadvantaged settings and currently operates in 74 elementary schools in northern Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Northwest Territories. In 2018 we collected data on lifestyle behaviours and mental health in 16 schools from northern communities. Together with APPLE Schools, we propose research that collects information on children's mental health (mood, feelings, self-esteem), sleep, diet, physical activity, screen time and how these things may have changed after COVID-19 school closures. We will also ask questions about health-related school programming to find out what worked and what did not. This will help us understand what we can do to improve student supports offered by schools. As we are anticipating repeat school closures to contain COVID-19 and other outbreaks, the knowledge from this study has direct links to the re-opening efforts. The findings can be implemented immediately in schools across Canada and beyond. | Mowat, David L; Godrich, Stephanie L; Newton, Mandi S; Ohinmaa, Arto E; Willows, Noreen D | |
| Uncovering longitudinal patterns of resilience and vulnerability in a pandemic: The All Our Families COVID-19 Impact Study | Social and Behavioural Sciences | McDonald, Sheila W | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | The psychological and social effects of the COVID19 pandemic are pervasive and are impacting current mental health and relationships, with potential long-term effects, notably in youth. Youth is a developmental period of significant social, emotional, biological, and contextual change, simultaneously associated with a surge in mental health difficulties. Preliminary evidence at the national level is indicating reduced mental health during the pandemic, particularly among youth. High-quality, contemporary data on coping and recovery for families and youth during and after an unprecedented pandemic is crucial to inform further action and resource allocation in any future periods of lockdown, increased or re-infection, and future pandemics. Further, the acute and sustainable costs and benefits of aggressive public health measures such as physical distancing on the well-being of families and communities are unknown. The All Our Families (AOF) study, an ongoing prospective pregnancy cohort in Calgary, will survey families at three times points over one year to capture the discrete and longitudinal patterns of direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on mental health, social connections, school achievement, sleep, and screen-time. AOF is uniquely positioned to disentangle emerging and sustained vulnerabilities from pre-existing vulnerabilities to development using longitudinal data that reflect the individual, family, and community determinants of health. Longitudinal data analysis will uncover patterns of resilience and vulnerability immediately, and over time for mothers and youth. Identification the factors that influence family and youth health and well-being during a pandemic is critical to the development of public health communications and strategies to improve outcomes. | Bandali, Farah; Mcneil, Deborah A; Edwards, Sarah A; Graham, Susan; Hetherington, Erin; Metcalfe, Amy L; Tough, Suzanne C | |
| Transitions to a new normal: The health of young children in the Maritimes during COVID-19 | Child Health and Human Development | McIsaac, Jessie-Lee D; Turner, Joan C | Mount Saint Vincent University | CIHR | Nova Scotia | The efforts of parents/caregivers are essential to control the spread of COVID-19 and to ensure supportive environments for young children's health. The states of emergency established in the Maritime provinces from COVID-19 have led to closures to many services for families with young children, the enforcement of physical distancing principles and abrupt changes to employment conditions and income; therefore, shifting the balance of responsibility on families. The level of risk associated with disruption to family life impacting children's health and development is unknown as families manage unpredictable challenges while following government and health directives. This research aims to understand how Maritime families with young children (0 to 8 years), are being impacted and manage family life during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Baseline data on family adjustment already collected provides a foundation for this proposed study that will explore adaptation to family life as the conditions of COVID-19 change to reflect unique timelines of the spread and management of the disease across three provinces. Followed by an initial survey of more than 2200 respondents, the second phase will include a repeat survey and opportunity for families to participate in telephone interviews designed to better understand the adjustments and adaptations to family life over time. The need to study family life during this changing time is critical to provide well-timed, relevant information on the resources needed to support early childhood development and health and mitigate the potential impacts now and into the future. Policy interventions targeting the needs of young families are necessary to ensure success of public health measures to prevent and manage COVID-19. Ongoing engagement with decision makers will advance the dissemination of the results and development of resources and supports for families with young children. | Janus, Magdalena; Rossiter, Melissa D | |
| Equity in Emergency Department Utilization in Alberta for Priority Populations during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring Impacts of Changes to Healthcare and Healthcare Utilization through Administrative Data Analysis and Nominal Group Techniques | Equity, Diversity, Inclusion | McLane, Patrick; Henderson, Rita I; Innes, Grant D; Lang, Eddy S; Rosychuk, Rhonda J | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | Alberta has seen a marked decrease in emergency department presentations while pandemic control measures have been in place. In addition to public health measures including physical distancing, many patients who perceive hospitals as high-risk environments and may avoid emergency department visits, even when seriously ill. This can lead to health issues becoming worse and harder to manage. Harms associated with decreased emergency department use may be greater for some populations, who rely more heavily on emergency departments for their care. Frequent users of emergency departments are more likely to be low income and to be older. In Alberta and British Columbia, First Nations individuals utilize emergency departments at a much higher rate than non-First Nations individuals. This study builds on an existing emergency medicine research partnership with the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre, as well as connections to operational (Alberta Health Services) and research leaders in the areas of emergency medicine, seniors care and population health. Through information collected by the Alberta health system, we will compare emergency department use during the initial months of the pandemic to information collected last year. Among other outcomes, we will consider how numbers of ED visits, hospital admissions, deaths in ED and other serious conditions have changed during the pandemic. We will then determine if changes have been greater for First Nations, socially and materially deprived, remote and older populations than for the general population. Through structured engagement with patients, clinicians and health systems leaders, we will share findings and develop understandings of results. Highlighting harms and inequities arising from pandemic-driven changes in care patterns and systems will allow policy- and decision-makers to reduce the negative consequences of efforts to manage COVID-19. | Fielding, Scott D; Healy, Bonnie A; Barnabe, Cheryl C; Bill, Lea; Cummings, Greta; Hayward, Jake; Holroyd, Brian R; Rittenbach, Kay | |
| Development of a yeast-based immunoassay for SARS-CoV-2 serologic testing amenable to inexpensive local production | Serological Studies | Mcmillen, David R | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | To monitor the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and test individuals for potential immunity, we need antibody detection tests, where a blood sample is checked for the presence of antibodies induced by past exposure to the virus. These tests are often expensive, requiring either a fully-equipped laboratory with highly trained technical staff, or costing many dollars per test for field-deployable "strip tests". Sending tests to a lab or paying a few dollars per test does not perhaps seem like a problem, here in Canada, but in our partner nation of the Philippines, both of these present significant barriers: public health dollars are sharply limited, and remote areas have very limited access to lab facilities and technical staff. Our goal is to create an antibody detection test that can be "grown" locally, here in Canada and in the Philippines. By modifying baker's yeast (S. cerevisiae), we can put antibody-binding proteins (antigens) on their surfaces, able to capture disease-induced antibodies found in blood samples. We test for the presence of these antibodies with an agglutination test: when the yeast cells settle to the bottom of a round well, in the absence of antibodies they form into a tight button that looks like a dot to the naked eye; or in the presence of antibodies they form larger clumps that stay more spread out and look like a flat sheet to the naked eye. A minimally-trained user can thus obtain a positive or negative result with no expensive instruments. The yeast (once designed) can be grown in a simple sugar solution, at a raw material cost that we estimate to be something less than 0.01 cents per test. We have demonstrated lab-bench success at detecting Chagas' disease and dengue fever antibodies, and now we propose to adapt the technique to detect COVID-19 antibodies and develop it in a fully deployable kit for use in under-resourced areas. Our first target is the Philippines, with the help of our collaborators at UP Manila. | ||
| Evaluating the differential impact of what we have done, as we prioritize what to do next: a multi-provincial intervention modeling study using population-based data | Public Health | Mishra, Sharmistha; Janjua, Naveed Z; Katz, Alan; Kwong, Jeffrey C; Maheu-Giroux, Mathieu; Williamson, Tyler | Unity Health Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | In Canada, as elsewhere, the COVID-19 epidemic has spread at varying speeds and amplitudes across people, places, and time. Early model predictions were dire across the board largely because of limited local data. So early models had to assume that we were all at equal risk, regardless of conditions that can lead to differential risks of transmission (e.g. living in shelters or long-term care facilities) and of severe outcomes (e.g. age, health conditions). Thus, an assumption of homogeneity was at the heart of the "hammer" part of the public health response. Public health measures (interventions) also varied between provinces. As we enter the "dance" phase and prepare for future waves of the epidemic, we have an opportunity to be more specific with our interventions if we can quickly learn from how well our public health measures worked or did not work for different subgroups and between provinces, using the wealth of data now available. Our team will use an integrated surveillance and health-administrative data infrastructure and mathematical models that were built over the last 2 months in Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia to answer the following questions: 1. Who, where, when, and under what conditions are subsets of the population most at risk? 2. What led to differences in the trajectory and size of COVID-19 sub-epidemics within and between provinces? 3. What types of population- and facility-specific strategies that could stop these sub-epidemics and prevent their re-emergence, while allowing us to relax universal physical distancing measures? Our team of epidemiologists, mathematical modelers, statisticians, clinicians, microbiologists, and public health officials will work together to rapidly provide answers in way that embraces data-driven heterogeneity in risks so that we can better inform decisions on what to implement, when, for whom, and for how long, to minimize the need for universal stay-at-home strategies. | Baral, Stefan D; Bogoch, Isaac; Boily, Marie-Claude; Brisson, Marc; Buckeridge, David L; Chan, Adrienne; de Montigny, Simon; Eastwood, Catherine A; Khan, Kamran; Krajden, Mel; Kustra, Rafal; Mâsse, Benoît R; McGeer, Allison J; Otterstatter, Michael C; Smylie, Janet K; Wang, Linwei | |
| Canadian Surveillance of COVID-19 in Pregnancy: Epidemiology, Maternal and Infant Outcomes | Child Health and Human Development | Money, Deborah M; Boucoiran, Isabelle; Castillo, ELIANA; Elwood, Chelsea; Fell, Deshayne B; Poliquin, Vanessa; Snelgrove, John W | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The effects of COVID-19 in pregnancy on both the mother and fetus are largely unknown. Our pan-Canadian team has initiated a prospective national surveillance project, led and centrally coordinated in British Columbia, to monitor outcomes associated with COVID-19 in pregnancy. This project will determine the burden of COVID-19 among pregnant women in Canada, as well as maternal and infant outcomes associated with infection, including whether the virus may be transmitted from mother to fetus in pregnancy or post partum. This study will allow Canada to develop urgently needed, relevant, evidence-based recommendations for maternity and pediatric care providers and pregnant women and their families. Data aggregation with international partners will complement global efforts. | Armson, Brian A; Luo, Wei; Onysko, Jay; Abenhaim, Haim A; Albert, Arianne; Barrett, Jon; Crane, Joan M; El-Chaar, Darine; Joynt, Chloe; Kakkar, Fatima; Krajden, Mel; Kuret, Verena; Malinowski, Ann K; McClymont, Elisabeth K; Murphy-Kaulbeck, Lynn C; Murphy, Phil; Sadarangani, Manish; Sauve, Laura J; Scott, Heather M; Ting, Yuk Joseph; Van Schalkwyk, Julianne E; Whittle, Wendy L; Yudin, Mark H; Zipursky, Jonathan S | |
| The role of interleukin-10 responsiveness in lung inflammation in SARS CoV2 infection | Fundamental Science | Mui, Alice L | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | A subset of patients infected by SARS CoV2 respond with overproduction of inflammatory cytokines which contribute to their acute respiratory distress and morbidity. This "cytokine storm" results from the imbalance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mechanisms. One of these mechanisms involve inflammatory macrophages which produce cytokines such as interleukin-6 and interleukin-1, and anti-inflammatory, regulatory macrophages which predominantly produce the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL10). IL10 acts on the inflammatory macrophages to temper their response. We propose to examine whether the regulatory, IL10-producing macrophages in the lung are producing appropriate levels of IL10, or whether the inflammatory macrophages are impaired in their ability to respond to IL10. We will also assess whether a small molecule SHIP1 agonist which activates the intracellular protein SHIP1 like IL10 does, can mimic the action of IL10 and reduce inflammation in SARS CoV2 infection. | Aulakh, Gurpreet K | |
| Surveilling the impact of local public health on COVID- 19: A model and application for capturing high-resolution insights from the front-lines during a pandemic | Public Health | Neudorf, Cordell (Cory) O; Bandara, Thilina; Plante, Charles | University of Saskatchewan | CIHR | Saskatchewan | Local public health units, which are often buried within large health care authorities or municipal governments, have proved to be indispensable during the COVID-19 pandemic. In cities and towns throughout Canada, local public health units are responsible for implementing provincial and federal COVID-19 recommendations. These activities by local public units have led to unprecedented consequences for the operations of public health units themselves, and for the community. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to measure the activities of public health units and their impacts. This is unfortunate because such information would be very useful for researchers and decision-makers to learn from. We propose to undertake "public health policy surveillance" to capture local public health activities themselves and their consequences on CoVID-19 outcomes. First, we will use surveys and interviews to gather information from front-line public health experts. We will access those experts through our front-line public health network research partners, whose public units serve over two-thirds of the Canadian population. Through our surveys and interviews, we will 1) have baseline data on local public health activities, 2) learn how to collect this information regularly to understand local public health operations and outcomes, and 3) improve pandemic responses in the future. | Guyon, Ak'ingabe; Watson-Creed, Gaynor B; Anderson, Maureen; Béland, Daniel; Buckeridge, David L; Mclaren, Lindsay; Oluwole, Oluwafemi | |
| An international multi-site, randomized controlled trial of a brief eHealth intervention to increase COVID-19 knowledge and protective behaviors, and reduce pandemic stress among diverse LGBT+ people | Clinical Trials | Newman, Peter A; Chakrapani, Venkatesan; Phanuphak, Nittaya | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | The extreme global impact and still uncertain path of COVID-19 demands collaboration among researchers and communities in high- (HIC) and low-income countries (LMIC) to effectively halt the pandemic. Currently, public health recommended behavioural measures, such as handwashing and physical distancing, are the only effective approach to prevent COVID-19. However, COVID-19 exerts a disproportionate impact on marginalized populations. Existing disparities in health and its social determinants increase vulnerability to COVID-19, and creates barriers to adopting public health measures, which deepen resulting inequities. LGBT+ populations, including intersections with other forms of marginalization by race/ethnicity, gender, age and HIV status, experience extensive health disparities, and challenges due to unstable housing, employment, healthcare discrimination, and violence. Yet, there are no coordinated pandemic responses to address the expectable excess burden of COVID-19 among diverse LGBT+ people in Canada or LMIC. Community-engaged approaches are essential to bridging mistrust and loss of confidence in public health communications on the part of vulnerable communities, fueled by existing inequities. To address substantial gaps in the pandemic response, we will rapidly mobilize our existing global research team to adapt, test, and disseminate a community-engaged, brief, online peer-delivered intervention (#SafeHandsSafeHearts) with diverse LGBT+ populations to reduce risk in the pandemic. We will test the intervention's effectiveness in increasing COVID-19 knowledge and protective behaviours, and reducing psychological distress among cisgender gay/bisexual men, cisgender lesbian/bisexual women, and transgender people in Canada, India, and Thailand. In addition to immediate impact in slowing the spread of COVID-19, results will inform health system and public health responses to support engagement of LGBT+ and other marginalized populations in the pandemic response. | Chaudhary, Amina T; Dubey, Vinita; Frans, Denese; Rawat, Shruta A; Song, Yun-Ju; Tepjan, Suchon; Bhuyan, Rupaleem; Burnes, David; Cameron, Michael; Fadel, Shaza A; Forman, Lisa; Guta, Adrian; King, Andrew; Kumarasamy, Nagalingesawaran; Logie, Carmen; Loutfy, Mona R; Massaquoi, Notisha M; Patel, Viraj V; Poopan, Siwaporn; Scarpa, Riccardo; Tharao, Wangari E; Williams, Charmaine C | |
| A Distinction-Based Study on Equity in COVID-19 Testing for Manitoba First Nations, Metis and Inuit | Indigenous Research | Nickel, Nathan C; Star, Leona; Clark, Wayne; Lavoie, Josée G; Phillips-Beck, Wanda; Sanguins, Julianne | University of Manitoba | CIHR | Manitoba | Some groups of Canadians are likely to be harder hit by the COVID-19 pandemic than others. First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FN/M/I) Canadians are one example of these. These groups have high rates of chronic illnesses (like heart disease and lung disease) that put them at high risk for poor COVID-19 outcomes. Many FN/M/I people experience poverty and live in over-crowded houses, making it hard to keep physically distant from others. As well, health and social services in FN/M/I communities are often underfunded. This means they may not be able to respond quickly to a health crisis if one occurs. To help prevent this type of crisis, this project will provide data on who is being tested for COVID-19, using the province of Manitoba as a sample for the rest of Canada. Testing is one of the first important steps to keeping the spread of the virus down. We will compare rates of testing among FN/M/I people in Manitoba (looking at First Nations, Metis and Inuit groups separately) to rates of testing in the rest of Manitoba. This information can then be used to direct and scale-up the public health response to COVID-19 where it is most needed. Using administrative data on Manitobans' health from the Repository at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP), we will look at where testing is occurring geographically, what the testing rates are and whether FN/M/I people are being tested at a different rate than other Manitobans, and how many tests are likely going to be needed to keep the spread of COVID-19 under control. We will also develop methods to automate these queries in the data, so we can monitor the trends in real time throughout the pandemic. The findings will be shared with FN/M/I health leadership and with the Manitoba Government's Department of Health. With access to the latest data, these decision makers can then respond quickly to issues that arise. | Chartrand, Frances; Dutton, Rachel; Edwards, Jeanette M; Brownell, Marni D; Chartier, Mariette J; Chateau, Daniel; Driedger, S. Michelle; Enns, Jennifer E; Katz, Alan; Lix, Lisa M; Mahar, Alyson L; Romanescu, Razvan G; Urquia, Marcelo L | |
| Public Health Response to COVID-19: Addressing Financial Strain-related Health Impacts of the Pandemic | Finance/Economics/Business | Nykiforuk, Candace; de Leeuw, Evelyne | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on people's health. Also because of COVID-19, people are facing unprecedented levels of financial strain due to the economic market collapse, job loss, social isolation, illness, and increased caring duties. Financial strain is the feeling of being unable to make ends meet. It occurs when people cannot pay their bills, feel worried about money, and experience negative impacts on their quality of life and health. Adults under financial strain are at higher risk of depression, anxiety, work absenteeism, and poor physical health. Their children are prone to loneliness, depression, poor mental health, and disability into adulthood. The COVID-19 related public health response to financial strain will be vital now and for societal recovery. PURPOSE: Our team will develop a public health framework on financial strain, as well an indicator tool-kit relevant to diverse settings and groups. This research is focused on the consequences of the sudden collapse of a system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings could also help offset financial strain during other public health emergencies. APPROACH: This proposal builds on our previous work on financial strain. We propose a multi-method comparative study, organized as four parts, and occurring in Canada and Australia. Part 1 involves a rapid realist review and international environmental scan to community-led and government strategies to address financial strain and health impacts. We will also do a policy review of government policies on COVID-related financial strain. Part 2 is interviews with government representatives (multiple levels) and organizations addressing financial strain. A financial strain framework will be developed from Parts 1+2. Part 3 will identify relevant indicators to guide action and lead to a tool-kit for practitioners. Part 4 is the involvement of two Practice Advisory Committees (CDA and AUS) in all project activities. | Allen-Scott, Lisa K; Harris, Patrick J; Hyshka, Elaine; Montesanti, Stephanie R; Pabayo, Roman A; Springett, Jane | |
| Can COVID-19 and maternal antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 be transmitted through human milk? Implications for breastfeeding and human milk banking | Child Health and Human Development | O'Connor, Deborah L; Poutanen, Susan M; Unger, Sharon | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | Protecting the health of newborns is of utmost importance, particularly true at the time of a pandemic such as COVID-19. Human milk, the optimal infant nutrition, modulates the developing human virome and provides protection against infectious diseases especially those of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. There is emerging evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, may be found in human milk which has resulted in conflicting advice from professional groups recommending caution for breastfeeding while a mother is COVID-19 positive. Even less is known about SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies that may be present in human milk, potentially offering immunoprotection to infants. For vulnerable infants, human donor milk provides an important bridge to mother's milk during hospitalization that helps to protect against neonatal morbidities. This donor milk is provided globally by more than 450 milk banks. Past global epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, have had devastating effects on breastfeeding and milk banking as a result of social, policy and public health responses to perceived risks. There is a critical, time-sensitive need to develop evidence-based guidance on breastfeeding and human milk banking during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project aims to quickly and efficiently determine the SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility in human milk and measure the associated antibodies along with the impact of thermal pasteurization on SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Our newly assembled team of experts in breastfeeding, human milk banking, infectious disease and molecular virology will immediately redirect parts of their established research programs including established infrastructure and personnel to accelerate the availability of critical time-sensitive evidence to guide public health recommendations about breastfeeding, handling of raw breastmilk by mothers and front-line workers in hospitals and in donor human milk banks. | Gray-Owen, Scott D; Johnstone, Jennie; Mazzulli, Tony; McGeer, Allison J | |
| Validation of rapid, molecular testing for COVID-19 and integration with TB diagnostics | Diagnostics | Pai, Madhukar | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | CIHR | Québec | We are living in a world severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is critical we do not neglect other diseases that persist outside of the global spotlight. Losing progress against the worldwide tuberculosis (TB) epidemic would mean adding to the 1.5 million TB-related deaths reported each year, but it is not inevitable. The symptoms for COVID-19 and TB are similar, with fever and cough both frequently observed. As such, integrating COVID-19 and TB testing is an opportunity to improve the quality of patient care by taking advantage of already-existing infrastructure. One example is GeneXpert, a diagnostic platform proven to be effective in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for TB diagnosis. The TB test, Xpert MTB/RIF, rapidly detects TB with high accuracy. Recently, a COVID-19 test, Xpress SARS-CoV-2, received FDA emergency use authorization for use on the GeneXpert platform. This is a promising development, particularly for LMICs with extensive GeneXpert networks already in place, but the test's diagnostic accuracy is unknown. We propose a validation study of Xpress SARS-CoV-2 to evaluate its diagnostic accuracy in Peru, a middle-income country already using GeneXpert. After obtaining an estimate of the test's performance, we will assess the feasibility of integrating testing for COVID-19 and TB on the GeneXpert platform. Namely, we will collect one sputum sample from individuals presenting with clinical symptoms typical to COVID-19 and TB, and test them using Xpress SARS-CoV-2 and Xpert MTB/RIF, respectively. We expect that the amount of COVID-19 and TB detected will be similar to what we would have detected with complete but time-consuming diagnostic work-ups for each disease. Testing for two diseases with common symptoms in one clinical interaction will be convenient for patients and healthcare workers. Having rapidly available diagnostic data will facilitate a more timely response for patient care and, ultimately, population-level planning. | Dendukuri, Nandini; Kohli, Mikashmi; MacLean, Emily L; Sulis, Giorgia; Ugarte, Cesar | |
| Canada's COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Impact in Homeless or At-Risk for Homelessness, and Visible Minority Populations in Canada: A Mixed-Method Study | Social and Behavioural Sciences | Pakhale, Smita; Etowa, Josephine B | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | CIHR | Ontario | Vulnerable populations are more likely to live with chronic conditions, experience housing and food insecurity,¿precarious employment, and mental health challenges, which are exacerbated during times of crisis. Canadian pandemic responses to COVID-19 fail to identify the interaction of marginalization and health disparities that are intertwined with the social determinants of health, which if incorporated in emergency planning by public health officials can lead to equitable public health risk messaging strategies for vulnerable populations. Using a mixed-method design, the objective of the study is to build upon a pilot trial and measure the bio-psychosocial and economic impacts of the COVID-19 response on homeless, at risk of homelessness, and visible minority populations in Ottawa, Canada. Through mobilizing existing community partnerships, a survey will be shared on social media platforms and through relevant social service networks by individuals with lived experience of homelessness and poverty (community peers). The survey will collect data on the physical health, mental health, socioeconomic characteristics, and health and digital literacy skills of vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sub-sample will complete telephone-based semi-structured interviews¿that¿will explore in-depth the experiences of vulnerable populations with¿physical distancing, exposure to public health messaging, and COVID-19¿related¿misinformation during the pandemic lockdown. The mixed-method analysis will examine patterns and relationships between the aforementioned factors of interest to inform digital and health literacy gaps, producing equitable pandemic policies in the future. By understanding the susceptibility of vulnerable populations and the unique communication outbreak disease management needs of said populations, the impact will have positive implications around the globe. | Addison, Hector A; Bouclin, Suzanne; Boyd, Rob; Crighton, Eric J; Dale, Ann; Florence, Kelly R; Gazarin, Mohamed; Grosjean, Sylvie; Hegarty, Terry; Jama, Sadia; Jangam, Chinnaiah; Kitty, Darlene; Najafizada, Said Ahmad Maisam; Ramsay, Timothy O; Selby, Peter L; Thavorn, Kednapa; Yaya, Sanni | |
| Detection and quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to conduct surveillance on burden of community infection, identify outbreaks and support public health decision-making on control measures for transmission of COVID-19 | Epidemiology/Modelling | Pang, Xiaoli L; Hinshaw, Deena; Ashbolt, Nicholas J | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | COVID-19 has been sweeping the world for 6 months. The daily report about new cases, associated deaths and recoveries globally are mentally traumatic for everyone. However, the real number of people infected by this new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) may be far higher than official reported because current testing positive numbers counts only sick patients but not asymptomatic ones. Asymptomatic person is the most dangerous silent source for community transmission. A modeling study suggested that the virus might simmer around the world, triggering epidemics every few years. Thus, it would be important to predict the next wave of virus, which allows the government and people to be prepared. Recent studies have detected SARS-CoV-2 in stool as well as raw sewage. We also detected this virus in sewage collected from three different wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Alberta. It has been proposed that the occurrence and levels of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage will mirror temporal burden of community infection. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a reliable method to detect the prevalence of community infection and forecast the next wave of COVID-19 through monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in sewage. This will provide evidences on the presence and levels of virus in our community, when it will possibly flare up causing an outbreak, and when and why our health authorities give an order to applying or relaxing social distancing and masking measures for controlling virus spread. A mathematical model based on the results obtained from this study will be generated to predict the trend of community infection under different conditions. This research brings benefits and knowledge to every Albertan, and also give us a tool and measure against new coronavirus now and in future. | Talbot, James A; Lee, Bonita E; Neumann, Norman F; Simmonds, Kimberley A | |
| Portable, Low-cost Hardware for De-centralized COVID-19 Diagnostics for Canada, Colombia and Ecuador | Diagnostics | Pardee, Keith I; Cevallos, Varsovia E; Gonzalez, Camila | University of Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | Here we propose to develop and demonstrate the hardware and molecular tools needed for high-capacity de-centralized COVID-19 diagnostics in Canada, Colombia and Ecuador. We will do this by adapting our portable plate reader, called PLUM, for distributed deployment of two key diagnostic modalities using our patient validated tests. 1) A rapid molecular SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic (RT-LAMP, 15 min) to prevent a resurgence of infection as our communities begin to reduce lockdown restrictions. 2) Serological testing to determine population antibody-levels and allow for strategic use of precious, future vaccine stocks. To bring these diagnostics assays (96 or 384 well plate) out of the laboratory setting and to the point-of-need, we will adapt the PLUM reader to provide the high-temperature incubation (65 C) needed for RT-LAMP. PLUM will also be augmented with purpose-built software and training materials to enable the use of diagnostics by users in the field (e.g. health care workers). This will include automated software for guidance on sample collection, running the assays, data analysis and secure data sharing to public health networks. The RT-LAMP assay, which has already been extensively tested with SARS-CoV-2 patient samples, will be augmented with new safeguard features to prevent false negative results and adapted to allow for RNA extraction-free use. The COVID-19 serological assay has also already been extensively validated with SARS-CoV-2 patient samples and here will be optimized for use in PLUM. Implementation and testing of this de-centralized diagnostic capacity will be performed at small businesses in Canada, and with hospital workers and remote populations in Colombia and Ecuador. Taken together, this proposed project combines a strong technical solutions with patient trials outside of conventional laboratory settings and will enable the development of the crucial de-centralized COVID-19 testing capacity needed for recovery from the pandemic. | Aramini, Jeffery J; Bremner, Rod; Gingras, Anne-Claude; Ponce, William P | |
| Wastewater surveillance of SARS-COV2 to enable real-time clinical case-finding in Calgary | Epidemiology/Modelling | Parkins, Michael D; Hubert, Casey | University of Calgary | CIHR | Alberta | We propose to track SARS-COV2 in the wastewater (WW; i.e., sewage) in Calgary, Alberta. The SARS-COV2 virus is excreted in the poop of infected individuals - often before symptoms start. These viruses are no longer infectious, but their genetic material (RNA genomes) can be detected in wastewater samples using molecular biology techniques for RNA quantification. This project will create a pathway enabling mobilized testing of the WW network throughout Calgary. Our project will achieve 3 objectives: 1 develop procedures to collect and analyse SARS-COV2 genetic material in WW samples from regionally diverse parts of Calgary, 2 develop different molecular assays that complement each other and are resilient to the WW chemical matrix, 3 develop genomics and bioinformatics methods for identifying genetic variants of SARS-COV2 in Calgary WW thereby enhancing epidemiological tracking. In Stage 1 we will develop and validate assays with samples from Calgary's three WW treatment plants, accounting for variability in WW chemistry and its effect on molecular biology methods. In Stage 2 we will work closely with Alberta Health Services and City engineers to apply the assays on WW from areas with known active COVID-19 cases to demonstrate proof of principle. In stage 3 we will deploy in real-time sampling teams through the city to collect samples for monitoring new areas where infections are not known to exist, allowing AHS to proactively find and respond to infected people without symptoms. Our team involves AHS, the City of Calgary, engineers, microbiologists, clinicians/public health experts, and University deans from Science, Engineering and Medicine. We will provide real-time, actionable information on SARS-COV2 in Calgary enabling public health officials to perform regionalized case-finding and develop strategies that focus containment efforts in the areas most affected, while minimizing the collateral social and economic consequences of needed public health interventions. | Achari, Gopal; Cabaj, Jason; Conly, John M; Hu, Jia; Meddings, Jonathan B; Naugler, Christopher; Pillai, Dylan R; Ruecker, Norma J; Ryan, Cathryn | |
| MOIST study: Multi-Organ Imaging with Serial Testing in COVID-19 infected patients | Clinical Care | Paterson, Ian | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The novel coronavirus has devastated the world since its initial outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Many individuals with this illness suffer from severe respiratory disease however there is growing evidence that this virus also affects other organs. Many patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have evidence for heart damage during their infection and/or they have reported decreased taste and smell. We have developed new techniques in MRI to image the heart, lung, brain and liver. We are proposing to perform MRI scans on patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in order to better understand the injury to the lung and other organs. We will scan patients within the first 2 days of their hospital stay, at discharge and then 3 months after they are discharged. These three time points will also provide information on recovery from illness, an area which is also not well understood and poorly studied. We hope that this research will better identify patients at long-term risk of health issues from COVID-19. This MRI approach could also be used in future studies to evaluate the effects of new treatments on the lungs and other organs. | Beaulieu, Christian; Ezekowitz, Justin A; Thompson, Richard B; White, James A | |
| Evaluating the Governance of Emergent Pandemic Zoonoses: A Systems and Legal Analysis of Wildlife Markets | Policy/Government | Penney, Tarra L; Wiktorowicz, Mary E | York University (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | Although mitigating the current pandemic is critically important, a governance response is needed to prevent future pandemics. We need actionable evidence that focuses on the regulation of wildlife trade from which SARS and SARS-Cov2 are believed to have emerged. Specifically understanding the social, legal and cultural dynamics that affect the regulation of wildlife markets in countries where zoonotic epidemics (Ebola) and pandemics (SARs, and SAR CoV-2) emerged, including China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Philippines. Therefore, the purpose of this project will be to evaluate the governance gap in stewardship of international wildlife trade supply chains given their implications for food and health security by analyzing the intersection of global biodiversity, environmental, agricultural and public health governance systems. Within each participating country an institutional and legal epidemiologic analysis will provide policy surveillance and mapping of international and national policy. A systems analysis will be used to identify local contextual interdependencies among laws, regulations, and their implications for the behaviour of social and political actors and communities supplemented by in-depth qualitative case studies. The empirical evidence from these analyses will be integrated into a report and set of policy recommendations that will be utilized in a process to inform the development of a policy design and implementation toolkit for international organizations, national and local stakeholders who will be engaged throughout the research process. | de Balogh, Katinka; Aenishaenslin, Cecile; bowman, kerry W; Carabin, Hélène; Desai, Shital; Orbinski, James J; Tsasis, Peter; Viens, A.M.; Wu, Cary | |
| Mechanistic studies on ACE2 as a rational therapy for COVID-19 | Fundamental Science | Penninger, Josef | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The COVID-19 pandemic has already killed 100,000s of people worldwide, and triggered a massive global effort to develop vaccines and therapeutics. We will build on our previous research to test a front-line candidate drug, human recombinant soluble ACE2 (hrsACE2), as a treatment for COVID-19. There is a strong rationale for hrsACE2 to be effective: first, hrsACE2 is a modified version of the human protein (ACE2) that SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect cells in the lungs and other organs. We have already shown that hrsACE2 blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection by acting as a decoy. Second, in animal models, hrsACE2 helps to reduce tissue damage in lung, heart, and kidney, and therefore could help prevent multi-organ failure in COVID-19 patients. hrsACE2 is already known to be safe to use, and is currently being tested in clinical trials for COVID-19. While there is an urgent need to understand how SARS-CoV-2 causes disease, evaluate drug efficacy, and optimize treatment conditions, there are limitations to testing in human patients. The goal of our project is to test the effects of hrsACE2 in a living organism and optimize rhsACE2 treatment (dose, drug delivery methods, and timing) to get maximal benefits. For this we will use our novel, improved, mouse model that expresses the human ACE2 gene in the correct location in the lung and other organs, and develops disease after infection. We will also use this mouse to test combination therapies of hrsACE2 with two other front-line drugs remdesivir, an antiviral, and chloroquine, an antimalarial drug. We anticipate that a combination of hrsACE2 treatment with these drugs would allow a reduction in the dosage of remdesivir (known to have liver toxicity at high dose) and chloroquine (heart toxicity at high dose) to a safer range. | ||
| Peptide macrocycle decoys against COVID-19 viral spike protein | Fundamental Science | Perrin, David M | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Peptides are potent, easy-to-synthesize, and synthetically accessible molecules that can specifically interact with pathogens. Peptides have been used to treat diabetes, neuropathic pain, cancer, and HIV. As chemists we have very recently invented news ways to make peptides both more potent as well as fluorescent in order to see where they go and how they act. We are poised to interface our technology with molecular modelling to synthesize peptides that will intercept the virus before it can enter a cell. These peptides can be injected or nasally delivered for therapy and can be used prior to vaccine development or in cases where certain patients cannot be vaccinated. | ||
| Evaluation en temps r√©el du d√©ploiement de technologies connect√©es et du partenariat de soins et services dans le contexte de crise sanitaire li√© √† la COVID-19 - le programme Techno-COVID-Partenariat | Digital Solutions | Pomey, Marie-Pascale A; Brunet, Fabrice; Gr√©goire, Alexandre; Lebouch√©, Bertrand; Malas, Kathy; Vicente, Sergio | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) | CIHR | Québec | Aux prises avec une crise sanitaire sans précédent, les deux établissements qui reçoivent le plus de patients atteints de la COVID-19 au Québec, ont décidé de mettre en place des innovations sociales et technologiques adaptées à chaque étape de la trajectoire des patients atteints de la COVID-19, du diagnostic à la guérison, afin de réduire l'isolement, maintenir le partenariat entre patients et cliniciens et favoriser la qualité et la sécurité des soins. Regrouper au sein du projet Techno-COVID-Partenariat, cette recherche permet d'évaluer en situation réelle de soins, comment ces innovations sont implantées, sur quelles dimensions elles agissent et combien elles peuvent coûter ainsi que déterminer si des facteurs peuvent expliquer certains résultats. Les innovations étudiées portent sur (i) l'apport des applications mobiles pour le maintien des patients nouvellement diagnostiqués ; (ii) la conjonction d'appels téléphoniques de bénévoles pour briser l'isolement et l'utilisation de différentes technologies pour réaliser des téléconsultations et de la télésurveillance ; (iii) l'adoption d'un robot compagnon pour divertir et soigner les patients COVID-19 hospitalisés avec des troubles psychiatriques ; et (iv) l'accompagnement des patients lors de leur transition et retour à domicile grâce à des patients accompagnateurs COVID-19 et une plateforme de télésurveillance. L'évaluation de ces innovations sont une occasion unique de montrer comment les outils de santé virtuels peuvent potentiellement soigner de manière fiable des milliers de patients sur une courte période tout en préservant des personnels de santé à risque et en assurant le maintien du lien social et le partenariat. Si les résultats sont concluants, ils permettront d'accélérer leur implantation dans d'autres établissements (canadiens et à l'international), non seulement pour la COVID-19 mais aussi pour tout autre problème de santé pouvant bénéficier de ces technologies et modalités. | De Guise, Michele; Gfeller, Pierre; Abdel-Baki, Amal M; Asselah, Jamil W; Bartlett, Susan J; Bessissow, Amal; Carli, Francesco; Colmegna, Ines; Deligne, Benoit; Desrosiers, Marie-Eve; Dubreucq, Simon; Dumez, Vincent; Folch, Nathalie; Ghadiri, Djahanchah P; Hijal, Tarek; Jutras-Aswad, Didier; Kildea, John; Lavoie, Frédéric; Lavoie-Tremblay, Mélanie; L'Espérance, Audrey; Poder, Thomas G; Talbot, Annie | |
| REinfection in COVid-19 Estimation of Risk (RECOVER) | Clinical Care | Quach-Thanh, Caroline; Boivin, Guy; Longtin, Yves | Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine | CIHR | Québec | Studies done with human coronaviruses (hCoV) have shown that antibodies rise on average 12 days after the onset of symptoms, are higher with more severe disease and seem to decrease the risk of reinfection for 1-3 years. Participants challenged with the same virus (hCoV 229E) 8-12 months after being infected with hCoV still developed symptoms and shed virus. Thus, if reinfection, whether symptomatic or not, occurs with viral shedding, achieving natural herd immunity against COVID-19 is unlikely. Awaiting a vaccine that would protect the entire population, there is hope that short-term natural immunity following natural disease can be achieved. However, we do not know at this point in time if COVID-19 positive patients in whom we detect an immune response have a long-lasting response and if this response protects them against reinfection and viral shedding There is a need to know these answers to plan for future actions. If an antibody response is not long-lasting and protective against viral shedding, then herd immunity is not a goal to aim for, as vulnerable patients will remain at risk; individuals having recovered from the disease may get re-infected and be a source of infections for others. In such a case, other non-pharmacological interventions will be necessary until an efficacious vaccine or therapeutic agent becomes available. We aim to estimate the risk of reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers (HCW) who have already been infected with COVID-19 and aim to study antibody response and levels in asymptomatic and symptomatic HCWs with confirmed COVID-19 reinfection over a 1-year period. Findings from this study will allow public health decision-makers to decide on future strategies for deconfinement/reconfinement and pandemic management. The 6-month results will be shared with public health. Showing that COVID-19 does not protect against mild reinfection or viral shedding will completely change the paradigm under which we are operating currently. | Cheng, Matthew P; Corbeil, Jacques; De Serres, Gaston; Decaluwe, Hélène; Gilca, Vladimir; Savard, Patrice | |
| Development of a Microwave Enabled Bio-Nano-Microfluidic Device for Point-of-Care Diagnosis of COVID-19 | Diagnostics | Ren, Carolyn L | University of Waterloo (Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 crisis has caused over 280k deaths with more than 4 million infections as of May 8, 2020. These numbers are increasing and may peak again with reopening of businesses. This tragedy could be prevented from happening or its impact could be largely minimized if rapid, massive-scale testing can be performed at community level without the need of highly trained professionals and expensive equipment. This is also the highly recommended action among the immediate next steps by World Health Organization (WHO). The proposed project aims to develop such a system for rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnosis of the COVID-19 virus by leveraging the team's expertise in engineering, nanotechnology, viral immunology and clinical medicine. The proposed system is a palm-sized instrument that consists of a battery-powered microwave circuitry and a microwave-microfluidic device with its sensor surface modified by functionalized gold nanoparticles (gNPs) that specifically recognize the COVID-19 virus. The output is a yes/no answer via a light indicator. A test can be done within 30 minutes including the sample preparation, which is completed by simply stirring a nasopharyngeal swab containing a tested person's sample in a buffer solution. The system allows a test to be completed with a small drop of the sample solution (5 microliter) that is filled in the inlet reservoir and drawn to pass the detection chamber towards the outlet by capillary force. If the sample contains the COVID-19 virus, the virus will be captured by the functionalized gNPs coated on the sensor surface resulting in the change in the microwave spectrum. The microwave circuitry will analyze the spectrum and output a yes/no answer. It is expected that the availability of the proposed portable system will enable the test of COVID-19 at the community level such as at a drive-through point or in an ambulance, which will largely expand the testing capacity and thus assist in the control the COVID-19 pandemic. | Fowke, Keith R; Ho, Emmanuel | |
| Expression and Purification of COVID19 Virus Spike (S) Protein for Diagnostics and Vaccines | Fundamental Science | Richardson, Christopher D | Dalhousie University | CIHR | Nova Scotia | Projects described within this rapid response proposal relate to diagnostics and vaccine production. The reagents generated also have longer term ramifications for studying virus attachment and developing inhibitors that block host cell entry and virus mediated fusion. The work in this proposal focuses on the spike protein (S) of the coronavirus which mediates attachment and entry into the host cell and is the major target of neutralizing antibodies that block infections. The first goal of this proposal is to generate large quantities of the S protein is a mammalian expression system that can be easily scaled up for large scale production. The protein generated in this procedure can be used to produce immune diagnostic kits as well as serve as a component of subunit vaccines or booster shots directed against COVID-19. The second aim describes the generation of recombinant vesicular stomatitis (VSV) viruses that express the Spike (S) protein derived from COVID-19 virus. In the first experiments, VSV genome vector is modified to contain coronavirus S protein in place of its G glycoprotein which normally mediates attachment and entry of the host cell. The S protein changes the tropism of the recombinant virus and provides a new antigen target for the immune system. VSV is highly attenuated in human cells and is tightly controlled by the host antiviral interferon system. It is also the vaccine vector for the highly effective Ebola virus vaccine. The diagnostic and vaccine reagents developed in this proposal will be distributed and tested by colleagues at the Canadian Center of Vaccinology (Halifax) and VIDO-InterVac Vaccine Cenre in Saskatoon. The final aim of this proposal will use the reagents generated in the proposal to study cell receptors for COVID19 coronavirus and study infections in susceptible cells using model viruses of lower risk and pathogenicity. | Duncan, Roy; Kelvin, Alyson A | |
| Decision-making in the time of COVID-19 | Policy/Government | Rosenbaum, Rachel S; Addis, Donna Rose R | York University (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented global disruption, costing jobs and lives. Its effects can be halted or minimized if we adopt proper, flexible protective measures until a vaccine or treatment is available. But how do we increase the use of protective measures, such as hand washing and physical distancing, and promote the adoption of new measures, such as mask wearing and rotating schedules, as the economy reopens? People have a strong tendency to make choices that lead to immediate and certain rewards, while avoiding losses and placing less value on rewards that require waiting or that are uncertain, even when rewards are larger. These biases in our decision-making affect how likely we are to change our immediate behaviours in order to protect ourselves and other people. For over a decade, our team has studied this form of decision-making in Canada and parts of the world that were devastated early on by the pandemic (Italy), or that differed in their approaches to containing it (USA, New Zealand). We have succeeded in identifying effective ways to change these tendencies that can easily and rapidly be carried out, with high potential to make a real and sustained impact on the global fight against COVID-19. The aims of the proposed research are to 1. characterize and track biases in decision-making around people's willingness to use protective measures, and 2. optimize a scientifically based intervention that can help people overcome biased decision-making by training them to imagine personal scenarios. We also will determine the effects of workplace learning of COVID-19 health and safety measures on changes in decision-making and behaviour through our access to a pool of over 2.8 million frontline workers receiving such training. With the Public Health Agency of Canada as our Knowledge User, we can translate our findings into guidelines on when and how to safely lift restrictions on everyday activities while still under the threat of COVID-19. | Ogden, Nicholas H; Ciaramelli, Elisa; Fynes-Clinton, Samuel J; Green, Leonard; Myerson, Joel; Wu, Jianhong | |
| Indigenous Health Counts in Urban Homelands: Estimating COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality among Indigenous Populations Living in Ontario Cities | Indigenous Research | Rotondi, Michael A; Bourgeois, Cheryllee; Smylie, Janet K | York University (Toronto, Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples face many challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to existing social factors such as poor quality, overcrowded housing, homelessness, and lack of clean running water, infections like COVID-19 can spread quickly. There are also big gaps in data about how COVID-19 is spreading among Indigenous peoples, especially in cities. To address this, we will use information from existing studies about the health of Indigenous peoples living in cities to learn more about COVID-19 spread and it's impacts. The Our Health Counts Toronto, London and Thunder Bay studies used social networks to find Indigenous community members living in these cities. These studies were done by the Indigenous community for the Indigenous community. Our methods allowed us to gather information about the needs of the entire Indigenous populations in these cities, even those who don't use services regularly. By linking the Our Health Counts studies to the provincial COVID-19 database at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), our team will use new statistical methods to accurately estimate the rate of COVID-19 transmission for Indigenous peoples in these cities. We will also check for increases in mortality rates, due both to COVID-19 itself and gaps in access to health care for acute (e.g. heart attack) and chronic (e.g. diabetes) health conditions. In partnership with Indigenous community health services, our research team will improve statistical methods and produce currently unavailable information regarding the burden of COVID-19 and its rate of spreading through the urban Indigenous communities living in Toronto, London and Thunder Bay, Ontario. This information is important as Indigenous Peoples are highly mobile between urban areas and First Nations reserves, and rural and remote Métis and Inuit communities. Improving our understanding of COVID-19 in urban centres can reduce its risk of spreading within and from these cities. | McConkey, Stephanie; Mishra, Sharmistha; Muir, Nicole; Walker, Jennifer | |
| Development of a Predictive Serologic Test for Cytopathogenic Autoantibodies in COVID-19 Patients | Serological Studies | Rottapel, Robert K | University Health Network (Toronto) | CIHR | Ontario | Patients infected with the SARS-COV2 virus experience large variation in their clinical outcome. Most patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms while a smaller fraction of individuals develop devastating organ damage with fatal results. Currently, we have little insight into the factors that contribute to these dramatically different clinical outcomes. This proposal seeks to develop a test that will predict patients who may develop poor outcomes by measuring the emergence of antibodies that are destructive to tissues. These "destructive" antibodies are called autoantibodies. Normally our immune system generate antibodies protect us from viral and bacterial infections. We present preliminary data derived from a small cohort of COVID-19 patients that demonstrates the presence of autoantibodies in as many as 40% of infected patients. In some case these autoantibodies are present at high concentration. We will measure the presence of autoantibodies prospectively in a cohort of 150 patients that react against human lung cells, blood vessel cells and heart cells. The presence of these autoantibodies will then be correlated with the clinical course of Covid-19 infected patients. We will use well established mass spectroscopy methodologies to identify the proteins on human cells that are recognized by these autoantibodies. We will determine if purified autoantibodies from patients cause cell damage or death. Lastly, we will raise antibodies in mice directed against the proteins recognized by COVID-19 autoantibodies and determine if they cause injury to lung, heart, or blood vessels in animals. These efforts will allow us to develop a test to identify the emergence of autoantibodies in COVID-19 patients that will aid in stratification and the application of anti-viral therapeutics for those patients predicted to have unfavourable outcomes. | ||
| Characterization of Covid-19 infection in rheumatoid arthritis patients- the CoViD-in-RA project | Clinical Care | Roux, Sophie | Université de Sherbrooke | CIHR | Québec | Rheumatoid arthritis is an incredibly diverse disease. The variability observed in clinical presentation, response to treatment and clinical outcomes suggest that the mechanisms activated during the initiation of the disease, are not uniform. Thus, RA offers a unique model to understand how different underlying immune abnormality lead to different outcome when infected with COVID-19. We aim to correlate clinical manifestations, response to treatment and laboratory parameters in order to inform clinical decisions in RA, especially during COVID-19 infection. Patients with recent arthritis will have blood tests (to analyze immune cells and proteins characteristic for RA subtypes) at baseline and at 6 months. Many patients followed in our service have already had these tests (EUPA cohort Dr Boire), and will also be included in our study, distinguishing between subjects who had COVID infection and those who did not develop it. All patients will have COVID-19 serologies and an analysis of their immune cells. This simple approach is original because we will study the different kinds of immune blood cells (not all cells mixed in whole blood) of patients before they have received any medication, as well as after initiating specific RA treatments. We will follow the patients when receiving DMARDs and advanced therapies prescribed to control their disease. We believe that RA heterogeneity could translate into a different susceptibility to the risk of having COVID-19 infection and to the severity of the infection, with a potentially protective effect from certain treatments in some patients. If we can determine which biological profiles or which treatments are associated with a good or bad response to SARS-CoV2, this could facilitate the management of individuals using these drugs for RA or other diseases, and perhaps also help target therapeutic interventions for COVID-19 in any person, affected with RA or not. | Allard-Chamard, Hugues; Boire, Gilles; Piche, Alain; Ramanathan, Sheela; Scott, Michelle | |
| HOST RESPONSE MEDIATORS IN CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) INFECTION - IS THERE A PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF ARBs ON OUTCOMES OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION? (ARBs CORONA II) | Russell, James A | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and others are actively conducting clinical trials for anti-virals to combat this disease. However, many of the severe complications of COVID-19 are caused by the host's response to viral infection. We have a unique opportunity to complement these ongoing studies with our clinical trial to test how modulating the host response can improve outcomes for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We plan to re-purpose a class of drugs called angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), which are normally used to treat high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases. ARBs have been shown to prevent lung injury in influenza (the flu), which is caused by a virus that uses similar mechanisms as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) to enter human cells. We will recruit 1,732 patients from multiple sites throughout Canada and randomize them to be treated with either Losartan (a commonly prescribed ARB with an excellent safety profile), or to continue under usual care. We will evaluate whether patients who receive Losartan have better outcomes, such as decreased mortality and organ dysfunction, than those who receive usual care. At the same time, we will collect blood samples from these patients to determine whether there are certain molecular "markers" that can predict mortality and their response to Losartan. This study will provide guidance on whether Losartan can be used to limit organ dysfunction and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, ultimately resulting in better care and outcomes for patients during this global pandemic. | Boyd, John H; Burns, Kevin D; Cheng, Matthew P; Fowler, Robert A; Granton, John T; haljan, gregory; Hawkins, Nathaniel M; Khan, Nadia A; Kumar, Anand; Lamontagne, Francois; Lee, Todd C; Lee, Terry; Levin, Adeera; Marshall, John C; McGeer, Allison J; Murthy, Srinivas; Palepu, Anita; Patrick, David M; Perez Patrigeon, Santiago; Pimstone, Simon; Rewa, Oleksa G; Reynolds, Steven C; Singer, Joel; Walley, Keith R; Winston, Brent W | ||
| A systematic and living evidence and guideline recommendation map on COVID-19 | Public Health | Schunemann, Holger J; Akl, Elie A; Falavigna, Maicon; Kredo, Tamara; Mathew, Joseph L | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | Under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Research Methods and Recommendations and Cochrane Canada, this project will support Canada's contribution to the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak by bringing together world-class institutions in prioritizing, conducting and mapping synthesized evidence, and in developing clinical, public health and health policy recommendations to research critical questions of global importance for COVID-19. The aims of this project are to provide efficient, easy-to-navigate, adaptable, and freely accessible quality-appraised COVID-19 evidence and recommendations for different stakeholders. For the first aim, we will systematically identify and critically review and map relevant evidence to support researchers and guideline developers in finding the available relevant evidence to their needs, all in one living evidence map. This work is ongoing in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The second aim focuses on immediately and longitudinally collecting all trustworthy COVID-19 recommendations and create a platform that allows decision-makers to 1) easily locate specific recommendations and the information that supports it, 2) contextualize these recommendation through the GRADE approach, supported by capacity-building for contextualization by the central team for various jurisdictions, and 3) provide continuous feedback to support the research optimizing the work on the platform. We are unaware of any other research team developing living recommendations in relation to COVID-19 that can be contextualized and allow a centralized collection and provision of evidence about this contextualization from various jurisdictions worldwide. This work highlights the novelty of the two-way iterative interaction among the map, the team, and stakeholders. | Hayes, Anne; Mittmann, Nicole; Piggott, Thomas W; Rodin, Rachel L; Alhazzani, Waleed; Alonso, Pablo; Avey, Marc T; Brignardello Petersen, Romina; Brozek, Jan L; Chu, Derek K; Hajizadeh, Anisa; Hartling, Lisa A; Iorio, Alfonso; Loeb, Mark B; Lotfi, Tamara; Mbuagbaw, Lawrence C; Meerpohl, Joerg J; Mertz, Dominik; Moja, Pasquale L; Munn, Zachary; Mustafa, Reem A; Neumann, Ignacio; Nieuwlaat, Robby; Persaud, Navindra; Pottie, Kevin; Reveiz, Ludovic; Santesso, Nancy A; Smith, Maureen M; Stevens, Adrienne L; Tugwell, Peter S; Welch, Vivian A; Wright, James M | |
| Capturing the anticipated/unanticipated consequences of COVID-19 (C19) and C19 prevention, management, and treatment strategies (C19PS) among Indigenous peoples (IP) in Arctic communities (AC) | Indigenous Research | Sharma, Sangita; Kandola, Kami; Kurtz, Donna L | University of Alberta | CIHR | Alberta | The potential consequences of COVID-19 (C19) spreading in Northwest Territories (NT) and Nunavut (NU) remote and isolated communities are severe due to high rates of chronic conditions, overcrowded housing and limited health infrastructure. The Governments of NT and NU have implemented C19 prevention strategies (C19PS), such as travel bans and social distancing. There is an urgent need to capture and understand the anticipated and unanticipated consequences of C19, and C19PS, as well as on the treatment and management of patients in NT and NU, and gather culturally safe recommendations from and for the communities. In addition, we must document the challenges faced by healthcare professionals, public health and policymakers for future planning and mitigation. Working with 4 NT and 6 NU communities, leadership from Indigenous communities and groups, a Community Advisory Board including Elders, and the research team, this project will work with local community coordinators and local community research assistants to collect information via telephone interviews on the impacts of C19 and C19PS that can, upon analysis and dissemination, immediately be used in policy and planning for current and future pandemics. All data collection materials will be developed and led by communities and local staff will be hired to recruit and undertake the interviews, ensuring capacity building, local employment, and sustainability. The majority of the team are Indigenous and almost all have worked together on Indigenous Arctic projects. The team also includes NU/NT public health policymakers, specialists/experts (mental health, qualitative research, ethics/knowledge translation, C19 pandemic research) and international (USA, Finland, Greenland, and Russia) and national collaborators/ international advisory board members, and therefore results will be relevant for Arctic communities at the community, regional, territorial, national and international levels. | Otway, Meeka; Broughton, Sandra S; Carnogursky, Jozef; DeLancey, Deborah; Doucette, Karen E; Greenland-Morgan, Bobbie Jo; Irlbacher-Fox, Stephanie; Kerber, Kate; Kolahdooz, Fariba; Laboucan, Melinda; Milligan, Crystal; Rittenbach, Kay; Verhaeghe, Tyler | |
| Venous Thrombosis Virtual Surveillance in COVID (VVIRTUOSO) | Clinical Care | Siegal, Deborah M; Carrier, Marc | McMaster University | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 increases the risk of blood clots especially in patients who are admitted to hospital. Reports show a high rate of venous thrombosis (blood clots in the veins) affecting 3% of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital and 11% to 70% of those who have life-threatening illness. This is higher than hospitalized patients with other medical illnesses. Venous thrombosis includes blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). It is one of the most common preventable causes of death and disability associated with hospitalization. Most cases of venous thrombosis occur after hospital discharge and can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated promptly. The risk of venous thrombosis in patients with COVID-19 after discharge from hospital is not currently known. They are likely at high risk due to incomplete recovery, reduced mobility, older age and other medical problems. The overall goal of the VVIRTUOSO study determine the rate of venous thrombosis after hospital discharge in 500 patients with COVID-19 using a virtual monitoring program at 12 sites in Canada and the United States. We will also explore factors that increase the likelihood of venous thrombosis. As part of this study, we will also assess VTE awareness and patient-reported quality of the monitoring program (quality of communication and patient satisfaction). Our multidisciplinary team includes researchers, clinicians, patient partners and collaborators Thrombosis Canada (www.thrombosiscanada.ca) and the CanVECTOR Network (www.canvector.ca). We have the necessary experience, existing research network infrastructure, and knowledge translation mechanisms to successfully complete this study and disseminate the results rapidly and widely. | Arsenault, Marie-Pier; Cuker, Adam; Douketis, James D; Gross, Peter L; Koolian, Maral; Le Gal, Grégoire; Lee, Agnes Yuet Ying; Roberge, Guillaume; Shivakumar, Sudeep P; Skeith, Leslie; Wu, Cynthia M | |
| A mixed methods evaluation of risk mitigation measures to address the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and overdose | Public Health | Slaunwhite, Amanda K; Hongdilokkul, Natt; Nosyk, Bohdan P; Pauly, Bernadette M; Urbanoski, Karen A | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The COVID-19 pandemic is occurring alongside the overdose public health emergency in British Columbia (BC) with one escalating the harms of the other. The dual public health emergencies has necessitated the development and implementation of innovative response efforts to promote physical distancing and also mitigate the secondary effects of public health measures on persons who use substances (PWUS). We will conduct a mixed-method study of the risk mitigation efforts introduced to reduce COVID-19 infection among PWUS including prescription of pharmaceutical alternatives (PALS) for opioids, stimulants, benzodiazepines, and other drugs or referral to a managed alcohol program (structured dispensing/delivery of alcohol). Linked administrative health data in combination with survey and interview data collected from PWUS and health care providers will be used to: 1) Determine the impact of PALS on COVID-19 infection; non-fatal/fatal overdose; and continuity of care for SUD and concurrent health conditions among PWUS. 2) Articulate how PALS has affected the uptake of physical distancing and other public health measures introduced to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., mask wearing, hand washing, self-isolation). 3) Identify barriers and facilitators to PALS implementation based on program uptake and the perspectives of PWUS, outreach workers, prescribers and other stakeholders. This project will focus on assessing the effects of risk mitigation efforts on PWUS with an emphasis on First Nations peoples, persons with criminal justice system involvement and pregnant women. PWUS are more likely to have risk factors for severe acute respiratory syndrome and experience homelessness and income insecurity. This project will provide critical evidence to inform pandemic planning and emergency response activities at federal, provincial and local levels in advance of the Health Canada exemption expiring, expansion of PALS in other Canadian provinces, and upcoming 2020 flu season. | Barker, Brittany M; Buxton, Jane; Card, Kiffer G; Crabtree, Alexis E; Fairbairn, Nadia S; Gan, Wenqi; Gilbert, Mark P; Greiner, Leigh; Jang, Kerry L; Janjua, Naveed Z; Krausz, Reinhard M; Kuo, Margot E; Lock, Kurt; Mead, Annabel; Meilleur, Louise; Moher, Matthew; Nicholls, Tonia L; Orpana, Heather M; Palis, Heather; Pelletier, Lynn; Salmon, Amy L; Selfridge, Marion; Ti, Lianping (Mint); Xavier, Chloé G | |
| Development of an Implementation Framework to Advance Provincial and National Health System Supply Chain Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic | Policy/Government | Snowdon, Anne W | University of Windsor (Ontario) | CIHR | Ontario | The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the current gap in healthcare supply chain in Canada, as healthcare workers struggle to access the products and equipment needed to deliver safe, timely, and quality care to Canadians. The purpose of this research is to examine supply chain processes and infrastructure to create the evidence for strengthening supply chain infrastructure that ensures that products are available to public health teams and health care professionals to protect the health of every Canadian citizen. The research will conduct mixed-method case studies of seven provinces to document how supply chain processes influence COVID-19 health outcomes, and how data, digital tools and analytics can improve health services and public health efforts to manage COVID-19. Cases will examine policy frameworks that ensure health teams have safe and effective products from quality companies, as well as strategies to support effective federal-provincial-territorial supply chain coordination. This research will inform strategies to ensure Canadians have access to public health prevention initiatives and can access care for those who become infected by COVID-19. The proposed research will advance supply chain resilience across Canada to ensure health system capacity, accelerating Canada's pandemic response, and ensuring public health and health care teams have the products and equipment needed to prevent, detect, treat, and manage COVID-19. Improved supply chain infrastructure will create transparency of the effectiveness of COVID-19 interventions, enabling Canada to better coordinate with national and global supply chain networks and strengthen Canada's capacity to proactively manage COVID-19. Evidence of policy frameworks and supply chain infrastructure informs clinical and health system management of this pandemic and will advance planning and coordination across provincial, federal, and global health systems to support effective and timely management of COVID-19. | Caetano da Silveira, Giovani J; Clement, Fiona Mary; Finegood, Diane T; Forest, Pierre-Gerlier; Greiner, Russ; Guitouni, Adel; Horsley, Tanya A; Hussein, Abdulkadir; Kasmani, Abdulazim; Kobti, Ziad; Landry, Sylvain; Manns, Braden J; Metge, Colleen J; Mitchell, Alex; Mitchell, Cheryl; Rabinowitz, Alan; Rebolledo, Claudia; Richer, Lawrence P; Roy, Jacques; Walker, David M | |
| INTERCEPTORs: engINeered ThERapeutiC dEfensive Particles TO SARS-CoV-2 | Sonenberg, Nahum; Pelletier, Jerry M | McGill University | CIHR | Québec | The cataclysmic threat that viruses pose for human health and predicted by virologists for decades has been made crystal clear by the current COVID-19 pandemic. A huge success in curtailing viral infections has been the development of safe and potent vaccines that confer extended immunity as well as the development of antiviral drugs. Many viruses however evolve rapidly (e.g., influenza A, coronaviruses, etc.) rendering previous vaccinations ineffective and drugs obsolete. We propose the development of a new platform that will convert defective particles, generated by all viruses during infection, into antiviral therapies. Defective Interfering particles (DIs) arise during the propagation and spread of a virus infection and are generated by errors made during viral replication. DIs cannot replicate in the absence of the parental virus due to a lack of essential genes, making them "parasites" of the parental virus. Hence, if a DI enters an uninfected cell, there is no infectious virus produced and no deleterious effects on that cell. However, their presence in an infected cell has a profound effect on the replication of wild-type virus since they compete for limiting cellular resources during an infection, thus leading to reduced viral yields and blunting of the infection. Many DIs are also able to induce an antiviral response. There is no published information on the type of DIs that arise during a SARS-CoV-2 infection and how these might impact COVID-19 disease progression - a knowledge gap that these studies will address. In parallel to studies aimed at better understanding COVID-19 disease modifiers, we will also engineer DIs to generate INTERCEPTORs - a new anti-viral therapeutic for the treatment of COVID-19. INTERCEPTORs will be designed from DIs to halt an ongoing infection in progress and significantly decrease disease pathology. | Baranov, Pavel; Hobman, Tom C; Lumb, Jean-Philip G; Pollak, Michael N; van Marle, Guido; Vidal, Silvia M | ||
| Presence of viable SARS-CoV-2 virus in surgical smoke produced during electrocautery | Clinical Care | Sowerby, Leigh J | London Health Sciences Centre Res. Inc. (Ont.) | CIHR | Ontario | Electrocautery is an important, and in many cases, essential tool used during surgery. It is well established that electrocautery can produce aerosol, and previous studies have demonstrated that some viruses can be carried in the vapours from cautery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, out of an abundance of caution, protocols have been put in place to minimize potential exposure to this smoke that significantly reduce the capacity in our healthcare system to do surgery. High level personal protective equipment is required for these procedures when they do occur, and much of that equipment is currently in short supply. This study will be done in a biohazard level 3 laboratory and will examine if the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is viable and present in the smoke produced by using cautery. This study will collect the smoke from using two different types of cautery on blood from a patient with COVID-19, from blood inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 and from cauterizing a culture plate with SARS-CoV-2. The vapour will then be cultured to see if SARS-CoV-2 can be grown, thus demonstrating if viable virus is aerosolized during cautery. Another test (RT-PCR) will be used to look for RNA from the virus to see if any is present in the smoke. A positive control will be done using aerosolized blood from the same samples. The results from this study, whether positive or negative, will important implications. If positive, it will have a critical and direct impact on ensuring the safety of healthcare workers performing procedures on patients. Procedures using cautery will continue to require high level protection if the COVID status of the patient is unknown. If negative, it will significantly improve the ability of our healthcare system to perform surgical procedures safely and effectively, and conserving critical protective equipment for cases that need it. | Arts, Eric J; Fraser, Douglas D; Moore, Corey C; Nichols, Anthony C | |
| Identification and validation of nutraceuticals that prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection | Vaccines and Therapeutics | Spagnuolo, Paul | University of Guelph | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 is a significant global health burden and new strategies are needed to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this project, we will test nutraceuticals (i.e., bioactive molecules from food) to see if they bind to and inhibit the entry of the virus into the cell. Interestingly, using computer modeling, nutraceuticals have been predicted to bind to SARS-CoV-2. In aim 1, we will directly test if nutraceuticals bind to the virus and prevent its entry into the cell. In aim 2, we will determine the dosing strategy (i.e., how much and how often you need to take the supplement so that the nutraceutical can get to the lungs and bind to the virus) to provide maximal protection. In aim 3, we will test the nutraceuticals anti-viral effects in mouse models. Through this work, we will directly determine which nutraceutical can bind to and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide a new approach to reducing the risk of infection. | ||
| The Cedar Project: Preparing for culturally-safe, trauma informed COVID-19 response among young Indigenous people who use drugs in Prince George and Vancouver, BC | Indigenous Research | Spittal, Patricia M; Schechter, Martin T | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | Indigenous people who use drugs in BC are facing two public health emergencies: COVID-19 and the ongoing overdose crisis. One may create additional risk for the other. On one hand, substance use may increase COVID-19 risk through sharing smoking/injection equipment; creating barriers to physical distancing; and housing instability. On the other hand, COVID-19 and its response may increase overdose risk due to rollback of harm reduction services, banning of guests in social housing, and forcible closure of encampments - pushing people to use drugs alone. Pandemic fears and restrictions may also impact mental wellbeing. Our study assesses the impact of COVID-19 and the pandemic response, as well as its domino effects, among Indigenous people who use drugs. We will also adapt, implement, and determine the feasibility of offering a bundle of strengths-based, wraparound virtual supports using an existing software and weekly text messaging check-ins with trusted case managers. The study will inform a culturally-safe, trauma-informed COVID-19 response among Indigenous people who use drugs. | Behn Smith, Daniele M; Christian, Wayne M; Jongbloed, Kate; Lester, Richard T; Patrick, David M; Pearce, Margo E; Pooyak, Sherri D; Yoshida, Eric M | |
| Cellular Immuno-Therapy for COVID-19 Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: the CIRCA-19 Trial | Clinical Trials | Stewart, Duncan J; English, Shane W; Fergusson, Dean A | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute | CIHR | Ontario | The number of patients with the novel COVID-19 disease continues to rise world-wide. Approximately 20% of patients require hospitalization, and up to a quarter of these need intensive medical care, mainly due to intense inflammation (swelling) of the lung called 'acute respiratory distress syndrome' or ARDS. This interferes with the lung's ability to exchange oxygen, requiring a machine to support their breathing called a ventilator. Unfortunately, about half of patients who need a ventilator because of COVID-19 lung disease will not survive. We have no specific therapy to treat the lung swelling in these patients. Mesenchymal stromal cells, often termed 'MSCs', have anti-inflammatory effects that can reduce lung swelling in animal models of ARDS. As well, therapy with MSCs in humans has been shown to be safe, with some promising results in patients with severe inflammation due to uncontrolled infections as well as lung swelling due to ARDS. The few small clinical studies using MSCs to treat COVID-19 patients were not properly designed to assess the benefit of MSC therapy. The proposed Cellular Immuno-Therapy for COVID-19 related ARDS (CIRCA-19) trial is a randomized and placebo-controlled study designed to test whether giving MSCs to patients with severe lung swelling due to COVID-19 disease will decrease the need for a ventilator and whether this novel therapy will also have other important benefits such as improving survival and reducing the injury to vital organs like the heart, lungs and kidneys. The MSCs will be obtained from umbilical cords that are harvested during Caesarian section, and then grown in a specially equipped clinical-grade cell manufacturing facility at The Ottawa Hospital using Health Canada approved processes. We have rapidly deployed a multidisciplinary team and have already submitted the study to both Health Canada and Research Ethics for approvals, and we anticipate treating our first patient in early June 2020. | Chasse, Michael; Courtman, David W; Dos Santos, Claudia C; Jamieson, Michael; Lalu, Manoj M; Thebaud, Bernard | |
| Bespoke transition state analog inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CL and PL proteases | Fundamental Science | Strynadka, Natalie C | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | SARS-CoV-2 is devastating global health and economies. Rapid development of antiviral drugs is critical to treat disease in the short term and beyond. Logical antiviral targets are the proteases 3CLpro and PLpro, responsible for processing of long chains of linked viral proteins produced during viral reproduction. 3CLpro and PLpro are enzymes that harness pac-man like activity to clip the chains into individual proteins. This cleavage process is essential for formation of new disease causing virus. If you block the pac-man activity, you stop the virus in its tracks. Similar types of viruses have been targeted very successfully by drug development in other important global viruses such as HIV. Understanding inhibitor binding to 3CLpro and PLpro at the atomic level is central to antiviral drug development. We are harnessing our significant expertise in xray crystallography and single particle cryoEM, biophsyical techniques that allow us to determine atomic pictures of these proteases in the presence of bound drug. Leveraging our prior work on similar enzymes with international leading antimicrobial pharmaceutical teams we have identified tight binding drug leads that take advantage of the unique features of these enzymes. We aim to optimize these compounds through structure-guided techniques (using our atomic blueprints so to speak) and the antiviral drug discovery pipeline of our industry partner. | Paetzel, Mark W | |
| Impact of COVID-19 on Patients Receiving Hemodialysis: The Quebec Renal Network (QRN) COVID-19 Study | Clinical Care | Suri, Rita; Beaubien-Souligny, William; Nadeau-Fredette, Annie-Claire | Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre | CIHR | Québec | There are 24,000 Canadians living with kidney failure who must receive regular hemodialysis treatments to stay alive. This involves coming to the dialysis unit 3 days every week, for 4-5 hours at a time. While this is burdensome at the best of times, the COVID-19 pandemic has made life even more difficult for hemodialysis patients. As they cannot self-isolate, they are at higher risk of infection than others. If they do get infected, this may not be easily identified because they may not have typical symptoms or may deny them for fear of being denied dialysis. Yet, due to their underlying medical illnesses, dialysis patients are at risk of becoming quite ill from COVID-19. The precise risks to their health are uncertain. Finally, widespread application of infection control measures in dialysis units and physical distancing, while needed to control spread of COVID-19, may have unforeseen impacts on all hemodialysis patients. These range from encountering problems with transportation, interfering with their critical need to get to the dialysis unit, to their interactions with the health care team, access to non-dialysis health care, and inability to have their loved ones at their bedside during dialysis. Being the province hardest hit with COVID-19, we have established a province-wide team of kidney doctors and other experts in Quebec to study: (1) the infection control measures implemented in each dialysis unit; (2) how to better identify dialysis patients who have COVID-19; (3) their risk of dying from COVID-19 and the longer-term risk of COVID-19 on their physical and mental health; (4) whether they develop antibodies to this infection; and (5) how all dialysis patients have generally been affected by this pandemic with respect to dialysis and non-dialysis medical care. The results of this comprehensive study will guide our understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on dialysis patients in order to help improve their care both in Canada and globally. | Agharazii, Mohsen; Agnihotram, Ramanakumar; Blum, Daniel; Bollée, Guillaume; Cailhier, Jean-Francois; Côté, Anne-Marie; Elgeneidy, Ahmed; Fortin, Marie-Chantal; Frenette, Charles H; Goupil, Remi; Lafrance, Jean-Philippe; Lamarche, Caroline; Laurin, Louis-Philippe; Mac-Way, Fabrice; Madore, François; Pilozzi-Edmonds, Laura L; Rej, Soham; Vasilevsky, Murray | |
| COVID-19 Ring-based Prevention trial with Lopinavir/ritonavir (CORIPREV-LR) | Clinical Trials | Tan, Darrell H; Chan, Adrienne; McGeer, Allison J | Unity Health Toronto | CIHR | Ontario | COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has taken a heavy toll on Canada. The prevention of new cases is critical, but vaccines are not likely to be ready for study for 1+ years. CORIPREV-LR is a randomized controlled trial of a prevention strategy called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against COVID-19, in high-risk exposed contacts of confirmed cases. PEP is a well-established approach to the prevention of infectious diseases, in which people who were recently exposed to the virus take a short course of medication to prevent infection. Our primary objective is to find out whether taking an oral medication called lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) for 14 days as PEP protects people from getting COVID-19, if taken shortly after they are exposed to a confirmed case. We will use an innovative 'ring'-based study design, in which we define a 'ring' of exposed contacts around confirmed COVID-19 cases, and then randomize these rings to either the study drug or control (no study drug) condition. This ring design was a key part of the successful eradication of smallpox, and the evaluation of a vaccine used for Ebola. The study drug LPV/r is an anti-HIV medication already marketed in Canada as KaletraTM. Molecular, animal model and early clinical data suggest it to have antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It has a well-established safety profile, based on extensive global experience using it for HIV treatment and prevention for over 20 years. If our trial shows it to be effective, it could be immediately put to use in Canada and around the world, constituting a breakthrough in pandemic control. Our study team includes Canadian experts on the frontlines of SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and HIV, are our connections with clinical trial networks both in Canada and internationally will allow rapid data-sharing and dissemination of results. | Coburn, Bryan A; Cooper, Curtis L; Daneman, Nick; Fowler, Robert A; Gommerman, Jennifer L; Jüni, Peter; Lee, Todd C; Mazzulli, Tony; Murthy, Srinivas; Press, Natasha M; Tomlinson, George A; Walmsley, Sharon L | |
| Partially Nested Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network COVID-19 Home-isolation Activities Together (SPIN-CHAT) Program to Reduce Anxiety among Vulnerable Persons with a Pre-existing Medical Condition | Clinical Trials | Thombs, Brett D; Benedetti, Andrea; Kwakkenbos, Linda | CIUSSS de Centre-Ouest-de-l'Ile-de-Montreal-Jewish General | CIHR | Québec | People with the autoimmune disease scleroderma are vulnerable in COVID-19 due to frailty, lung involvement, and immunosuppression; they are representative of vulnerable groups in terms of COVID-19 mental health ramifications. No previous randomized controlled trials have tested mental health interventions during infectious disease outbreaks. We leveraged our existing ongoing cohort of over 2,000 people with scleroderma and existing partnerships to launch a new cohort, the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network (SPIN)-COVID-19 Cohort. We enrolled over 800 people in the cohort to assess mental health during COVID-19. The SPIN-CHAT trial is embedded in the cohort and will test a 4-week (3x/week) videoconference intervention that provides social support and positive mental health education. The primary outcome is anxiety symptoms. Secondary outcomes include symptoms of depression, fear, loneliness, boredom, and social interaction. Our team is uniquely positioned to successfully carry out this research with high-level expertise, an experienced patient advisory team, support of >25 patient organizations internationally, and existing infrastructure. We have successfully enrolled and randomized 172 participants into intervention (N = 86) and waitlist groups (N = 86), and we are delivering the trial intervention. As of May 11, 2020, the SPIN-CHAT Trial is only major COVID-19 mental health trial geared at vulnerable populations in the community. SPIN-CHAT is being tested among people with scleroderma, but could be used with any population of vulnerable individuals who are isolated and experiencing high levels of anxiety in COVID-19, such as people with pre-existing medical conditions or older persons. The study received funding of $100,000 to set up the cohort and deliver the intervention plus $65,000 from Scleroderma Canada, but lacks funding for statistical analyses, follow-up after the immediate end of the intervention period, and knowledge dissemination. | Markham, Sarah; Martin, Michael; Moore, Ainsley; Turecki, Gustavo X; Bartlett, Susan J; Culos-Reed, S.Nicole; El-Baalbaki, Ghassan; Hebblethwaite, Shannon; Levis, Brooke; Patten, Scott B; Rice, Danielle B; Varga, John; WU, YIN | |
| COVID-19 household study to assess secondary attack rates and the proportion asymptomatic, including children | Public Health | Tremblay, Cecile L; Boivin, Guy; De Serres, Gaston; Skowronski, Danuta Maria | Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) | CIHR | Québec | The spectrum of illness associated with "Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019" (COVID-19) due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus varies a lot. Most people experience mild or moderate illness but some experience severe illness requiring hospitalization or resulting in death. Cases without any symptoms (called asymptomatic) have also been reported but how frequently that occurs is hard to know because people with asymptomatic infections are less likely to be seen by a health care professional or to be tested for the virus. Children appear to be less affected overall by the pandemic, but some reports suggest they are more likely to have mild or asymptomatic infections so may also be missed. To get a better understanding of the extent to which mild or asymptomatic infections, including children, contribute to the overall burden and spread of COVID-2019, we propose a household study involving families with children in British Columbia (BC) and Quebec. When the first case in a household is identified, we will actively follow all of the household members for infection over a one-month period. We will measure how many become infected by testing them for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in their blood at the start and end of the one-month period and by asking them to self-collect respiratory specimens weekly. All household members will complete a daily diary of symptoms so we can compare their test results to their symptom severity, including whether they had been infected without even knowing it (asymptomatic). To study immune responses and viral shedding in more detail, we will also offer a subset of households to participate in more intensive sampling. These findings will clarify the role of asymptomatic infections and children and help public health authorities navigate the next stages of the pandemic. | Gantt, Soren M; Hoang, Linda; Jassem, Agatha N; Krajden, Mel; Morshed, Mohammad G; Prystajecky, Natalie Anne; Sadarangani, Manish; Sekirov, Inna; Singal, Mayank | |
| Point of Care Heart-Lung Imaging for Patients Presenting with COVID-19 Symptoms: Artificial Intelligence Precision Modeling for Prediction of Outcomes | AI | Tsang, Teresa S; Abolmaesumi, Purang; McGrail, Kimberlyn M | University of British Columbia | CIHR | British Columbia | The global COVID-19 pandemic has placed a huge burden on health care systems and upended our way of life. It is caused by the highly infectious virus, SARS-CoV-2. Rapid and accurate testing for viral infection is needed to prevent spread of disease in hospitals and the community so that infected people can be identified early and treated effectively. EARLY COVID-19 symptoms are similar to many other respiratory viruses, like the flu and common cold, making it hard to identify in sick patients.The current approach to SARS-CoV-2 testing can be inaccurate and slow to return results. Improving diagnosis of COVID-19 will be even more important as flu season approaches. Our experience to date in treating patients with COVID-19 symptoms has shown that ultrasound imaging of the heart and lung may help identify positive cases earlier. Ultrasound is fast and safe. It can be performed at the bedside [point of care ultrasound (POCUS)] when patients first enter the hospital, by any physician with remote support from POCUS experts. In this study, we will test if adding heart and lung ultrasound images to existing clinical and laboratory tests can improve the accuracy and speed of COVID-19 diagnosis. A total of 16 hospitals across British Columbia and Ontario will participate in this study, and we will analyze this large data set using artificial intelligence (AI). Our team has already developed a platform to share ultrasound data and applied AI to study other heart diseases, so we are ready to rapidly apply this approach to COVID-19. If POCUS is effective it would allow earlier treatment and isolation of positive cases, reducing exposure of frontline health care workers and the public to the virus, improving both patient care and the distribution of health resources like personal protective equipment, intensive care beds and ventilators. Because POCUS-based COVID-19 diagnosis can be performed remotely it could also be applied in long term care facilities and in rural areas. |