Guest post by Patrick Wu a Life Science Marketing Consultant based in Alberta.   Researchers, companies, and academic institutions around the world are working on a vaccine for COVID-19 and Canadians are well-positioned to be among the leaders. One of those companies is the Edmonton startup Entos Pharmaceuticals. They are developing a DNA vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 and using their platform to deliver it.   A Better Drug Delivery System The platform, known as Fusogenix, builds…

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As the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak was becoming obvious in February, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research put out a rapid response funding call to researchers across the country. Dr. Dylan Pillai responded to that call and his $957,000 project (which includes $250,000 through Genome Canada) was approved. He is a microbiologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary and will work with Alberta Precision Laboratories to develop point-of-care testing for use…

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As the new coronavirus continues to bring the world to a standstill, medical personnel on the frontlines around the globe are trying their best to defeat covid-19 and save human lives.   Several forces, such as pharma communities like PhRMA, are hard at work in support of medical personnel and on a mission to find the treatments, cures, and vaccines needed to finally end this pandemic. Other examples of unique forces joining this fight are…

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March 26, 2020, Vancouver, British Columbia   Genome BC has launched a rapid response funding program to invest in promising research and innovation projects with the real potential to address urgent challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative is using a specifically designed process for reviewing applications and providing funds for approved projects within days. This rapid response will enable researchers and innovators to launch projects quickly and deliver solutions to challenges posed by…

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I was seeking science on the Jurassic Coast! But first…   Genome Alberta bloggers are posting into a newly created category COVID to provide you with information about the current pandemic. (Link below)   During this lockdown and travel ban, I invite you to join me ‘Seeking Science’ on a virtual fossil hunt. When we return to normal, this video may give you some ideas for your future adventures. I began this blog entry as…

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A network of 50 sites across 14 countries will be used to study how COVID-19 looks in children.   Dr . Stephen Freedman is a emergency pediatric physician at the Alberta Children's Hospital and a University of Calgary researcher. He has received $788,000 through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research COVID-19 rapid response fund. He will re-purpose his research network that is part of another ongoing study on children with respiratory conditions to focus specifically…

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  Sometimes things get personal when it comes to research.   For Chris Le at the University of Alberta it became personal when two of his friends in Wuhan, China contracted COVID-19. One recovered and one died. Le was already working on new technology to detect toxic environmental substances so when the Canadian Institutes of Health Research put out the call for rapid response research ​ideas to deal with COVID-19 he had the lab, the…

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   We were doing some work under the hood of our website and go a bit behind in posting news so here is something from March 10 that we are very proud of: UCalgary partners with Alberta Precision Laboratories and the University of Alberta to transform access to clinical genomics When Madden Ellis was two years old he came down with a virus he couldn’t shake. He was admitted to the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH).…

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In February the Government of Canada started to get ahead of the pandemic by launching a funding competition with shorter timelines than usual. 47 projects worth $27 million dollars were approved across the country, many of them involving Alberta researchers.  One of those researchers is Kimberly Noels, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. Because the COVID-19 virus was first seen in China, it has led to stigmatizing people of…

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                               Alberta regional science fair organizations anticipated the risks associated with coronavirus. As early as February 6, the board of the Calgary Youth Science Fair decided they must follow the protocols outlined by the Calgary Board of Education and the University of Calgary in case of a pandemic. At that time, Canada’s first presumptive case had only been announced a few days earlier. There were only 76 known deaths worldwide attributed to this virus and…

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