For immediate release May 26th, 2020, Calgary, Alberta Children are affected by COVID-19 differently than adults. Exactly why is not clearly understood and here in Alberta researchers are working hard to find the answers. Drs. Francois Bernier (image at left) and Jim Kellner (image at right), co-leaders of a newly funded research project, and members of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) at the University of Calgary  believe that children may well hold the key…

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A multidisciplinary team of University of Calgary researchers is doing a deep dive study into the genes of Alberta children and the unique genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself.   Like all things in life, a virus has its own genetic code and that unique code means researchers can track the transmission of the disease. We know that not everyone is equally susceptible to COVID-19 and we suspect that there is an interaction between…

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  Genome Alberta (www.genomealberta.ca), located in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta is looking to recruit a Research Program Manager. Reporting directly to Genome Alberta’s Director of Programs, your duties and responsibilities will include but are not limited to: 1.              Working with Project Managers and the Project Leader(s) for the funded Projects/Platforms to ensure they meet their formal reporting requirements to Genome Alberta (GAB), and to identify and resolve any programmatic or budgetary areas of concern. 2.             …

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In general, researchers take to data like bees to honey. The more data you tap into, the more progress you tend to make, and facilitating that process is the focus of the BeeBiome Data Portal project. “Bees are fundamental to Alberta’s agriculture, but are suffering severe declines worldwide due to multiple factors,” said Rodrigo Ortega Polo, Biology Study Leader – Bioinformatics, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. “The bee gut…

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The path through the pandemic is sign-posted by testing and it helps if we can all read what the signs are about. Testing for the virus which causes COVD-19 has raised political issues and resulted in a lot of finger pointing. However, testing for a new virus such as SARS-CoV-2 is a complex process. We needed to put a system in place to test a huge number of people for something we had not previously…

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                              We learn from history that the Black Death took about five years to spread to Europe from China. It took the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 only about five weeks to do the same. Planes, trains, and mass transit: we definitely live in a much more globally connected world now. In December 2019, very little was known about a mysterious pneumonia-like disease reported in Wuhan, China. And yet, by March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO)…

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A vaccine to protect us from the SARS-CoV-2 virus is hailed as the ultimate goal and tends to grab the headlines. But how are we doing when it comes to treating people who have COVID-19?   A virus uses an enzyme to replicate itself and block the immune response of the host. Get in the way of that process and you have one way to treat people who have COVID-19. With an effective therapy, we…

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Bats are surprisingly like us. Their immune system is similar to ours, yet bats carry a diversity of viruses including the coronavirus, without showing signs of the disease. We also know that the SaRS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19 shares a 96% genetic similarity with a coronavirus found in bats. Again no symptoms in the bat. One clue maybe that bats have a higher body temperature and we know that in people, a fever is one response…

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As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, research to find a treatment, create new testing procedures, and develop a vaccine, is happening at a pace not normally experienced in the halls of science. Results from studies and experiments are shared before the usual reviews have taken place, and the media is eagerly waiting to pick up the results. When science does what science is supposed to do and examines the research, results might be set aside,…

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May 7, 2020 Test allows for rapid results in areas with limited access to high-tech diagnostic equipment Calgary, AB – A research team led by scientists at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) is sharing a new method to test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The test can provide results in 30 minutes without the need for high-tech equipment and the reagents that have been in limited supply world-wide.  …

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