When our society has faced existential threats in the past, we have banded together to use the technology at hand to overcome them. The COVID-19 outbreak is one such threat that requires the same level of societal effort today. However, in the 21st century, we can combine social innovation, citizen science, and digital epidemiology to […]

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there is: 1) a worldwide shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for frontline Health Care Professional; and 2) a demand for products which can reduce the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. We plan to assess the use of titanium-based particles to inactivate viruses and bacteria using visible light. The particles can […]

Bold-100 is a promising new drug that has been studied as a treatment for cancer. Because of the way it works in cells, there is reason to believe that it may also help protect against infections with viruses like SARS-CoV2 (the cause of COVID-19). The purpose of this project is to study the effects of […]

The recent outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 associated coronavirus disease, COVID-19, had been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. There is still only a minimal understanding of the virus and an absence of effective targeted therapy for its treatment. Epigenetic regulations in cells control the expression of genes without modifications to the genetic […]

Arthritis is a chronic disease that severely decreases the quality of life and affects almost 4.6 million Canadians, costing $33 billion for the Canadian economy every year. Affected individuals experience pain and disability through an extended period of time. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a common form of arthritis, is an autoimmune disease characterized by the inflammation […]

Vaccination is a widely accepted public health intervention, yet public confidence in vaccines is affected by misinformation about vaccine safety shared mainly on Facebook. This project aims to increase availability of credible information about HPV vaccines and influenza vaccines on Facebook. It includessix phases: 1) identify the most relevant approaches for marketing campaigns; 2) conduct […]

Thousands of 3D printers across Canada are producing PPE for frontline workers. Different printers and materials affect the quality and safe re-usability of parts. Trying to track down this information for every single one of millions of parts would be impossible. The purpose of this project is to improve the quality and safe re-use of […]

Western red-cedar asthma (WRCA) is the most common form of occupational asthma in British Columbia and is caused by sensitivity to a molecule found in the wood called plicatic acid (PA). Patients suspected of having WRCA must complete two inhalational challenges to determine sensitivity to PA, an expensive and time-consuming process. There is need for […]

3D-printed personal protective equipment can provide a locally-sourced manufacturing network to address shortages for Canadian front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, however little is known about the harmful germs that can live on 3D-printed material. Certain metals-ions are known to have anti-microbial properties and can be incorporated into 3D-printed plastics. We will study the anti-microbial […]

Current cancer immunotherapies, although highly successful, are complex to implement, costly, and only effective in small patient populations with specific cancer types. We propose to overcome these problems by developing small molecules to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), a cancer cell death process that engages the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells and […]

N=209 Seriously ill patients with COVID-19 require ICU care, and have high rates of mortality, especially amongst patients with concurrent diseases such as high blood pressure. Recent clinical data demonstrate that disease progression is associated with an overwhelming, atypical cytokine response known as “Macrophage Activation Syndrome” (MAS). Macrophages are immune cells that can directly damage […]

The detection of SARS-CoV-2, the causative of COVID-19, is challenging because the used techniques, such as nucleic amplification, cannot detect a whole virus. Instead, it amplifies nucleic acids that can be fragmented with no information about the presence of an infectious virus. We propose to use a technology based on the use of a physic […]