8 octobre 2024
A new Canada Excellence Research Chair to prepare for future pandemics
The Chair will boost knowledge of emerging respiratory pathogens, their biology, and methods to control and better respond to health emergencies
Kanta Subbarao is an international expert in the biology of viruses, virus-host interactions and immune responses.
— Yan Doublet
The next pandemic could strike anytime. To strengthen public health efforts, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Biology and Control of Zoonotic and Pandemic Respiratory Viruses will help prepare for the emergence of new viruses and the threat that they pose.
The Chair has made possible the recruitment of Kanta Subbarao, an international expert in the biology of viruses, virus-host interactions and immune responses, as a professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval, and a researcher at the Centre de recherche CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
«The Chair provides an excellent opportunity to build a research ecosystem for the future. We need to learn from what we've just experienced with the COVID-19 pandemic and make sure we apply these lessons both in science and research, but also for control measures,» says Kanta Subbarao, who is the first female Canada Excellence Research Chair at Université Laval.
With funding of$8 million over 8 years, the Canada Excellence Research Chair will focus on influenza A viruses and coronaviruses, which are on the list of priority pathogens of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Chairholder Kanta Subbarao and Mariana Baz Etchebarne, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval, while working on SARS-CoV-2 in Australia.
The Chair will promote a «One Health» approach that integrates the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Professor Subbarao's team will work with experts from different fields to harness various perspectives. The team will include faculty within the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Engineering, and Pharmacy, notably in virology, mechanical engineering, aerosol biology, and clinical research.
«This Chair demonstrates the impact of Université Laval's research ecosystem in tackling the gigantic challenge of pandemics. I salute the teamwork, interdisciplinarity, partnerships and innovation at the heart of this Chair, which will enable us to do better as a society when a new virus emerges,» says Université Laval Rector Sophie D'Amours
Based at the Centre de recherche CHU de Québec-Université Laval, the Chair will benefit not only from the laboratories but also from contact with other clinical research centres and interactions with collaborators from industry and academia.
«The award of this research chair and the arrival of an internationally renowned researcher like Professor Subbarao among our teams are a source of pride for our centre. With her innovative work on respiratory viruses, she will not only contribute to the advancement of knowledge for the benefit of the public but will also help promote our academic community throughout the world,» says Professor Serge Rivest, Director of the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
The Chair has enabled the recruitment of Kanta Subbarao as a full professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval. Internationally renowned, she is the former director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza Reference and Research at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne. Kanta Subbarao is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Watch the CERC video presentation.
