Grants and Contributions

Conduct an Education Empowerment Drive on COVID 19 and COVID 19 Vaccine for All categories of Health Workers both in the private and public health sectors and of The Media in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique through Training workshops and sensitization sessions.

The spike protein (S protein) of the pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is the antigen of choice for use in vaccines and serological diagnostic tests. There is thus a pressing need to develop a robust bioprocess allowing scale-up of spike protein production.

This project will seek to redevelop two approved vaccines for farmed salmonids in Canada. This life cycle management project will introduce an antigen to both vaccines and offer a new indication to the market.

The project will involve the development of a diagnostic test to detect anti-SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in a small sample of peripheral blood with initial aim to test vaccine effectiveness in terms of cell mediated immunity and understand which vaccine recipients are potentially immune to COVID-19 to triage vaccine prioritization in Canada.

The University of Guelph developed a vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus disease that emerged in 2019 (COVID-19) using a safe vector known as avian orthoavulavirus-1 (AOaV-1) with a transgene encoding the full-length spike protein (FLS) from severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). In a hamster challenge model of COVID-19, intranasal vaccination with AOaV-1-FLS completely protected against disease, and SARS-CoV-2 could not be detected.

The University of Guelph developed a vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus disease that emerged in 2019 (COVID-19) using a safe vector known as avian orthoavulavirus-1 (AOaV-1) with a transgene encoding the full-length spike protein (FLS) from severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). In a hamster challenge model of COVID-19, intranasal vaccination with AOaV-1-FLS completely protected against disease, and SARS-CoV-2 could not be detected.

This project will help develop Canada's medical countermeasures to COVID-19 and future pandemics by expanding RBI's manufacturing capabilities to create additional vaccine, therapy and fill/finish capacity at its Mississauga, Ontario site.

Scientists and public health authorities worldwide are making an unprecedented collaborative effort to understand and develop effective interventions for the control and prevention of SARS-CoV-2. Vaccination remains the most efficient medical intervention to counteract the pandemic. Viral vaccines have been the most effective in protecting against viral infections. Vectored-vaccine candidates are among the most advanced SARS-CoV-2 in the 38 clinical evaluations (WHO, Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines, Sept. 24, 2020). One such platform is using the recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV), which is replication competent and is known to induce both cellular and humoral host immune response against foreign antigens. VSV-based vaccine vectors, which, as enveloped viruses, are designed to incorporate glycoprotein antigens into their viral lipid membrane and thus display the antigen on the virus surface, in addition to expressing it upon entry into the target cell. Another important viral vector platform that has been extensively evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials as an onco-therapeutic agent is the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), an avian virus that has several well-suited properties for development of a safe vector vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Both vectored-vaccine platforms demonstrated good safety profiles and in the case of VSV it has been successfully used for vaccination in emergency situations such as Ebola outbreaks. This Project focus on accelerating vaccine manufacture processes by using a producing cell line compatible with cGMP operations and industrialization to address the challenges posed by large scale manufacturing. The accelerated development the proposed robust technology platform will enable higher and faster accessibility to these class of vectored vaccines in situations of pandemic and contribute to building long lasting capacities in Canada.

Scientists and public health authorities worldwide are making an unprecedented collaborative effort to understand and develop effective interventions for the control and prevention of SARS-CoV-2. Vaccination remains the most efficient medical intervention to counteract the pandemic. Viral vaccines have been the most effective in protecting against viral infections. Vectored-vaccine candidates are among the most advanced SARS-CoV-2 in the 38 clinical evaluations (WHO, Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines, Sept. 24, 2020). One such platform is using the recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV), which is replication competent and is known to induce both cellular and humoral host immune response against foreign antigens. VSV-based vaccine vectors, which, as enveloped viruses, are designed to incorporate glycoprotein antigens into their viral lipid membrane and thus display the antigen on the virus surface, in addition to expressing it upon entry into the target cell. Another important viral vector platform that has been extensively evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials as an onco-therapeutic agent is the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), an avian virus that has several well-suited properties for development of a safe vector vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Both vectored-vaccine platforms demonstrated good safety profiles and in the case of VSV it has been successfully used for vaccination in emergency situations such as Ebola outbreaks. This Project focus on accelerating vaccine manufacture processes by using a producing cell line compatible with cGMP operations and industrialization to address the challenges posed by large scale manufacturing. The accelerated development the proposed robust technology platform will enable higher and faster accessibility to these class of vectored vaccines in situations of pandemic and contribute to building long lasting capacities in Canada.

Scientists and public health authorities worldwide are making an unprecedented collaborative effort to understand and develop effective interventions for the control and prevention of SARS-CoV-2. Vaccination remains the most efficient medical intervention to counteract the pandemic. Viral vaccines have been the most effective in protecting against viral infections. Vectored-vaccine candidates are among the most advanced SARS-CoV-2 in the 38 clinical evaluations (WHO, Draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines, Sept. 24, 2020). One such platform is using the recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV), which is replication competent and is known to induce both cellular and humoral host immune response against foreign antigens. VSV-based vaccine vectors, which, as enveloped viruses, are designed to incorporate glycoprotein antigens into their viral lipid membrane and thus display the antigen on the virus surface, in addition to expressing it upon entry into the target cell. Another important viral vector platform that has been extensively evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials as an onco-therapeutic agent is the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), an avian virus that has several well-suited properties for development of a safe vector vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Both vectored-vaccine platforms demonstrated good safety profiles and in the case of VSV it has been successfully used for vaccination in emergency situations such as Ebola outbreaks. This Project focus on accelerating vaccine manufacture processes by using a producing cell line compatible with cGMP operations and industrialization to address the challenges posed by large scale manufacturing. The accelerated development the proposed robust technology platform will enable higher and faster accessibility to these class of vectored vaccines in situations of pandemic and contribute to building long lasting capacities in Canada.