News and Announcements:
UBC Researchers Discover ‘Weak Spot’ Across Major COVID-19 Variants
UBC professor Dr. Sriram Subramaniam is the senior author of a study that reveals a weak spot which remains largely unchanged across variants and can be neutralized by an antibody fragment. It sets the stage for the design of pan-variant treatments that could potentially help a lot of vulnerable people. For more information, please visit news.ubc.ca.
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Further Study Confirms COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Safe in Pregnancy
Investigators at UBC and BC Children’s Hospital found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy in a large study. The study is one of the first to compare vaccine side effects between a group of vaccinated pregnant people, an unvaccinated pregnant group, and a vaccinated non-pregnant group. For more information, please visit med.ubc.ca.
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Canadian Travel Restrictions Reduced COVID-19, Didn’t Stop Outbreaks
International travel restrictions most effectively reduced COVID-19 cases entering Canada during the first waves of the pandemic according to a new study. Researchers from UBC and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS used publicly available genomic data to develop a timeline of how the virus entered the country. For more information, please visit news.ubc.ca.
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Why COVID Refuses to Give Us a Break
UBC professor Dr. Terrance Snutch provided comments to the National Post on the future of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Canada and around the world. For more information, please visit nationalpost.com.
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Fall Booster Shots in BC for All Aged 12 and Older, Starting September
SFU professor Dr. Caroline Colijn and UBC clinical professor Dr. Horacio Bach discussed vaccination against the latest COVID-19 variants with the Vancouver Sun. For more information, please visit vancouversun.com.
Image credit: HostSeq
HostSeq+CanCOGen Receives 2022 CARA Research Partnership Award
Established in 2018, this award recognizes a project, program or long-term collaboration that has had a significant economic impact or other positive local, national or global implications. For more information, please visit cara-acaar.ca.
Resources for Investigators:
Documenting Public Health Intervention for the COVID-19 Pandemic
UBC Professor Dr. David Patrick and PhD candidate Ariana Saatchi have released a book in collaboration with healthcare professionals working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of their work delves into the intricate networks of research and intervention that comprise a single public health response, from virus to vaccine. For more information, please visit pharmsci.ubc.ca.
Image credit: BCAHSN
Investigator Training Program 2022
Clinical Trials BC and Pfizer are partnering to bring a clinical trial investigator training course to British Columbia, comprised of 7 modules covering the entire trial process from the planning stages through trial close-out activities. Completion of this course satisfies Good Clinical Practice training requirements and TransCelerate mutual recognition criteria for conducting clinical trials. Registration is now open.
Event date and time: 2 November 2022, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM PST
For more information, please visit bcahsn.ca.
BC Academic Health Science Network’s COVID-19 Resources
The BC AHSN is committed to providing BC’s health research community with the best possible provincial resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond. For more information, please visit bcahsn.ca.