New Funding Announcements:
BC COVID-19 Biobank Network
The BC COVID-19 Biobank Network (BCCBN), co-led by Drs. Darryl Knight and Michael Chen, received funding from Genome BC to establish a provincial biobank network and a catalogue of COVID-19 biospecimens. The BCCBN will be supporting the national HostSeq project and the provincial Post-Covid-19 Recovery Clinics. Samples will be available for use by researchers in order to pursue innovative and collaborative projects. The infrastructure is nearly ready, with the endeavor currently undergoing regulatory approvals. For more questions, please contact: bc.biobanknetwork@ubc.ca.
BC Funding Partnership Enables Critical COVID-19 Vaccine Research in BC
MSFHR, Genome BC, and the BCCDC Foundation for Public Health have joined forces to support BC-based research that addresses solutions to knowledge gaps around vaccination effectiveness and immune response, safety monitoring, public concerns, and other considerations. BC researchers who are able to rapidly implement relevant evidence are invited to submit Expressions of Interest. EOIs must be submitted by March 25, 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT. Select applicants will be invited to submit full proposals for an April 15 deadline. Applications can be submitted at msfhr.org.
CIHR Funding for SARS-COV-2 Variant Research
CIHR has announced an investment of up to $25M to fund three complementary initiatives designed to contribute to global efforts to address SARS-CoV-2 variants. Specific areas of interest include the biological characterization of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants to inform clinical management and evolving public health initiatives, and to provide critical, time-sensitive understanding of emerging variants to inform therapeutic and public health strategies. More information can be found on the CIHR Pre-Announcement page.
BC COVID Research Updates:
Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health – Vaccination Video
Trusted Indigenous leaders across the province have made a video to share their support for the vaccination effort and remind us all how much we have to gain from ending this pandemic. This video was made in partnership between CEIH, FNHA, and FoM. The video can be watched here.
Examining the Biggest COVID-19 Risks for Paramedics with a New B.C. and Ontario-Wide Study
The national COVID-19 Immunity Task Force has provided $2M in funding to investigate workplace factors that may increase exposure of paramedics to SARS-CoV-2. A study led by Dr. Brian Grunau, an assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital aims to recruit 5,000 paramedics from B.C. and Ontario, collecting data that will allow researchers to identify procedures and activities that place participants at increased risk of transmission. At least 300 paramedics in B.C. and Ontario have already signed up. More information about the study can be found on the CORSIP project site.
COVID-19 Treatment Trials Starting in Vancouver General Hospital
Lung oxygen deprivation, or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the leading cause of death among patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19. Ontario’s Edesa Biotech company has received $14M to validate the therapeutic potential of EB05, a monoclonal antibody that Edesa believes could regulate the overactive immune response associated with ARDS. Dr. Ted Steiner, Head of Division of Infectious Disease at UBC and co-chair of the CRCI Working Group, is the local Principal Investigator that will lead a Phase 2/3 clinical trial at Vancouver General Hospital to evaluate the safety and efficacy of EB05 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. More information about the study can be found on clinicaltrials.gov.
A single dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine reduces the risk of COVID-19 by 80%
A study led by Dr. Danuta Skowronski, lead for the Influenza and Emerging Respiratory Pathogens Team at the BCCDC, and funded by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, looking at COVID-19 cases that occurred among vaccinated residents in long term care and health workers, showed that a single dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 by 80% within 2-3 weeks of receiving the vaccine. For more information, please visit the bccdc.ca site.
Resources for Investigators:
BCCDC COVID-19 Consent to Contact Registry
Until now, the ability to conduct COVID-19 research has been hampered by difficulties related to inviting COVID-19 patients for relevant studies. In order to address this issue, a centralized process was recently developed to recruit patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 into research studies across BC’s Health Authorities and store their contact information. The main objective of this project is to develop a registry that documents consent to contact for future research from people who have tested positive to COVID-19 in BC, all compiled into a single resource. The registry is also connected to REACH BC, a secure online platform that coordinates contacting individuals about potential research opportunities and connecting them with specific research groups/studies in BC. This COVID-19 Consent to Contact Registry is part of an organized effort in BC to improve care for people who have experienced COVID-19, and to conduct research that may help us understand the nature of the epidemic and how to control it.
Researchers conducting projects in BC will soon be able to apply to access this registry for future COVID-related studies through the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coordination Initiative Coordination Support Form. For more information about this process, email covidresearch@bccdc.ca.
Access to Contact Information of COVID-19 Research Participants
Researchers seeking participants for their COVID-19 studies can now use guidelines prepared by CRCI in order to request contact information for recruitment of people who tested positive for COVID-19, those who tested negative, as well as people from the general population, including those who have specific health conditions other than COVID-19. More information about ways to recruit research participants can be found on crci.med.ubc.ca.
New CRCI Coordination Request Form
The CRCI Coordination Request Form has been modified to meet the needs of our researchers and community. Requests can now be submitted through REDCap, a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. For more information about submitting a research coordination application to CRCI, please visit crci.med.ubc.ca.
BC COVID-19 Vaccine Communications Collaboration and Networking Workshop
British Columbia’s immunization program relies on an evidence-informed, coordinated, province-wide communication effort that is linked to related initiatives nationally and internationally. This free, 2-hour, online workshop for will help health communicators understand the strengths and challenges in BC’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout communications, develop a grasp of the evidence that supports the immunization program, highlight the relationship between practitioners and researchers working on the vaccine rollout, and identify new research to support equitable, culturally safe, tailored, evidence-informed approaches to COVID-19 vaccine communications across BC.
Date: April 7, 2021, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST
Registration: (link)