UWindsor researchers land $500K federal grant for multi-disciplinary COVID-19 study
Research on the transmission and detection of COVID-19 is already taking place at the University of Windsor, but a half-million dollar federal grant will now allow researchers to collaborate their findings to possibly detect dangerous variants before they land on public health’s radar.
The multi-disciplinary study group landed the Canadian Institute of Health Research grant as a response to gaps in research that have been identified as the pandemic continues.
“One of the things we’re learned through the pandemic is we need to be proactive, we need to have platforms set up where we can detect not just COVID, but any type of virus that might hit our community,” says one of the study’s supervisors, Lisa Porter.
The team will combine wastewater surveillance at three UWindsor residences with other surveillance methods like swabbing, variant treatment research and the psychology of testing procedures.
Windsor was chosen, in part, because of it’s unique location on the border.
“We have essential workers going back and forth daily, we have commercial truck drivers going back and forth daily and these are important vectors of transmission of disease,” says Mike McKay, the executive director at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER).
The GLIER team’s wastewater surveillance has been heralded as an eye-opening early indicator of COVID prevalence in the community.
McKay says this grant will support more research with neighbouring Detroit to track and understand the spread of the virus.
“Its a resource that I think has been under appreciated by the public health community,” says McKay. “I think COVID-19 has been the event that’s put this in the spotlight, allowed public health to recognize the potential value of wastewater surveillance.”
Results of the testing will be publicly available through an online dashboard at We Spark’s website.
The key goal, says Porter, is using research and data to be ready for new variants and new viruses coming down the pipeline.
“The next thing that’s going to hit us, we want to be prepared, we want to be able to isolate the population,” Porter says.
The funding will support the research for one year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
BREAKING Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war's toll on Palestinian children
An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.
Crypt near Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner could fetch US$400,000 at auction
A one-space mausoleum crypt in the vicinity of Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner will go on auction Saturday, when it is expected to reach between US$200,000 and $400,000.
This Toronto restaurant is no longer accepting tips. Here's how it's going
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff – tipping is no longer accepted.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Premiers not being truthful about carbon tax, Trudeau says while sparks fly in Ottawa
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Conservative premiers across the country are 'not telling the truth' when it comes to the carbon tax. Trudeau's comments came as fresh sparks were flying in Ottawa at a recalled House of Commons committee.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
What new auto insurance reforms will mean for Ontarians, if they get introduced
Ontario has among the highest rates for auto insurance premiums in Canada -- just below Alberta and Nova Scotia -- however, the introduction of an insurance reform in the provincial budget could soon lower prices.