A project spearheaded by a researcher at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine has been awarded $9 million in Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding to create a national network for better researching and responding to the global threat COVID-19 variants pose. Led by Dr. Marc-Andre Langlois, the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network or CoVaRR-Net, will enable the real-time assessment of both the immune response to the virus variants and whether these variants are resistant to existing vaccines. The findings will provide decision makers with guidance regarding drug therapy, vaccine effectiveness, and other public health strategies.
The project is supported by various uOttawa partners, including Justin Presseau, Assistant Professor at uOttawa and Senior Scientist at TOH.