Newswise — Zika, a mosquito-borne illness, is an example of an emerging disease, just the sort of pathogen Canadian vaccine researchers have in their sights. With origins in Africa and Asia, Zika has become pandemic in Brazil and has inexorably moved up to North America. While it usually causes the relatively minor Zika fever, the virus has been tentatively linked to thousands of birth defects, such as children being born with abnormally small heads, dooming them to a life time disability. What does it take to combat emerging diseases? Researchers working at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) are developing vaccines for human and animal diseases, some of which are being passed from a pregnant mother to her unborn child. Other projects are focused on vaccines to protect neonatal babies from infection, and new, effective ways of delivering vaccines. And they are doing it in the largest and most advanced biosafety level 3 laboratories in Canada. Andrew Potter, PhDDirector and CEOVaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVAC)

Areas of expertise: Pathogenesis (how pathogens cause disease), applied genomics for animal and human health, vaccine development (bacterial, viral, and prion pathogens).

Volker Gerdts, DVMAssociate Director, ResearchVIDO-InterVAC Areas of expertise: Neonatal vaccines for humans and animals; mucosal immunology, vaccine delivery and formulation.Dr. Gerdts’ research centers on neonatal vaccines for both humans and animals, mucosal immunology, and vaccine delivery and formulation. Current projects are focused on vaccine development for viral disease in pigs and the use of pigs as a model for humans; also immune modulation and regulation of mucosal immune responses.

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