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The post Newsletter #10: March 2020 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Donations to the Emergency Response Fund will go towards understanding and preventing the spread of COVID-19 now, and be available for future outbreaks or emergencies. By making a gift to this fund, you’ll be helping address the most pressing public health needs to keep you and your community safe and healthy.

This fund will enable experts to protect our province by providing funding for things like:

• Research to understand and address the threat as it’s happening in real-time;
• Equipment and lab technology needed for testing and analyzing samples;
• Additional expert staff to carry out time-sensitive work and projects;
• Logistics, data management, data visualizations, and knowledge translation to ensure that experts across the spectrum can work together seamlessly and with the tools they need;
• And more, as the situation develops.

You can make a difference in preventing the spread of this outbreak and protecting the health of our population by making a gift to our Emergency Response Fund. Help us meet the rapidly-evolving needs in this global health emergency today. Your donation will assist experts at the BC Centre for Disease Control and elsewhere take action today that will keep us safe tomorrow.

All donations of $20 or more are eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
Should you require assistance making your gift, or have questions, please contact us at donate@bccdcfoundation.org or (604) 707-2415.

For the latest up-to-date information on the coronavirus outbreak, check the BC Centre for Disease Control. And, to learn about how to protect yourself from getting sick, use evidence-based information accessible from the BCCDC.

The post Emergency Response Fund appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

This year’s event featured a capitalist with a time machine, bringing historic public figures into 2019. As well as being fun and funny, the format allowed attendees to learn how different infectious diseases are transmitted and how outbreaks are solved, as well as scientific breakthroughs that have brought us to our present day medical advancements.

The sold –out event held on October 18th was a great way to inform the public of the work that the CDC does for the people of BC. By visiting clue booths staffed by actual CDC/Labs employees, attendees participated in activities that resulted in learning about things like what lab techs look for in a blood test to identify pathogens; how genome sequencing of a disease can track its spread and how other medical/scientific clues like insect bites can help epidemiologists identify what they might be dealing with.

In addition to the “clue” booths, many of the other programs at the CDC had info booths to help raise the profile of the work done at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Staff from TB, Hepatitis, STI clinic, Community Antimicrobial Stewardship and Harm Reduction, as well as the BCCDC Foundation team, were all present to share activities, treats and info with the 800 attendees.

These events wouldn’t happen without all the dedicated volunteers, so a big shout out to everyone who poured their hearts and brains into this event! If you want to ensure you know about events like this, and other activities, sign up for our newsletter and follow us @bccdcfoundation on social media.

The post Time Travelling Murder Mystery Collaboration 2019 appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Led by Drs Jay Johnston and Jennifer Gardy, Molecular Epidemiology of TB in BC was a five-year project funded by the Foundation that recently wrapped up, and with our support the team was able to undertake the largest complete genomic study of TB transmission to date – nearly 1500 TB genomes. Working on genotyping and sequencing tuberculosis bacteria collected in BC between 2005-14, Drs Gardy and Johnston feel that the impact of this project has been profound, a world first, and is generating actionable insights into TB transmission and is changing how BC approaches TB prevention. The work has generated 16 publications (with more on the way) and been presented internationally, with over 50 invited talks and poster presentations. Begun with funds through the Foundation, additional funds were secured through Genome BC, allowing the Foundation to successfully leverage our initial investment. When asked to report on any challenges or limitations encountered during the study, Dr Gardy stated, “None – this project has been the best experience of our scientific lives so far!”. It is with statements like that, the Foundation is eager to support such a great team undertaking valuable work.

One of the things we are proud of is the extent to which student trainees were able to participate. Over the span of the five-year projects, there were 11 students ranging from PhD to undergrad, working on different aspects.

The initial BCCDC Foundation investment enabled the research team to secure additional funding from multiple sources, totaling over $1.2 million dollars, as the project grew and opportunities arose to study different facets of the data. The project has, per Dr Gardy , “ultimately convinced the BC Public Health Lab to adopt routine genotyping … and will change the way we diagnose and track TB in BC forevermore”.

Some of the publications from this project can be found here  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5850024/ , here  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6107743/   and here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30280646

The post BCCDC Foundation as a Connector: Molecular Epidemiology of TB in BC appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The week starts off with our fun, social event on the Monday with a workshop on Sushi making–which has already sold out!  We’ll also have the posters on display starting on Monday, so don’t forget to participate in the Poster Scavenger Hunt all week for your chance at some great prizes.  The posters will be on display on the Lane Level and 2^nd floor hallways.

One change to note this year is that all workshops and presentations will take place in the Medical Student Alumni Centre (MSAC) building next door.

Tuesday highlights include our own Dr Jennifer Gardy as the day’s keynote speaker, who will speak on “Digital Pathogen Surveillance: Driving Disease Detection with Data”.  As well, this is the first day of the research symposium, so you won’t want to miss presentations on innovation and research at the BCCDC. On Wednesday, the Symposium continues (see full schedule below) and will close with our final Keynote speaker, Dr Caroline Colijin, Mathematics Professor at Simon Fraser University and Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Infection Evolution and Public Health, and  who will present “Mathematics and the genomic toolkit for epidemiology and public health”. Thursday’s event is a workshop on “Data Visualization Tools and Techniques” presented by Mike Coss, that should prove useful to many at BCCDC.

And we have an addition to the lineup this year: the Research Week Poster Session will be the final event of Research Week. Representatives from displayed research posters will be standing beside their posters on Lane Level and 2^nd floor hallways between 12:00 and 1:00 on Friday, November 2^nd, to answer questions you may have on their posters.

RW2018 Speaker Schedule click for a downloadable copy

We hope to see you there!

The post Research Week 2018 – Full Schedule released! appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Dr. Sarah Henderson and her team have been awarded funds to study how exposure to forest fire impacts outcomes during pregnancy and early life.

Dr. William Hsiao and his team have been awarded funding to conduct a pilot study examining the replacement of one method of genomic sequencing of influenza samples with another, that ultimately may help inform whether seasonal influenza vaccines are being reformulated in a timely enough manner to be effective.

Dr. Inna Sekirov and her research team have been granted funds for a study to determine if a particular TB test is more effective than another currently in use, that may also be a better indicator of whether it is an active or latent infection.

Dr. Michael Otterstatter has been awarded travel funds for a team member for Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) International User Conference.

For BCCDC Faculty interested in applying for funding, be sure to watch your email inboxes in late August for the announcement of the fall competition; the next round of applications will be reviewed in October 2018. To see some of our past research successes, click through to our main research page on our website, or you can review all posts in this blog for other successful OAP applications by clicking on the Open Awards Program category.

The post Open Awards Program: Four Successful Applications for Spring 2018 Competition appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The project was titled, “Antimicrobal resistance gene detection using metagenomics” and it’s preliminary findings were also part of a published manuscript in a recent issue of Clinical Infectious Disease, titled “Antimicrobal resistance gene acquisition and depletion following fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for recurrent Clostridium difficile infections” along with co-authors from UBC and McGill.

Dr. Manges expressed her thanks to the Foundation and noted how grateful she was for the support. The results of the most recent round of OAP applications will be announced on the next blog post.

The post BCCDC Foundation Funding Provides Starting Point for Growing Research appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The BCCDC Foundation was pleased to sponsor Research Week, as well as take an active role on the organizing committee. We believe it’s important for all the teams at the BCCDC to benefit from seeing the results of each other’s hard work, and that’s a big reason for having an annual research knowledge translation event. If you missed some of the presentations, we have them archived here.

As well, thank you to all of the 50 BCCDC volunteers who participated in the Zombie Outbreak fun event at Science World on the last day of Research Week. From all accounts, the attendees had a lot of fun, were really engaged, and learned a lot about stopping the spread of infectious disease.

The post 10th Annual BCCDC Research Week a Success! appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

The week starts off strong on Monday, with a workshop on Naloxone Training and Emergency Preparedness. We’ll also have the posters on display, so don’t forget to participate in the Poster Scavenger Hunt all week for you chance at some great prizes. Tuesday highlights include Keynote speaker Nathan Yozwiak, Associate Director, Viral Genomics in the Infectious Disease Program of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, who will speak on “Outbreak Response in the Genomic Age”. As well, this is the first day of the research symposium, so you won’t want to miss presentations on innovation and research at the BCCDC. On Wednesday, we’re having a fun workshop on Ikebana, which now has a wait-list. Thursday, the Symposium continues (see full schedule below) and will close with our final Keynote speaker, our own Jane Buxton, who will present, “Naloxone: A Miracle Medication for the Opioid  Epidemic, but is it Enough?” The final event of Research Week is the Zombie Outbreak event on Friday Oct 27th, a collaboration between the BCCDC Foundation, BCCDC, and Science World. We hope you already have your ticket as it’s sold out!

Downloadable pdf: RW poster Schedule 2017

The BCCDC Foundation is proud to be an integral part of the planning and delivery of Research Week, as well as a sponsor, since 2011.

The post 10th Annual BCCDC Research Week schedule now available appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Join your colleagues as they present intriguing research and innovative program results, listen to two impactful keynote speakers, and attend some fun and educational workshops. A full schedule will be released very soon.

And don’t forget: at the end of Research week, is the Zombie Outbreak event on Oct 27th; a fun Halloween collaboration between the BCCDC Foundation, BCCDC, and Science World. Get your tickets soon, they’re going fast!

This year is the 10th anniversary of BCCDC Research Week, and the BCCDC Foundation is proud to be an integral part of the planning and delivery, as well as a sponsor, since 2011.

The post Research Week 2017 – Mark Your Calendars! appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.