Join us for our first ever Canadian UK-ICN meeting taking place in sunny Saskatoon! This meeting is themed around surveillance, ecology and vaccines/therapeutics for animal coronaviruses. The morning session of the meeting includes keynote presentations, flash talk presentations and presenter Q&A sessions. The afternoon session will consist of a gap analysis workshop led by WOAH/STAR-IDAZ.

Keynote Information: Professor Wanda Markotter – Chair in Animal Infectious Diseases (University of Pretoria)

Wanda is the director of the Centre for Viral Zoonoses in the Department of Medical Virology at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences and a leading expert in zoonotic diseases and a UK-ICN management board member. Wanda has extensive experience and outputs in the One Health space as a virologist focused on interdisciplinary research of the disease ecology of zoonotic pathogens in bats.

Keynote information: Professor Paul Duprex – Director of the Center for Vaccine Research (University of Pittsburgh)

Paul Duprex is the Director of the Center for Vaccine Research (CVR), Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Jonas Salk Endowed Chair for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh.  He is a molecular virologist with nearly twenty-five years’ experience.  His postgraduate training at the Pirbright Institute, Woking, England, UK focused on foot and mouth disease, and he was awarded his PhD in 1994 from The Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK where he was a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Molecular Virology from 1999 until 2010.

During this time, he worked for Johnson and Johnson (J&J) as Head of the Department of Emerging Sciences and Technologies at TransForm Pharmaceuticals, Lexington, MA.  In 2010 he became an Associate, and then full Professor of Microbiology at Boston University (BU).  As Director of Bioimaging at the BU NEIDL Institute he expanded his work on emerging infectious diseases.  These interests continue at the BSL3+ Regional Biocontainment Laboratory in Pittsburgh, where he is the Director.

He works on human and animal respiratory viruses such as measles, mumps and SARS-CoV-2.  His research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of viral pathogenesis and vaccine attenuation, with a view to developing rationally attenuated vaccines.  Developing novel strategies to increase the thermostability and deliver vaccines optimally are key elements in his research program.  He is interested in barriers that restrict cross species transmission events, with the aim of developing tools to predict pathogen evolution.

Secretary of State Blinken specifically requested to visit CVR during his recent visit to Pittsburgh and the visit was hosted by Dr. Duprex.  Topics included, the virus, the variants, the vaccines and the need to remain globally competitive in biocontainment research as we prepare for subsequent pandemics.

Paul is active on social media and tweets as @10queues from his verified Twitter account.

Co-Host Information: Dr Valeria Mariano – Research Coordinator (STAR IDAZ IRC)

STAR-IDAZ IRC is conducting gap analyses and developing roadmaps for animal disease control. For zoonotic coronaviruses, a One Health approach coordinating the human and animal research initiative will be needed. To date, research gaps in animal CoV in this region have not been captured into the global STAR-IDAZ IRC roadmap.

The afternoon session of this meeting will involve a two-hour gap analysis exercise led by Dr Valeria Mariano (WOAH/STAR-IDAZ IRC) themed around: Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Control Strategies to capture the relevant information for a wider global research roadmap to identify future research priorities. Valeria conducted a similar gap analysis at our 2023 animal coronavirus meeting held in Belfast. The report can be viewed here.

Abstract Submission

Abstract submission is now open until Friday 15th March 2024. Abstract form to be completed and submitted to UK-ICN@liverpool.ac.uk.

Registration

Registration is now open until 1st May 2024 via the Canadian Society for Virology page.