Institute of Infection and Immunity Strategic Priorities

Mission
Establish national leadership, priorities and programs that promote innovative research to reduce the global burden of infection and immune-based diseases and improve the quality of life.

Vision
The Institute seeks to achieve national and global leadership through supporting research in health and public policy on the control of infectious diseases, and to harness healthy immune responses to protect against and mitigate a wide range of health challenges.

Strategic Research Priorities

Building international leadership through national excellence in health research

Research Training and Career Development
Innovation in attracting, training and retaining a broad spectrum of health researchers prioritized within the complementary areas of Microbes and Disease Pathogenesis and Host Defense and Health is key to the Institute's long-term success in building research capacity and disease preventive strategies.

Goals:

  • Support innovative and transdisciplinary research training programs in infectious diseases and host immune system for talented investigators from diverse backgrounds

  • Increase capacity in health research through clinician-scientist partnership programs

Integrating the biomedical, natural and social sciences, engineering, mathematics and the humanities

Food and Water Safety
The growing concern about the microbiological safety of food and drinking water and its impact on our social, psychological, and economic wellbeing requires rational interventions informed by systematic research initiatives and effective knowledge translation.

Goals:

  • Develop a framework and mechanism for the coordination of a national strategy with various stakeholders for research leading to microbiologically safe food and water

  • Enhance our ability to predict and prevent conditions that lead to disease by understanding the complex dynamic between pathogens, host carriers, and the environment

Antimicrobial Resistance
From a public health perspective, drug resistance caused by increased and/or inappropriate drug use is a growing health and environmental threat. Extensive use of antibiotics in livestock and pesticides on crops are adding selective pressure on microbes that cause disease.

Goals:

  • Establish a national strategy with various stakeholders for research in epidemiological, healthcare and socioeconomic practices that causes antimicrobial resistance in microbes

  • Increase our understanding of the genomes of pathogens, and use this knowledge to identify new therapeutic targets and diagnostic tests for resistance genes

Improving the health status of vulnerable populations

The HIV/AIDS Health Challenge
To improve the quality and duration of life of HIV-infected individuals, reduce the disease transmission and progression and to improve treatment, new research strategy is needed.

Goals:

  • Establish a national HIV/AIDS research advisory partnership involving stakeholders from research, healthcare and affected communities

  • Expedite the translation and evaluate the efficacy of novel interventions for HIV prevention

  • Focus on incidence and mechanisms responsible for adverse effects to HIV therapies

Hepatitis C/Blood Borne Infections
Liver disease due to hepatitis C virus is a major and growing health problem and research capacity building in this area is an urgent priority.

Goals:

  • Develop an estimate of the burden of disease in Canada and define risk factors for transmission, viral clearance and progression of Hepatitis C infection in different populations

  • Catalyze research programs that fill specific gaps in research in Hepatitis C and blood borne infections, their transmission and progression

  • Characterize the impact of HIV-HCV co-infection on the progression of both diseases

Strengthening health research and the health system in the genomics era

Innovative Vaccine Development and Delivery
Vaccines are safe and more cost effective than other therapeutic interventions for infectious diseases. Vaccine development and delivery platforms with rapid knowledge translation are crucial areas for future infectious disease research.

Goals:

  • Develop new technological platforms, methods, vaccine targets, formulations and delivery systems for induction and measurement of mucosal, humoral and cell mediated immunity against viral or bacterial infections of importance in human health, including Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS

  • Explore public health concerns involving cost, efficacy and ethical issues in the use of vaccines

Asthma, Allergy, Host Resistance and Innate Immunity
The etiology of asthma and allergy is complex and involves the interaction between predisposing genes, allergens and immunological and environmental factors.

Goals:

  • Support the development and use of new technologies in immunology and microbiology to determine the role of infectious agents and environmental factors in the development of disease

  • Develop new molecular biological tools to identify markers of disease and risk factors underlying the onset, progression and severity of asthma and allergy

  • Explore host resistance factors and innate immune responses to prevent infections that may trigger and aid progression and severity of allergy, asthma and other immunological diseases

Autoimmune diseases, with a focus on Type 1 Diabetes
To understand, prevent and manage autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes and its progression and complications, we need to apply new knowledge of genetics and innate immunity.

Goals:

  • Establish interdisciplinary programs focused on understanding the common mechanisms that cause autoimmune diseases and develop new therapies for their management and prevention

  • Develop new genetic, immunological and cell-based therapies to predict, prevent and manage Type 1 diabetes and its complications

Unique Challenges

Stem cell biology, Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine
Tissue regeneration or replacement will likely become important therapeutic modalities for many diseases resulting in end-stage organ failure.

Goals:

  • Develop new informatics systems to integrate traditional clinical and new molecular markers to expand knowledge underlying acute and chronic graft rejection

  • Develop therapeutic strategies to induce effective immunological tolerance to prevent graft loss

  • Explore possible use, ethical and social impact of stem cells for tissue and cell transplantation