Grant: Alliance Grants

The partnership at the core of this proposal is an ongoing collaboration between scientists at Sanofi and York University, Toronto aimed at investigating the detection of virus infected cultured cells. Sanofi at the Toronto site is one of Canada's largest vaccine manufacturers with over $2B in new infrastructure investments since 2018. The Toronto site is also home to Sanofi's North American Centre of Excellence for Analytical Sciences and Bioprocess R&D. Detection of virus infected cells is crucial since vaccine's are produced in specific cell types grown in the laboratory in rigorously controlled aseptic conditions. The cells must be carefully monitored since infection with unknown pathogens (eg viruses) could seriously compromise the safety of the vaccines that are produced in the cells. Therefore, achieving the most robust, state of the art detection methods for viral infection of cultured cells is a cornerstone of safe vaccine production, as well as being critical for reliable fundamental discovery research, which is paramount for public health in Canada. Currently it is very challenging to screen cell cultures for unknown viral pathogens because of their heterogeneity. In this proposal we will pursue an unbiased genomic approach based on next generation sequencing that will allow robust detection of viral pathogens using state of the art gene sequencing methods. Identified methods of viral detection will then be incorporated into routine cell monitoring for vaccine production at Sanofi. We anticipate that that strategy will provide a new standard for safe vaccine production in Canada.