Grant: Foundation Grant

Infections caused by new emerging bacterial and viral pathogens, or by common microbes that have become drug resistant, and that we are exposed to in the nosocomial or community settings or during travel abroad, remain a serious threat to the health of Canadians. Likewise Canada has some of the world's highest incidence of chronic inflammatory diseases that are suspected to have a microbial or auto-immune etiology, including inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis. There are many different classes of drugs available to treat infections and chronic inflammatory diseases, but they show variable degrees of effectiveness, and their long-term use is associated with significant negative side effects. Genetic studies in humans and in animal models have shown that the genetic make-up of the host has a strong impact on susceptibility to infectious and inflammatory diseases, including onset, progression, response to treatment and ultimate outcome. The human genes and proteins responsible for these differences have excellent potential as novel targets for drug discovery, and for therapeutic intervention. The current research program aims to take advantage of genetic screens in animal models and of functional annotation of large emerging human genetic datasets to discover and validate such novel targets, and establish the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which they contribute to disease pathogenesis. This program is expected to train highly qualified personnel in an inter-disciplinary environment, deliver critical resources that will be freely and quickly distributed to the Canadian research community for validation and maturation, and engage industrial partners for development and pre-clinical testing of novel drugs that may improve the health of Canadians.