Grant: Fellowship: Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards - Postdoctoral

"Provide a brief outline of your proposed research in language that the public can understand (1,800 characters maximum in English, including spaces) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – infection due to ‘superbugs’ – is a global health crisis. Without intervention, AMR will cause ~10 million deaths per year worldwide by 2050. In Canada, the expected total burden by 2050 is ~400,000 lost lives, $120 billion hospital costs and ~$400 billion loss of GDP. The biggest bacterial AMR threat is Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP), a leading cause of pneumonia, meningitis (infection of the brain), and sepsis (blood poisoning). KP is the commonest cause of death from infection in children aged less than 5 years in Africa and Asia. Vaccines against KP are a high priority, given poor outcomes, and the limited development of new antibiotics. Several KP vaccines are in early stages of development, but there are major obstacles to overcome. There is an urgent need for a more effective approach to accelerate KP vaccine development. A method called a “Controlled Human Infection Model” (CHIM) can achieve this by safely infecting humans under controlled conditions. Here, we will develop the first-ever KP CHIM so we can better understand the immune response to KP, identify how KP vaccines protect against infection, and establish a KP vaccine test platform. We aim to: 1. finalize bacterial requirements for a KP CHIM and identify a suitable KP strain for safe infection. 2. develop and optimize tests to evaluate immune response to KP infection, and use them to test new KP vaccines. 3. initiate a KP CHIM. This work will position us to de risk investment and global clinical trials of KP vaccines, and accelerate of KP vaccine development to 5-10 years from 20-30 years. Earlier prevention will result in fewer severe disease cases, shorter hospital stays, and lower health services and economic costs in Canada and globally."