Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Indigenous Peoples' Health

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a public health priority as many remain undiagnosed worldwide with increased rates of new infections in association with the opioid epidemic. The broad use of novel direct acting antivirals (DAAs) that offers complete cure in >95% of infected individuals but does not prevent reinfection. Hence, there is an urgent need for vaccines that can protect against this virus in the general population. This project will examine what constitute a good immune response that can protect against HCV infection in high risk people who inject drugs (PWIDs). We will also compare the effectiveness of such an immune response in individuals who clear the virus spontaneously versus those who clear it post treatment. We will use the latest state-of-the-art technology to examine the immune response at the functional and genomic level and identify cellular pathways and key molecules that are implicated in the development and maintenance of a protective immune response. The results obtained from such an analysis will be relevant to many human viral infections and will guide vaccine development against HCV and other challenging pathogens.