Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything the world has seen in over a century, both in terms of global spread and economic impact. Caused by the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus, the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths continue to rise. In particular, a major barrier to "flattening the curve" has been the availability of cheap, reliable and serologically-reactive sources of SARS-CoV-2 proteins for use in diagnostic testing. Suncor is Canada's premier integrated energy company, the fifth largest North American energy company and has a place on the global stage as one of the largest independent energy companies in the world. Suncor through this proposed project is continuing the work on a previous project funded by NSERC College and Community Social Innovation Fund that focused on facilitating a rapid test to identify people that have been exposed and become immune to the latest virus called SARS-CoV-2. The proposed project is a continuation of the work completed in the previous project and will focus on the optimization and scale up the fermentation process for the production of SARS-CoV-2 RBD for large scale serological testing and adapt the technology to a wider array of viruses. Successful completion of this project will allow up scale and optimization of the current process and prepare for commercialization. The success of this project will also help strengthen the Canadian bio-economy by developing a manufacturing process that can be implemented in Canada. An efficient and scaled-up approach to generate RBD protein for serological testing and other similar products is needed to drive new developments in viral testing.