EPIC will improve lives and ensure Canada and the world will defeat future global health challenges
Welcome to EPIC – The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium.
EPIC Partners play an integral role in infectious disease research, from work that controlled diphtheria and helped eradicate smallpox 100 years ago, to current research in antimicrobial resistance and infection control.
Today, our collective fight against COVID-19 makes clear that there’s never been a more important time to advance EPIC – the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium as a critical hub in the pan-Canadian effort to combat future pandemics.
Building on our momentum in combatting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, EPIC will marshal the advanced research infrastructure and the world-renowned research and training expertise of the EPIC Partners to allow an integrated innovative response to infectious diseases.
EPIC is a collaborative initiative among:
- University of Toronto
- Hospital for Sick Children
- Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
- Sunnybrook Research Institute
- University Health Network
- Unity Health Toronto
These globally-leading institutions will make a difference to preventing the next pandemic and enhancing the impact of the life sciences ecosystem in Ontario.
These are the four pillars of EPIC’s work
Toronto High Containment Facility
Toronto’s only Combined Containment Level 3 (C-CL3) facility for the study of high-risk human pathogens has been critical to understanding the viral pathogens and developing therapeutics and treatments. Infectious diseases continue to pose a threat to Canadians’ health and prosperity. Investments in the facility will prepare Ontario and Canada for future pandemics.
Training & Talent
EPIC offers immersive and cross-disciplinary training to a diverse cohort of talent researching infectious diseases, who are ready to work in industry and academia. Hundreds of researchers, clinicians and lab staff will gain access to leading-edge technologies, develop the skills to turn discovery into solutions, and connect Canada to global networks of pandemic surveillance and response.
Transformative Research
EPIC will connect multiple disciplines to address infectious diseases. Insights made possible by state-of-the-art platforms that accelerate the discovery and production of therapies will combine with the expertise of clinicians, engineers, public health experts and scientists to translate treatments to patients and improve their outcomes.
Knowledge Translation
EPIC will play an important role as a knowledge broker. It will create a hub for potential commercialization of novel therapeutics. New researchers at EPIC will be equipped to explain bench science to decision-makers and the public, as well as to translate discoveries into made-in-Canada products and solutions to global health challenges.
84 weeks
Estimated number of weeks required to clear surgery backlogs in Ontario.
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$26B
Amount (in Billions) that Canada’s federal government is targeting for health and biosciences exports by 2025.
EPIC News
U of T partners with Moderna to advance research in RNA science and technology
By Rahul Kalvapalle The University of Toronto and Moderna, Inc. – known for its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine – plan to work together to develop new tools to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Guided by a partnership framework agreement, the U.S. biotechnology firm...
In the next pandemic, Canada will be prepared
The Toronto High Containment Facility (THCF), housed at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, is equipped to safely study pathogens that cause infectious disease, and was among the first labs in Canada to enable researchers to work with SaRS-CoV-2 samples.
While similar facilities elsewhere had closed after the 2003 SARS outbreak, the U of T lab remained open – supporting a vast research community including academic, hospital and industrial research needs – and was able to make a significant contribution to understanding and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada Foundation for Innovation support advances collaboration among U of T, SickKids and UHN researchers
Originally published on the University of Toronto Rahul Kalvapalle Two projects involving researchers at the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals, each aimed at better understanding and tackling COVID-19, have been awarded a combined...
Revitalizing the life sciences ecosystem in Canada critical to country’s health security
The University of Toronto is bringing together researchers, pharmaceutical innovators and government partners to address gaps in Canada’s biomanufacturing ecosystem and discuss solutions for public health challenges such as COVID-19.
AI deployed in search for antiviral drugs
Originally published on University of Toronto By Paul Fraumeni n an age of COVID-19, the phrase “business as usual” has nearly lost all meaning for Canadians who have seen their lives disrupted in myriad ways. That includes...