Top row from left to right (recipients of the 2025 EPIC New Connections Grants): Bryan Coburn, Freeman Lan, Michael Norris and Robert Kozak

Bottom row from left to right (recipients of the 2025 EPIC Ignite Grants): Ramzi Fattouh, Amanda Hargrove, Shelley Lumba and Michelle Science

August 15, 2025

By Sunitha Chari

The University of Toronto’s Emerging & Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) is investing $400,000 through the EPIC New Connections Grants and EPIC Ignite Grants to support six projects that span research topics from vaccine development to novel technologies for pathogen detection and identifying new compounds that curb the spread of infectious diseases.

EPIC New Connections Grants provide two years of funding support for infectious disease researchers from different disciplines coming together for their first significant research collaboration. The two funded projects from this year’s competition take aim at antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and viruses with pandemic potential, respectively.

A single-cell approach to mapping antimicrobial resistance genes in the gut microbiome

AMR happens when pathogens stop responding to the drugs designed to kill them. It is an urgent public health threat, responsible for about 5 million deaths per year. These infections are particularly devastating for those in intensive care units, where drug-resistant infections complicate treatment and cause more severe symptoms with poorer health outcomes.

In a previous study, Bryan Coburn, an infectious disease clinical scientist at the University Health Network, and his team discovered that antibiotics routinely administered to critically ill patients to fight off infections can, sometimes, contribute to the development of new drug-resistant infections.

Supported by the 2025 EPIC New Connections Grant funding, Coburn will team up with Freeman Lan, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, to pinpoint the source of these AMR infections.

Leveraging Lan’s specialization in single-cell sequencing methods and Coburn’s expertise in the human microbiome, they will test their central hypothesis — do our natural gut bacteria harbour AMR genes, and do they transfer these genes to disease causing bacteria to provide them with an ability to resist treatment?

The findings of the research could have profound implications for decision-making around antibiotic prescriptions and improve AMR surveillance strategies to prevent the emergence of new drug-resistant infections.

A next-generation vaccine platform to protect against parainfluenza and pandemic paramyxoviruses

Our other 2025 EPIC New Connections Grant will support Michael Norris, an assistant professor of biochemistry at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and Robert Kozak, a clinical microbiologist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, who are joining forces to develop a vaccine candidate against human parainfluenza virus (HPIV) infections.

Although these viruses are one of the most common causes of severe respiratory illnesses in children, there are currently no approved treatments or vaccines targeting HPIV.

Norris is a structural virologist who previously generated high-resolution 3D images of the HPIV matrix protein, which is essential for viral assembly. Building on this work, the research team will develop a dual-antigen vaccine approach that targets the matrix protein and another HPIV protein, the fusion protein, which is crucial for the virus to enter host cells.

Drawing on Kozak’s extensive expertise in vaccine research, the project will also evaluate how the dual-antigen vaccine stimulates the immune system and clears HPIV infections in preclinical infection models.

Since the matrix protein is highly similar across the paramyxovirus family, of which HPIV is a member, a vaccine targeting this protein could offer broad protection against other viruses with pandemic potential, including the deadly Nipah virus, a highly infectious zoonotic virus that can be transmitted from bats to humans and cause serious illness.

Kickstarting novel innovation with the 2025 EPIC Ignite Grant recipients

The 2025 EPIC Ignite Grants provide seed funding support to four early-stage and pilot projects developing innovative solutions to tackle infectious diseases and bolster pandemic preparedness efforts.

• Ramzi Fattouh, a clinical scientist at Unity Health Toronto, will develop a fast and reliable molecular test to identify viruses, bacteria and fungi that cause eye infections. This new approach could speed up diagnosis, allowing treatments to begin sooner and lead to better health outcomes for patients.
• Amanda Hargrove is a professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. She will lead a multidisciplinary team of scientists to identify compounds that target RNA in influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses to suppress viral replication and clear respiratory infections.   
• Shelley Lumba, assistant professor of cell and systems biology at U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Science, will investigate new plant sources of antifungal compounds and examine how these plant-derived compounds fight against fungal infections.
• Michelle Science is an infectious disease clinical scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. She will monitor immunity levels against measles in Ontario healthcare workers and investigate how immunity varies across age, sex and ethnicity.

“EPIC’s New Connections Grants and Ignite Grants provide unique opportunities to help researchers transform their bold ideas into innovative solutions to tackle long-standing infectious disease challenges,” says Scott Gray-Owen, EPIC’s academic director and professor of molecular genetics at U of T’s Temerty Medicine.

“This year’s awards support six projects that address some of the most pressing public health threats and position our researchers as leaders in the global fight against infectious diseases.”

For more details on the awarded projects in these project grant competitions, please see the websites for our 2025 EPIC New Connections Grants and our 2025 Ignite Grants.