From left: Shelly Bolotin, Maxwell Smith, Trina Racine, Natasha Crowcroft and Scott Gray-Owen
24 October 2025
By Betty Zou
Vaccines took centre stage at the third annual Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium symposium held on October 16, 2025.
Hosted in partnership with the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, the event featured presentations and discussions on the theme of Immunizations: sustaining progress and impact in a changing landscape.
The symposium was headlined by keynote speakers Natasha Crowcroft, acting chief public health officer and vice president, infectious diseases and vaccine programs at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC); Trina Racine, director of vaccine development at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan; and Maxwell Smith, an associate professor and director of the Centre for Bioethics at Western University.
“We were delighted to collaborate with the CVPD on this year’s symposium and offer our community an opportunity to hear from distinguished leaders in the vaccine space and learn more about the innovative immunization-related research taking place in Toronto,” says Scott Gray-Owen, EPIC’s academic director and a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
Crowcroft spoke about the re-emerging threat of measles, drawing on her experience at both the World Health Organization and PHAC. She provided epidemiological insights into the ongoing measles outbreak in Canada, which started in October 2024 and has since infected over 5,000 people, and shared learnings from international efforts to control the disease.
Racine discussed ongoing efforts at VIDO to bolster Canada’s domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, including its Vaccine Development Centre. The centre combines biosafety level 3 capabilities with a manufacturing facility that is compliant with good manufacturing practices, enabling the testing and production of human and animal vaccines and other biological therapies.
Smith’s presentation challenged attendees to think about vaccine mandates from an ethics perspective. He provided attendees with a philosophical and bioethics framework to consider whether an action is considered coercive, highlighting the nuances and complexities of different public health-related scenarios.
Crowcroft, Racine and Smith also shared the stage during a panel discussion chaired by Shelly Bolotin, director of the CVPD. The conversation addressed many timely topics related to vaccines, including the dismantling of many parts of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control, particularly its expert advisory panel on vaccines, and the rise in anti-vaccine sentiment and misinformation.
The speakers underscored the importance of this moment as an opportunity for Canada to step up as a global leader and champion for vaccines and evidence-based public health. They also stressed the need to address gaps in Canada’s disease surveillance system and to strengthen a domestic pipeline for vaccines and therapeutics.
“Development doesn’t happen overnight and it’s not cheap,” said Racine. She noted that while Canada excels in research and discovery, it needs to build a better system for turning those discoveries into products that reach the public. Better infrastructure for manufacturing and data sharing and harmonized protocols for clinical trials can also help get us there, said Smith and Crowcroft.
On the topic of misinformation and trust, all three speakers emphasized the need for public health agencies to work directly with communities, particularly around messaging and outreach.
The other talks in the day showcased faculty members, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who received EPIC funding for their vaccine-related research. This included a lightning round where seven EPIC-funded PhD students and postdocs each had five minutes to share their work.
The other talks in the day showcased faculty members, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who received EPIC funding for their vaccine-related research. This included a lightning round where seven EPIC-funded PhD students and postdocs each had five minutes to share their work.
The symposium also included a networking lunch where trainees had a chance to connect in a small group with one of the keynote speakers and other industry guests.
The event, which took place at the Toronto Reference Library, drew over 250 attendees from EPIC’s partner institutions as well as from industry and the Public Health Agency of Canada, Public Health Ontario and Toronto Public Health.
“The annual EPIC symposium is a highlight for our community,” says Gray-Owen.
“It’s a chance to seed new collaborations, learn from local and global leaders in infectious disease and build a stronger, more connected ecosystem in Toronto and beyond.”