Welcome to the Emerging Pathogens & Infectious Diseases Consortium
Welcome to EPIC – the Emerging Pathogens and Infectious Diseases Consortium.
EPIC brings together researchers, clinicians, and institutions across the University of Toronto and its hospital partners to advance infectious disease research and build lasting resilience against emerging threats.
This work builds on a long legacy: EPIC partners have played an integral role in infectious disease research for a century, from work that helped control diphtheria and eradicate smallpox, to today’s front-line research in antimicrobial resistance and infection control. Our collective response to COVID-19, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and mpox makes clear there’s never been a more important time to advance that work, from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance to health inequities and public trust.
Building on this momentum, EPIC marshals the advanced research infrastructure and world-renowned research and training expertise of our EPIC partners to deliver an integrated, innovative response to the infectious disease challenges facing communities today and in the future.
Seven EPIC research clusters
Antimicrobial resistance
Protecting the effectiveness of the medicines we depend on.
Chronic infections and long-term sequelae
Addressing the long-term burden of infections that don’t resolve.
Emerging and re-emerging pathogens
Detecting and responding to new and re-emerging threats before they spread.
Health inequities
Ensuring infectious disease research and response reach everyone, equitably.
Health systems resilience
Building health systems that bend, not break, under infectious threats.
Misinformation, disinformation and public trust
Strengthening public trust through clear, credible information.
Sepsis and acute infections
Improving detection and treatment when every minute counts.
EPIC News
On the path to malaria elimination, EPIC researchers lead with innovations designed for impact
According to the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report 2022, 247 million people fell ill with malaria in 2021. In the same year, there were an estimated 619,000 deaths due to the disease, with three out of four deaths in children aged under five. With the right prevention tools and treatments, the WHO’s ambitious targets of reducing global malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 90% by 2030 can become reality and accelerate progress towards eradication. Getting there requires innovations that have been purposely designed with implementation and impact in mind. Through their work on new diagnostics, vaccines and treatments, EPIC members are doing just that.
Examining the COVID-19 pandemic through a person-centred lens
As a recipient of the inaugural Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) Doctoral Awards, which supports outstanding students pursuing infectious disease research, Afia Amoako is driven by her person-centred ethos to examine the unequal landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. Her goal? To provide a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how people living in this city experienced COVID-19.
EPIC announces 31 recipients of its inaugural Doctoral Awards
The Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) has announced its inaugural cohort of Doctoral Awards recipients. These 31 PhD students are engaged in innovative and collaborative research on infectious diseases. Their work spans from fundamental research uncovering the inner workings of microbes and their interactions with hosts, to applied research focused on improving diagnostics and vaccines, to community-based research on the social and economic impacts of infectious diseases.
