Dalhousie University researchers are hoping the public can pitch in to help fund their studies as they work to develop a vaccine and antiviral drugs for COVID-19.
David Kelvin, a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at the Halifax university, and his team recently received a $1-million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as part of its rapid research funding initiative examining the outbreak.
“CIHR did a really great job in their initial investment into COVID-19 research, but unfortunately I just don’t think it’s going to be enough to meet the challenges we’re going to experience in the next year to two years,” Kelvin said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“That project is primarily directed at trying to identify people who are at the highest risk for severe disease, which is great, but that only answers one question for one block of research that’s necessary to protect the population now – today – and in the future.”
"We’re reaching out to the public at large to engage them, and not only that, but we want them to be part of the team."
- David Kelvin, microbiology and immunology professor
The Dal scientists are collaborating with research teams around the world on vaccine, antiviral and immunotherapeutic developments for the novel coronavirus.
“Prof. Roy Duncan is working on a DNA-based vaccine, which has many characteristics which can be applied globally, especially to regions where you don’t have refrigeration and things like that,” Kelvin said.
“Prof. Chris Richardson is using measles vaccine system, which has been well-tested in the human population, and what he’s doing is inserting a part of the coronavirus genome into that vaccine system to make a vaccine that we know is safe and effective for most of the population and is now a vaccine directed at COVID-19.”
The group is aiming to raise about $5 million, Kelvin said.
“The most important thing in conducting research is the people. You need people in the trenches who can actually work through the problems and have a dedicated project to work on,” he said.
“There’s also some really valuable, good new technologies out there today that we would like to purchase and use in our diagnostic or in our efforts to understand what’s happening.”
Kelvin said a crowdsourcing campaign helped purchase protective equipment for health-care workers in Wuhan, China, so he’s hoping Canadians will pitch in in a similar fashion.
“We’re reaching out to the public at large to engage them, and not only that, but we want them to be part of the team,” he said.
“On the realistic side, we want anybody who is willing to help out to make a donation and that could be small- or medium-sized. Our goal is to try and bring the sources here on COVID-19, and if we’re lucky we’ll end this in the early stages or have rapid developed therapeutics and vaccines that can help protect the population.”
Donations can be made to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation at www.dmrf.ca or by calling 902-494-3502 to arrange an in-person donation.
