Dr. Samira Mbareka, an infectious disease physician, medical microbiologist and scientist at Sunnybrook University, has been awarded the Applied Public Health Committee, jointly funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). .
The National Honor Award, with a $1.15 million grant, is awarded for a six-year term to researchers addressing pressing public health challenges. Dr. Mbareka and the 11 other newly appointed chairs will work with stakeholders to support evidence-based decisions that improve health and health equity. Together, these will guide public health policy and decision-making on challenges such as climate change, emerging pathogens, and widening health disparities.
The focus of Dr. Mbareka's chair is to explore the interactions between humans, animals, and their environments to develop adaptive and innovative approaches to prevent interspecies spread of zoonotic pathogens. It's about using the One Health approach to research. It is based on collaborative research with wildlife disease ecologists, computational biologists, epidemiologists, virologists, and many other colleagues in human and animal health.
This honor highlights Dr. Mbareka's continued leadership in One Health, pandemic response, and surveillance of viral zoonotic diseases such as SARS-CoV-2. For the past several years, she chaired the One Health Working Group of the Royal Society of Canada's COVID-19 Task Force and co-founded the Wildlife Emerging Pathogens Initiative (WildEPI), an interdisciplinary research collective. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mbareka and colleagues isolated her SARS-CoV-2 virus in a level 3 containment facility. This has helped Canadian researchers develop better diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines, and improve our understanding of the virus. Biology of SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Mbareka will continue to work with the Royal Society of Canada and other key partners to mobilize knowledge around One Health.
“I am honored to be part of the CIHR-PHAC Applied Public Health Committee Program,” says Dr. Mbareka. “This funding will enable our collaborative group to apply a One Health approach to surveillance of emerging pathogens, bringing together scientists, practitioners and policymakers to address zoonotic disease spillovers. It will be.”