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Improving access to vaccines around the world


November 11, 2014

Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo has been awarded $300,000 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and matching funds from industrial partner Sanofi Pasteur for a study to enhance Influenza vaccine production. Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent many deadly human diseases. Despite this, maximum global coverage continues to be a challenge and concern for public health. A major barrier for vaccine industries remains the ability to reliably produce sufficient vaccine doses in a timely manner, highlighted by the shortcomings of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccination campaign. As a solution to this, Dr. Diallo and his team have developed viral sensitizer technology (VST) to improve industrial-scale vaccine production with little to no added infrastructure costs. Dr. Diallo has entered into collaborations with companies such as Sanofi Pasteur, a world-leading vaccine supplier, to evaluate the activity of VST for some of their vaccines. Ultimately, Dr. Diallo believes that VST will reduce the cost and increase the availability of vaccines globally, in addition to benefiting the Canadian economy.

About the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. OHRI includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

Media contact
Paddy Moore
Communications and Public Relations
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
613-737-8899 x73687
613-323-5680 (cell)