A delegation of researchers from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) recently visited McMaster University to explore opportunities for collaboration. The visit, which included tours of the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, the Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector Laboratory, and the IIDR’s Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology, culminated with a collaborative science discussion between some of the country’s top infectious disease researchers.

Meet McMaster’s ant man: Cameron Currie, PhD. His arch enemy is antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi. His mission: to help lead McMaster University in the fight against pandemics as the inaugural Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Pandemic Research and Prevention. Alongside Currie on this important mission are his trusty sidekicks – thousands of leafcutter ants that could be key fighters against the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis.

What do democracy and drug resistance have in common? They may seem worlds apart, but, during a pandemic, both are vital aspects of a public health response. That’s why Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats has awarded $7,500 to two undergraduate students to conduct research into pandemic preparedness from different perspectives.

The new program, which seeks to correct underrepresentation in STEM research settings, has brought a diverse group of Ontario-based scholars who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or 2SLGBTQIA+ to McMaster on fully funded research scholarships. Run in partnership with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) and the Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats, the SSP provided the cohort with intensive research skills training, close mentorship and guidance, and experiential learning opportunities in an array of McMaster laboratories.

An international team of scientists who analyzed centuries-old DNA from victims and survivors of the Black Death pandemic has identified key genetic differences that determined who lived and who died, and how those aspects of our immune systems have continued to evolve since that time.

Dominik Mertz, director of the division of Infectious Diseases in the department of Medicine at McMaster, is the newly named holder of the Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Infectious Diseases. The chair, established in 2010 through a gift from DeGroote, is awarded to highly accomplished researchers who contribute significantly to the body of scholarship around infectious diseases through teaching and research.