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McMaster University
McMaster University is a Canadian public research university located in Hamilton, Ontario. It has received millions of dollars in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has participated in several key aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic including vaccine development and studies on repurposed drugs.
Affiliations
Alumni
Name | Program | Specialty | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Mary Bell | MD and Postgraduate Training | Design, measurement and evaluation in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics | College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, Sunnybrook Research Institute |
Peter Sloly | Bachelor of Arts | Sociology | Former chief of police for the Ottawa Police Service1) |
Staff
Name | Department | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman | Pediatrics | Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor | Member of the Drugs & Biologics Clinical Practice Guidelines Working Group on the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.2) |
Dr. John Lavis | Health Evidence and Impact | Professor | Former member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table |
Dr. Karen Saperson | Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences | Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Education | Program Director, Geriatric Psychiatry and Academic Head, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. University Academic Representative with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for McMaster University.3) |
Funding
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded McMaster through several grants relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2015-2021:
- $100,000.00 USD awarded to multiple projects to “fund studies that will facilitate research collaboration among researchers to address major COVID-19 research questions and reduce the harm of the current COVID-19 pandemic, while fostering global, multi-disciplinary collaborations.”4) Research areas include:
- Natural disease history, epidemiology and transmission
- Vaccines and prophylaxis
- Infection, prevention and control
- Therapeutics
- Clinical management
- $12,392,744.00 awarded “to identify and address ethical challenges, ethics-related risk, and policy gaps that have the potential to undermine the impact of potential life-saving technologies and interventions in global health and development research” from November 2019 until January 2028.5)
- $1,993,992.00 awarded “to find new lead molecules against diseases that disproportionately affect the world's poorest populations” from October 2018 until January 2023.6)
- $6,616,077.00 awarded “to identify and address ethical challenges, ethics-related risk, and policy gaps that have the potential to undermine the impact of potential life-saving technologies and interventions in global health and development research” from June 2015 until July 2021.7)
Additional grants from the Gates Foundation are currently being offered to McMaster:
- Up to $200,000.00 USD to explore using “Metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing to Detect, Identify, and Characterize Pathogens”. The grant period is for up to 24 months and is co-administered with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The intended result of the funding is to “lead to a network of pathogen detection nodes that could provide increased global transparency into regional pathogen distribution in an accurate and timely manner, and in ultimate support of a global pathogen surveillance network.”8)
- Up to $200,000.00 USD to “identify areas for transformational innovation in service of national NTD [neglected tropical disease] programs” in Africa.9)
- Up to $500,000.00 USD to increase the participation in “Digital Health Services for Pregnant Women to Support Antenatal Risk Stratification in Sub-Saharan Africa”.10)
1)
Osman, L., & Trinh, J. (2019, August 25). Peter Sloly named Ottawa’s new police chief. CBC News; CBC/Radio-Canada. https://archive.ph/cotpV
2)
About Us. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/about/#abdurrahman-zainab
3)
Nisbett, M. (2017). Dr. Karen Saperson — 2017 AMS/Donald Wilson award recipient. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. https://archive.ph/PKMmP
4)
McMaster University. (2021, January 8). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science. Research & Innovation. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/2jvyV
5)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2019, November). McMaster University. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/76GuD
6)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2018, October). McMaster University. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/fQJzp
7)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2015, June). McMaster University. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/KfW2j
8)
McMaster University. (2021, November 19). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grand Challenges, Metagenomic Next Generation Sequencing to Detect, Identify, and Characterize Pathogens. Research & Innovation. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/UBq5b
9)
McMaster University. (2021, November 19). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grand Challenges, Innovations in Eliminating Neglected Tropical Diseases. Research & Innovation. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/IDp9n/
10)
McMaster University. (2021, November 19). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grand Challenges, Digital Health Services for Pregnant Women to Support Antenatal Risk Stratification in Sub-Saharan Africa. Research & Innovation. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/O1R1a
11)
McMaster University. (2021, November 19). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grand Challenges, Building Malaria Modeling Capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Research & Innovation. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://archive.ph/4FNbz