Juliette Blais-Savoie, Master's candidate, Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Supervised by Samira Mubareka, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Nicole Mideo, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Project Title: Genomic Investigation of Avian Influenza Viruses

Project Summary: Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are one of the leading threats to future pandemic emergence, and have directly led to many pandemics throughout human history. My project takes advantage of high-throughput sequencing techniques to investigate the genetics of AIVs in multiple contexts. The first is surveillance, which is essential for adequate pandemic preparedness since researchers, clinicians, and public health officials can know what potential pandemic viruses look like and be specific in their preparation efforts. I am working with collaborators to sample wild and domestic animals in Ontario likely to be infected with AIVs and will use sequencing to obtain genetic information on the AIVs present in Ontario. The second aim of my project will inform AIV vaccine production methods, which are one of the most important aspects of pandemic preparedness and response. Like all influenza viruses, AIVs obtain genetic changes, called mutations, as they replicate. Current influenza virus vaccine production methods involve replicating large amounts of viruses, potentially leading to many mutations which could impact immune responses to those vaccines. My project involves replicating AIVs with the same methods used in vaccine production and then using sequencing to observe how the viruses are evolving genetically.