Prof. Scott Gray-Owen to launch EPIC, the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium
By
Soha Usmani
UofT's Institutional Strategy Initiatives (ISI) portfolio strives to advance, organize, and sustain interdisciplinary and cross-divisional research networks that address various socially relevant issues. One of these supported initiatives is the Emerging and Pandemics Infections Consortium (EPIC). Headed by MoGen faculty member Dr. Scott Gray-Owen, it endeavours to prevent future pandemics, epidemics, and emerging infections from generating the same level of destruction that SARS-CoV-2 has. The consortium cultivates a multidisciplinary approach, from pathogen biology and immunity to pandemic policies and their societal impacts. Toronto's only Combined Containment Level 3 (C-CL3) unit, which allows for the study of Risk Group 3 pathogens on campus, alongside the CL2 facilities and UT COVID-19 BioBank, will anchor EPIC's aim of being a leader in infectious disease research, training and knowledge translation.
