We have arrived!

We are busy settling into our new spaces at Trent University. My office is starting to feel more familiar (and I really can’t argue with the huge window, natural light, and views that are not the rooftop technical ventilation system like at OVC). I will miss the sound of the horses downstairs.

I am working to get our lab space set up. It’s a great space with large windows, a private postdoc office, and lots of space for storing our equipment and also for setting up our computer hardware to ensure that everyone in the team has dedicated, protected workspace with computer monitors and docking stations (to make coding much less painful).

We can also hold our lab meetings in our new space without having to book a room. These are some photos from today. It needs some attention but the “bones” are amazing and we will get it into shape this winter.

Amy visits the STEM program at Assumption College School

On Friday May 6, 2022, Amy paid a visit to the STEM program at Assumption College School in Brantford, Ontario. Mr. Page is the Head of the Science Department there and he runs a large extra-curricular program in STEM. Their program has hosted a speaker series for many years that lets students interact with scientists from across academia, industry, and government. Amy shared a bit about her career trajectory with the students as well as some research highlights from projects that our team has conducted.

Congratulations to Reilly and Kamal!

Both Reilly and Kamal have had their abstracts accepted for oral presentations at the upcoming ISVEE meeting. We will be heading out east to attend our first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic. We are looking forward to meeting up with all of our veterinary epidemiology colleagues from around the world in Halifax this summer.

Upcoming thesis defense for Lindsay!

Congratulations to Lindsay who is in the final stretch of her MSc with a defense scheduled for July 30, 2021. Thanks so much to our partners at Peel Public Health and to committee members Dr. Olaf Berke, Dr. Ashleigh Tuite, and Dr. David Fisman.

Faculty and staff at the University of Guelph support SARS-CoV-2 vaccine safety

Faculty at the University of Guelph stand firmly against the spread of vaccine misinformation. Misinformation actively undermines our national public health response and global health security.

With freedom comes responsibility. That applies to academic freedom too. It should not be used to provide cover for misrepresentation and misinformation.

We support evidence-based public health measures, which includes SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

Read our open letter in support of vaccination (signed by over 80 faculty members).

COVID-19 Pandemic

As a lab, we rang in the New Year with a game of Pandemic and a boatload of holiday cookies. Little did we know that we would soon be dealing with the emergence of a new virus, SARS-CoV-2 that would be declared a real pandemic!

As someone who has spent much of their career working on outbreaks, disease dynamics, and pandemics this means that I have been actively working on COVID-19 research, as well as pandemic preparedness and response activities at the federal and provincial level since early February 2020. I am also currently a member of the PHAC COVID-19 Modelling Expert Advisory Group.

Since March 2020, we have published 6 peer-reviewed manuscripts on different aspects of COVID-19 transmission dynamics, and public health interventions. You can find our most recent COVID-19 research here. While writing research papers is an important part of my job as an academic scientist, I have also written a number of opinion pieces focused on 1) infection prevention and control in school settings, and 2) parenting during a pandemic.

You can find many more details about our COVID-19 projects and related media in my CV which you can find here.

Congratulations to former mathepilab member Elissa Giang!

Elissa’s research from her master’s thesis has been published in Pathogens! Elissa developed a mathematical model to assess the effects of changes in host recruitment rate on Streptococcus suis incidence. The results show that monthly introduction of pigs into the nursery (instead of weekly introduction) reduced cumulative cases of S. suis by up to 59%, while increasing disease-removal rates alone averted up to 64% of cases. These findings suggest that modifications to host recruitment rates could be leveraged as a tool for S. suis disease control. Well done Elissa!

Climbing Fun!

Today, our lab spent a fun morning wall climbing. Now that we have conquered the Gryphon climbing wall, (and our fear of heights), we are ready to conquer the world’s infectious disease problems.

Look at Amy climbing so high!

Everyone else is watching in awe.