VANCOUVER — Multiple research teams out of a B.C. university are getting millions of dollars in funding from the federal government to propel their novel coronavirus research.
The University of British Columbia announced Tuesday that five of its research teams are collectively getting $2.3 million from the federal government to continue their work on detecting, neutralizing and reducing COVID-19’s transmission.
Earlier this month, several other COVID-19 research teams at the university received $2.8 million in federal funding.
“We are very grateful for this additional investment through the federal government’s emergency research funding,” said Gail Murphy, vice-president of research and innovation at UBC, in a news release.
“This provides researchers at UBC and across the country with resources to gain critical insights into COVID-19 and help to develop treatments and prevent its spread.”
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Another $315,000 is going to a team led by Jeffrey Joy to understand similarities between COVID-19 and other coronaviruses.
Finally, just under $256,000 is being given to James Russell’s team to study drugs typically used to treat high blood pressure and diabetes.
“We hope that we can further increase understanding of whether a class of drugs very commonly used for cardiovascular disease and diabetes can actually help Canadians and patients around the world, get better outcomes from COVID-19,” says Russell, who is a professor in the department of medicine and principal investigator at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital.
The federal funding will help support the researchers work over the next two years and results will be shared openly.