Housing the only Containment Level 3 lab (CL3) in the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto High Containment Facility (THCF) supports the research and clinical needs of the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC), a partnership between the University of Toronto and five hospital research institutes.
The facility is specially equipped to allow researchers to study high-risk pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV, tuberculosis and mpox, in a safe and secure way.
The provincial funding builds on a previous $35-million investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support efforts to revitalize and expand the THCF, and to transform it into the largest academic high-containment research center in Canada. The new provincial investment will also allow the facility to meet the growing demand from industry and public sector partners while maintaining ongoing research projects and an agile responsiveness to future outbreaks.
“The THCF strengthens Ontario’s position as a prime location for globally leading companies and top talent to discover and commercialize cutting-edge technologies, while improving our preparedness for future health challenges,” says Leah Cowen, University of Toronto Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives. “The updated facility will enhance Canada’s health infrastructure and health security, and ensure that Canadian researchers are trained and ready to respond to emerging infectious diseases.”
Past projects have included:
- Isolating the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the first Canadian patients, and production of viral stocks to support research across Canada understanding SARS-CoV-2
- Development of viral inactivation methodologies, facilitating rapid development of novel diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2
- Validation of virus deactivation methods to enable mask and ventilator re-use in hospital settings
- Identification of a global gene regulator that controls virulence protein expression in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and its application to develop next generation vaccines
- Investigations of multiple vaccine platforms to characterize relative efficacy and duration of immunity with dynamic efforts
- Molecular, cellular and immunological studies to understand the impact of pathogen evolution on transmission and disease.
“The new THCF will allow our researchers to work on the most urgent infectious disease threats, provide greater opportunities to engage with government agencies and industry partners, and allow us to provide unique training opportunities for the next generation of infectious disease leaders, building a strong foundation for Canada’s response to future outbreaks,” says Scott Gray-Owen, academic director of the THCF and a professor of molecular genetics in University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
The modernized facility will be able to support greater engagement with industry partners to advance made-in-Ontario therapeutics like the experimental drug paridiprubart from Markham-based Edesa Biotech, which is currently being tested in a Phase 3 clinical trial to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome, a common complication from COVID-19 or influenza infections.
The revitalized THCF will also have the capacity to train more than 100 new highly qualified professionals over a 5-year period with industry-relevant skills, including good manufacturing practices and vaccine and therapeutics development.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the THCF was the first lab in Canada, and one of the first in the world, to isolate the new coronavirus in March 2020. The facility and its highly trained staff played a key role in accelerating research breakthroughs that guided the pandemic response including, for example, methods to allow safe reuse of personal protective equipment in health care settings and to ensure safe human milk banking for premature infants.
The THCF was also a core element of EPIC’s mpox rapid research response, housing a biobank of samples from patients with mpox which are being used by researchers to better understand the dynamics of viral shedding and other important questions about the disease.
In addition to a larger physical space, the updated facility will include a state-of-the-art high containment insectary to enable research on mosquito-borne viruses like Chikungunya, dengue, Zika and yellow fever. With its modular design and enhanced safety features, the new facility will also be better positioned to respond to emerging pathogens like highly pathogenic avian influenza.