Risk of transmission to people and pets is very low unless you're regularly in contact with birds
If the recent increase in avian influenza cases has you concerned, you likely have nothing to worry about and don’t need to take any added measures, according to a University of Alberta expert on influenza in birds. As with human flu, there are a variety of strains of avian flu, explains Katharine Magor, a professor…
The TESER ACT unit uses UV light to kill viruses and other common pathogens
A new made-in-Alberta sanitization product to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 will soon be in use at the Edmonton International Airport and government offices in Calgary and Edmonton, thanks to a partnership with scientists at the University of Alberta’s Biosafety Level 3 Lab. The TESER ACT unit uses ultraviolet-C light from hundreds of LED light…
Since 2020 Alberta chiropractors have been required to wear masks. Now one of them has had enough
Since last September, experts have testified at a tribunal hearing for an Alberta chiropractor on how well masks do, or don’t, slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Unfortunately, the chiropractor’s college, YouTube and LinkedIn didn’t want you to know what was said because most of it contradicts what people have been told…
Discovery could open door to new treatments that improve our ability to eliminate the stubborn virus
Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is no longer the life sentence it once was. But despite the effectiveness of drugs to manage and treat the virus, it can never be fully eliminated from the human body, lingering in some cells deep in different human tissues where it goes unnoticed by the immune system. Now, new…
Understanding drugs and viruses key to being ready for the next pandemic
Understanding exactly how antiviral drugs interact with viruses at a molecular level will be key to developing the broad-spectrum therapies needed to battle against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and get ready to fight the next one, according to a newly published paper in the The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The paper reveals the inner workings of the…
Real-time infection rates to be tracked on public website
Alberta can now track the prevalence of COVID-19 infections in nearly 75 per cent of the population thanks to the new Pan-Alberta Network for Wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 Monitoring announced on Wednesday. When someone is infected with COVID-19 – whether they know it or not – traces of the virus are shed through the bowel and end up…
Alberta invests $55.1M to taking vaccines, antiviral drugs from discovery to manufacturing
Alberta is building a better pipeline, but this one’s not for oil and gas products – it’s for vaccines and therapeutic drugs to fight viral diseases. The province announced a $55.1-million grant on Wednesday for University of Alberta research on ways to prevent and treat COVID-19, including $15 million for vaccine projects and $10 million for studies…
A rejected patent application nearly derailed years of research, but support from experts saved the day
In 2015, University of Alberta cancer researcher Jack Tuszynski learned that his patent application for a promising chemotherapy treatment for people suffering from metastatic bladder cancer had been rejected by the U.S. Patent Office. “That was it. I thought, ‘We can’t proceed, we’re done, we spent almost a decade working on this and it’s a no go,’”…
Understanding the process could help scientists look out for new, more infectious variants
Sugars found on the surface of human cells influence COVID-19 infection, according to a University of Alberta-led study that’s one of the first to observe this relationship and suggests that cells in the brain might be particularly susceptible. “The idea here is that the virus is leveraging or using the host glycans, or the host sugars,…
Infections peak in January to June – a pattern that could help the health-care system plan
Researchers have identified a clear-cut seasonal pattern of respiratory viruses that could help hospitals plan for waves of sick patients. Bouts of respiratory illness from six viruses that were analyzed all peak in January and hit a low in June, with the peaks worse every second year, according to lead researcher Michael Hawkes, a pediatrics…