{"id":70947,"date":"2020-11-09T08:54:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T13:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=70947"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:27","slug":"carleton-faculty-receive-cfi-funding-for-infrastructure-to-research-molecular-biology-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2020\/carleton-faculty-receive-cfi-funding-for-infrastructure-to-research-molecular-biology-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Faculty Receive CFI Funding for Infrastructure to Research Molecular Biology of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Carleton Faculty Receive CFI Funding for Infrastructure to Research Molecular Biology of COVID-19\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Carleton University\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/alex-wong\/\">Alex Wong<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/kyle-biggar\/\">Kyle Biggar<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/healthsciences\/people\/edana-cassol\/\">Edana Cassol<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/ashkan-golshani\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ashkan Golshani<\/a>, have received $250,000 from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovation.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canada Foundation for Innovation\u2019s<\/a> (CFI) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovation.ca\/awards\/exceptional-opportunities-fund\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Exceptional Opportunities Fund<\/a> (EOF). The funds will provide needed equipment to bolster six ongoing research projects to fight COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCarleton University would like to thank the Canada Foundation for Innovation for their foresight and commitment to funding this exceptional and important research\u201d, said Rafik Goubran, vice-president (Research and International). \u201cThe fight against COVID-19 is unprecedented and our researchers at Carleton University have pivoted admirably to join the battle. This funding will ensure that six of our ongoing COVID-19 research projects have the tools they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced close to $28 million in research infrastructure support through the CFI. The funding, which covers the urgent need for equipment for ongoing research related to COVID-19, will support 79 projects at 52 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovation.ca\/awards\/exceptional-opportunities-fund-covid-19-colleges-polytechnics-and-cegeps\">universities and research hospitals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.innovation.ca\/awards\/exceptional-opportunities-fund-covid-19-colleges-polytechnics-and-cegeps\">colleges, polytechnics and C\u00e9geps<\/a> across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EOF is designed for instances when an exceptional research opportunity would be missed if a project had to wait to undergo a national competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This important funding will support six Carleton projects related to COVID-19 by providing crucial tools for research on the molecular biology of the virus. Each of the projects uses molecular biology to address one or more components of Canada\u2019s COVID-19 Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The projects focus on prevention, through decontamination and surveillance, and treatment, through development of novel therapeutics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the requested infrastructure, this work will generate significant benefits with the potential to enhance Canadians\u2019 health and the health-care system by protecting front-line workers, assessing hospitals for environmental contamination, developing novel therapies and vaccine adjuvants, and assessing the impact of secondary infections on COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEconomic benefits to Canada will accrue from decreased disease treatment costs, as well as reducing the impact on the country&#8217;s economy by controlling the pandemic&#8217;s spread and reducing shutdowns,\u201d says Wong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are incredibly grateful to receive this funding that seeks to improve the health of Canadians and contribute to Canada\u2019s ongoing fight against COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This CFI funding will employ and train at least six students and highly qualified personnel, and&nbsp; create opportunities for collaboration with eight private and public partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Media Contact<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brenna Mackay<br>\nCommunications Co-ordinator<br>\nCarleton University<br>\n<a href=\"mailto:brenna.mackay@carleton.ca\">brenna.mackay@carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom\">www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom<\/a><br>\nCOVID 19 Updates:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/\">https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carleton University\u2019s&nbsp;Alex Wong, Kyle Biggar, Edana Cassol and Ashkan Golshani, have received $250,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation\u2019s (CFI) Exceptional Opportunities Fund (EOF). The funds will provide needed equipment to bolster six ongoing research projects to fight COVID-19. \u201cCarleton University would like to thank the Canada Foundation for Innovation for their foresight and commitment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":70948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,175,162],"class_list":["post-70947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-releases","tag-awards","tag-biology","tag-health-sciences"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70950,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70947\/revisions\/70950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}