Being prepared for the next evolution of the COVID pandemic or another global health crisis has never been more important. How can we be ready for new variants or biological threats? How can we find more effective ways to deliver vaccines?

For starters, it requires a solid foundation of world-class infectious disease research, expertise and infrastructure; a robust hospital system with clinical trial management; and the trust and confidence of governments, academic, industry and international partners.

It requires an ecosystem of pandemic preparedness.

Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats is that ecosystem.

Based at McMaster, Canada’s Global Nexus brings together experts and partners from academia, government and industry – across sectors, disciplines and borders – to develop solutions to protect communities and mitigate looming health threats.

And because of that ecosystem, our researchers were able to start clinical trials of two groundbreaking, inhaled, second-generation vaccines, with long-lasting protection against the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern.

The McMaster COVID vaccine – one of only a few developed in the country – is a huge development in the global race to fight the pandemic, and yet another proof of concept for Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats.

It’s a remarkable achievement and one of many by researchers at Canada’s Global Nexus, several of whom have been called upon to advise provincial and federal governments. They’re lending their expertise in all areas: from medical and health related issues to the collateral social, economic and political ramifications of this pandemic. Our researchers are leading the way with made-in-Canada solutions.

Here’s a recap of just some McMaster milestones:

• Millions of people worldwide owe their health and lives to McMaster molecular virologist Frank Graham’s game-changing research on viral vectors. Indeed, his work on the Ad5 vector forms the platform for some of the COVID-19 vaccines people are receiving today.

• Shortly after the pandemic began our leading virologists were a part of the country’s first team to isolate the agent responsible for COVID-19 from Canadian patients. Their discovery of this critical resource was shared with researchers across the country, paving the way for the development of vaccines and treatments.

• Experts in the McMaster Platelet Immunology Lab were called upon to combat vaccine-induced blood clots; rapidly identifying, diagnosing and treating the condition and saving the lives of Canadians and citizens around the world.

• Researchers in the McMaster Health Forum quickly established the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END) – bringing together more than 50 of the world’s leading teams to synthesize evidence, assess technologies and develop guidelines – to ensure decision-makers have ready-access to evidence to inform their policies.

• When panic set in over the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare and frontline workers, McMaster engineers, together with clinicians from our host hospitals, and our industry partners, created the Centre of Excellence for Protective Equipment and Materials – Canada’s first research hub dedicated to developing, testing and validating PPE.

• Canada’s Global Nexus researchers are working with diverse immigrant and Indigenous communities to better understand their immune responses and to increase vaccine confidence.

• As part of a multi-sector effort, our researchers are leading one of Canada’s largest long-term care studies designed to protect our older population from COVID-19 and its impact on their physical, mental and social health.

• To help small businesses and not-for-profits recover and build resilience, McMaster-led research is examining how both sectors are navigating the pandemic and its eventual aftermath.

Our work is already having tremendous impact, yet there’s so much more to do. I’m certain, with future investments from government and increased collaborations, we’ll reach our full potential.

While COVID-19 is the first pandemic of our lifetimes, we expect it won’t be the last. But we can be confident – thanks to the experts at Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats – that we will be much better prepared for the next.