Session ten

The CFIA has an ongoing commitment towards the development of new or modified methods and techniques to improve the agency’s ability to analyze foods in a shorter period of time, to detect even lower numbers of bacteria which may be present in a food sample, and/or to provide more informative assessments regarding the identity of the bacteria present in a sample. The increasing availability of faster methods employing DNA based technologies has provided CFIA with the tools necessary to produce faster results. The Blais laboratory has led the way in the development and validation of DNA-based food microbiology methods meeting Canadian federal food inspection needs. A notable achievement was the early adoption of DNA-based methodology for the definitive identification of food-borne pathogenic bacteria in regulatory food safety in Canada. The methods developed by Dr. Blais quickly confirm the presence of E. coli O157 (as well as other non-O157 verotoxigenic Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC), Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. Burton’s present focus on the integration of next generation genomics technology in food inspection is leading to new approaches for food pathogen analysis currently being implemented at CFIA, and has placed Canadian regulatory food microbiology testing labs on the leading edge of providing rapid and highly informative test results supporting food safety investigations. Burton is currently leading a team of international partners in a Global Coalition for Regulatory Science Research initiative to establish international standards for the analysis and reporting of next generation sequencing data in food safety regulatory applications. read more... read less

The development of microscopy has enabled the first observations of microorganisms that catalysed the beginnings of microbiology centuries ago. This has drawn a striking parallel with the recent advancements in high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies that have transformed the field of microbial genomics. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) enables the detailed genomic characterisation of microbes at a high resolution, offering unparallel sensitivity and specificity for phylogeny resolution. This has profound implications and extensive applications for microbiological testing in diagnostics, biosurveillance and outbreak investigations. While compelling, WGS comes with its set of limitations. For instance, the laborious and time-consuming process of isolation for the different individual microbial isolates remains a requirement for the WGS workflow. My research interests and efforts endeavour to further develop and leverage on the potential of metagenomics to address this gap. In this presentation, I will provide a brief introduction on metagenomics, its utilities and challenges. Specifically, I will also give an overview of my recent work on the application of metagenomics for surveying and characterising microbes, plasmids and phages. Finally, I will share some of the ongoing work to develop and apply real-time nanopore sequencing analytics for rapid diagnostics of foodborne pathogens in complex food matrices. The main objective of the presentation is to highlight the potential of metagenomics as the next transformational technology for supporting biosurveillance and outbreak investigations. read more... read less

Nanotechnology strategies offer to improve agriculture performance at lesser treatment cost while increasing the yield potential of food crops and reducing carbon footprints. New consideration of application of nanotechnology in agriculture necessitates defining regulatory aspects of the nano-based products for agriculture and food. Therefore, guidelines for evaluation and regulation of NanoAgri inputs and food products in India and across the world are highly desired. In India, there are different Government Agencies and different provisions that regulate different agri-inputs and food products; however, no specific provisions for nano-variants are available.
India is forging ahead at the global level and has developed comprehensive and inclusive guidelines with the intent to support appropriate regulation landscape for nano-agri products in India. These guidelines will empower the researchers, innovators and regulators in agriculture and food industry to achieve a greater social and economic impact. The present guidelines are developed to support the existing national regulatory provisions with specific requirements and adaptations for Nano-agri-inputs and nano-agri food products of Central insecticide board and registration Committee (CIB&RC), Food control order (FCO), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD). These guidelines are also harmonized with the applicable provisions for NAIPs and NAPs as per the international guidelines of REACH, OECD, US EPA, TSCA, APVMA, FAO/ WHO, US FDA, EFSA, FSANZ and Codex; and the principles of ICH. read more... read less

Emerging infectious diseases have been an ever-present threat to public health, and COVID-19 is a recent example. There is an urgent need to develop a robust framework to come back to the disease with safe and effective therapeutic options. The interplay between immune and mitochondria plays an essential role in COVID-19 etiology. Here, we proposed a modified DeepFake model framework to unravel the immune and mitochondria continuums for precision medicine-based drug repurposing in COVID-19. Specifically, we integrated over 3 million multi-omics data points associated with immune, mitochondria, and drug transcriptomic responses for the model development. Consequently, we obtained a list of 21 immune and mitochondria continuums. The functional analysis demonstrated the 21 immune and mitochondria continuums highly associated with the severity and pre-existing conditions of COVID-19 patients. We further map the FDA-approved drugs and investigated compounds onto the obtained immune and mitochondria continuums, enriching a list of repurposing candidates for the COVID-19 patients with different manifestations. Altogether, the proposed DeepFake model could effectively uncover the interplay between immune and mitochondria systems and pave a new way for precision medicine-based drug repurposing against COVID-19. read more... read less

The Universal Immune System Simulator (UISS) is a simulation framework to model the immune system. It integrates simulation engines, optimization techniques and other prediction models. UISS is then capable to reproduce general immune system behavior connected to several immune system responses (to viruses, bacteria, tumors and autoimmune disease) and drug-induced immune system responses. The UISS model is used in several funded projects to model knowledge on immunological aspects of different pathologies and support in silico trials, with a special attention on those regulatory aspects that are still not addressed. Immunotoxicity risk assessment of chemicals is an evaluation of the potential for unintended effects of chemical exposure on the immune system. These effects manifest as following principal types of immunotoxicity: immunosuppression involving infection and carcinogenesis, immunoaccentuation involving sensitisation and autoimmunity, or immunostimulation. This immune dysregulation may lead to a variety of illnesses. Included among them are illnesses that are associated with a dysfunctional immune system, such as infections, inflammatory diseases, allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases. For example, exposure to chemicals is associated with immunosuppression manifesting the reduction of resistance to infections, development of autoimmune disease and hypersensitivity responding directly as an allergen or enhancing the induction of allergic sensitization. In this context, is interesting to understand the conditions under which a mathematical model developed for one purpose and application (e.g. in the pharmaceutical domain) can be successfully translated and transferred to another (e.g. in the chemicals domain) without undergoing significant adaptation. read more... read less