Two McMaster research teams have received catalyst grants worth a total of $300,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study H5N1 avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu.

The funding, announced recently by Health Minister Mark Holland, is part of a $5.2 million federal investment in H5N1 preparedness.

The announcement comes soon after the discovery of Canada’s first domestically acquired case of H5N1 in humans.

Yingfu Li, a professor in the department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, is leading a team developing rapid antigen tests designed to detect H5N1.

The new tests will allow people to easily detect infection themselves, using a simple device, Li says, much like glucose meters or pregnancy tests.

“Developing and evaluating rapid influenza diagnostics will allow for self-testing at work or at home,” he says.

“This can eliminate the need for patients to visit an external testing location, thus reducing their exposure to the community.”

Li’s team, which includes McMaster researchers Matthew Miller from the department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and Leyla Soleymani, from the department of Engineering Physics, has received nearly $150,000 from CIHR to develop the new tests.

Li and Soleymani are members of McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR).

Miller, who is scientific director of the research institute, also leads another CIHR-funded H5N1 study that received $150,000.

His group is exploring bird flu exposure and immunity in Canadian Hutterites, a high-risk population whose prairie-based communities overlap with one of the largest migratory flyways in North America.

In collaboration with McMaster professor and IIDR member Mark Loeb and colleagues from the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, Miller’s group will examine samples collected from Hutterite communities to determine whether they have already been exposed to H5N1.

“H5N1 transmission has been widespread on cattle and poultry farms in recent months, and because Hutterites subsist largely on farming, they are disproportionately vulnerable to potential exposure,” explains Miller.

“This research will generate critical data that will inform risk assessments for communities across Canada.”

The research team will also investigate the underlying immune responses to H5N1 in individuals across the age spectrum to understand which age groups have a higher risk of infection.

This two-pronged research approach will address important knowledge gaps and inform critical intervention strategies that can help prevent further spillover to humans, says Miller, who is also the executive director of McMaster’s Global Nexus.