More than 2 million Canadians are currently living with a chronic autoimmune disease. These multifactorial diseases arise from a complex and still poorly understood interplay between heredity and environment. There is an urgent need for more precise and effective treatments. The transition of knowledge and methods from research to the clinic is impeded by the following factors:
- Lack of a standardized approach to protocols and methods
- Ethical and logistical limitations of collecting samples from humans
- Lack of sex and gender considerations in experimental design
The Canadian Autoimmunity Standardization Core (CAN-ASC) is a consortium of researchers and clinician scientists who support and facilitate high-quality human immunology research. CAN-ASC team members are experts in the treatment of autoimmunity, research and clinical immunology methodology, considerations of sex and gender and the ethics of translational research.
Lead:
Megan Levings, University of British Columbia
Team:
Jonathan Bramson, McMaster University
Christine Des Rosiers, Université de Montréal
Jan Dutz, University of British Columbia
Elie Haddad, Université de Montréal
Sabine Ivison, University of British Columbia
Jonathan Kimmelman, McGill University (Ethics)
Lesage Sylvie, Université de Montréal
Alexandre Prat, Université de Montréal
John Rioux, Université de Montréal
Stacey Ritz, McMaster University (Sex&Gender)
Stuart Turvey, University of British Columbia
Suzanne Vercauteren, University of British Columbia
Joan Wither, University of Toronto