National Microbiology Lab - Described video

Transcript

Transcript - National Microbiology Lab

I'm Dr. Matthew Gilmour, Scientific Director General of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory part of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

So, we are Canada's only level 4 lab. And what does that mean? It means we are able to safely test and respond to the world's most dangerous infectious diseases, including the Ebola virus, toxigenic e-coli and also highly pathogenic influenzas.

So, I want you to come inside and see the lab and see how we help Canadians and how we help the global community.

Canada 150 is about pride.

Across Canada, we can be proud of the important accomplishments that Canada has made in the fight against infectious diseases.

The NML is a model of excellence, through our labs, our people, and the way we lead others through very challenging public health threats such as SARS, H1N1, and most recently Zika virus.

We are disease detectives.

Through scientific research and collaboration, we provide answers in the face of outbreaks. Our job is to protect the health of Canadians and others in the global community.

Only a few labs around the world can safely handle the most deadly of infectious diseases and we are one of them.

We are world leaders.

In fact, it's here in the NML where we developed both a treatment and a vaccine for Ebola.

We are ready to respond to any public health threat. Thanks to our mobile lab, we are able to take our lab outside of the building's walls.

At a moment's notice we can take action to respond to a biosecurity threat, or an international outbreak.

For example, in 2014 we deployed a mobile lab to West Africa to respond to the deadly Ebola outbreak there.

We are innovators driving the creation of new knowledge and technologies that are improving the public health system.

Canada is pioneering the next generation of medical research.

We are transforming laboratory approaches. We are moving away from what we used to call "wet labs" where we'd use petri dishes and microscopes towards "dry labs" where we're using genomics and advanced computing to study microbes at the genetic level. This means we are able to address outbreaks with greater speed, accuracy, and confidence.

I'm so optimistic about the future. We have done so much since the lab first opened in 1999, and I want us to continue to keep discovering and I want us to continue to keep helping to protect the health of Canadians.

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