Accelerating pandemic response through AI: IVADO-supported project by Yves Brun receives major federal grant

Yves Brun, co-leader of the IVADO Research Regroupement on Molecules and Material Discovery, holder of the Canada 150 Research Chair in Bacterial Cell Biology and professor in the Department of Microbiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Université de Montréal, has received $21 million in funding for a research project on the intelligent discovery of new antibiotics powered by artificial intelligence.

Over the past two decades, the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has escalated to the point where it now represents a global emergency. With 5 million deaths in 2019, a heavier toll than that of COVID-19 in 2020-2021, this silent – but very real – menace continues to grow. In Canada, AMR causes 5,400 deaths a year and costs $2 billion, an increasing economic burden.

Faced with “superbugs” resistant to all available treatments, it is crucial to develop new approaches to rapidly discover effective antimicrobials, especially in the absence of significant industrial investment, highlighting the essential role of academic research.

To meet this major challenge, Professor Yves Brun’s research team has been awarded a $21 million grant for its project titled “PandemicStop-AI: for an accelerated response to pandemics” awarded by the Canadian Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund.

For this project, Professor Brun aims to build new bridges between several research disciplines, including artificial intelligence. As such, IVADO – a consortium for research, training, and knowledge mobilization in AI – will support this research project, particularly focusing on machine learning models for data analysis.