Researchers Under the Scope

Rupeena Purewal (MD) says when the coronavirus infects children, their bodies react differently than those of adults. She's leading the only Saskatchewan-based clinical trials of human convalescent plasma on children sick enough to be admitted to hospital.

So far, there aren't many children with Covid-19 in hospital, but with the cold weather come higher infection rates, and the risk of other serious respiratory infections.

And, as she learns more about the coronavirus' asymptomatic spread, Dr. Purewal warns parents they cannot afford to keep skipping routine vaccinations or check-ups for their kids.

After raising five children of his own, Ron Siemens (MD) brings an empathetic, pragmatic approach to pediatrics. Whether it's in Saskatoon or in Mozambique, his goal is to make life better for infants, children and their families.

"You see all the obstacles parents have," said Siemens.

From road-testing motorcycle trailers for expectant mothers in Mozambique to creating self-sustaining chicken farms, Siemens explains what fuels his passion for healthy families and communities.

The way people perceive threats in a pandemic affects the spread of Covid-19, according to social epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine (PhD).

Since he was a boy, he's studied the way government interventions really work, from the perspective of citizens who have to live with them.

In this episode, Muhajarine explains why he left medical school for a career in public health research, why politicians' words and actions can change infection rates, and why he strives to treat every person he meets in his research with dignity.

Sarah Donkers is a physiotherapist and specialist in neurology who had to rethink everything when the Covid-19 lockdown slammed doors shut this spring.

Donkers couldn't stop thinking about her patients, and the care they were now missing.

As she tells host Jen Quesnel, her team went on to design online movement and expert masterclasses for more than 800 Saskatchewan people with MS, with spinal cord injuries, and with Parkinson's disease.

"It was two-way learning," Donkers said, as she documented the effect of the advice and emotional connections her patients made with each other during the neurological and physical rehabiliation program.

After ten weeks, most patients urged her team to continue the twice-weekly sessions. "It was really rewarding."

They're two millionths of a metre, and they can be found outside, as well as on your skin, even inside your nose, throat, and gut.

The World Health Organization calls Klebsiella pneumoniae a major concern, because this tiny bacteria can cause deadly infections.

Molecular microbiologist Jenny-Lee Thomassin recently arrived at the University of Saskatchewan to study one of the most drug-resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

"Bacteria are constantly changing," said Thomassin. "What seems to be emerging in some places are crosses between classic and hypervirulent strains, where antibiotic-resistant bacterium can make a healthy person sick."

Hear why she likens her work to fixing a car engine blindfolded.

They look like ordinary black mice with pink whiskers -- and small furry water-wings. To test coronavirus therapies, viral immunologist Kerry Lavender is using a grant of $267,500 to create designer laboratory mice. She's one of the only people in the world who can give each mouse a human immune system, and its own pair of human lungs.

After winning grants of just over $240,000, Dr. Cory Neudorf is sharpening the blurry picture Canadians currently have of public health spending during the Covid-19 pandemic. He calls this an "unprecedented" crisis for both the medical system and politicians, one that lays bare cracks and divisions across Canadian society.

Joyce Wilson leads the team of virologists and geneticists searching for antiviral drugs we can repurpose to stop COVID-19 infections from spreading.

Using a $449,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Wilson and her team use genomic tools to identify pathways the virus uses as it hijacks cells in the human body. As she tells host Jen Quesnel, from there her team will narrow down antiviral therapeutics that slow or inhibit COVID-19 infections.

At first, Darryl Falzarano was unenthusiastic about COVID-19. He had hoped it would be contained early on. But... it wasn't. And now Falzarano's work days are dedicated to COVID-19 as he leads a research team at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre. Chelsea Laskowski interviews Falzarano about his mental pivot, and what happens in the next few months.

While the world has been in what can sometimes feel like chaos, a few people out there are bringing order into our lives. Dr. Gary Groot is bringing order into healthcare, and he's adapting as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves in the prairie province of Saskatchewan. Interviewer Chelsea Laskowski speaks with Groot about measuring what's happening, what needs to happen, and the level of pressure he faces to get it right.