Emerging Bacterial Pathogens

Chief: Dr. Jody D. Berry

This program  delivers highly specialized technological research and diagnostic support activities in the areas of immunology, bacteriology, typing, and identification of bacterial agents. The mandate of the division is to support diagnostic detection activities for emerging bacterial pathogens originating naturally or from bioterrorism. Section heads run independent research programs that may be linked through common goals.

The Emerging Bacterial Pathogens Division has five sections:

• Monoclonal Antibody Section (Immunoreagent Development)
• Bioforensic Development Section
• Special Bacteriology Section
• Emerging Pathogens Research Team
• PulseNet Canada Section

Monoclonal Antibody 

Head: Dr. Jody Berry

This program is the most advanced of its kind in Canada and provides Immuno-reagent development support to other agencies and laboratories nationally and internationally, as well as to other programs within the NML. Immuno-reagents developed in this section are used to support multiple programs and are streamed into assay development as well as the Bioforensics Development Section.

The monoclonal antibody section was the first to develop neutralizing monoclonal antibody to the SARS coronavirus in July of 2003 and holds several patents on these technologies. This capacity is critical to Canada’s ability to prepare, prevent, respond, and recover from outbreaks whether naturally caused or intentionally caused.

This internationally renowned capacity is now being targeted toward public health threats of importance to Canadians, such as HIV-1, other STD pathogens, and Enterobacteria.

Hollow fibre scaleup, high throughput screening systems (ABI 8200) and recombinant antibody technology collectively support classical monoclonal antibody development by hybridoma fusions. Novel monoclonal antibodies antagonistic to many infectious targets, including the SARS-CoV, Nipah virus, Anthrax toxins, N. meningitidis, and HIV-1 virus are among those developed by this team.

Bioforensic Development 

Head: Dr. Jody Berry

This program has been developing novel ways to identify microorganisms and their products based upon immunological, proteomic, and nucleic acid based detection methodologies. Our priorities include the evaluation, implementation, and development of “forward-looking” technologies.

Special Bacteriology 

Head: Ms. Kathy Bernard

The main focus is the development of technologies for the rapid identification of atypical bacterium. An example of the activities of the Special Bacteriology Section is the analysis of the anthrax scare powder letters which appeared in Canada following the USA anthrax letter attacks in 2001 and the Asian Tsunami recovery in 2005. The team has the capacity to provide surge capacity for preparedness and response to natural or intentional disasters.

This section has been in continuous existence for 35 years and has been delivering national and international reference services and research into a wide variety of bacteria considered rare, difficult to identity, novel human pathogens, or not previously linked to human disease.

These efforts have resulted in descriptions of genera and/or species nova, novel observations amending descriptions of existing taxa, establishing linkages of bacteria previously thought to be ‘non-pathogenic’ to human disease, and invitations to write reviews of these subjects. As a result, K. Bernard has been acknowledged internationally with the naming of Arcanobacterium bernardiae in her honour.

Leadership in the area of the bacterial systematics of these rare or unusual pathogens has resulted in a high demand for consultation at international fora, such as the American Society for Microbiology annual general meeting, and requests to give lectures or workshops on these topics, to serve on international subcommittees for bacterial systematics, or to represent Canada at international meetings where these pathogens or diseases caused by these bacteria are discussed. This work has resulted in reviews of national response guidelines for diphtherial-type disease.

Study of rare pathogens resulted in the Special Bacteriology staff taking responsibility for creating and then providing laboratory response towards bacterial agents of bioterrorism, beginning in 1999. These duties included providing advice at consensus meetings to create a national laboratory response plan, assisting with Manitoba provincial and Winnipeg city planning, providing federal reference centre type response at the NML, and establishing linkages for cross border response with the United States by joining the US Laboratory Response Network. 

Emerging Pathogens

Team Leader: Dr. Cindi Corbett

Illness due to microbial pathogens is often attributed to a few well-characterized pathogens (such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 causing ‘Hamburger disease’) even though the number of microbial human pathogens is very great. The bias towards particular well-known bacterial species as the causative factor in a particular illness results from limitations in microbial culturing techniques and traditional nucleic acid detection technologies, both of which can currently identify only a small proportion of the microbial population.

The aim of the Emerging Pathogens program is to develop nucleic acid and proteomic markers and reagents for the detection and characterization of critical pathogens and to adapt these technologies in order to make them effective for all established or emerging bacterial pathogens in Canada.

To achieve this, the program undertakes comparative genomic hybridizations and phylogenetic analyses to identify unique polymorphic and conserved genes between different bacterial species. This is followed by DNA sequence data at these loci from a range of clinical isolates and subsequently perform comparative sequence analyses for the development of reagents capable of rapid detection and subtyping of uncharacterized, but critical human pathogens.

Implementation of our molecular and proteomic reagents is through real-time PCR (LUX/5’ Nuclease) liquid microsphere suspension arrays, multi-locus sequence typing, multi-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis, monoclonal antibody, and mass spectrometer technologies.

One area of focus is the study of human-adapted Salmonella enterica serovars, food-borne Salmonella enterica serovars, which are ill-characterized but consistently rank amongst the highest in human disease incidence, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, pathogenic Vibrio spp. and sexually-transmitted Neisseria gonorrhoeae. These projects are being completed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research (ICDDR, Bangladesh), the Alberta Provinical Laboratory for Public Health, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), and the Manitoba Cadham Provincial Laboratory.

PulseNet Canada

Head: Dr. Celine Nadon

PulseNet Canada is responsible for coordinating communication and programs for the larger PulseNet Canada group, which is made up of the National Microbiology Laboratory (Winnipeg), the Laboratory for Food borne Zoonoses (Guelph), the Bureau of Microbiology laboratories (Ottawa) and provincial Public Health Laboratories. Isolates are typed using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis at any of these laboratories, and both raw results (TIFF files) and analyzed gel images with associated epidemiological information (Bundle files) are deposited in a comprehensive continuous database housed in a secure site in the NML. This national database is curated to ensure data quality by PulseNet Canada staff within the Emerging Pathogens section.

The staff assigns all new PFGE pattern numbers and implements quality assurance on patterns from other laboratories. The database is web-based and accessible to PulseNet partner laboratories via the internet though the use of valid passwords and software-specific hardware. The ability to access the database at any time brings the PulseNet molecular surveillance program close to real-time.

In addition to managing day-to-day operations and communication within PulseNet Canada, this section conducts training and proficiency exercises, maintains communication with PulseNet U.S., PulseNet Europe, and federal epidemiologists, and collects bacterial isolates to use for database validation.

Pulsenet Canada