Governance
The Canadian COVID Genomics Network (CanCOGeN) is a Genome-Canada led consortium of Canadian federal, provincial and regional public health authorities and their healthcare partners, academia, industry, hospitals, research institutes and large-scale sequencing centres.
The Network has convened to perform large-scale genome sequencing and analysis of Canadian SARS-CoV-2 genomes and host genomes to understand, track, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, both nationally and internationally.
Genome Canada gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada, whose funding supports our mission and is the lead investment in all our research projects, and who provided a funding infusion of $40 million in April 2020 specifically for CanCOGeN.
The following table outlines the robust governance structure currently in place for CanCOGeN. Click on a committee to learn more about it and to see its membership.
Genome Canada and six regional Centres
Genome Canada has ultimate responsibility for the stewardship of CanCOGeN, ensuring the initiative achieves its objectives and milestones. Working with the six regional Genome Centres, Genome Canada ensures that CanCOGeN complies with the terms of the agreement with the federal government and provides information and data which will allow for the on-going assessment of progress, including performance metrics data, as well as financial reports which will form the basis for advancing funds to CanCOGeN. Catalina Lopez-Correa, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Genome Canada, leads the CanCOGeN initiative.
Steering Committee
The CanCOGeN Steering Committee is responsible for the overall management of CanCOGeN and coordination of activities, within and between the viral (VirusSeq) and host (HostSeq) projects, as well as alignment between this and other external initiatives.
- Lorne Hepworth, Former President and CEO of CropLife Canada (Chair)
- Kenneth Baillie, Consultant and Senior Clinical Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
- Bettina Hamelin, President and CEO of Ontario Genomics
- Rob Annan, President and CEO, Genome Canada
- Ewan Harrison, Cambridge Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
- Duncan MacCannell, CDC SPHERES, Chief Science Officer, Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Chris McMaster, Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Genetics
- Allison McGeer, Infectious Disease Consultant, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto
- Eric Meslin, President and CEO, Council of Canadian Academies
- Howard Njoo, Deputy Chief Health Officer, PHAC, and Adjunct Faculty Member, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa
- Joris Veltman, Dean, Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University
Coordinating Committee
The CanCOGeN Coordinating Committee works across the two Implementation Committees to coordinate genomics and metadata management and sharing. The Committee will also interface with other national and international data efforts.
Membership of the Coordinating Committee is flexible and subject to change on occasion.
- Catalina Lopez-Correa, Chief Scientific Officer, Genome Canada (Chair)
- Naveed Aziz, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Scientific Officer, CGEn
- Fiona Brinkman, Distinguished Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Associate Professor, School of Computing Science, and Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- William Hsiao, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University
- Yann Joly, Research Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy; Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics and Bioethics Unit, McGill University
- Steven Jones, Professor, Associate Director and Head of Bioinformatics, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency; Professor of Medical Genetics, The University of British Columbia; and Professor, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University
- Sandrine Moreira, Head of Genomics and Bioinformatics, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
- Samira Mubareka, Infectious Diseases Physician & Virologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre & Research Institute
- Natalie Prystajecky, Environmental Microbiology program at the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory, and Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, The University of British Columbia
- Terrance Snutch, Professor, Michael Smiths Laboratories, The University of British Columbia
- Lisa Strug, Senior Scientist, Genetics and Genome Biology Program, SickKids; Associate Director, Centre for Applied Genomics; and Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
- Gary Van Domselaar, Chief, Bioinformatics, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada
- Ma’an Zawati, Assistant Professor, Executive Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University
CanCOGeN VirusSeq IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE
The CanCOGeN VirusSeq Implementation Committee provides key management for the VirusSeq project, ensuring the efficient, effective, ethical and equitable implementation of each project across the country, and reports to the Steering Committee through its Chair.
- Terrance Snutch, Professor, Michael Smiths Laboratories, The University of British Columbia (Chair)
- Fiona Brinkman, Distinguished Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Associate Professor, School of Computing Science, and Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Marceline Côté, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa
- William Hsiao, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University
- Yann Joly, Research Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy; Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics and Bioethics Unit, McGill University
- Sharmistha Mishra, Clinician Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and Division of Infectious Disease, St. Michael’s Hospital
- Sandrine Moreira, Head of Genomics and Bioinformatics, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
- Samira Mubareka, Infectious Diseases Physician & Virologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre & Research Institute
- Jared Simpson, Principal Investigator, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
- Megan Smallwood, Program Manager, Genome Canada
- Gary Van Domselaar, Chief, Bioinformatics, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada
CanCOGeN HostSeq IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE
The CanCOGeN HostSeq Implementation Committee provides key management for the HostSeq project, ensuring the efficient, effective, ethical and equitable implementation of each project across the country, and reports to the Steering Committee through its Chair.
- Naveed Aziz, Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Scientific Officer, CGEn (Chair)
- Steven Jones, Head, Bioinformatics, BC Cancer Agency (Chair, Data Storage & Sharing Sub-committee)
- Bartha Knoppers, Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University
- Mark Lathrop, Canada Research Chair in Medical Genomics, McGill University
- Stephen Scherer, Director, The Centre for Applied Genomics and McLaughlin Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto
- Lisa Strug, Senior Scientist, Genetics & Genome Biology, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Genome Data Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children (Chair, Genetic Epidemiology Sub-committee)
- Stuart Turvey, Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Precision Health, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (Chair, Study Recruitment Sub-committee)
VirusSeq Working Groups
Capacity Building Working Group
A stipulated outcome for CanCOGeN-VirusSeq is to build national capacity to address the expected COVID-19 second wave and future pandemics. The most significant requirement in this regard concerns the 13 provincial and territorial Canadian Public Health Laboratories. It is also recognized that certain hospital sequencing sites will require a small amount of capacity building aimed at addressing the anticipated second COVID-19 wave.
- Gary Van Domselaar, Chief, Bioinformatics, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada (Chair)
- Matthew Croxen
- Natalie Knox
- Celine Nadon
- Jennifer Tanner
Data Analytics Working Group
The genomic sequence data and accompanying metadata generated in this project will be used for genomic surveillance and response to COVID-19, both nationally and within provincial and territorial health jurisdictions. Such activities include sequence analyses for quality assessment/control, tracking of international and interprovincial transmission, lineage assignment, cluster detection, and monitoring for variants that might affect disease severity or transmissibility. In support of these activities, the storage, management, analysis, and sharing of high-quality genome sequence data and accompanying metadata will be coordinated by the National Microbiology Laboratory – Public Health Agency of Canada in conjunction with Provincial Public Health Labs and healthcare partners.
- Gary Van Domselaar (Chair)
- Fiona Brinkman (Co-Chair)
- Zohaib Anwar
- Robert Beiko
- Matieu Bourgey
- Guillaume Bourque
- Ahmed Draia
- Jun Duan
- Marc Fiume
- Dan Fornika
- Eric Fournier
- Erin Gill
- Paul Gordon
- Emma Griffiths
- Jose Hector Galvez Lopez
- Darian Hole
- Will Hsiao
- Jeffrey Joy
- Kimia Kamelian
- Natalie Knox
- Philip Mabon
- Finlay Maguire
- Tom Matthews
- Andrew McArthur
- Samir Mechai
- Sandrine Moreira
- Art Poon
- Amos Raphenya
- Claire Sevenhuysen
- Jared Simpson
- Jennifer Tanner
- Lauren Tindale
- John Tyson
- Geoff Winsor
- Nolan Woods
Ethics and Governance Working Group
CanCOGeN-VirusSeq is committed to rapid, transparent, and equitable data sharing practices that meet Canadian privacy and ethics regulations and standards. We envisage 3 objectives for data sharing: 1) sharing data publicly to empower global pandemic response; 2) sharing data across Canada’s public health system to enable national surveillance; and 3) data sharing with authorized researchers to promote scientific and medical research development. The governance model for data shared under each objective will be carefully constructed to balance between the protection of privacy and scientific advancement.
- Yann Joly (Chair)
- Fiona Brinkman
- Erin Gill
- Will Hsiao
- Hanshi Liu
- Sharmistha Mishra
- Sandrine Moreira
- Gary Van Domselaar
Metadata Working Group
To maximize the impact and usefulness of the sequencing data, it must be combined with epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and other contextual data (“metadata”). In order to better align Canada’s multijurisdictional public health system with national and global efforts, i.e., to incorporate metadata in a consistent and usable format suitable for COVID-19 outbreak investigation and response activities, VirusSeq will also serve the critical function of metadata specification and curation, coordinating activities also with HostSeq.
- William Hsiao (Chair)
- David Alexander
- Zohaib Anwar
- Nathalie Bastien
- Tim Booth
- Guillaume Bourque
- Fiona Brinkman
- Hughes Charest
- Caroline Colijn
- Matthew Croxen
- Guillaume Desnoyers
- Rejean Dion
- Damion Dooley
- Ana Duggan
- Leah Dupasquier
- Kerry Dust
- Nahuel Fittipaldi
- Eleni Galanis
- Emma Garlock
- Greg German
- Erin Gill
- Gurinder Gopal
- Tom Graefenhan
- Morag Graham
- Emma Griffiths
- Linda Hoang
- Naveed Janjua
- Jeffrey Joy
- Kimia Kamelian
- Lev Kearney
- Natalie Knox
- Theodore Kuschak
- Jason LeBlanc
- Yan Li
- Anna Majer
- Adel Malek
- Dionne Marcino
- Ryan McDonald
- David Moore
- Celine Nadon
- Samir Patel
- Natalie Prystajecky
- Anoosha Sehar
- Claire Sevenhuysen
- Garrett Sorensen
- Laura Steven
- Lori Strudwick
- Marsha Taylor
- Shane Thiessen
- Gary Van Domselaar
- Adrian Zetner
Research Collaborations Working Group
To capitalize on cutting edge tool and analytical development in this quickly moving research area, engagement with the wider research community is crucial. Outreach to diverse researchers will strive for cross-country inclusion, reflecting national and/or local projects, and engaging different sectors (academic, industrial research, etc.), as well as international partnerships. Research collaborations are envisaged in areas such as sequencing methods, data analytics, modeling, bioinformatics, data harmonization, data sharing, ethics, etc. that are directly relevant and synergistic with VirusSeq goals.
- Fiona Brinkman (Chair)
- Zohaib Anwar
- Marceline Côté
- Marc Fiume
- Laura Gilbert
- Erin Gill
- Paul Gordon
- Yann Joly
- Sandrine Moreira
- Samira Mubareka
- Natalie Prystajecky
- Jennifer Tanner
- Gary Van Domselaar
- Phot Zahariadis
Sequencing Working Group
A major goal of CanCOGeN-VirusSeq is to employ whole viral genome sequencing in order inform public health decisions by providing information on the spread and evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In order to streamline data generation, analyses and sharing, VirusSeq is committed to wet lab and protocol optimization and methodology development. These protocols and methods will assist us in reaching our goal of sequencing up to 100,000 viral genomes.
- Ioannis Ragoussis (Chair)
- Terrance Snutch (Co-Chair)
- Patryk Aftanas
- Matthew Croxen
- Hooman Derakhshani
- Nahuel Fittipaldi
- Morag Graham
- Andrew McArthur
- Sandrine Moreira
- Samira Mubareka
- Natalie Prystajecky
- Ioannis Ragoussis
- Jared Simpson
- Michael Surette
- John Tyson
HostSeq Sub-Committees
Study Recruitment Sub-Committee
The Study Recruitment Sub-Committee will ensure that samples entering the HostSeq initiative are sourced from a broad network of researchers/clinicians across Canada, working on a range of COVID-19 related research. All efforts are being undertaken to ensure representation from underrepresented and minority including, but not limited to, indigenous and remote populations.
- Stuart Turvey, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (Chair)
- Laura Arbour, The University of British Columbia
- Naveed Aziz, CGEn
- Francois Bernier, University of Calgary
- Catherine Biggs, The University of British Columbia
- Peter Kannu, University of Alberta
- David Kelvin, Dalhousie University
- Brent Richard, McGill University
Data Storage & Sharing Sub-Committee
The Data Storage and Sharing Sub-Committee is developing a comprehensive plan for storing and sharing the HostSeq sequence data along with associated phenotypic data through a CGEn Databank that is accessible to researchers across Canada and linked to other relevant datasets internationally. This sub-committee is tasked to help create an infrastructure that makes storing, sharing, and managing large volumes of genome sequencing and associated meta-data easier.
- Steven Jones, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency; The University of British Columbia; Simon Fraser University (Chair)
- Inanc Birol, The University of British Columbia
- Guillaume Bourque, McGill University
- Lisa Strug, Hospital for Sick Children
- Joe Whitney, Hospital for Sick Children
Data Genetic Epidemiology Sub-Committee
The Genetic Epidemiology Sub-Committee will guide data updates as new information about the disease arises and new confounders are learned, as well as help us with data linkages. Members of this group played an important role in helping define the HostSeq Case Report Form.
- Lisa Strug, SickKids; University of Toronto (Chair)
- Jennifer Brooks, Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute, Ontario
- Shelley Bull, Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute, Ontario
- Lloyd Elliott, Simon Fraser University
- France Gagnon, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
- Celia Greenwood, McGill University
- Rayjean Hung, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
- Jerry Lawless, University of Waterloo
- Andrew Paterson, Hospital for Sick Children
- Lei Sun, University of Toronto
Funding for CanCOGeN is provided through the Government of Canada’s Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
