National Microbiological Lab Visit
(Title: Monday, February 22, 2010 The Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health. Exterior shots of the building, followed by an interior shot of the Clerk of the Privy Council signing in.)
Mobile Laboratory
(Various shots of the Clerk touring the Mobile Laboratory)
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: We have two teams and two set-ups that are ready to go out of Winnipeg on three hours notice, basically anywhere in the world.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Have you done this?
Dr. Gary Kobinger, Head of Special Pathogens: I’ve been deported, quite a few times to Africa.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Ok.
Dr. Gary Kobinger, Head of Special Pathogens: Also South East Asia. This is mainly what we bring when we’re deployed in the field. Everything that is infectious is inside that glove box. (shot of the Clerk using the glove box) Basically what we can do with this is take the genomic information of the virus and bacteria. We have specific probes that can bind the virus, it emits a signal and then we can detect the signal.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Oh, I see.
Operations Centre
(Various shots of the Clerk touring the Operations Centre)
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: So we put this operations centre here., Post SARS, we realized we really needed one as kind of a communications centre of the brain of the organization. All of the labs information systems feed into here, and right now, we’re activated for the Olympics.
Dr. Steven Jones, Head of Immunopathology (speaking by videoconference on a large screen): We have 28 employees from NML providing laboratory support. We were, we are actually looking routinely for 18 different types of virus or bacteria agents(?) in the environment or in suspicious powders or any toxic device that we may get.
(The tour continues down a hallway, where the Clerk meets a group of students in lab coats)
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Hi Hello, how’s everyone?
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: Here are some of our students
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: How are you? Where are you going to school?
Students: U of M (University of Manitoba)
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: All U of M students?
Students: Yeah.
Respiratory Virus Laboratory
(Dr. Plummer and the Clerk are now wearing lab coats and tour the Respiratory Virus Laboratory; they meet some employees and there are shots of others working)
Dr. Yan Li, Head of Respiratory Viruses
Dr. Natalie Bastien, Research Scientist - Respiratory Viruses
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: Yan is the head of our respiratory section. Natalie is a research scientist in his group. They are the ones that ran the H1N1 response and testing.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: OK
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: They ran the SARS response in 2003
Ms. Mary Chaput, Associate Deputy Minister: Wow
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: They work hard.
Ms. Mary Chaput, Associate Deputy Minister: Lots of experience
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Are you the ones identifying the virus then each year for the flu vaccine?
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: They contribute to it. We’re part of a global surveillance system so viruses that we find get submitted to the CDC and that contributes to the decision as to what goes into the vaccine
Ms. Mary Chaput, Associate Deputy Minister: Yeah
Containment Level 4
(The Clerk, accompanied by a group, meets a woman wearing a large, bulky containment suit)
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: This is Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council, this is Mary Chaput, Associate Deputy Minister.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: How are you?
Dr. Gary Kobinger, Head of Special Pathogens: She cannot hear you.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Oh she can’t hear? There…
(cut to the same scene, a few moments later, as adjustments are being made to the containment suit)
Dr. Gary Kobinger, Head of Special Pathogens: …not for too long..
Woman in containment suit: Now I can hear you.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: (laughing) Got a break.
(Various shots of employees, all in containment suits, working in their lab)
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: That’s where we store all the bad viruses. We do a lot of work on Ebola and Marburg and Lassa fever. Also work on Nippa, we’ve developed vaccines for Ebola…
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: Which is the worst?
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: Ebola and Marburg are pretty bad probably about 75 – 80% mortality; they’re…
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: 80%
Dr. Frank Plummer, Scientific Director General: Yeah, they’re related viruses.
Genomics Laboratory
(Various shots of equipment used in the genomic laboratory and the Clerk being told about their work)
Mr. Shaun Tyler, Head, DNA Core Facility and International Depository Authority: So, a lot of the assays that get done are done in a format something like this.
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: So, you’re testing that many at a time?
Mr. Shaun Tyler, Head, DNA Core Facility and International Depository Authority: Yeah, yeah
Dr. Michael Drebot, Director, Science Technology and Core Services: Shaun’s program actually was the first to do the full-length sequencing of the H1N1 virus. We were able to do it in just a week or two with him doing all the sample preparation and developing new procedures.
Board room
(Shot of Clerk seated with others at board room table)
Mr. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council: So, it’s great to have these kind of facilities.
(Public Health Agency of Canada departmental signature, followed by Canada wordmark, followed by Copyright symbol, Her Majesty, the Queen in Right of Canada as represented by the Public Health Agency of Canada, 2010)