A University of Guelph professor will take part in an event on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill Wednesday designed to highlight the impact of university research and innovation.
Shayan Sharif, a professor in the Department of Pathobiology, is among a group of Ontario researchers selected for a “Research Matters Pop-Up.”
Research Matters is a provincial awareness-building campaign sponsored by the Council of Ontario Universities. The pop-up event is designed to connect MPs and government officials with Ontario university researchers, students and industry. Kate Young, parliamentary secretary for science, will speak at the event on behalf of Kirsty Duncan, minister of science.
The researchers will discuss economic and societal effects of their work. Sharif’s display is titled “Can We Raise Farm Animals Without Antibiotics?”
A professor of poultry immunology in the Ontario Veterinary College, Sharif studies how chickens’ immune system responds to viral pathogens.
He aims to control poultry microbes that can cause human disease and that cost the poultry industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In particular, Sharif has developed more effective vaccines for avian influenza virus.
He leads U of G’s Poultry Health Research Network of researchers and health specialists studying basic biology, environmental concerns, and poultry disease, production and welfare.