CBC’s Quirks and Quarks ‘Scientific Sovereignty — How Canadian scientists are coping with U.S. cuts and chaos’ featuring Dr. Bowdish and MD/PhD candidate Kevin Zhao

June 20, 2025

Politically-driven chaos is disrupting U.S. scientific institutions and creating challenges for science in Canada. Science is a global endeavour and collaborations with the U.S. are routine. In this special episode of Quirks & Quarks, we explore what Canadian scientists are doing to preserve their work to assert scientific sovereignty in the face of this unprecedented destabilization. 


Canadian climate scientists brace for cuts to climate science infrastructure and data 
U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on climate science are putting our Earth observing systems, in the oceans and in orbit, at risk. Canadian scientists who rely on U.S. led climate data infrastructure worry about losing long-term data that would affect our ability to understand our changing climate. With: 
Kate Moran, the president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada and Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Victoria 
Debra Wunch, Physicist at the University of Toronto
Chris Fletcher, Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo


U.S. cuts to Great Lakes science and monitoring threaten our shared freshwater resource
U.S. budget and staffing cuts are jeopardizing the long-standing collaboration with our southern neighbour to maintain the health of the Great Lakes, our shared resource and the largest freshwater system in the world. 
With: 
Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa
Greg McClinchey, policy and legislative director with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Michael Wilkie, Biologist at Wilfred Laurier University
Brittney Borowiec, research associate in the Wilkie Lab at Wilfred Laurier University
Aaron Fisk, Ecologist and Canada Research Chair at the University of Windsor


Unexpected ways U.S. culture war policies are affecting Canadian scientists 
One of the first things President Trump did after taking office was to sign an executive order eliminating all DEI policies in the federal government. This is having far-reaching consequences for Canadian scientists as they navigate the new reality of our frequent research partner’s hostility against so-called “woke science.”
With:
Dr. Sofia Ahmed, Clinician scientist, and academic lead for the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta 
Angela Kaida, professor of health sciences and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver
Dawn Bowdish, professor of immunology, the executive director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and Canada Research Chair at McMaster University
Kevin Zhao, MD/PhD student in immunology in the Bowdish Lab at McMaster University
(starting at 36:10)
Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research


Canada has a ‘responsibility’ to step up and assert scientific sovereignty
A 2023 report on how to strengthen our federal research support system could be our roadmap to more robust scientific sovereignty. The Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System made recommendations to the federal government for how we could reform our funding landscape. The intent was to allow us to quickly respond to national research priorities and to make Canada a more enticing research partner in world science. 
With: 
Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of philosophy of science at the Université de Montreal. Chair of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System.

Publication: Minimal Impact of Prior Common Cold Coronavirus Exposure on Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Vaccination or Infection Risk in Older Adults in Congregate Care

Link to publication here.

Link to Bluesky “Skeetorial” here and reproduced below without images:

New paper! “Minimal Impact of Prior Common Cold Coronavirus Exposure on Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Vaccination or Infection Risk in Older Adults in Congregate Care”. For those of you who follow our #COVID work, read on for the story behind the story. 1/n

Remember reports like this one from the beginning of the pandemic? How could some older adults show such resilience to COVID compared to their peers? Some thought that they might have cross reactive immunity due to exposure to the related ‘seasonal’ or ‘common cold’ coronaviruses. 2/n
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/102-year-old-woman-recovers-from-covid-19-1.5567189

After all, our @mcmasteru.bsky.social colleagues, Dr. Mark Loeb & team had shown years earlier that seasonal/common cold coronaviruses caused a lots of infections in long-term care and others had investigated whether these might protect kids from COVID…. 3/n
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108481

….while others have shown that can be very deadly in residents of long-term care (reminding us that words matter and calling them ‘common colds’ minimizes risk – common viruses can still make people very sick, but that is rant for another day). So could pre-existing immunity be protective? 4/n
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(23)00018-1/fulltext

Alternatively, maybe older adults got so sick because a life of exposure to these viruses ‘used up’ all the immune cells that could be used to respond to SARS-CoV-2 or COVID vaccines(i.e. ‘immune imprinting’, a phrase I came to hate along with ‘original antigenic sin’ as it was so misused) 5/n

To find out we tested whether antibody levels for the coronaviruses OC43, HL63, and 229E were higher/lower in people whose first COVID infection was an early Omicron variant and found they were not. Therefore it is unlikely these are either protective or problematic 6/n

What about pre-existing anti-coronavirus T cells? We looked at memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells against the M & N proteins (indicates prev infections) and Spike (vaccine and infections). No evidence that these differed between those who did/did not get an infection (7/n)

What was a correlate of protection? Anti-RBD-IgG & neutralizing antibodies to the ancestral virus (which is all the residents would have been vaccinated to at that point). Unlike others we didn’t find that (serum) IgA was a correlate of protection. 8/n

Pre-existing immunity to common cold coronaviruses didn’t protect against SARS-CoV-2/COVID but might our vaccines and immunity alter immune responses to seasonal coronaviruses? Antibodies to other coronaviruses increased a bit (‘back-boosting’) after COVID infection or vaccination…. 9/n

But I doubt this will have much effect on the prevalence of other coronaviruses who follow a pretty consistent yearly/biennial or big wave/small wave pattern in the Northern hemisphere. We don’t know why but we do know that immunity doesn’t last long so a small boost from COVID infection/vaccination is not likely to make a difference 10/n
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1

Caveats: Only measured peoples first infections in the early Omicron era, only older adults living in LTC and retirement homes, vaccines would have been against the ancestral virus – things might be different in other populations/variants/vaccines. 11/n

Huge shout out to Braeden Cowborough for doing all those titres – that’s a lot of plates – and to Dr Jessica Breznik (former @miramcmaster.bsky.social currently @mcmasternexus.bsky.social PDF) for analytic skills. Thanks to the rest of the COVID-in-LTC team @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social

Post-doctoral position in Human Immunology Available

About the project

              The Bowdish lab has received funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) to study immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccinations in older adults including those living in long-term care. The applicant will use over 10,000 biobanked saliva, PBMCs, and serum from over 500 participants in addition to participant metadata and detailed infection records to;

  1. Uncover novel correlates of protection in older and frail adults, including, but not limited to, ACP, ADCC, and cellular immune responses.
  2. To understand why immune responses are not always protective in older adults and may contribute to subsequent infections.

The successful applicant will have significant leeway to develop an independent research project based on their interests and expertise.  The applicant will work closely with an experienced technician and a graduate student, external collaborators, and will have access to biostatistics expertise.  If interested, there will be opportunities to teach undergraduate courses.

The initial contract will be for one year, with the possibility of extending for more years, depending on productivity. The position is funded, but the applicant will also apply for internal and external funding sources.

About the Bowdish Lab

              The Bowdish Lab is situated at Canada’s most research-intensive university, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. We are a diverse group of undergraduate students, graduate students, technicians and post-doctoral fellows committed to uncovering how the aging immune system changes and understanding why this alters immune responses to vaccination and respiratory infection. For more details on our lab’s philosophy see http://www.bowdish.ca/lab/lab-philosophy/ . We emphasize teamwork, career development, and leadership. Many of our former PDFs have gone on to independent faculty positions in Canada and abroad.

   
Must have;Passion for discovery & evidence of leadership in the form of first-author publications in a relevant field.Team-player with history of collaboration and mentorshipFlow cytometry experienceDeep knowledge of immunity   Nice to have;Experience in human immunology/vaccinologyExperience in antibody quantitation and functional antibody assays (e.g., ADCC, ADP)Experience in intracellular cytokine staining or Experience in science communication with vulnerable populations.

Application process

Please send Dr. Bowdish (bowdish@mcmaster.ca);

  1. A cover letter explaining your interest, skills and career goals and potential start-dates.
  2. A sample of your writing (e.g., first author publication, thesis, other)
  3. C.V.
  4. Names and email addresses of 2 references

Click here for .doc of posting

The Bowdish lab is no longer accepting thesis student applications for the 2025/26 academic year.

Thank you for your interest in our lab. Unfortunately we have received over 200 applications for 2 thesis positions and so we have no stopped accepting applications. Interviews will occur in January and if you have not heard from us, you have not been selected for an interview. This is not a reflection on the quality of your application or your credentials but simply the sheer volume of applications. Dr. Bowdish will not be able to respond to your emails directly. Very best of luck with your search.

Publication: Canadian Immunity Task Force (CITF) Hema-Net Serosurveillance Meeting

Serosurveillance describes using blood samples to determine what percentage of the population has been exposed to a pathogen or has been vaccinated by measuring the presence or absence of antibodies to the pathogen or vaccination. During the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Bowdish and team built a network of long-term care homes to measure vaccine responses and infection rates, but this infrastructure could have been used to measure virtually any infection or any antibody response. The Hema-Net community came together February 14-16 to present data and share experiences using serosurveillance and published this report. Unfortunately, no funds were made available to continue Dr. Bowdish’s or others serosurveillance networks.

See the CITF website here.

See the English report here.

See the French Report here.

“The Perils of Being Born in the Fall” will be at the Zoetic Theatre November, 12, 2024

Missed the first run of ‘The Perils of Being Born in the Fall’ at the 2024 Hamilton Fringe Festival? Fear not, there is a repeat performance as part of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging’s “Sage Conversations” series (and there’s free popcorn, drinks & parking – what’s not to love!)

What’s the show about? Well if you are born in September, Dr. Dawn Bowdish has got bad news for you.
Tour through the wackiness of early 19th century psychiatry, stealth mid-century reproductive rights activism and the climate/pregnancy connection; in the end you’ll learn why cold & flu season has an outsize impact on mental health.
You might laugh, but you’ll definitely learn.
Reserve a spot by clicking here
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sage-conversations-see-a-one-woman-show-featuring-dawn-bowdish-tickets-1016877456847

Also see other events in this series….

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sage-conversations-see-a-one-woman-show-featuring-dawn-bowdish-tickets-1016877456847

Dr. Bowdish speaks at the 2024 Innovation Nation Conference & Student Innovation Showcase

Dr. Bowdish presented “Ageism, infections & vaccinations: Lessons learned from the pandemic” at the 2024 Innovation Nation Conference & Student Innovation Showcase.

Publication: Reassuring humoral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in participants with systemic sclerosis

Benoit JM, Breznik JA, Huynh A, Cowbrough B, Baker B, Heessels L, Lodhi S, Yan E, Bhakta H, Clare R, Nazy I, Bramson JL, Larché MJ, Bowdish DM. Reassuring humoral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in participants with systemic sclerosis. Immunol Lett. 2024 Sep 19;270:106929. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2024.106929. 

Below is a Bluesky thread that summarizes and explains our manuscript. Click here to read it on Bluesky.

New publication alert! “Reassuring humoral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in participants with systemic sclerosis” Read on to learn why we did this study and why it is important. 1/n https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165247824001032?via%3Dihub

https://bsky.app/profile/msmacrophage.bsky.social/post/3l5zdipjxwe2o

Systemic Sclerosis(SSc) is a rare autoimmune disorder that causes fibrosis of the organs. Because it is caused an immune system gone awry, patients and their doctors were concerned that their immune systems might not respond to the vaccine and leave them less protected 2/n

Because SSC is an autoimmune condition, people generally take immunosuppressive drugs, which can also lead to lower vaccine responses and higher risk of infection. We investigated whether antibody or T cell responses to vaccination were affected in SSC. 3/n

Good news! People with SSC made the same amount of antibodies to the receptor binding domain of the Spike protein (i.e, the bit of the virus that the virus uses to get into us) after their second, third, and fourth SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. 4/n

More good news! T cell responses to vaccines are thought to help with severe disease and may offer some cross-variant protection. Following the second, third, and fourth SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations, participants with SSc had T cell responses = those without SSC. 5/n

For the immunology geeks: People living with SSc have elevated levels of serum cytokines associated with T cell differentiation. Could this change Th1/2/17/reg mix posts vaccination? Nope. 6/n

Caveat#1: This is a small study (because a rare disease) and we couldn’t investigate all the different drugs that people are on. For more info on how drugs affect vaccination responses see our other studies 7/n https://acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acr2.11697

Caveat #2: This is very much a comparison of the quantity of immune responses, not the quality. There could still be qualitative differences in immune responses that we didn’t catch but… 8/n

…even though there is very little data on whether SSC is associated with higher infection risk or poorer outcomes what little exists doesn’t find a massive difference compared to the general population 9/n https://acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acr.25226

Take home message #1: Participants with SSc mount similar responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination as controls who do not have autoimmune conditions. 10/n

Take home message #2: Many ppl with autoimmune conditions are afraid that vaccination is unsafe for them because they know their immune system is a bit wonky. It is not the disease that affects immune responses, rather it’s some, not all, drugs at some, not all, doses. 11/n

Thanks to emerging leader & 1st author Jenna Benoit (graduating & looking for a job next year – hint), rheumatologist extraordinaire, Dr. Maggie Larche, cellular immunologist Dr. J. Breznik & J Bramson, team Antibody (Nazy, Huynh) & with special thanks to…..12/n

….our participants. People with SSC often have skin changes which makes blood draws especially hard. Thank you for your commitment to our study and huge props to our exceptional phlebotomist/RC Braeden Cowbrough – our unsung hero. 13/n Fin.