Ian Patterson has been awarded the Banting Research Foundation Discovery Award.

The Assistant Professor in Brock University’s Department of Biological Sciences was one of six recipients to receive the grant recognizing innovative health and biomedical research projects by outstanding new investigators at universities and research institutes in Canada.

Up to $30,000 is awarded to each recipient for a one-year term. The intent is to provide seed funding so researchers can gather pilot data and enhance their competitiveness for other sources of funding.

Patterson and his research team will be using the grant to investigate how a group of viruses that only infects insects can be used to block the infection of Zika virus.

“We plan to modify a harmless, insect-specific virus to be able to specifically target Zika virus and prevent infection and transmission in mosquitoes,” he says.

“I am very grateful for the award from the Banting Research Foundation. It will allow our group to begin research in Brock’s Containment Level 3 (CL3) laboratory and insectary,” he says. “The work we can do is unique in Canada, so it’s important to build capacity as a new group and become more competitive for future funding calls.”

Patterson and his team have also recently received funding from the federal government’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to support their work.

To learn more about Patterson’s research or the Discovery Awards, visit the Banting Research Foundation website.