Bioaerosols are everywhere. These particles of biological origin include bacteria, viruses, molds and pollens. These airborne microorganisms are so ubiquitous that it is almost impossible to describe a context where they are not present. They are implicated in several infectious diseases of humans, animals, plants and other types of diseases such as asthma or hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

The expertise of our team is used to face major environmental issues associated with climate change such as exposure to new infectious agents, the long-distance transport of bioaerosols and the protection of populations against emerging pathogens and bacteria. multiresistant to antibiotics.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a new opportunity to deepen our knowledge of this disease in relation to our studies on bioaerosols. We are involved, among others, in several research projects aimed at studying the role of air in the spread of the responsible virus.

Dr. Duchaine's laboratory houses a large amount of equipment to cover most aspects of research on bioaerosols: microbiology, industrial hygiene, human (pneumology and infectious diseases) and animal (farm animals) medicine. ), microbial ecology, public health and industrial processes.

Source: Rapport annuel 2019-2020 CRIUCPQ