Archives for March 2020

Given the global situation around COVID-19 and actions being taken by the Canadian, Quebec and Ontario governments, the Canada SynBio Organizing Committee had to make the difficult decision to postpone the upcoming Canada SynBio 2020 conference, originally scheduled for June 3 in Montreal. We are currently working to find a new date and will share the details as soon as they are confirmed.

As Canada SynBio 2020 was part of a larger “SynBio Week” series of events, please see below for their status:

• June 1-2: The Global BioFoundries Alliance (GBA) has cancelled their AGM.
• June 4: SynBio 5.0 has been cancelled.

We appreciate your understanding and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. During these difficult times, the health and wellbeing of the attendees, speakers, staff and general public remains our top priority.

You can follow us on Twitter for updates and check out www.candesyne.ca for upcoming news on our exciting engineering biology initiative.

Given the global response to the COVID-19 health emergency and specific actions being taken by the Canadian, Ontario and Toronto governments, Ontario Genomics is taking the following proactive measures to reduce the potential spread of the virus, prioritizing the health and safety of our staff and the broader community:

• All Ontario Genomics staff are working from home until April 3*
• All in-person workshops and meetings currently scheduled are moving online or have been postponed until further notice. If you have a meeting or event scheduled, we will coordinate with you to develop an alternative arrangement.
• We are no longer taking face-to-face meetings at our office and will instead be setting up virtual meetings and teleconference calls, where appropriate.
• All business travel has been suspended.
• The Canada SynBio 2020 Organizing Committee has postponed the Canada SynBio 2020 conference originally planned for June 3, 2020, in Montreal. We are currently working to find a new date and will communicate the details with you as soon as we have this confirmed.

*All dates subject to change.

As the World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and the Government of Ontario has declared a provincial emergency, we are closely monitoring the situation and adjusting our business operations based on the recommendations of Public Health Officials.

For further information on COVID-19, please refer to the following reliable sources:

• Health Canada: COVID-19 information with Canada-wide updates and travel advice.
• Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care: Up-to-date information on COVID-19, including the status of cases in Ontario (updated seven days a week, at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET.) This page also has a COVID-19 self-assessment tool.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.