CanHepC held its Annual Meeting and 15th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Toronto on February 26-28th, 2026.
The CanHepC Annual Meeting and Symposium are highlights of the year, bringing together members and invited guests to discuss the network’s research, training program and strategic priorities. This year, we dedicated more time to discussion as we prepare for a pivotal period leading up to 2030, critical years for achieving World Health Organization hepatitis C elimination targets. Our Symposium was fully integrated into the Canadian Liver Meeting this year showcasing groundbreaking hepatitis C research both in Canada and globally.
CanHepC held its Annual Meeting and 15th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus in Toronto on February 26-28th, 2026.
The CanHepC Annual Meeting and Symposium are highlights of the year, bringing together members and invited guests to discuss the network’s research, training program and strategic priorities. This year, we dedicated more time to discussion as we prepare for a pivotal period leading up to 2030, critical years for achieving World Health Organization hepatitis C elimination targets. Our Symposium was fully integrated into the Canadian Liver Meeting this year showcasing groundbreaking hepatitis C research both in Canada and globally.
CanHepC’s Annual Meeting is a one-day gathering that convenes all our member investigators, knowledge users, student trainees, collaborators, and guests, as well as members of our International Advisory Board. This year, 86 people attended the meeting.
The Annual Meeting program typically includes updates from each of the network's research areas, themes and cross-cutting platforms. This year, these updates were shared prior at a virtual meeting in January, creating more time for rich discussion on future direction and strategic priorities, opportunities for future and continued partnerships, and ways to diversify revenue streams for CanHepC moving forward. We facilitated three panel discussions: Current Gaps & Emerging Priorities in Hepatitis C Research, Shaping the Future of CanHepC Training & Mentorship, and Wise Practices for Meaningful Community Engagement, and we thank our panelists for their participation.
A special thanks to Drs Kimberley Page, Mark Sulkowski, and Natasha Martin for their insights as international advisors. Their assessment report and a complete report of the day, including current financial status and other internal operations, will be made available to our members on the intranet.
The 15th Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus (CSHCV) was held as part of the joint Canadian Digestive Diseases Week & Canadian Liver Meeting, with co-chairs Che Colpitts and Justin Presseau. Our theme this year was ‘New Horizons in Hepatitis C Prevention’ highlighting global progress towards hepatitis C elimination, while calling out the urgent need to ramp up our efforts.
The Friday sessions focussed on the current state of hepatitis C prevention and the current barriers to elimination. Jason Grebely opened with an overview of what is being done globally, with Natasha Martin adding a commentary on whether treatment is delivering its promise as an effective prevention measure. Julie Bruneau highlighted prevention efforts successes and failiures in people who use drugs – a consistently underserved population in Canada. These keynotes were complimented by abstract presentations on micro-elimination, self-testing, and links to other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections which generated insightful discussions.
The Symposium’s much anticipated panel discussion, facilitated by our partners at CATIE, welcomed panelists from across Canada to discuss the state of harm reduction in their areas. We heard that harm reduction services are increasingly under threat in Canada, despite strong evidence that these services are lifesaving and effective prevention strategies.
Wrapping-up the Symposium, the Saturday sessions focussed on hepatitis C virus vaccine development, including a discussion on Controlled Human Infection Models and their critical role in vaccine development. We thank our many invited speakers – Justin Bailey, Naglaa Shoukry, Kim Page, Paul Zimmer-Harwood, Charles Weijer, and Eve Dubé – for sharing their expertise on basic science, practical lessons learned and ethical applications.
We extend heartfelt thanks to all speakers, panelists, abstract presenters, and attendees for their insights, and we hope you will join us again next year!
Congratulations to the following student recipients of CanHepC Awards:
- Best Oral Presentation:
- Nicol Flores, Université de Montréal
- Best Posters:
- MSc: Nathan Pilkey, University of British Columbia
- PhD: David Lawton, University of Ottawa
- PostDoc: Jawairia Atif, Cambridge University/University of Toronto
The next CanHepC Annual Meeting and 16th CSHCV will take place in Calgary from May 13th-15th 2027.
