Reasons To Love Vancouver #9: AbCellera’s COVID-19 Research

Before the pandemic, AbCellera wasn’t exactly a household name. The Olympic Village-based company was just one of our city’s growing legion of biotech startups. But their specialty—antibody discovery—now has a whole new urgency, and they were quickly sought out by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to help them advance their antibody research. Then the Trudeau government dropped an extra $175 million in their laps to continue their work in seeking out both potential tests and treatments for infection. If it goes well, this could be the best thing to come out of Olympic Village since, um, Terra Bread’s olive sourdough. (To be fair, it’s a relatively new neighbourhood.)