Canada Strengthens Genomics Research Via C$140M Initiative
BioWorld International Correspondent
OTTAWA, Ontario - The Canadian government is boosting its commitment to genomics research through a one-time grant of C$140 million (US$90.5 million) to Genome Canada, an Ottawa-based not-for-profit organization whose mandate is to coordinate research efforts and spearhead a national effort to make Canada a world leader in genomics research.
The grant adds to the previous C$160 million that the government invested in Genome Canada in February 2000. Brian Tobin, minister of Industry, said Genome Canada will be building on the existing strengths of Canadian scientific excellence to develop five world-class genome technology centers across the country - in British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada - to provide technology platforms and find new methods for diagnosing, treating and preventing disease, addressing environmental concerns, and for managing natural resources and food supply.
About 10 percent of the funding will support the national organization and 90 percent will support the R&D activities of the five centers. Each center, some of which already have begun to establish infrastructures, will be involved in one or more research projects and provide essential science and technology platform capabilities such as proteomics, bioinformatics and functional genomics.
For example, in Atlantic Canada, a group of scientific, academic and economic growth organizations came together to create a center based on the wealth of scientific expertise that exists in the region. The mandate of Genome Atlantic, which will operate in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is to support large-scale genomics projects and, in parallel, create a cluster of new companies in the region.
The centers also will devote resources to conduct research on the ethical, legal and societal issues related to genomics in their field.
Genome Canada has received applications from the various genome centers and they are under review. It is expected that Genome Canada will announce approval of projects in the spring, Tobin said.