Canadian funding agencies form consortium to support cancer stem cell research

Unprecedented degree of collaboration

Several influential research organizations have come together in a consortium to fund collaborative cancer stem cell research between Canadian and Californian scientists — an initiative that will soon be expanded throughout Canada and internationally. The Cancer Stem Cell Consortium (CSCC) was launched in San Diego last month with more than $100 million in funding from the founding participants. But that amount could climb much higher as discussions with other organizations including the private sector bear fruit.

"Our objective is $250 million over the next five years when you include the CFI, the provinces and other organizations," says Dr Martin Godbout, president and CEO of Genome Canada and CSCC chair.

The Consortium model is an unprecedented move for Canada's research funding bodies and is designed to provide researchers with access to funding from a variety of sources using a single entry point — a one-stop-shop approach — that will encourage participation and accelerate the process for accessing application guidelines, selection criteria and peer review.

Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Stem Cell Network of Centres of Excellence are CSCC's founding members. Discussions are ongoing to bring in other Canadian agencies and provincial governments (see chart) as well as US states such as Texas and Connecticut as well as Italy. The Ontario government was the first to commit to funding joint Ontario-California cancer stem cell research (R$, June 18/07). OICR is also the headquarters and database for the recently announced International Cancer Genome Consortium (R$, May 20/08).

"This is really unique. It's been two and a half years in the making and it's finally here. I don't know of another case in recent history of such a substantial investment in a somewhat narrow area of research," says Dr Phil Branton, the outgoing scientific director of CIHR's Institute for Cancer Research (ICR). "I argued strongly and so did (interim president) Pierre Chartrand that we had to do this.. There's been a rapid change in our understanding of cancer stem cells so let's make a significant investment. It can't wait."

Branton says the CSCC also marks the first time that so many federal funding agencies have banded together for a common cause.

Due to time constraints, the CSCC was not able to formally include several granting councils before the initiative was announced. However, the CSCC board is set to include three more organizations when it meets next week — the National Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Each is expected to contribute between $5 million and $7 million to the venture.

It's expected that the participating California funding body — the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) — will also contribute approximately $250 million to approved joint research ventures.

The concept for joint stem cell research was born more than two years ago with the launch of the Canada California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP) (R$, October 18/06). Along with information technology, cancer stem cells quickly became a strong early focus — an acknowledgement that 70% of the world's cancer stem cell scientists reside in Canada and California.

The consortium model was hatched more recently during discussions last fall between Godbout and Dr Cindy Bell, Genome Canada's VP genomics programs. They took the idea to the CFI, CIHR and others, resulting in an agreement late last year to create a legal entity that would serve as a governing body. Genome Canada will serve as CSCC's secretariat. Core funding was in place by April, after the federal Budget provided Genome Canada and CIHR with $30 million and $25 million respectively to contribute towards the venture. ICR contributed an additional $5 million.

In May/08, Genome Canada received a letter from CIRM seeking to establish an MOU. Godbout took the offer to the CSCC board and proposed using the consortium as the Canadian mechanism for collaborative stem cell research. CIRM was the beneficiary of a controversial $3-billion bond issue which overcame a series of legal hurdles last year (R$, June 18/07).

"CIRM is a fantastic, very proactive group to work with," says Godbout. "Once Genome Canada agreed (to the CIRM offer) at the management level, we went to CSCC, told them about the MOU and asked them to take it over. It was a demonstration of collaboration."

Godbout says the consortium model makes sense for the kind of collaborative research envisioned under CCSIP. In the early days of CCSIP, concern was raised from the California side over Canada's fragmented innovation system and a lack of coherency within Canada's research community (R$, December 22/06).

There was a proposal earlier this year to use International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada as a delivery mechanism for CCSIP but no progress has been announced to date (R$,February 8/08) .

Genome Canada has considerable experience and expertise in the creation of international consortia. It has played a leading role in the establishment of the Structural Genomics Consortium, the International Regulome Consortium and the Public Population Project in Genomics (P³G).

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