Medical Briefs

Ontario helps fund $30-M Clinical Genomics Centre

Ontario has opened its first Clinical Genomics Centre (CGC) at the University Health Network's (UHN) Toronto general Hospital site, with $30 million in funding from the Ontario R&D Challenge Fund, the UHN and private sector partners. The 1,000-sq-m facility houses a microarray laboratory and a protein production facility, as well as a robotics development facility and a nuclear magnetic resonance suite. The CGC has already entered several collaborations with commercial partners and has another dozen deals in the works with international biotech, pharmaceutical and instrumentation interests. By pursuing genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, the CGC hopes to generate significant amounts of intellectual property to increase the pace of research commercialization. Funding of the CGC is part of Ontario's ambitious genomics initiative to complement the work of Genome Canada....

Forbes Medi-Tech opens laboratory at UBC

Forbes Medi-Tech Inc has opened a $3-million biotechnology research facility on the campus of the Univ of British Columbia to develop medications for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, high-value steroid pharmaceuticals and nutraceutical ingredients to provide foods with medical benefits. The 1,000-sq-m facility will employ 20 scientists and house the Vancouver-based firm's chemistry and biology laboratories. Forbes originally licensed its core sterol technology from UBC in 1993 and has since sponsored $2.8 million in research projects at the university....

CBHR seeking increased health research commitment

The Coalition for Biomedical and Health Research (CBHR) is calling for increased funding for medical research. The CBHR made the request prior to last Monday's federal election, noting that all parties with the exception of the Liberals have been silent on the intentions for health research....