Funding of regional genome centres sets stage for Canada’s return to international genome research

In one fell swoop, Canada has aggressively positioned itself to re-enter the international genomics research community with the creation of five regional centres and the awarding of 22 major projects that Genome Canada hopes will eventually place the country among the world’s top three locales for pursuing R&D. Genome Canada announced the results of a double-barrelled competition earlier this month to select the centres and associated projects. A total of $136 million was committed for the next four years, which in turn will generate at least the same amount from provincial, institutional and corporate sources (www.genomecanada.ca). And Genome Canada still has approximately $165 million left to invest, thanks to a recent federal cash infusion of $140 million (R$, March 5/01).

Canada returns to the international genomics stage with a blend of research projects that’s unique for the broad range of sectors it covers, encompassing agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, as well as the more prevalent medical field. The new centres and projects will serve as the bedrock for a national genomics initiative that will seek to participate in international research consortia, and to attract private sector investment as the fruits of its research move towards commercialization.

Buoyed by the high quality of past genomics research and a healthy venture capital environment for biotechnology and life sciences, Genome Canada officials are already spreading the word that Canada is back at the international table, with a major push occurring last week at the annual meeting of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) in Edinburgh, Scotland. And they are quickly preparing for the next competition this fall that could see several more large-scale projects approved for funding.

“These projects put us on the radar and also position us in terms of the next phase of corporate development which is the international field. Until we had these projects and this infrastructure in place we couldn’t join those discussions. It’s a very major re-positioning of Canada,” says Marc Lepage, Genome Canada’s executive VP of corporate development. “Both the research projects and technology platforms have the potential to be expanded so we have an opportunity to use this as our entry point to legitimately claim a place in the international field.”

For the selection of centres and projects, Genome Canada assembled a 17-person international expert panel chaired by Dr Thomas Caskey, president and CEO of Cogene Biotech Ventures, Houston TX. The panel was given the task of choosing from a slate of 73 proposals. Judged on scientific excellence, the final selection contains strong representation from Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia with far fewer projects given the green light from either the Prairies or Atlantic Canada. The weak showing from provinces like Alberta was surprising and while Genome Canada has not analyzed the success rates of the various regions, Lepage says more successful Western projects are anticipated.

“There was not a great initial outcome for the Prairies. They had a few projects that had a lot of potential and we originally thought they would make it, but some issues were raised,” he says. “I expect those projects to come back (for the next competition), so Alberta over time will have quite a bit of activity.”

The next competition is expected to get underway in the fall, and lessons learned from the first round could dramatically reduce the time taken to complete the review and selection process. Instead of the six months it took in the initial round from the release of guidelines to the final selection, Lepage says the whole exercise could be done in half the time. He adds that the next round may include a call for specific proposals in areas such as bioinformatics and population genomics — areas under-represented in the first group of winning projects.

Until the competition is called, however, Genome Canada will be focusing on the need for personnel to staff the regional centres. A worldwide shortage of personnel in areas such as bioinformatics poses a challenge for the nascent regional genome centres, but the task of recruitment is being assisted by Canada’s rapidly rising profile as a genomics research centre.

Officials will also be working quickly to finalize agreements with other funding sources. To date, only two provinces have formally committed funding to the regional centres (Quebec and Alberta) and corporate support currently totals about $30 million.

“In three or four months things will be quite different, but we have to get these agreements gelled,” says Lepage. “The human resources recruitment phase is also going to be an issue. Part of our reason for announcing the projects when we did is so they would be known by the time we attended the HUGO meeting. It will be a chance to market, recruit, profile and brand for Canada.”

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