Genomics moves towards applied phase as years of funding support starts to pay dividends

BC researchers join European project

Genomics research is entering a new phase in which international collaboration and a focus on applications are becoming the norm — a trend reflected in new project announcements across Canada in recent weeks. Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia have announced the results of recent competitions or funding decisions that include an unprecedented number of end users in projects at the research level.

Genome Canada has announced the winners of its Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition, allocating $58 million to 16 projects in the forestry, agriculture and healthy sectors. Not surprisingly, Genome BC emerged as the big winner, leading six projects and co-leading in another two.

The BC centre's strong focus on the areas targeted in the competition is the result of close collaboration with the BC government and relevant industry sectors with strong corporate interest, fuelling the rapid evolution of genomics and proteomics from functional to applied projects.

"These are large-scale projects that are more applied than in earlier competitions. There are a lot of end users involved in these projects and the regional foci of the genome centres is coming out — wheat in the prairies, livestock in Alberta and forestry and the environment in British Columbia," says Dr Pierre Meulien, Genome Canada's president and CEO. "Half the competition was on forestry and the environment which was driven by the feds who wished to have something focused in these areas. So naturally BC did well."

(Prior to joining Genome Canada, Meulien was chief scientific officer at Genome BC. He was replaced early this year by Dr Brad Popovich).

Meulien says the $58 million provided by Genome Canada will leverage at least that amount from other sources (mainly the provinces), adding that federal funding appears to be back as a reliable source of support. He's pleased that — for the second year running — Genome Canada received funding in the Budget.

"I'm assuming the Budget passes. It's for $65 million and the way the government distributes it is over three years but it's actually for one year (FY11-12)," says Meulien. "There's nothing for FY12-13 but we are allowed to come back."

In a separate development, Genome BC has joined a European consortium (EUCOMMTOOLS) that is developing tools to discover the function of mutant genes in the mouse genome. Genome BC is providing $2 million for the second phase of the CanEuCre project led by Dr Elizabeth Simpson, which seeks to explore disease states using the Cre recombinase system to induce the specific transformation of genes from the normal to the mutant state.

"BC investments have angled towards economic development and we are slowly getting to that point and getting international recognition through initiatives like CanEuCre," says Genome BC president and CEO Dr Alan Winter. "Brain research is a central area in BC although it's also strong in Montreal and Toronto. It was recognized by the EU that one of the best respected scientists in this area is Dr Simpson and her team."

According to Simpson, CanEuCre is a ‘tool' project aimed at providing researchers with the means to discover mutant genes in the mouse genome. EUCOMMTOOLS has received more than 12 million Euros from the Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development and is now entering Phase II of its work. Phase I identified the need for an even larger collaborative effort, opening up an opportunity for Genome BC and Simpson's team to become involved.

"We'll be knocking out every gene in the genome in mice to find out what they do. We'll build in function after that. The Europeans will be doing the knock-outs and we'll add the conditional element," says Simpson. "I focus on mental health so we need the conditional aspect. Adding this concept to this project is what it's all about ... We're moving to a more applied phase of genomics. We're still sequencing like crazy but moving to functional genomics. Our Cre virus puts us right on the verge of applied and we will apply to participate in Phase III."

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