February 5, 2008

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO RECEIVES $7 MILLION FOR GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT HEALTH-RELATED RESEARCH

Today’s announcement represents the second round of funding under the Ontario Research Fund’s Research Excellence program. In this round, the government is providing $23,353,275 to support four world-class projects at the University of Toronto.

Containing Outbreaks Of Infectious Diseases

Quantum Dot Diagnostics Project: Simultaneous Genomic and Proteomic Detection of Multiple Pathogens

Developing a revolutionary point-of-care device for diagnosing infectious diseases

Lead researcher: Dr. Warren Chan
Total project cost: $21,945,701
Provincial funding: $ 7,313,275

The SARS outbreak of 2003 dramatically highlighted the threat of infectious diseases right here in Ontario and around the world. It also demonstrated the importance of having quick and accurate systems in place to diagnose, treat, contain and monitor the spread of infectious diseases. 

Building on revolutionary advances in nanomaterials and biological probes, top researchers at the University of Toronto are in the process of developing “barcodes” for thousands of pathogens such as malaria, while designing and testing a device that can read and interpret these barcodes.

The goal of this project is to create an economical, portable device that is capable of diagnosing multiple pathogens from a single sample of blood – so that results will be available in minutes rather than hours.

The researchers have partnered with Fio Corporation to move the research forward quickly in order to be first to market with their device, which if successful, promises to revolutionize current systems for monitoring, diagnosing and containing infectious diseases around the world.

Key private sector partners: Fio Corporation

Key facts:

• Potential applications include hospitals and clinics as well as international border crossings.
• Currently available technology is designed to detect only a single infectious agent. For example, many current commercially available diagnostic devices for malaria can detect only a single species of malaria and are not suitable for use in areas where multiple species co-exist. 
• This project will develop a revolutionary, portable device that is capable of detecting multiple infectious diseases, such as HIV, SARS, and hepatitis.
• The lead researcher, Dr. Chan, currently has a team of two other researchers specializing in nanotechnology.  With the support from Ontario, he will be able to add three additional investigators specializing in infectious diseases to the project.

Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence Program

This second round of funding under the Research Excellence program will invest  $114,709,614 to support 19 world-class projects at nine Ontario universities, institutes and hospitals. Funding will be matched by 107 major industry and other partners participating in the projects.

For more information about the Ontario Research Fund, please visit www.ontario.ca/innovation.

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