March 7 , 2007

GREATER TORONTO AREA RECEIVES MORE THAN $44 MILLION FOR RESEARCH

Through the Research Infrastructure program of the Ontario Research Fund, the McGuinty government helps researchers obtain the tools they need to stay on the forefront of innovation, including lab space, equipment and computer software. This round of funding under the Research Infrastructure program will provide $44,750,347 to support 18 projects in the Greater Toronto Area. The funding will leverage investments from 83 industry and other partners.

From Disease Gene Mapping to Clinical Practice: A Provincial Program in Clinical Genomics

New therapies to come from discovery of disease genes in rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C and Alzheimer's disease

Lead institution: Mount Sinai Hospital
Lead researcher: Dr. Katherine Siminovitch
Total project cost: $14,463,000
Provincial funding: $4,821,000

Scientists at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital are developing new genomic and computational tools to speed the discovery of genes that cause disease and to open the door to more effective treatments. Led by Dr. Katherine Siminovitch, the team will identify genes that influence the course of rheumatoid arthritis, levels of responsiveness to hepatitis C treatment, and the progression of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to pointing the way to newer and better treatments for these three significant diseases, which impose large social and economic burdens, the new knowledge and technologies promise to create major commercial opportunities by advancing development of new screening tests for a wide variety of diseases, drug targets and refined treatments.

Major industry and other partners:
Ben and Hilda Katz Foundation, Novartis, Schering, Roche, Alzheimer Society of Ontario, Transition Therapeutics.

Ontario Proteomic Methods Centre (OPMC)

New tool kits for understanding and defeating disease

Lead institution: Mount Sinai Hospital
Lead researcher: Dr. Tony Pawson
Total project cost: $13,582,282
Provincial funding: $4,526,986

New, easy-to-use tool kits that will hasten science's ability to understand and defeat disease and that will also create new high-tech jobs and income will emerge from the Ontario Proteomics Methods Centre (OPMC). The centre is a university/hospital/industry alliance led by Mount Sinai Hospital's Dr. Tony Pawson that will test and distribute new methods and equipment to produce the next generation of medical breakthroughs. Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins —  essential to the structure and function of all living cells and virsuses. Ontario is a leader in biological mass spectrometry (MS), a key method for studying how proteins are built. MS is very difficult to use, however, and lacks global standards. OPMC will build practical, simple-to-use tool kits to eliminate these barriers, broadening leading-edge proteomics research and improving chances of finding new keys to disease, and creating new global market opportunities for Ontario's high tech sector.

Major industry and other partners:
MDS Sclex, National Cancer Institute of Canada, March of Dimes, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa.

Understanding Complex Diseases Using Integrative Biology

Better treatments by understanding how biological processes act together

Lead institution: Mount Sinai Hospital
Lead researcher: Dr. Jeffrey L. Wrana
Total project cost: $17,955,342
Provincial funding: $5,987,900

Life sciences researchers at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital in partnership with Dharmacon Inc. and ESBE Scientific, are proposing to develop improved treatments for breast cancer and generate fresh insights into other diseases like diabetes by studying how different biological processes work together. Dr. Jeffrey L. Wrana of Mount Sinai's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute believes complex diseases like cancer involve many signaling "pathways" that do not operate in isolation but come together to assemble into a network. It is the misregulation of this "supernetwork" that produces abnormal cell behavior and resulting disease. Understanding the specifics of these phenomena is the key to developing new treatments. Dr. Wrana and his colleagues will work with gene sequences from Dharmacon Inc., new high throughput technologies for cell manipulation from ESBE Scientific to pursue the understanding and, ultimately treatments.

Major industry and other partners:
Dharmacon, ESBE Scientific, National Cancer Institute of Canada, Foundation for Fighting Blindness of Canada, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society USA.

Contribution of Genetic Modulators of Disease Severity in Cystic Fibrosis to Other Diseases with Similarities of Clinical Phenotype*

Diseases with similarities of clinical phenotype

Lead institution: The Hospital for Sick Children
Lead researcher: Dr. Peter Durie
Total project cost: $3,490,179
Provincial funding: $750,000

Researchers led by Dr. Peter Durie from The Hospital for Sick Children will apply information gained from identification of specific genetic factors that influence the severity of cystic fibrosis (CF) to other diseases that carry a high social and economic burden. As they continue to uncover genes that determine the severity of CF (known as modifier genes), the researchers are examining the possibility that these genes are also involved in determining the severity of other diseases that bear some similarity to CF. Five disease models are being investigated; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, idiopathic pancreatitis and alcohol-induced pancreatitis.

Major industry and other partners:
Genome Canada, Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, TM Bioscience, Ontario Genomics Institute, Morgan Family Foundation.

Genome-environment Interactions in Type 1 Diabetes*

New hope for diabetes sufferers

Lead institution: The Hospital for Sick Children
Lead researcher: Dr. Jayne Danska
Total project cost: $6,384,585
Provincial funding: $1,000,000

The  project, led by Dr. Jayne Danska, will explore autoimmune mechanisms and genetic control of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in humans and rodent models, the role of commensal bacteria in regulating the differentiation of the immune system, the genetics of T1D in high incidence Canadian and Scandinavian populations, and large prospective population studies of genetic and environmental T1D risk factors. 

Major private Sector and Other Partners:
Canadian Diabetes Association, American Diabetes Association, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada, Genome Canada, McMaster University, Sunnybrook and Women's Health Sciences Centre, Celera Diagnostics, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, National Institute of Health, Swedish Research Council, Skane Council Foundation for Research and Development.

Use of Computational Biology to Advance Knowledge of Biological Systems at the Molecular and Cellular Levels

New drugs, medical testing from mathematical models

Lead institution: The Hospital for Sick Children
Lead researcher: Dr. Shoshana Wodak
Total project cost: $2,559,693
Provincial funding: $853,231

New computing methods that will mean new and more potent drugs and new, highly sensitive medical tests will be developed by a hospital/university/industry research team, led by Dr. Shoshana Wodak of The Hospital for Sick Children. The researchers will develop new computing methods that will improve the ability of scientists to conduct rational drug and protein design and predict body chemistry that might be triggered by newly-revealed gene pools or by diseased or healthy cells in specific states. State-of-the-art high performance computing technology and methods will be used to tailor proteins and drug to human needs. The advances and discoveries made by the project will lead to better understanding of the factors that underlie health and disease.

Major industry and other partners:
Sun Microsystems of Canada, Simbiosys Inc.

Development of Third-generation Technologies for Functional Genomics and Proteomics

New medical tests, therapies for breast cancer will come from novel microarray technologies

Lead institution: University Health Network
Lead researcher: Dr. Linda Penn and Dr. Jim Woodgett
Total project cost: $19,314,500
Provincial funding: $6,250,000

New techniques to identify protein expression profiles, protein-protein interactions and protein function that will lead to new medical tests and therapies are the planned outcomes of the research being developed by Dr. Linda Penn of the Toronto's University Health Network and Dr. Jim Woodgett of the Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital along with their industry partners. Drs. Penn and Woodgett and their colleagues are developing microarray technology for proteins and cells. They propose to validate the new technologies by seeking to identify novel biomarkers (disease indicators) and therapeutic targets in breast cancer.

Major industry and other partners:
Dan Haag, MGX. 

Treatment of Acute Stroke Using MAGUK Inhibitors

New drugs will provide better stroke treatment, reduce care costs

Lead institution: University Health Network
Lead researcher: Dr. Michael Tymianski
Total project cost: $1,950,000
Provincial funding: $650,000

Better drugs that reduce both the damage suffered by stroke patients and the large, associated ongoing health care costs promise to flow from Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) scientific studies.  Neurosurgeon Michael Tymianski is leading the research into a new class of drugs, MAGUK inhibitors, discovered at TWH's Research Institute. These drugs, potentially useful in all stroke victims, are proven to reduce stroke damage in experimental animals. Dr. Tymianski and his colleagues are exploring them further to see where and how they act, which compounds work best, and to determine the best time for administering them after stroke or traumatic brain injury. This work will support commercialization and human clinical trials and ultimately, improved quality of life for an estimated 11,000 Ontarians who survive strokes every year and reductions in the estimated $550 million Ontario spends annually for acute stroke care.

Major industry and other partners:
NoNo Inc.

Thermo-mechanical Design of Nuclear-based Hydrogen Production

Using nuclear energy for mass production of the world's next-generation fuel — hydrogen

Lead institution: University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Lead researcher: Dr. Greg Naterer
Total project cost: $5,518,831
Provincial funding: $1,781,800

As global oil reserves become depleted amidst rising demand for oil, major efforts around the world have focused on hydrogen as a next-generation fuel, since it does not emit greenhouse gases that lead to climate change. However, a key challenge facing a future transition to a hydrogen economy is a sustainable, efficient method of producing hydrogen in large capacities. Dr. Greg Naterer of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will lead a 23-member multidisciplinary research team to design a copper-chlorine cycle for producing hydrogen from nuclear energy. The cycle will combine steam with intermediate copper and chlorine compounds in a sequence of steps to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Major industry and other partners:
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Ontario Power Generation, Bruce Power.

BioOptics: Transformative Technologies for Life Sciences

New instruments mean lab will now go to patient

Lead institution: University of Toronto
Lead researcher: Professors R. J. Dwayne Miller and Cynthia Goh
Total project cost: $23,523,000
Provincial funding: $7,841,000

Researchers at the University of Toronto are developing new instruments that will bring medical testing and treatment from the lab to the patient's bedside, meaning better, faster and lower-cost health care. Professors R. J. Dwayne Miller and Cynthia Goh and their research team will create highly accurate tools that use laser and other light-based and nano technologies to diagnose and treat disease. The instruments will be based on newly developed laser technology to create a map of the chemical composition of the cell as well as exploit new methods for detection of trace amounts of specific proteins and other biological molecules. As a result, the tools will demonstrate how various molecules in cells interact with each other and what factors lead to expression of certain proteins and disease states. This understanding is necessary to steer errant cells back on track and so inhibit the development of disease. The prospect of detecting disease at the earliest possible stage will lead to better outcomes and control of infectious diseases.

Major industry and other partners:
Axela Biosensors Inc., Institute for Optical Sciences.

Integrative Biology*

Uncovering new biological pathways from yeast

Lead institution: University of Toronto
Lead researcher: Dr. Brenda Andrews
Total project cost: $14,912,402
Provincial funding: $3,000,000

The completion of numerous genome-sequencing projects has opened the door to discovering how sets of genes work together to enable the normal functioning of cells and biological pathways. Dr. Brenda Andrews and her team will use simple budding yeast as a model to apply a variety of post-genome biological approaches to achieve an integrated view of the cell, and its functional sub-components. This will lead to an understanding of properties of cell networks providing new insights into biological activity and disease mechanisms.

Major industry and other partners:
Genome Canada, National Institutes of Health-Midwest Centre for Structural Genomics, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, IBM.

Microcellular and Nanocellular Plastics: Superior Properties with Lowered Weights

Lighter, stronger automotive plastics coming from research

Lead institution: University of Toronto
Lead researcher: Dr. Chul B. Park
Total project cost: $6,336,000
Provincial funding: $2,112,000

University of Toronto, Queen's University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology are partnering in a research project that promises to ultimately produce a number of new, innovative plastic materials that could give the province's automotive industry a competitive edge globally. Led by the University of Toronto's Dr. Chul B. Park, the research partners are looking to develop new technologies to manufacture advanced plastic foams with high impact strength, great toughness, and outstanding fatigue, heat insulation and sound-dampening properties. The application of the new technologies to auto parts will mean lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. In the near term, the research will provide for the in-depth understanding of plastic foam evolution that is required for the creation of the new manufacturing technologies.

Major industry and other partners:
Armacell LLC, Barr Inc., Certain Teed Corp., Decoma International, Dow Chemical
Canada, EI du Pont Canada, Furukawa Electric, Industrial Thermo Polymers Ltd., Ingenia Polymers, Kabelwerk Eupen AG, LG Chem, Woodbridge Foams.

Power Electrical Converter and Energy Storage System for Hybrid Wind Power

Greater electricity harvests from wind

Lead institution: University of Toronto
Lead researcher: Dr. Reza Iravani
Total project cost: $10,470,000
Provincial funding: $3,490,000

Wind is being harnessed increasingly by new windmill "farms" connected to the provincial power grid to help meet Ontario's fast-growing electricity needs. To harvest wind energy to its full potential, the intermittent nature of wind power and its grid integration issues must addressed to ensure stability of power grid and reliability of supply. Dr. Reza Iravani and a group of University of Toronto researchers will address these problems by looking to develop new and enhanced power conversion systems that convert wind energy into electricity. The power conversion systems will also accommodate energy storage units as integral parts of wind farms, and thus resolve technical issues associated with grid integration of wind farms, thereby facilitates greater wind harvests.

Major industry and other partners:
Digital Predictive Systems Inc.

Strengthening the Role of Genomics and Global Health*

Sharing the social and economic benefits of genomics

Lead institution: University of Toronto
Lead researcher: Dr. Peter Singer and Dr. Abdallah S. Daar
Total project cost: $4,589,599
Provincial funding: $950,000

Dr. Peter Singer, Dr. Abdallah S. Daar and researchers at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (University Health Network), University of Toronto and University of Ottawa are working to ensure that developing countries share in the social and economic benefits of the genomics revolution. This project will increase public awareness of the potential for genomics to address global health and environmental challenges.

Major industry and other partners:
Genome Canada, Burrill and Company, Harvard Centre for Neurodegeneration, National Institute for Genomics Medicine, Wulff Capital, Rockefeller Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Indian Council of Medical Research, Kenya Biosciences Eastern Africa, Genome Institute of Singapore.

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

* Selected through the federal Genome Canada program and co-funded through the Ontario Research Fund — Research Excellence program.