$95M cancer research centre opens in BC

Vancouver, BC – One of Canada’s largest free-standing cancer research centres has opened its doors. The BC Cancer Research building will provide a new home for eight of the BC Cancer Agency’s research departments, including the Agency’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, renowned for being the first in the world to sequence the SARS virus.

BC Cancer Agency will now be home to a state-of-art translational research centre, drawing leading clinicians and scientists from around the globe.

The new building provides an opportunity to increase the number of clinical and basic research teams brought together to address key issues in cancer control. Capacity will increase from the 318 researchers in the former research centre, housed for the past 26 years in an outdated bakery across from the BC Cancer Agency’s Vancouver Centre, to up to 600 scientific and medical personnel.

The building, designed to encourage collaboration between scientists and clinicians, was funded by donations to the BC Cancer Foundation and contributions from the federal and provincial governments. The federal contribution came in the form of $27.8 million through the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The provincial Knowledge Development Fund of BC also contributed $27.8 million.