Genome Canada awards $9.37M in funding for technology development projects

Ottawa, ON – Winners of the Genome Canada’s Technology Development Competition were announced today, with $9.37 million in funding awarded to 13 winning projects.

The organization says the competition attracted 51 proposals for technology development projects from scientists across Canada. The 13 winning projects are led by 19 scientists and researchers from British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec who will use the funding they receive to continue developing new technologies applicable to genomics and proteomics. The winners also secured an additional $9.63 million in co-funding from Canadian and international partners.

Following is a list of the funded projects, with details including project leader(s), project title, category, Genome Canada funding, and total budget.

Christoph Borchers, University of Victoria, Victoria. MS-based Structural Proteomics for Drug Development and Design Proteomics – Methods, $502,067, $1,004,952.

Carl Hansen and Marco Marra, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Towards Single Cell Genomics Genomics -Devices/Methods, $912,139, 1,824,278.

Marco Marra, Steven Jones and Rob Holt, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver. Production-scale Deployment of Next-generation Sequencing Instruments Genomics/Proteomics – Methods. $956,260, $1,912,521.

Daniel Figeys, University of Ottawa, Ottawa. Proteomic Technologies for the Study of Rare Cells Proteomics – Device/Methods. $764,657, $1,529,330.

Paul Hebert, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Guelph. Environmental Barcoding Through Massively Parallelized, Sequencing Genomics – Methods. $800,000, $1,800,000.

Mark Henkelman, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. Automated Three-dimensional Phenotyping of Mouse Embryos Proteomics – Imagine/Bioinformatics. $762,887, $1,525,773.

Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent, University of Toronto, Toronto. Multiplexed MicroRNA Detection on an Electronic Chip Genomics – Device/Methods. $453,095, $906,191.

Quaid Morris and Gary Bader, University of Toronto, Toronto. Software Tools to Simplify Gene Function Prediction Genomics – Bioinformatics. $929,818, $1,859,636.

Art Petronis, University of Toronto, Toronto. Technologies for Methylome Studies Genomics – Methods/Bioinformatics. $380,386, $760,977.

Scott Tanner, University of Toronto, Toronto. Massively Multiparametric Flow Cytometer Analyzer Proteomics – Device $1,416,168 $2,833,108

Geoff Hicks, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. Enabling Technologies for Embryonic Stem Cell Functional Genomics Genomics – Methods/Bioinformatics. $330,001, $720,002.

Rafick Sekaly and Ryan Brinkman, University of Montreal, Montreal. High Throughput High-Dimensional Multi-parametric Analysis of the Immune System Genomics/Proteomics – Bioinformatics. $383,907, $767,814.

Maryam Tabrizian, McGill University, Montreal. Integrated Proteomics Platforms for High-Throughput Biomarker Discovery and Validation Proteomics – Device/Methods. $778,780, $1,558,551.

“This competition is a part of Genome Canada’s mandate to fund a wide range of large-scale genomics and proteomics research projects through a competitive process,” said Dr Martin Godbout, president and CEO of Genome Canada. “We are proud of the process and the results. With the additional investment allocated to Genome Canada in Budget 2008, we will be able to ensure that more cutting-edge genomics projects will receive the funding they need so that Canada will maintain its leading position in this field.”

The scientists will begin work on their two-year projects this spring.

A private, non-profit corporation, Genome Canada is the primary funding and information resource relating to genomics and proteomics research in Canada.