$11M funding to enhance use of data collected through genomics research

Ottawa, ON – Seventeen bioinformatics and computational biology research projects across the country are receiving a total of $11 million in funding. The projects are being awarded through Genome Canada’s 2012 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Competition, a partnership between Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The projects – some large scale and some small scale – will produce new tools and methodologies to enhance genomics data management and analysis, contributing to improving cancer treatments, quicker responses to infectious disease outbreaks, improved food production, and more.

“Managing and analyzing the huge amounts of data generated by genomics technologies is a major challenge,” says Pierre Meulien, president and CEO of Genome Canada. “These new projects will offer much-needed innovations that will address this dilemma so that the data can translate into useful genomics applications such as disease treatments, breeding strategies for agriculture, forestry management, bioenergy and aquaculture.”

Genome Canada is providing $5 million of the funding and CIHR is providing $1.4 million, with the balance coming from provincial governments, the private sector and other partners.

A list of successful projects is attached with this story.