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Feds inject $5M for medical research lab

The research arm of Health Sciences North in Sudbury is one step closer to expanding its facility thanks to a $5-million investment FedNor Minister Greg Rickford announced on March 20.
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FedNor Minister Greg Rickford announced $5 million toward renovations of a former elementary school in Sudbury, which will become the new home of the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada. (PHOTO BY JONATHAN MIGNEAULT)

The research arm of Health Sciences North in Sudbury is one step closer to expanding its facility thanks to a $5-million investment FedNor Minister Greg Rickford announced on March 20.

The announcement follows another $5-million commitment the province made in 2014, and $1.75 million from the City of Greater Sudbury to create more than 12,000 square feet of lab space and another 13,000 square feet for offices that will host students, researchers and administrators.

“I think this kind of research is going to contribute to quality care for towns, cities and First Nations across the region,” Rickford said.

The Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC) currently occupies around 12,000 square feet of lab space at the hospital.

“Right now we're kind of landlocked in our current space in the hospital,” said Dr. Janet McElhaney, one of the lead researchers with AMRIC. “This will allow us to expand.”

McElhaney's research focuses on geriatrics and developing more effective vaccines for the elderly.

She said the expansion will push Sudbury closer to the forefront of health research.

“You can't believe the change in the research environment in this hospital,” she said. “We're at a point now where we want to become leaders in health care.”

Dr. Denis Roy, president and CEO at Health Sciences North, said AMRIC's expansion will benefit Sudbury as a whole.

AMRIC currently employs 95 people, he said.

By 2018 the goal is to employ 160 people, including 15 to 20 new investigators, or senior researchers who bring their own support teams.
Roy said the expansion — in a former elementary school on Walford Road — should be renovated by the end of 2016.

But in April 2014, when the province announced its investment of $5 million for the research space, Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, AMRIC's CEO and scientific director, said the new facility would be completed by late 2015.

Diaz-Mitoma's ultimate ambition is for a new $60-million facility that would expand AMRIC's total research space to 75,000 square feet.

AMRIC estimates a new facility would allow it to employ 160 people, create a number of spinoff jobs and add $42 million to $48 million in economic activity for Sudbury.