By KELLY LOUISEIZE
A new Health Research and Innovation Project will examine what opportunities Northern Ontario has available for researchers at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM).
There is intense competition for research dollars and Dr. Greg Ross, dean of research at NOSM, does not want to delve into diseases or health products that are already saturating the limited investment fund pool.
“We have to be very selective in what we do,” he says.
The new medical school has to establish unique programs that will give Northern researchers a non-competitive edge against the renowned universities of Canada. This project will determine what research opportunities are out there for specialized and budding scientists working or studying at NOSM.
Ross will utilize health centres across Northern Ontario to gain insight on where the medical school can focus its strengths.
New drug discoveries from forest plants, environmental studies, rural and remote health care, diabetes among First Nations to the impact of smoking
on the cardiovascular system are some of the areas being assessed for possible project potential.
Program selection will be as important as the scientists who will oversee them. Medical school senior researchers will hire students and
technologists and collaborate with chemists, physiologists and pharmacologists across the country to create large research teams.
Fewer than 10 Northern Ontario research programs will be selected for NOSM staff and students to work on.
“So the school really has to focus on where we can be strong and where we can specialize,” he says. “Research is pretty competitive, and a lot of that is based on (scientists’) track record and what (they are) good at.”
The University of British Columbia’s medical school’s impact study indicated $67 million in research funds flowed in annually, with 85 per cent of the money coming from outside the province.
As of 1999, 91 spinoff companies were created in B.C. Of those, 47 per cent came from the life sciences sector (biotechnology sector).
At times, universities will hire entrepreneurial scientists so research discoveries can be commercialized, Ross says.
“There is no doubt (research programs) will lead to spinoff biotechnology companies.”
NOSM officials anticipate having 30 new researchers by 2009. So far the school is halfway there. It anticipates receiving $4 million annually in research funding. That does not include funds allocated to the medical institution alone.
Ross affirms there is some outstanding work occurring in the North, but the knowledge has to be shared. For example, experts in the Great Lakes Forestry Centre speak with chemists at Lakehead and Laurentian Universities about new drug information, but they may not talk to cancer clinic
specialists interested in using the same chemicals for cancer research. Combining research knowledge around the North through programming will enhance and build the sciences and biotech clusters, he says.
The $500,000 Health Research and Innovation project will conclude this summer. Three people from the medical school are working alongside
Strategic Health Innovations, a southern Ontario company that undertook the Northern Ontario Biotechnology Initiative report. Thunder Bay, Greater Sudbury, FedNor, the National Research Council of Canada, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities contributed to the initiative.
