B.C. drug research granted $8 million

Biotechnology in British Columbia got a critical boost Monday in the form of an $8-million injection from the federal government to kick-start the Centre for Drug Research and Development.

“I would say it is catalytic,” said Natalie Dakers, chief executive officer of the CDRD and co-founder and former CEO of Neuromed Pharmaceuticals Inc. “For one, it is the money, but secondly it is a huge endorsement of the concept.

“It is a great day for biotech. It is really an important milestone for us.”

Dakers said the money from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, which is expected to be matched by a provincial contribution, will allow the CDRD to start building the specialized laboratories it needs at its first core facility at the University of B.C.

The CDRD was founded by academic and industry leaders to address a growing problem in life-sciences that is seeing decreasing dollars going into the funding of early-stage innovation through to commercialization and viable companies.

More than an incubator, Dakers, said the centre aims to increase the capacity for researchers in B.C. to do drug development and increase the commercialization success of early-stage technologies. In addition, the centre is to provide a training environment for the industry.

The CDRD’s funding was part of $26.5 million earmarked by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to fund facilities and equipment at six projects by researchers at UBC and its clinical academic campuses.

The other project funding for UBC researchers includes:

• $6.8 million for a Translational Research Facility at the Brain Research Centre at UBC Hospital, a part of Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Technology at the facility will be used to characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying brain disease and to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics.
• $6.4 million for a Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Centre to be located at the Canadian Light Source — a source of brilliant light beams that allows scientists to view the microstructure of materials — at the University of Saskatchewan. The new funding will help UBC and other researchers probe low-energy electronic properties of solids and develop new electronic technologies.
• $3.2 million for a Centre for Understanding and Preventing Infection in Children (CUPIC), where UBC researchers will focus on innate immunity in children and new information to help diagnose and treat children with severe infection and contribute to the development of preventive strategies.
• $1.6 million for a Centre for Microscopy of Intermolecular and Cellular Dynamics at UBC that will provide high-resolution, three-dimensional, structural information about cells and molecules.
• $375,000 for a Tunable UV and Soft x-ray Laser Source for Coherent High-resolution Spectroscopy to be used by researchers in medicine, biology, physics, and chemistry.