Media
2007-09-15
September 2007
AllerGen, Topigen partner to provide hands-on training to post-doctoral grads
AllerGen NCE Inc., the Allergy, Genes and Environment Network, and Topigen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Quebec company, are offering recent doctoral graduates the opportunity to gain valuable experience in research and development in an industrial setting.
The AllerGen-Topigen Industrial Research and Development Fellowship will support the most promising recent doctoral graduates who want to gain allergy and asthma research experience in an industrial setting.
AllerGen Scientific Director Dr. Judah Denburg believes this Fellowship will encourage young researchers to seek new directions for their post-academic research, resulting in an increased capacity in allergic and related immune diseases research.
“AllerGen’s mission is to attract more young people to the areas of allergic and related immune diseases, building Canadian capacity to deal with this increasingly prevalent chronic disease. The AllerGen-Topigen Fellowship will help to do just that,” says Denburg.
Topigen Vice-President, Discovery, Luc Paquet, PhD, says this Fellowship will give post-doctoral graduates a better understanding of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, private funding, intellectual property and other commercial aspects of research.
“They will be exposed on a day-to-day basis to drug discovery and development. The type of research performed by industry is very much product-oriented as opposed to an academic setting, where there is more flexibility on the subject of research,” he says.
The Fellowship will not only provide R&D experience, but will allow young entrepreneurs to see first-hand the process to commercialize innovative research, promote industry awareness as to the capabilities of Canadian universities and university research, and facilitate the transfer of expertise and technology.
“Innovation usually helps to create wealth. In the pharmaceutical industry, innovation comes from research. Since most of the small- and medium-sized companies in Canada do not have revenues, assistance programmes like this Fellowship will help develop new research programmes,” says Paquet.
Paquet says his company’s collaboration with AllerGen will allow Topigen to start a new research project; a research project that would not be possible without this partnership.
The Fellowship provides $94,000 in support over two years, with $47,000 being contributed each by AllerGen and Topigen. The AllerGen-Topigen Industrial Research and Development Fellowship is aimed at recent doctoral graduates seeking employment in Canadian industry for the first time. The Fellowship will contribute to Canadian research capacity, commercialization and knowledge translation. Eligibility requirements are available on AllerGen’s website, www.allergen-nce.ca.
AllerGen, a national research network, is funded through the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence program. The Networks of Centres of Excellence Canada is a joint initiative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Industry Canada.