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2009-07-30


AllerGen awards $11 million to fund asthma and allergy research

For Immediate Release 

                                                                                               

Hamilton, ON (July 30, 2009)  – AllerGen NCE Inc., the Allergy, Genes and Environment Network (AllerGen), a national research network, is pleased to announce that it has awarded $11 million to fund Canadian research that reduces the morbidity, mortality and socio-economic burden of allergic and related immune diseases.

 

Earlier this year, AllerGen invited proposals for multidisciplinary, networked and partnered programmes of research that it could support to 2012 towards understanding, preventing, controlling or eliminating allergies, asthma and anaphylaxis.

 

After rigorous internal and international expert peer review, 20 outstanding research teams from 15 hospital and academic institutions from across Canada have been selected for funding.

 

Principal Investigators of the 20 teams awarded AllerGen funding are located at the following Canadian institutions:

 

§         Dalhousie University - $750,000

§         The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto - $176,800 

§         McGill University Health Centre, McGill University - $531,450

§         McMaster University - $2,267,171

§         Queen’s University -  $600,000

§         St. Joseph’s Healthcare - $192,396 

§         University of Alberta - $1,251,273

§         University of British Columbia - $2,172,797

 

Co-investigators participating in AllerGen-supported multi-disciplinary research projects are also based at:

    • Simon Fraser University
    • Université de Montréal
    • Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
    • Université Laval
    • University of Manitoba
    • University of New Brunswick
    • University of Saskatchewan

 

 

 

In addition, AllerGen has committed $3 million to the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, a multi-site study of gene-environment interactions and early life exposures and their impact on children’s subsequent development of allergy and asthma. The CHILD Study is being undertaken at four sites across Canada: the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba and University of Toronto/The Hospital for Sick Children. The administrative headquarters and Director of the CHILD Study, Malcolm Sears, MB, ChB, FRACP, FRCP(C), is based at McMaster University.

Since 2005, AllerGen has invested in three research foci of strategic importance dedicated to the generation of new knowledge with potential for social and economic impact in the area of allergic and related immune disease - Gene-Environment Interactions; Diagnostics and Therapeutics; and Public Health, Ethics, Policy and Society. Research into work-related asthma, aboriginal allergy and asthma, mind-body interactions and allergic disease, food labelling and development of therapeutics through clinical trials are just a few of the additional research thrusts supported within AllerGen’s 2009-2012 research portfolio.

 

Scientific Director and CEO, Judah A. Denburg, MD, FRCP(C) says, “the high calibre of these newly funded projects will help position Canada at the forefront of allergic disease research.

“From 2009-2012, AllerGen will fund nationally networked research teams that demonstrate excellence, productivity and offer unique capacity building opportunities. AllerGen’s investments are supporting Canada’s next generation of allergy and asthma researchers and clinician scientists,” Denburg added.

 

“These 20 national research teams build on and extend existing AllerGen and partner investments. They were funded on the basis of their scientific excellence and their significant potential to accelerate social and economic impact through application of research results to real world problems and challenges faced by patients, their healthcare providers and partner organizations,” says Denburg.

 

Mr. Graham W.S. Scott, Chair of the AllerGen Board of Directors says, “it is extremely pleasing to see such innovative research project teams partnering with reputable organizations from around the world.”

 

“These multidisciplinary research teams have established strong national partnerships with industry, policy makers, provincial research foundations, health care and non-profit organizations such as Altair Therapeutics, Asmacure, Genentech and GlaxoSmithKline, Health Canada, Environment Canada, various provincial ministries including health and aboriginal justice, Anaphylaxis Canada, the Asthma Society of Canada, the Allergy/Asthma Information Association and the Association Québecois des Allergies Alimentaire. In addition, there are numerous international partnerships that have been formed with organizations such as the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that place Canada on the leading edge of global knowledge creation,” says Scott.

 

AllerGen’s networked approach to research unites more than 170 researchers, 250 highly qualified personnel and involves more than 100 partners in Canada, United States of America, Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom.

 

 

AllerGen 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.

--- ENDS--                        

 

Media Contact: AllerGen Senior Communications Officer, Jessie Ielati

                    Ph: 905 525 9140 ext 26641 / email: ielati@mcmaster.ca

 

AllerGen Funded Cross-programmatic Research Teams 2009-2012

 

Dalhousie University

§         The Canadian Group on Food Allergy Research (CanGoFAR)  

 Principal Investigator, J. Marshall, Dalhousie University                                      $750,000

 

Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto

§         Respiratory syncytial virus in the development of infant wheezing

disorders: a bench to bedside approach to gene-virus interactions

Principal Investigator PJ. Subbarao, The Hospital for Sick Children,

 University of Toronto                                                                                          $176,800

 

McGill University Health Centre, McGill University

§         Surveying Prevalence of food Allergy in All Canadian

Environments (SPAACE) Study

 Principal Investigator A. Clarke, McGill University Health Centre                          $531,450

 

McMaster University

§         Hemopoietic stem cell biomarkers in the diagnosis and prediction

of allergic inflammation and disease

Principal Investigator D. Denburg, McMaster University                                         $654,220

 

§         Clinical Investigator Collaborative (CIC

Principal Investigator P. O’Byrne, McMaster University                                     $1,330,000

 

§         The distribution and function of FceR1 on nerves

Principal Investigator J. Bienenstock, McMaster University                                  $182,951

 

§         Can e-health tools improve health outcomes in asthma?

Principal Investigator A. Levinson, McMaster University:                                       $100,000

 

 

Queen’s University

 

§         Work-Related Asthma and Allergy: Prevention and Early Detection

(WRAAPPED) research program

Principal Investigator D. Lougheed, Queen’s University                                        $600,000

 

St. Joseph’s Healthcare

§         Developmental plasticity and fetal programming of asthma in mice

            Principal Investigator, P. Forsythe, St. Joseph's Healthcare                                 $192,396

 

 

 

 

University of Alberta

§         Neuroimmune interactions: a partnership in drug development

and translational research

Principal Investigator D. Befus, University of Alberta                                            $249,143

 

§         Evidence, ethics and health policy research

Principal Investigator T. Caulfield, University of Alberta                                                     $300,000

 

§         Engaging Aboriginal families affected by allergies and asthma in

support-education program development

Principal Investigator, M. Stewart, University of Alberta                                        $400,000

 

§         Non-invasive assessment of atopic diseases: Metabolomic

      profiling of urine using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

       Principal Investigator D. Adamko, University of Alberta                                       $302,130

 

 

University of British Columbia

  • Genome wide association study of allergy and asthma in the

Canadian Asthma Primary Prevention Study (CAPPS) and the Study of

Allergy Genes and Environment (SAGE)

 Principal Investigator P. Paré, University of British Columbia                               $326,696

 

  • Traffic-related air pollution as a risk factor for the development of

childhood asthma

 Principal Investigator M. Brauer, University of British Columbia                            $516,563

 

§      Functional genetics in allergy

      Principal Investigator A. Sandford, University of British Columbia                          $447,750