Canada grants provider nearly $75M to research image-guided therapeutics

The Canadian federal government has granted Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center $74.6 million, the largest grant in the hospital’s history, from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Research Hospital Fund.

The funding will establish the Center for Research in Image-Guided Therapeutics, which will develop and test medical imaging technologies and therapeutics, including new vaccines, drugs, biological agents and imaging devices and translate them into clinical practice primarily in the areas of cancer, cardiac, musculoskeletal and neurosciences.

Sunnybrook said the center will add more than 100,000 square feet of research space at its facility, including two new floors on the main wing, and will bring together 55 scientists and clinician-scientists from across the hospital, along with more than 180 research trainees.

The provider said that the center will include:

• Canada's first biomedical device development lab, where facility researchers will be able to conceive, engineer and produce medical devices, such as imaging detectors and therapy delivery devices for clinical trials;
• The MRI-guided focused ultrasound surgery facility, which will have clinical and basic researchers work with industrial partners to develop and test focused ultrasound devices to treat uterine fibroids and cancer;
• The minimally invasive electrophysiology and vascular procedures facility will further research in areas regenerative cell therapies to repair the heart after an attack and the use of MRI-guided electrophysiology to treat arrhythmias; and
• The neurointervention facility will use image-guided technology to develop and improve treatments for stroke and dementia, and will facilitate the building of a focused ultrasound device to incorporate both low-intensity and high-intensity frequencies to explore the use of ultrasounds in the delivery of drugs to the brain.