Nice View from Up Here

Nice View from Up Here Generous funding, a collaborative spirit, and excellent colleagues make Ontario a great place to do my research. As a working scientist in Ontario, studying developmental and stem-cell biology, I feel privileged to be part of a vibrant community of forward-looking researchers, who daily demonstrate that by working together we can deliver more than the sum of our individual efforts. There has been considerable investment in research infrastructure over the past few years, through agencies such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which has committed billions of dollars to support research infrastructure in more than 10 years, and the Ontario Research Fund, to which the government has committed more than $700 million over 4 years. This, plus the Canada Research Chairs program, which invests $300 million each year, has helped recruit and retain a cadre of outstanding scientists. There is a concentration of talent in Toronto and in nodes across the province that makes Ontario a health research hub on par with the very best in the United States and elsewhere. We also have some special Canadian advantages that help us attract and retain the very best from around the world—universal health care, a public university system that is affordable and accessible, and a multicultural community that opens its arms to the world. Of course, the weather can’t match some of our neighbors to the South, but maybe global warming will work in our favor! What else makes Ontario a special place to do research? To me, the real defining feature is the culture of cooperation and collaboration that pervades the way we do science. That collaborative spirit enables us to always be at the cutting edge of new research opportunities. When I first came to Toronto in 1985 to join the fledgling Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, I introduced Toronto to transgenic mouse technology. After Oliver Smithies and Mario Capecchi developed the ability to knock out genes in embryonic stem cells, the Toronto group was rapidly able to take mouse genetic manipulation to new levels. We quickly created knock-outs, knock-ins, gene trap and enhancer trap approaches, because of the great collaborations and linking of expertise among many labs—including those of myself, Alex Joyner, Alan Bernstein, the late Martin Breitman, Tony Pawson, Andras Nagy, and Tak Mak. I feel privileged to be a part of a vibrant community of forward-looking researchers, who daily demonstrate that by working together we can deliver more than the sum of our individual efforts. That spirit of collaboration continues with the building of the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics, a state-of-the-art mouse clinic where genetically altered mice can be generated, housed, phenotyped, archived, and distributed to the community. Dollars from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario government, plus support from four hospitals and the university, brought the vision to reality. The Centre is now poised to be a leader in the next goal of the International Knock-out Mouse Consortium—phenotyping mutations across the mouse genome for disease-related phenotypes. Another special feature of health research in Ontario is the importance of the hospital-based research institutes. Every major academic hospital understands that research is a key part of its mission to deliver the best clinical care and train the clinicians of the future. Over 70 percent of health research activity in Ontario actually takes place in the hospitals themselves. In partnership with the universities, the hospital research institutes undertake a wide range of research activities, from fundamental discovery research to its application to health systems improvements. PhDs work alongside MDs, nurses, psychologists, social scientists, and others, in moving discovery to practice. Again, the spirit of collaboration positions us well to be leaders in translational research; taking discovery to clinical practice and to development of new therapies and interventions. As leader of one of Canada’s largest hospital-based research institutes at the Hospital for Sick Children, I am amazed daily by the ideas and excitement that come when you mix people together and charge them to make a difference in children’s lives. There is a strong future in Ontario’s research community, even in times of external funding pressures. By working together we can maintain the momentum of the past years and position ourselves for the challenges of the future. Janet Rossant is a senior scientist in the developmental and stem-cell biology program and chief of research at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. She is also a professor in the departments of molecular genetics, obstetrics/gynecology, and pediatrics at the University of Toronto, and deputy scientific director of the Canadian Stem Cell Network.

Nice View from Up Here

Nice View from Up Here

Generous funding, a collaborative spirit, and excellent colleagues make Ontario a great place to do my research.

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Janet Rossant

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December 2010

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