SickKids researchers receive more than $19 million in CFI funding for research infrastructure

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) will receive $19,772,922 in funding for research infrastructure under the Canada Foundation for Innovation's (CFI) Innovation Fund, announced this week by the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s Minister of Science.

The funding awarded to SickKids is part of a total investment of $554 million by CFI to support 117 new infrastructure projects at 61 institutions across Canada.

The six SickKids-led research projects that received funding include:

• Electron microscopy to advance 3-dimensional study of cells in health and disease - $2,577,371
  Project Leader: John Brumell, Senior Scientist, Cell Biology Program
  Together with Mount Sinai Hospital, SickKids operates an electron microscopy (EM) facility, which is vital to many research discoveries and scientist training. This project will help fund two new cutting-edge electron microscopes to help researchers answer fundamental questions about many diseases, including cancer, blood disorders and neurogenerative disorders.
• Infrastructure for the analysis of disease proteins - $3,450,693
  Project Leader: Michael Moran, Senior Scientist, Cell Biology Program
  This project will develop and apply advanced proteomics technologies involving next-generation mass spectrometers and other complementary instruments to help find and characterize disease-causing proteins. The goal of this research is to invent a new way to classify and treat devastating, hard-to-treat diseases affecting Canadian children and adults.
• Centre for Advanced Paediatric Imaging and Therapy for Obesity and Lung (CAPITOL) - $3,271,405
  Project Leader: Martin Post, Senior Scientist, Translational Medicine Program
  This project will support the creation of a new platform called the Centre for Advanced Paediatric Imaging and Therapy of Obesity and Lung (CAPITOL). CAPITOL will help develop new techniques to investigate childhood obesity and early lung disease, including the testing of novel stem cell-based therapies and interventions. The techniques developed with CAPITOL will enable the researchers and clinicians to rapidly translate the discoveries into treatments or diagnostic tests.
• 3D-ORG: 3D screening infrastructure for tissue organoids and model organisms - $1,409,429
  Project Leader: Daniela Rotin, Senior Scientist, Cell Biology Program
  This project will help create an automated drug discovery platform for 3D organoids and small model organisms such as zebrafish and worms, which can be used to resemble simulate human diseases. Research emerging from this project will help researchers develop patient-specific therapies for childhood diseases, discover key differences between normal and disease states, and test the effects of genetic differences.
• Resource for high-resolution high-throughput biomolecular cryo-EM - $4,928,904
  Project Leader: John Rubinstein, Senior Scientist, Molecular Medicine Program
  This project will establish a joint cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) facility between four research institutions, including SickKids, University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. The facility will provide these institutes and the surrounding area with a hub for high-resolution, high-throughput structure determination by cryo-EM.
• MRI of the mouse: linking structure, function, and disease - $4,135,120
  Project Leader: John Sled, Senior Scientist, Translational Medicine Program
  This project will help replace a MRI scanner with a new, state-of-the-art MRI scanner that will enable a new generation of advanced studies aimed at understanding the genetics that underlie a range of disorders including autism, childhood cancer, and drug addiction.

SickKids Research Institute is Canada’s largest, hospital-based child health research institute, working to improve the health of children in Canada and globally. The Innovation Fund supports initiatives that allow researchers and students at universities, colleges and research hospitals to build on existing areas of expertise such as artificial intelligence, quantum science, brain health and renewable energy.

Learn more about the Innovation Fund on the Canada Foundation for Innovation website.