Research
From The Office of The CSO Gijs van Rooijen
Genome Alberta’s activities funded in previous years are starting to pay off in the form of highly qualified personnel, publication of research results, active collaboration with industry, and securing a reputation for Alberta as a place where high impact genomics research is conducted.
Genome Canada and the Alberta Government remained the largest direct funders of the activities of Genome Alberta while other funders from industry, other federal departments, and international agencies helped to approximately double the size and impact of the Projects that are described on this website.
The Genome Alberta-led projects, that were funded in 2005 as part of the Genome Canada-Comp III were completed during this fiscal year and have left an impressive genomics resource for generations to come. The Genome Alberta-led projects and Innovation Centre that were funded in 2009 as part of the Genome Canada Applied Bioproducts or Crops Competition are now in midstream and are capturing the interest of the international community and industry. For instance the Synthetic Biology Project has been able to assemble plant biosynthetic pathways in yeast, establishing the proof-of concept for the production of plant based pharmaceutically active ingredients in this bioreactor system. The Hydrocarbon Metagenomics Project has obtained DNA sequences from previously unknown microbes living in hydrocarbon environments. This knowledge is helping the oil and oilsands industry make better management decisions around microbially affected recovery, extraction and bioremediation processes. The Canada Bioinformatics Platform or Science Technology and Innovation Centre continues to provide services to the broader scientific community to effectively analyze and manage the huge genomics datasets being generated by Alberta researchers.
Projects that Genome Alberta is funding as part of the Alberta BioProducts and Bioenergy Genomics Program in partnership with international funders have made tremendous contributions to developing the genomics resources for flax, Canola and triticale required to develop a biobased economy.
Genome Alberta and its partners have also made a number of investments in its Strategic Initiatives program, most notably the Mountain Pine Beetle Genomics Program in conjunction with Genome BC. Research results from this work made headlines and alerted the forest industry to a pending threat of further expansion of mountain pine beetle epidemic.
L
astly, building on the success of its Applied Livestock Genomics Program which was launched this year, Alberta investigators secured Genome Canada and ALMA co-investments for two livestock genomics projects as part of LSARP.
The challenge for Genome Alberta remains to capitalize on the enormous strength and capacity in health genomics research by securing national and international funding for Alberta led initiatives in this area. I am looking forward to working with our health genomics stakeholder community to make this happen. The future remains bright indeed…
For more information on the science related activities please do not hesitate to contact me.
Gijs van Rooijen PhD
403-503-5220
Chief Scientific Officer