$3 million of new federal funding – that’s how much the Canadian government values the cutting-edge metabolomics research being done at Genome Alberta and the University of Alberta, world leaders in the emerging metabolomics market.
The money will buy a 700 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance machine and a Quadrupole-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer. This equipment will enable scientists to speed up the process of commercializing their discoveries in biomarker research. The goal is to devise medical testing procedures that are less invasive, more accurate, and cheaper to use.
A new research and development medium will also be born, dubbed The Metabolomics Technology Demonstration Centre. Dr. David Wishart, professor at the departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science, University of Alberta and one of the lead researchers in the project, had this to say: “The Metabolomics Technology Demonstration Centre will provide Canadian researchers with cutting-edge infrastructure and technical expertise to support the translation of innovative biomarker discoveries into real-life applications. We are very excited to work with our collaborators to develop prototype tools and products that will be implemented and commercialized through industry partnerships.”
The government’s research agency, the National Institute of Nanotechnology, is not the only sponsor of this research. Other investors include Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, Metabolomics Technologies Inc. (MTI), and Genome Canada.
