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Canadian Govt Opens Call for Personalized Medicines R&D

Base sequence illustration (Genome.gov)

(Genome.gov)

The Canadian government opened a matching grant competition for research proposals on personalized medicine. The call seeks research proposals that can take treatments from “one size fits all” to more precise treatments and interventions addressing specific characteristics of the individual, made possible by new diagnostic technologies that look at patients’ unique genetic signatures.

The competition marks the first phase of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR’s) Personalized Medicine Signature Initiative. The initiative seeks to engage biomedical, clinical, population health, health economics, ethics, and policy researchers, and provincial health authorities to identify health care issues that are suitable for a personalized medicine approach.

Most of the $CAD 67.5 million ($US 68.3 million) funds for the initiative will come from Genome Canada ($40 million), with the remainder from CIHR ($22 million) and the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium ($5 million). Projects will be funded for a maximum of four years. Researchers must obtain matching funding that at is least equal to that provided through the competition, typically derived from provincial, academic, private sector or international sources.

The initiative is expected to address a variety of diseases and conditions such as infectious diseases, cancer, mental health, skin diseases and rare diseases. The program also seeks tools to prevent and diagnose disease leading to the provision of tailored treatment and customized patient care.  Research ideas are sought as well in the comparative effectiveness of treatment options, and ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social implications of personalized medicine in the health care system.

The deadline for registration is 27 February 2012. Pre-applications are due on 10 April to CIHR and 14 May to Genome Canada. The deadline for full applications is 20 August for CIHR and 1 October for Genome Canada.

Read more: GSK to Fund Canadian Life Sciences Start-Ups, Institutes

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