Genome Canada has launched a Request for Applications (RFA) and is seeking proposals for large-scale research projects which focus on the application of genomics to Natural Resources and the Environment. This competition aims to support applied research projects focused on using genomic approaches to address challenges and opportunities of importance to Canada’s natural resources and…
News & Events
Genome Canada’s Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG)
August 11, 2015On June 11, 2015 Genome Canada launched a Request for Applications (RFA) seeking proposals for research projects which focus on Disruptive Innovations in Genomics. For the purposes of this competition, a Disruptive Innovation must be either a new genomics technology or the application of an existing technology from another field, applied to the field of…
Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP)
August 11, 2015Genome Canada launched a new funding program on June 3, 2013, seeking proposals which focus on the partnerships of Users and academia and to promote the application of genomics-derived solutions to address key sector challenges or opportunities facing Users – User pull. With this program, Genome Canada aims to fund projects that have defined User…
Panel finds that access to health data should be a priority
July 16, 2015An expert panel formed by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has made five recommendations for improving access to health and health-related data while balancing privacy. The CCA was tasked by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to review the current state of knowledge regarding timely access to health and “health-related” (i.e. social determinants of…
Can your family doctor help you understand and use genetic technologies?
July 16, 2015The use of genetics in healthcare is evolving rapidly, yet family doctors and other primary caregivers get little training in genetics. A new Ontario-based website aims to overcome this. Innovations in genomic medicine are presenting new challenges for primary caregivers. What is the family doctor’s next step when a patient comes in who wants to…
Using genetic information to guide prescribing antidepressant medications.
July 16, 2015Genetic testing of drug metabolism genes may help personalize the selection of antidepressant medication. While not quite coming out to recommend the testing itself, an expert panel has recommended the use of such test results if they exist. An expert panel has just released guidelines on how to use genetic information when prescribing the most…
Personalized treatment of Hepatitis C
July 16, 2015Your Hepatitis C infection could be cured – if you knew that you had it. Ontario recently approved reimbursement of the drug Harvoni® for treatment of the Hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1 virus. Harvoni® “offers cure rates between 94 and 99%, reduces the incidence of side effects and shortens the duration of treatment to as…
deCODE Genetics shows the precision of population-scale sequencing projects
June 16, 2015deCODE Genetics CEO Kari Stefansson recently announced that “We have insights into all living, and some dead, Icelanders… At the push of a button, we could find all the women with mutations in the BRCA2 breast cancer gene.” Mutant BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are highly predictive of breast and other cancers and women with such…
Time to act: Ontario report will highlight the need for better use of digitized health data
June 16, 2015The Ontario Personalized Medicine Network (OPMN) is nearing the final stages of preparing the report “Data for Healthcare, Research, Policy and Innovation.” The report highlights the fact that Ontario is at an important juncture in its ability to exploit the rapidly expanding pool of digitized health and other types of information for better care of…
Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing: the tipping point towards mainstream genetic testing?
June 16, 2015The emerging use of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing, or NIPT, may mark an important milestone in the adoption of genomic medicine technologies – the one that gets the attention of primary care doctors and that makes genetic testing a mainstream reality. The use of genomics in medicine has had the biggest clinical impact on the fields…