March 8, 2004

Today two top researchers and their teams from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine were awarded over $17 million in research funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) – the largest amount ever awarded to the Faculty of Medicine.

Paul Kubes (left), PhD, professor of immunology in the Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Medicine, and Garnette Sutherland (right), MD, professor of neurosurgery in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, were awarded $7,171,678 and $10,499,339 respectively.

“Funding from the CFI allows us to reinforce our strong commitment to research here at the Faculty of Medicine,” states Richard Hawkes, PhD, Associate Dean (Research). “World class researchers like Sutherland and Kubes will allow us to take Calgary to the next level in global health initiatives.”

Funding awarded to Kubes and his team will go towards the creation of the Institute for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation. The development of the Institute will allow researchers and clinicians to work collaboratively to understand and develop new treatments for these diseases, taking research from the laboratories directly to the bedsides of patients.

“Inflammatory diseases such as type 1 diabetes, asthma, sepsis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease, affect millions of Canadians and cost billions of dollars annually in direct health care costs and lost productivity,” says Kubes. “On the other side of the coin, emerging infectious diseases such as SARS often misdirect our immune system and cause inappropriate inflammation. We must understand how our immune system responds to these diseases to be better positioned therapeutically for the next bout of SARS and other emerging infectious diseases.”

With support from the Calgary Health Region and the University of Calgary, funding awarded to Sutherland and his team will go toward the development of Project neuroArm, the world’s first image guided surgical robot, created in collaboration with MD Robotics (the creators of Canadarm). The goal of Project neuroArm is to reduce the invasiveness of brain surgery by the use of precise tool manipulation under visual and MRI guidance – creating a device able to perform surgical procedures that are not possible now, as well as enhancing the safety of currently performed procedures, and improving overall patient recovery rates for neurosurgery and other types of surgery.

“Our ultimate goal as health researchers is to come up with new strategies to improve quality of life for Canadians,” states Sutherland. “By investing in research projects like ours, the CFI supports an international research program of excellence, allowing us to create new frontiers in medical research education and delivery that will directly impact health care and the Canadian high tech industry.”

The CFI is an independent corporation established by the Government of Canada in 1997, with a goal to strengthen the capability of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other not-for-profit institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development.

The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) also supports Kubes and Sutherland. Project neuroArm was initiated by grants from Western Economic Diversification (WED) and the Seaman Family, Calgary, Alberta.

Léora Rabatach
Communications Coordinator
403.210.3894