Thunder Bay to benefit from Ontario Government’s $23 million investment in ‘world-first’ healthcare discoveries.

The Molecular Medicine Research Centre (MMRC) in Thunder Bay will benefit from today’s announcement that the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation is investing $23 million in ‘world-first’ healthcare research.

The $23 million will come from the Ministry’s Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence program. Dollar for dollar, the $23 million investment from Ontario is matched by the private sector. A main focus of the program is on advancing commercialization efforts. The funding will be split between two research projects led by Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto.

Sunnybrook researcher Dr. Kullervo Hynynen leads a project that received $8 million to explore the use of focused ultrasound surgery for a wide range of medical conditions, from soft tissue tumours to neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Because of its reduced invasiveness, this approach speeds treatment time and patient recovery—and reduces health-care costs.

Two of the ten researchers on the focused ultrasound project will be working with the MMRC in Thunder Bay.

"This funding announcement is the first of many to come where Thunder Bay is noted as a key partner in cuttingedge research. It is another vote of confidence in our first research program, in that two of the ten co-investigators on this project will be working in Thunder Bay," said Keith Jobbitt, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute.

Dr. John Rowlands, Founding Scientific Director for the MMRC, said the two researchers will work on individual investigations that will contribute to the overall project.

“It’s quite a significant grant, and really the first evidence that research is moving ahead at the MMRC,” Rowlands said. He added funds from this announcement will cover operating costs for the two researchers as they grow their projects in Thunder Bay.

The connection with Hynynen’s project goes further; as a direct result of work being conducted with the MMRC, one of the project’s private sector partners, UltraDiagnostics Inc., is investigating possible relocation to Thunder Bay. “We can only grow from here,” said Michael Power, Founding and Acting CEO of Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute. “Already we see Thunder Bay as a key partner in some of the most highly regarded research projects in Ontario. The partnerships we have fostered with Sunnybrook Research Institute and Philips Medical Systems will ensure our success as our first MMRC researchers settle in this summer.”

Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson made the announcement today in Toronto with MPP for Don Valley West Kathleen Wynne. The government is funding the projects in partnership with industry to support the province’s top researchers in areas where Ontario can compete and win in the global marketplace.

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