September 2016 - Ontario Genomics

To improve traits in monocot crops, such as wheat, corn and rice, we need a unique model for both prediction of candidate genes and the validation of effectiveness. Ontario Genomics is providing seed funding for an academic-industry partnership to do just that.

Frontier Agri-Science Inc., an Ontario Agri-Tech company, and Dr. Dario Bonetta (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) are developing and refining Brachypodium as a highly efficient and novel monocot model system for crop development for their industry partner BASF. This project could be beneficial for both BASF and Frontier for technologies they are currently developing for monocot crops and ultimately lead to the development of plant traits with herbicidal tolerance in key food crops, and a valuable service that Frontier can provide commercially.

This funding has created further opportunities for Frontier to acquire follow-on funding from Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE).

Parliamentary Secretary for International Development, Karina Gould, on behalf of the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, announced the funding recipients from Genome Canada’s 2015 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology competition, a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The following eight projects were awarded to Ontario researchers – with two projects co-led with British Columbia and Atlantic – to support the development of next generation tools and methodologies to analyze the large amounts of data produced by modern genomics technologies. These projects will provide access to new bioinformatics and computational biology tools to enable the research community to meet the challenge of extracting valuable information for use across sectors, such as health and agriculture.

Enhanced and Automated Visualization of Complex Data
Project leader: Paul C. Boutros, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Total funding: $250,000

Consolidated epigenetic landscape for congenital, developmental and childhood disorders
Project leaders: Michael Brudno, Rosanna Weksberg, Hospital for Sick Children
Total funding: $249,900

Dockstore: A platform for sharing cloud-agnostic tools with the research community
Project leader: Vincent Ferretti, Lincoln Stein, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Total funding: $250,000

Kamphir: A versatile framework to fit models to phylogenetic tree shapes
Project leader: Art F.Y. Poon, Western University
Total funding: $205,365

ePlants Pipeline and Navigator for Accessing and Integrating Multi-Level ‘Omics Data for 15 Agronomically Important Species for Hypothesis Generation
Project leader: Nicholas Provart, University of Toronto
Total funding: $250,000

Rapid, accessible genome assembly using long read sequencing
Project leader: Jared Simpson, University of Toronto and Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Total funding: $250,000

Rapid prediction of antimicrobial resistance from metagenomic samples: data, models, and methods (Co-led)
Project leaders: Robert Beiko, Dalhousie University; Andrew G. McArthur, McMaster University
Lead Genome Centre: Genome Atlantic
Total funding: $250,000

Genomic Epidemiology Application Ontology (GenEpiO) (Co-led)
Project leaders: William Hsiao, University of British Columbia; Andrew G. McArthur, McMaster University; Fiona S.L. Brinkman, Simon Fraser University
Lead Genome Centre: Genome British Columbia
Total funding: $250,000

Read the press release and a list of all projects awarded across Canada.

$From left, Marc LePage President and CEO Genome Canada, Dr. Andrew McArthur Associate Professor Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Parlimentary Secretary for international Development, Karina Gould, Dr. Eric Marcotte Associate Director CIHR Institute of Genetics, Dr. Robin Harkness VP Research Ontario Genomics, Dr. Rob Baker VP Research McMaster University pose after an announcement of the recipients of funding from Genome Canada\'s 2015 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology competition in partnership with Canadian Institutes of Health Research at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Photo by Simon Wilson/ Canadian Press Images$

From left, Marc LePage President and CEO Genome Canada, Dr. Andrew McArthur Associate Professor Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Parlimentary Secretary for International Development, Karina Gould, Dr. Eric Marcotte Associate Director CIHR Institute of Genetics, Dr. Robin Harkness VP Research Ontario Genomics, Dr. Rob Baker VP Research McMaster University pose after an announcement of the recipients of funding from Genome Canada\’s 2015 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology competition in partnership with Canadian Institutes of Health Research at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Photo by Simon Wilson/ Canadian Press Images

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