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Major Investment in Genomics Research and Industry to Improve Ontario Healthcare and Environment

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May 3, 2021 – The Government of Ontario is investing nearly $3 million in three Ontario Genomics-led projects as part of the Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP). This program funds industry-partnered projects that use genomics tools and technologies to address real-world challenges and opportunities with the intent to create numerous downstream impacts for Ontario, such as job creation and revenue generation. Additional funding from Genome Canada ($4.2 million), industry and research partners brings the total investment into these projects to $13 million.

Ontario is a world leader in genomics research, producing breakthroughs in science and transforming our understanding of the world around us. Genomics technologies and applied research are already being used to tackle important challenges and develop innovative solutions across diverse sectors of the economy, including human health and the environment.

Ontario Genomics plays a vital role in advancing these projects by supporting the development of their proposals, helping them access diverse funding sources, and finding the right industry partners to take this research out of the lab to apply it to the world’s most pressing challenges. Since its inception in 2000, Ontario Genomics has raised more than $1.27 billion for genomics applied research in Ontario and directly supported more than 9,100 trainees and jobs. We have 110+ active projects, 500+ impactful partnerships and have secured $1.34 billion in follow-on investments.

This investment will support researchers at the University of Toronto and The Hospital for Sick Children. In collaboration with industry partners, including Bright Angel Therapeutics and Nanostring, these genomics-based projects will have real, positive impacts on our healthcare system, as well as the environment and well-being of Canadians.

“Partnerships between the researchers and industry are the cornerstone of Ontario’s thriving innovation community. By supporting the development and uptake of new technologies that provide game-changing solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, Ontario Genomics is helping to nurture healthy people, a healthy economy, and a healthy planet for generations to come.” – Dr. Bettina Hamelin, President and CEO, Ontario Genomics

“Our government is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of Ontarians. By investing in Ontario Genomics, we’re supporting significant advancements in research and innovation in the healthcare sector to ensure Ontarians have access to state-of-the-art healthcare services and technologies. These projects aren’t only aimed at improving the healthcare and wellbeing of Ontarians, but also putting Ontario on the map as a global leader in research and innovation in the healthcare sector. ”- Ross Romano, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities.

“With GAPP funding, in partnership with NanoString and SickKids, we are excited to be developing a novel diagnostic test that will allow us to uncover the molecular pathways that are driving each patient’s cancer. This test is the first of its kind and will help us to optimize targeted therapy for cancer patients from across Ontario,” said Dr. Cynthia Hawkins, Project Lead & Neuropathologist, The Hospital for Sick Children.

“SickKids is pioneering the development of diagnostics that utilize both protein and mRNA biomarkers to identify patients who will respond to targeted therapies. Their selection of nCounter® as the platform of choice for this effort shows its unique potential to gather meaningful, high-quality multi-modal data to advance precision medicine for kids with cancer,” said Sean Ferree, Vice President of Customer Experience, NanoString. “It\’s an honour to receive GAPP support and to work together to better understand the characteristics that make treatments effective.”

“Bright Angel Therapeutics is very grateful for the support from Ontario Genomics in securing the GAPP investment.   The partnership with the University of Toronto gives the company access to state-of-the-art genomic tools, expertise and resources to assist us in advancing our lead antifungal drug development program from the bench to the bedside.  Government investments, such as this one, provide vital resources to early-stage companies that enable them to build out their technology platforms, position themselves for subsequent private investment rounds and build out the innovation ecosystem.” – Dr. Dominic Jaikaran, President & CEO Bright Angel Therapeutics

“This investment will catalyze the translation of genomics-driven fundamental science focused on discovery of vulnerabilities in fungal pathogens into new strategies to overcome drug resistance and treat life-threatening fungal infectious disease.” – Dr. Leah Cowen, Associate Vice President, Research, University of Toronto.

Learn more about the three funded GAPP projects:

  • Targeting fungal stress responses to provide first-in-class treatment for drug-resistant fungal pathogens (Receptor – Bright Angel Therapeutics): This project will develop a novel anti-fungal drug that will tackle drug resistance at its root. This new treatment option would help fill an urgent, unmet clinical need, reduce morbidity and mortality caused by fungal infections, and provide significant savings to the Canadian healthcare system, which currently spends $345 million on treating invasive fungal infections.
  • Field Validation of Technologies for Anaerobic Benzene and Alkylbenzene Bioremediation (Receptor – SiREM): This project aims to demonstrate the efficacy of a broad set of novel and specialized anaerobic bioaugmentation cultures in pilot trials at three different benzene contaminated sites. The team will use metagenome-enabled analysis, groundwater modelling, and tracking of the microbial populations and functional genes to improve overall remediation outcomes and restore ecosystem health.
  • NanoString nCounter® Vantage 3D platform-based complementary diagnostic tests for precision medicine in pediatric cancers (Receptors – The Hospital for Sick Children and Nanostring): To best guide therapeutic choices, this project aims to amalgamate proteomic data with genomic and transcriptomic information to create laboratory-developed (LDT)-complementary diagnostics for the most common pediatric cancers. Additionally, this project has international (NanoString) and Ontario-based (SickKids) co-receptors deriving benefits from this diagnostic technology. 

Breakthrough Ontario Projects Receive Over $28 Million to Advance Genomics Innovations

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May 3, 2021 – The Government of Ontario is investing over $5.7 million in eleven Ontario Genomics-led projects as part of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (B/CB) Competition and the Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG) Funding Competition. These programs aim to support transformative, made-in-Ontario genomics technological development to improve human health, agriculture, and natural resources for social and economic benefits for Canada. Additional funding from Genome Canada (over $10 million) and industry and research partners provide a total of $28 million to support these impactful and innovative projects.

Ontario Genomics plays a vital role in advancing these projects by supporting the development of their proposals, helping them access diverse funding sources, and finding the right industry partners to take this research out of the lab to apply it to the world’s most pressing challenges. Since its inception in 2000, Ontario Genomics has raised more than $1.27 billion for genomics applied research in Ontario and directly supported more than 9,100 trainees and jobs. We have 110+ active projects, 500+ impactful partnerships and have secured $1.34 billion in follow-on investments.

“This funding takes these projects to the next level,” says Dr. Bettina Hamelin, President and CEO, Ontario Genomics. “By tackling important challenges and developing innovative solutions across diverse sectors of the economy, we ensure Ontario has a thriving innovation and research community and made-in-Ontario genomics tools and technologies.”

“The Ontario government is committed to supporting “Ontario made” innovations, ideas and products. As our government continues to focus on recovering from the economic impacts of COVID-19, we’re proud to support Ontario Genomics as they fund research and innovation projects that can improve human health and wellbeing, agriculture and natural resources. By investing in these projects now, our government is supporting ideas that will have significant social and economic benefits for the province in the future.” – Ross Romano, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities.

“We are thrilled to be working with the government of Ontario and Ontario Genomics to develop a truly disruptive technique for non-invasive prenatal diagnostics.” – Dr. Aaron Wheeler, Project Lead & Professor, University of Toronto.

The SYNERGxDB web application, whose development was supported by Ontario Genomics, will enable researchers to efficiently mine the large-space of drug combinations, speeding up the development of new therapeutic strategies that are much needed for aggressive cancer types. SYNERGxDB provides researchers with easy access to data that have been curated, annotated and processed using the best standards in the field. This rich resource will continue to grow as new data are released and integrated, supporting the future of cancer research.” – Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Project Lead, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Here are snippets of three of the eleven funded projects:

  • SYNERGx: a computational framework for drug combination synergy prediction: This project is developing SYNERGx, a new computational platform that will integrate multiple pharmacogenomic datasets. The platform will implement analytic tools to improve modelling of synergistic drug effects. SYNERGx will provide an efficient way to design new therapeutic strategies to treat cancer.
  • CReSCENT: CanceR Single Cell ExpressioN Toolkit: This project aims to develop CReSCENT, a scalable and standardized set of novel algorithmic methods and tools, deployed on cloud computing infrastructure, to allow comparison of cells in cancerous and healthy tissues. CReSCENT will bring together researchers across a broad spectrum of scientific areas and disease types. In the long term, this system will pave the way for novel single-cell diagnostics and the discovery of new drug strategies for improved health care.
  • Development of a digital microfluidic platform to identify and target single cells from a heterogeneous cell population for lysis in an ultra-low volume for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis: This project is using a digital microfluidics and genomic analysis platform to provide a safe, non-invasive, and inexpensive prenatal diagnostic test. With no other test like it available, it will compete in the multi-million-dollar global market and save the healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars. The technique will be commercialized through a start-up company that will attract investment and create job opportunities in Canada’s burgeoning high-tech/biotech sector.

Congratulations to all 11 projects on successful proposals to the Government of Ontario to continue promising applied research that leads to novel solutions.

Learn more about the funded B/CB projects:

Learn more about the funded DIG projects:

The Future of Biomanufacturing Series

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Ontario Genomics is excited to partner with TheFutureEconomy.ca for an interview series on . In this six-part series experts explore the development and application of biomanufacturing and bioengineering to advance Canada’s knowledge-based economy in the areas of low-carbon manufacturing, food security and advanced engineering health technologies.

This series will highlight developments and necessary improvements in Canada’s biology innovation system; the skills and talent required to prepare our future workforce; and the collaborations and investments needed to make Canada globally competitive in biomanufacturing and bioengineering.

Watch the series:


The inaugural video of this series features Dr. Bettina Hamelin, President & CEO of Ontario Genomics and Dr. Rob Annan, President & CEO of Genome Canada. They discuss the role of collaboration and the transformative power of genomics, bioengineering, and biomanufacturing in the Canadian bio-revolution that will reshape economies, societies, and our lives.


Dr. Keith Pardee, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, discusses the intersections of synthetic biology, bioengineering, and biomanufacturing and how Canada can benefit from its innovations and solutions, from health to food security and environment.


Dr. Vardit Ravitsky, Professor of Bioethics, Université de Montréal and President of the International Association of Bioethics, speaks to the importance of bioethics and social science research in the fields of bioengineering and biomanufacturing, to ensure that breakthroughs in the field of genomics can be applied successfully and ethically in Canada.


Dr. Steven Webb, Executive Director and CEO, Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS), talks about Canada’s biggest opportunities in using biomanufacturing and bioengineering in agri–food production and how their applications are critical to the development of value-added food products made throughout Canada.


Dr. Radhakrishnan Mahadevan, Professor, University of Toronto, shares insights on how multi-disciplinary research, that utilizes biology, robotics, machine learning, and AI, is key to technological developments to advance bioengineering.


In the last video of ‘The Future of Biomanufacturing’ series, Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan, Vice President, Life Sciences, National Research Council (NRC), shares the importance of increased investment in early-stage R&D to develop Canada’s bioinnovation pipeline.