The NanoMedicines Innovation Network (NMIN) has been awarded $18.5 million in new funding from the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE), a federal program that connects teams of scientists across Canada to collaborate on research with significant health, environmental and societal impacts. This funding is matched by more than $22 million from industry and other not-for-profit agencies.
The funding will maintain and extend Canada's standing as a leader in the development of nanomedicines — "smart" medicines that employ various forms of nanotechnology — to detect and treat cancer and many other acquired and hereditary diseases.
"This NCE investment in the NanoMedicines Innovation Network will expand collaborations between researchers working on nanomedicines across Canada, with the potential to enhance the quality of life for millions," said Prof. Santa J. Ono, UBC President and Vice-Chancellor.
The NMIN is led by Pieter Cullis, a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in the faculty of medicine at UBC, and brings together scientists from 17 academic institutions across Canada, 15 companies and eight not-for-profit research and granting institutions.
"The future for nanomedicines is truly astonishing as they have the potential to detect disease more accurately, to make old drugs dramatically more effective and to enable gene therapies to treat most human diseases," said Cullis.
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