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Genome Canada Announces Personalized Medicine Research Network

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Genome Canada announced today a C$2 million ($1.5 million) initiative to form a network of researchers focused on accelerating the translation of genomic research and its integration into the Canadian healthcare system.

In 2012, Genome Canada funded 17 projects through the Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition in Genomics and Personalized Health to examine how genomics-based research could contribute to improve the cost-effectiveness of the healthcare system.

With the latest funding, researchers from these projects will join together to form a network that will address four priority areas: research ethics review; health economics and health technology assessment; knowledge transfer and implementation in health systems for omics technologies; and intellectual property and commercialization.

Genome Canada will contribute C$1 million to the effort, with the remainder coming from unnamed co-funders, the agency said.

"Through its Personalized Medicine program, in 2012 Genome Canada made one of the world's largest investments in technology assessment, social science, and humanities research on personalized medicine," Christopher McCabe, a University of Alberta researcher and co-leader of the network, said in a statement. "Bringing these researchers together in a single network will help ensure Canada continues to be a world leader in this field."

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