Program Announcements

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Minister Moridi and Deputy Minister Tilford meet with OSCI and CCRM

Ontario's strength in stem cell and regenerative medicine research and commercialization shines! Minister Reza Moridi, Ministry of Research & Innovation, and Deputy Minister, Wendy Tilford, Ministry of Economic Development, Trade & Employment, met with the Ontario Stem Cell Initiative (OSCI) scientists and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) team in Toronto's Discovery District on Sept 10/13. OSCI scientists, Peter Zandstra and Derek van der Kooy (University of Toronto) and Gordon Keller (University Health Network) gave the Minister a sneak peek of cardiac, retinal and blood stem cells and participated in discussions on what the future holds for regenerative medicine in the areas of heart and blood diseases and blindness, and many other chronic diseases. OSCI Director, Janet Rossant (Hospital for Sick Children) and CCRM's CEO, Michael May, explained the power of the regenerative medicine network in Ontario that links scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry creating a collaborative infrastructure that can translate scientific discoveries into therapies for patients. For more information, please contact sandra.donaldson@ontariostemcell.ca.

OSCI Annual Report 2012-2013

Want to find out about OSCI's newly defined areas of disease focus? Catch up on all of our exciting progress this year by reading our Annual Report

Successful Funding for OSCI Scientists in the Canada (CIHR)-Japan (JST) Epigenetics of Stem Cells Program

Collaborations between Ontario and Japanese scientists led to outstanding results for OSCI scientists in securing funds for research on the epigenetics of stem cells. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Japan Science and Technology Agency announced the Canadian team leaders: Drs. John Dick (University Health Network), Andras Nagy (Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute) and Janet Rossant (SickKids). More details here.

OSCI Announces its 2013 Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards

Congratulations to our 2013 competition winners!

Thomas Gonatopoulos Pournatzis from the Blencowe lab at the University of Toronto whose fellowship will focus on, “Identification and characterization of alternative splicing events that regulate translational output in embryonic stem cells”.
Danny Jeyaraju from the Schimmer lab at the University Health Network whose fellowship will focus on, “Characterizing and targeting the metabolic and redox vulnerabilities in AML and AML stem cells”.

For more info on our Postdoctoral Fellowship Program click here

OSCI Travel Awards Support Trainees Headed to ISSCR 2013 in Boston

Sonam Bhatia, Draper lab, McMaster Stem Cell & Cancer Research Institute
Chitra Venugopal, Sheila Singh lab, McMaster Stem Cell & Cancer Research Institute
Dylan Dieters-Castator, Postovit lab, University of Western Ontario
Ayesh Seneviratne, Hess lab, University of Western Ontario
Nadia Sachewsky, Morshead lab, University of Toronto
Sabiha Hacibekiroglu, Nagy lab, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute
Ahmed Fahmy, van der Kooy lab, University of Toronto
Catherine Frelin, Iscove lab, University Health Network
Angela McDonald, Rossant lab, Hospital for Sick Children
Chris Sturgeon, Keller lab, University Health Network

For more info on our Travel Award Program, click here

OSCI Secures Funding for Ontario-China Stem Cell Research & Commercialization Partnership

The program will launch in April 2013 with matched funding over three years from the Ontario China Research & Innovation Fund, Ministry of Economic Development & Innovation (MEDI), Ontario and the Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST), China. The new partnership will focus on research and commercialization with OSCI and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) representing Ontario. Joint teams from both countries will focus on research projects in three key areas: pluripotency, reprogramming, and stem cell banking; stem cell differentiation to endoderm and pancreatic lineages; and blood stem cell expansion and transplantation.

The Ontario team is led by Janet Rossant from SickKids with ten additional investigators including Armand Keating and Gordon Keller from University Health Network, Andras Nagy from Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Lynne Postovit and Cheryle Seguin from the University of Western Ontario, Bill Stanford and Michael Rudnicki from Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Derek van der Kooy and Peter Zandstra from the University of Toronto, and Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker from Sunnybrook Research Institute. OSCI will collaborate with Chinese researchers led by Hongkui Deng of Peking University. Michael May of CCRM will be the commercialization lead bringing together key regenerative medicine partners from CCRM’s Industry Consortium.

For more information on this partnership, please contact sandra.donaldson@ontariostemcell.ca .

OSCI Launches New Programs in 2013

OSCI expands its programs to include a new seminar series, Translation Talks, linking stem cell biologists with clinicians doing translational work in regenerative medicine. Trainees will also be able to apply for a new Travel Awards program to support those travelling to ISSCR meetings with work accepted for podium or poster presentation.

OSCI Success in Beijing

The Ontario team attended a very successful regenerative medicine workshop in Beijing on November 6^th hosted by Hongkui Deng, Professor of Cell Biology and Genetics at Peking University and the Ministry of Science & Technology, China (MOST). OSCI and CCRM have been developing a research and commercialization partnership proposal over the last 18 months in three primary areas: pluripotency, reprogramming and bio-banking; stem cell differentiation to endoderm/pancreatic lineages; and blood stem cell expansion/transplantation with or without mesenchymal stem cells. Members from both the Ontario and Chinese teams presented their proposed work on the projects and discussed ideas as to how the teams could best integrate their research. Presentations from both commercialization teams also laid the groundwork for long-term relationship building. CCRM met with the Chinese commercialization group, The Chinese Industry and Innovative Technology Strategic Alliance of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine. Cameron Sinclair, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economic Development & Innovation (MEDI), was very supportive of the proposal and we expect a formal announcement sometime in the new year. A special thank-you to the Ontario team members who went to Beijing in support of this proposal: Armand Keating (UHN), Bill Stanford (OHRI), Lynne Postovit (UWO), and Michael May (CCRM)!

OSCI International Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition 2013

OSCI has launched Round III of its postdoctoral fellowship competition with two awards available this year. Applications are due February 1, 2013. For more details, http://www.ontariostemcell.ca/Application_Guidelines.

International Partnerships

Ongoing exchanges and research collaboration with our Japanese partners has led to $14 million in funding for a Canada (CIHR) – Japan (JST) Program in the Epigenetics of Stem Cells. See announcement here.

Minister Moridi and Deputy Minister Tilford meet with OSCI and CCRM

New NSERC CREATE Graduate Training Program

Congratulations to Molly Shoichet, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), University of Toronto, who secured $1.65M to support a six-year program, “Manufacturing, Materials & Mimetics (M3).” This program is a partnership between biomedical engineers (IBBME) and stem cell biologists (OSCI) at the University of Toronto, McMaster and York Universities. Click here to visit the website.