Local leaders connect with Canadian researchers

When most Americans think of Canada, visions of snowy mountain peaks, heavily forested land and hockey probably come to mind.

What probably doesn’t is leading-edge bioscience research and $173 million synchrotron facilities. But the Canadian Consulate in Denver is aiming to change that.

On Aug. 25, representatives from the University of Saskatchewan visited with industry and academic leaders at Colorado State University. The purpose of the visit to Fort Collins was to explore potential academic and research connections between the two universities.

“The University of Saskatchewan has had some research connections with Fort Collins,´ said Rob Norris, coordinator of global relations for the University of Saskatchewan. “We hope there’s more scope for increased cooperation and collaboration.”

Norris and Murray McLaughlin, director of business development for the university’s Canadian Light Source Inc., were accompanied on the trip by several members of the Canadian consulate on the day after BioWest, a regional biotechnology trade show held in Denver each year. CSU officials took the Canadian groups and members of the local bioscience industry on a tour of the construction site for the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.

Canada opened its Denver consular office about two years ago with many objectives. One is to find industry and academic linkages. In addition to CSU, the consulate has also held meeting with officials from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden to discuss its natural resources programs.

“From our perspective, it’s a chance to interface with university and industry people,´ said Norris.

Representatives from local biotechnology companies such as InViragen, XY Inc. and Heska joined the university officials. McLaughlin said that while the relationships start in the universities, there is a business-to-business element as well.

He and Norris see particular potential with a CSU partnership in agriculture and vaccine research.

Major research campus

One-third of the biotechnology research in Canada occurs on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

The campus includes Canadian Light Source, home of the synchrotron; Innovation Place, a research and development park encompassing 130 biotech companies and organizations; the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, or VIDO; the Agricultural Biotechnology Initiative, and a highly rated College of Veterinary Medicine.

The synchrotron facility allows researchers in fields from mineralogy to pharmacology to view microstructures of materials using light millions of times brighter than the sun. The facility is open to researchers and companies, with the university reserving as much as 25 percent of the facility’s research capacity for industry use.

“I could pretty well name any industry, and we could have it at the synchrotron,” McLaughlin said.

He added that the price is very reasonable, with a typical sample test costing about $1,000.

VIDO also has some potential connections to CSU. The center focuses on vaccines for livestock and is planning a big expansion. The university is finalizing a round of funding to build InterVac – a Level 3 research facility that will focus on large animal research.

“This is an area that our two facilities should be talking about,” McLaughlin said.

He added that when the team returns to Saskatchewan, they will find the researchers most likely to benefit from connections to CSU and connect them to the appropriate people.

From a broad prospective, Canada’s biotech industry is looking to benefit from increased connections to the U.S. The industry generated $3.8 million in revenue, employed 11,800 and spent $1.5 million on research in 2005.

Increasing linkages

Cate McCready, vice president of external affairs for national trade industry BioteCanada, said that Canada is second only to the U.S. in the number of companies in the life sciences. However, most of those companies are small.

“We have companies that are looking for capital investment and U.S. firms have capital,” she said.

The consular offices are charged in part with increasing trade and business activity between the U.S. and Canada. The university program is one that is seen to advance that cause.

“Our goal is to increase the linkages between institutions that we think have synergies,´ said Mark Boucher, the Canadian consul of general relations.

Boucher said that because Canada and the U.S. are already so linked in commerce, the goal of finding further partnerships will help both countries retain world-leader status.

Boucher said the next step is to establish a concrete schedule of events and milestones to move forward with partnerships between the universities.

“The appetite from the institutions is there,” he said. “We need to make sure the mechanisms are there.”

After seeing what CSU had to offer, Norris said he hopes to have some concrete action items within 90 days of the meeting. Prior to the meeting he didn’t think anything would come about for four to six months. He doesn’t expect any major results right away, though.

“We don’t mind starting with a couple of base hits,” the Canadian said to his American audience.

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