A new, $7.5-million project at U of T’s Mississauga campus aims to make the Erindale site a leader in biotechnology research.
Officially opened Oct. 30, the Centre for Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology (CABB) is a three-floor, 850 square metre addition to the campus’ South Building, as well as an upgrade of lab space in the existing area of the building.
The idea is for the facility to take advantage of the co-operation between government and corporations to fund innovative research, said the facility’s director.
CABB will “make sure [biotech] developments are good for the people of Canada as well as the private sector,” said professor Ulrich Krull, the AstraZeneca chair in biotechnology.
Krull said CABB was well-placed to make Canada more innovative by building on research and teaching at the hospitals of the St. George campus University Health Network, and the research that will take place at the Medical and Related Sciences Discovery District, also located downtown.
Krull added that U of T’s “shared research facilities” make it unique among other universities in Canada.
The eventual aim is for CABB to become part of a so-called “convergence centre” at Erindale, which will include more corporate and university co-operation in bioscience research.
But Krull noted that CABB will not engage in the commercialization of research; rather, it will operate as a research and teaching facility.
Last Wednesday’s opening of the CABB was followed by a symposium organized by students in the new master’s program in biotechnology at Erindale.
The forum featured guest speakers who discussed how bioscience research is shedding light on Alzheimer’s disease.
