Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation, announced on Monday morning that the provincial government of Ontario will be channeling $190 million to scientific research in the next six years. This funding will be distributed through two programs of the Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence and Research Infrastructure.

Moridi cited Ontario’s research sector as a major strength and emphasized that this funding will not only create jobs and push forward the boundaries of knowledge, but will also lead to technological and economic developments that will enrich Ontario and the world.

Dr. Shana Kelley, principal investigator of the innovative U of T Kelley Laboratory, spoke about the support that her research group has received from the Ministry of Research and Innovation. Kelley’s interdisciplinary team brings basic research to address unmet needs in human health, illustrating the research-industry cooperation that is fuelled, in large part, by provincial funding.

 

The Varsity: How does [Monday’s] announcement from the Ministry of Research and Innovation affect you and your research group?

Shana Kelley: We have benefitted from very generous funding from the province of Ontario, and it’s allowed us to do many different things, pursue different kinds of research. I talked a little bit about the technologies that we’ve developed for early and rapid disease diagnosis, and that was all made possible by the kinds of programs that the Minister was talking about today.

 

TV: Could you tell me about your research?

SK: We use silicon chips to develop sensors that will tell you what kind of molecules are in a clinical sample. We’ve worked very hard to make devices that are sensitive, specific, and allow more effective diagnosis of disease.

 

TV: I understand that your pure research has led to a startup.

SK: We developed a technology that, once commercialized, could help physicians to diagnose disease faster. It started out as just a basic research project in the lab, and eventually we showed good proof-of-concept for it being very effective clinically, and it was at that point that we were ready to start a company and get it in the hands of clinicians.

 

Find out more about scientific research in Ontario at yourontarioresearch.ca, an initiative of the Council of Ontario Universities.