Innovation Anthology #238:
The Alberta Prion Research Institute and PrioNET Canada are pooling their money to support industrial research on prions, those nasty proteins that cause mad cow and related diseases.
Dr. Neil Cashman is PrioNet’s Scientific Director.
DR NEIL CASHMAN: BOOTSTRAP is a program which is specifically targeted toward industrial proposals. PrioNET because of its funding from the federal government is only permitted to fund academic investigators working on these industrial proposals whereas APRI is able to directly fund the industry.
One company is ChemRoutes Corporation. It will attempt to discover treatments for prion diseases.
The other company is Sanimax. It is researching methods other than incineration to dispose of prion infected material.
DR. NEIL CASHMAN: A treatment in an autoclave, for instance, does partially reduce the infectious titre of prions but it doesn’t completely eliminate them. So novel techniques and technologies must be developed to safely dispose of specified risk material from cattle.
Thanks today to Alberta Ingenuity.
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Alberta Ingenuity
Established in 2000, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund supports science and engineering research of the highest calibre, to create a prosperous future for the province of Alberta. It draws funding from a $1 billion endowment established in 2000 and managed by the Government of Alberta to build the capacity for innovation, especially in areas with long lasting social and economic impact.
Among its many programs, Alberta Ingenuity supports graduate students and university researchers, industrial research and commercialization partnerships, and has established several Centres and Institutes.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, Alberta Ingenuity was restructured and absorbed in the new agency Alberta Innovates Technology Solutions.
Program Date: 2009-07-02