Contact:

Sam Lee
Director, Life Sciences and Health Care
1 416 673 6681

Bio Life Sciences

A reputation for excellence in bio life sciences

From the discovery of the first heart pacemaker to the identification of the genes responsible for Alzheimer's and cystic fibrosis, the Toronto Region has long been a recognized leader in the life sciences. A few statistics tell the story:

• Home to one of North America's largest health sciences complexes, with more than 60 hospitals, 37 medical institutions, 8,200 physicians and 54,000 health professionals
• Home to North America's third largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology cluster, with more than 700 firms and 146,000 employees 
• The University of Toronto and McMaster University medical schools together have 12 associated research hospitals
• The University of Toronto medical school ranks third in the world for research publication citations

The region's growing reputation for excellence in this area has attracted major private and public R&D investment, including $1 billion from pharmaceutical companies for advanced drug development programs and $347 million over five years from the Ontario government for the new Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Scientists from across the province will come together at the OICR to work towards a coordinated cancer-fighting strategy, from prevention and detection through diagnosis and treatment.

OICR recently assumed a leadership role in the newly-formed International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) which is described as one of the most ambitious biomedical research efforts since the Human Genome Project.  The consortium will help to coordinate current and future large-scale projects to understand the genomic changes involved in cancer, and will generate high-quality genomic data on up to 50 types of cancer.  OICR will sperhead the pancreatic cancer project while serving as the administrative lead for this global consortium.

Other initiatives like MaRS and the Structural Genomics Consortium combine with these world-class programs to make this cluster a leading international force.

What's New

Pfizer Global Research and Development funds colon cancer research in Ontario More

Ontario Research Fund and Ontario Institute for Cancer Research invest $42 million to support 15 Toronto-based research projects More

Ontario launches $100-million Global Leadership Round in Genomics and Life Sciences fund. More