April 3, 1998

Saved in the nick of time!

Without a new 800 megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance machine, the University of Alberta was in danger of losing its pre-eminent position in protein research. Last week, however, the federal and provincial governments announced new science and research spending. And several million dollars of that spending will be used to purchase the important new research tool.

"Without it we would have begun to slide," said the leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence. "In any area of science, you can take a group to an internationally competitive level, but when new technology comes along, you need it to stay on par," Dr. Bob Hodges told Folio last week. He acknowledged the U of A was in danger of losing key high-flying researchers to another university. Earlier last week, Alberta's minister of science and technology, Dr. Lorne Taylor, told The Edmonton Journal one of Canada's leading researchers, the U of A's Dr. Brian Sykes, was being courted by an American university.

Hodges predicted the machine -- used by scientists to study the three dimensional structure of proteins and develop new drugs -- will take researchers to a "whole new level of research." New structural biology people will be hired and the whole research area will once again enter a growth phase. Construction will begin this spring on a new building near the Heritage Building to house the machine.

The U of A isn't the only Canadian university that will soon have the high-tech tool. Researchers at the University of Toronto, watching the success of their Edmonton-based peers, stepped up their efforts to fund a similar machine at their facility. One will soon be installed there.

What that means, says Hodges, is Edmonton and Toronto will remain hotbeds of protein research in this country -- and that's good news. "We're taking another step forward in Canada."

The money comes from several sources: $1.552 million, Science and Research Fund; $1.3 million, Western Economic Development; $1.1 million, Medical Research Council; $700,000, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; $500,000, Intellectual Infrastructure Partnership Program; and $300,000, University of Alberta.

The provincial funding is part of a larger package. The provincial government is committing $15 million this year to its science and research fund, triple what it had in the budget last year. The province's Science and Research Authority last year released a report calling for dramatic spending increases in the province's knowledge-based industries, to $3 billion a year by 2020 up from the current $850 million. It's a recommendation that has support.

An Angus Reid survey conducted last fall found more than 80 per cent of Albertans who responded wanted the province to increase the amount of money it spends on science and research. Last week, Taylor called on the business sector to substantially increase their science and research investments.

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