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Publicly Supported Partnerships Commit to Supporting Genomic Medicine for Economic Prosperity

July 31, 2014

Driven by large-scale efforts like the U.S. government-funded Human Genome Project, genomic medicine has gone from an aspirational term only 10 years ago to a rapidly growing, cutting-edge industry that is starting to produce economic benefits for regions, both domestically and abroad. To benefit from this rapidly growing trend, policymakers in New York and Canada recently announced significant funding to support genomic medicine initiatives.

New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced approximately $105 million in funding has been approved to establish the Genomic Medicine and Big Data Center (GMBDC), a public-private  partnership to support research collaboration between the University at Buffalo and the New York Genome Center. GMBDC will link supercomputing capacity at the University at Buffalo (UB) and medical researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute with the medical, academic and industry partners of the New York Genome Center (NYGC).

Approximately $48 million in Buffalo Billion funding will be awarded to UB and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The state also will allocate $55.8 million in funding to the NYGC. To support the partnership, NYGC has committed to match it dollar for dollar with funds raised separately. GMBDC seeks to capture the economic and medical gains in the emerging field of genomic medicine and to develop upstate New York as a national center for genomic research and jobs.

Canada
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced that it will renew the country’s Genomics Research and Development Initiative (GRDI) for five years, a nationwide Genome initiative similar to the Human Genome Project. The Canadian government will commit nearly $99.5 million CD (approximately $91.4 million USD) to coordinate national efforts between eight federal government science departments and agencies in the field of genomics research in the areas of agriculture, environment, fisheries, forestry, and health. The Genomics Research and Development Initiative (GRDI) was first implemented in 1999 and is now in its sixth funding cycle. According to an article from iPolitics, through the GRDI, the Canadian government has committed $1 Billion CD ($ 920 million USD) and has spurred an additional $1.3 billion CD (approximately $1.2 Billion USD) in research and development funding for genomics research.