Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq has announced $67.5 million in joint funding for research into personalized medicine, a genetics-based treatment method tailored to the specific characteristics of the individual.
Research funding will come from the federal government via a partnership between Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium.
“The potential to understand a person’s genetic makeup and the specific character of their illness in order to best determine their treatment will significantly improve the quality of life for patients and their families and may show us the way to an improved health care system and even save costs in certain circumstances,” Aglukkaq said.
To qualify for funding, researchers must obtain matching funding that at is least equal to that provided through the competition, which will bring the total investment in this research area to close to $140 million.
