Sudbury Regional aims for big boost in med research

Dr. Amadeo Parissenti and Dr. Hoyun Lee have been unusually successful in attracting funds to Sudbury Regional Hospital’s medical research program, according to the hospital’s vice-president of research.
Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma is now trying to expand on the local cancer researchers’ success.

“Dr. Parissenti and Dr. Lee have tons of money coming from external sources,” he said. “We’re going to go to their success and use more or less the same ways they’ve used to increase the funding.”

It’s difficult to obtain medical research grants, he said. Only about 15 per cent of applications to the Canadian Institute of Health Research are approved.

“We need to be very competitive,” he said. “That’s why it’s important to bring very good talent to the team.”

Diaz-Mitoma was hired last winter to oversee a major expansion of the hospital’s medical research activities. He has been busy hiring new research scientists and support staff ever since.
In 2010, the hospital had a research team of about 25 people. So far in 2011, Diaz-Mitoma has hired three new researchers, and 11 other research staff.

By 2016, Diaz-Mitoma hopes to have boosted the team’s numbers to 100 people.
These scientists will be expected to pull their weight, attracting research grant dollars, as Parissenti and Lee do.

The hospital’s traditional research focus has been on cancer. Diaz-Mitoma is in the process of recruiting a cancer research chair to “synergize the efforts of Dr. Parissenti and Dr. Lee.”

Diaz-Mitoma is hoping to hire a cancer research chair capable of creating vaccines against cancer. A vaccine against prostate cancer was recently developed in the United States, he said.
“That’s actually the first therapeutic vaccine that was licensed in the world,” Diaz-Mitoma said. “That’s just an indication that we can achieve a therapeutic cancer vaccine.”

He also hopes to expand the hospital’s research activities into other areas. The region has high levels of diabetes and heart disease, which could be the subject of future medical research, he said.
The 12,000 square feet cancer centre has currently dedicated to research isn’t enough to house all of these new researchers, so the hospital plans to rent a 15,000-square-foot building on MacFarlane Lake Road.

Diaz-Mitoma is in negotiations with Infrastructure Ontario, which owns the building, to renovate it before the hospital’s research program moves in.
He hopes that will happen within the next six to eight months.

Within the next three years, Diaz-Mitoma foresees a 50,000-square foot research facility built in a parking lot next to the cancer centre. In five to seven years, another 50,000 square feet may be added to the building, he said.

Medical research also gives citizens access to the latest medications and therapies through participation in research trials, Diaz-Mitoma said.
Then, there is the economic benefit.

“Medical research is an industry,” he said. “It will attract funding, which means an increase in jobs ... These are very highly skilled jobs. Usually these kind of jobs attract even more jobs. The economic stimulus will be tremendous for Sudbury.”

Posted by Vivian Scinto