[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/soniaanand2012.jpg” caption=”McMaster physician and research scientist Sonia Anand is the director of the new Chanchlani Research Centre, officially opened last night. The centre will enable a group of researchers to understand the causes and consequences of common diseases that afflict ethnic populations, women and the socially disadvantaged. “]A research centre made possible thanks to a $1M gift from entrepreneur and philanthropist Vasu Chanchlani and his wife Jaya will help in the battle against common diseases affecting many different cultural groups.

The Chanchlani Research Centre, officially opened Tuesday in the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery building, will be led by McMaster physician and research scientist Sonia Anand.

“The Chanchlani gift will enable a group of innovative researchers with talent that ranges from genetics to social determinants to understand the causes and consequences of common diseases that afflict diverse ethnic populations, women and the socially disadvantaged,” she said.

Anand is currently leading the START (South Asian biRth cohorT) study – which is looking at two birth cohorts of South Asians in Southern Ontario and another in urban and rural India – to find out why belly fat and diabetes are so prevalent among the South Asian population.

She was recently funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to initiate a similar study among the indigenous people of the Six Nations.

Chanchlani, a founding member of the Canada India Foundation, spoke to the approximately 100 guests on-hand to help open the centre. Guests included representatives from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Scotia Bank, Toronto Police Services, the Asian Television Network, Aditya Jha, Indo-Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist and social activist, and Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay, spiritual leader to the South Asian community in Southern Ontario.

The new centre features a glass-enclosed conference room which will display South Asian art, offices for four senior faculty, a fellows room for trainees, a bioinformatics lab and work areas for individual researchers.