[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/DNgbotton.jpg” caption=”Materials science engineer Gianluigi Botton, Canad”]

McMaster researchers are celebrating a new era of discovery with the award of
$16.3 million from the Canada Foundation for
Innovation (CFI) for six major research initiatives.

The funding will enable McMaster researchers to acquire state-of-the art instruments
to lead further research in the areas of nanotechnology, functional genomics,
radiation biology, natural and synthetic polymers, digital cinema and high-performance
computing.

“Our researchers continue to have great success in a highly competitive
process,” said Mamdouh
Shoukri, vice president research & international affairs. “The
research we're doing at McMaster is leading edge and will contribute,
for example, to a better understanding of how diverse materials are constructed
and operate at super small levels, how genes function in cancer and infectious
diseases and the effects of low-dose radiation. Funding for the computational
science project known as SHARCNET is support for a fundamental science that
will help researchers in several areas.

“In all of these endeavours our researchers are either leading or establishing
the first facilities of their kind in Canada. They are focused on world-class
research leading to new discoveries, technologies, cures and treatments in the
areas of molecular biology, manufacturing and materials and information technology.
This CFI support is integral to our ability to forge new paths in these areas.”

To date, McMaster has received $89 million from CFI to support research activity,
which will generate or translate into more than $200 million in funding for
research projects at the University.

The total cost for these six projects is $41 million, with CFI contributing
a maximum of 40 per cent of the total. The remaining project costs are funded
primarily from matching grants from the Ontario
Innovation Trust, the provincial body that funds research infrastructure
and contributions from McMaster.

McMaster projects funded in this competition:

• Materials science engineer Gianluigi
  Botton, Canada Research Chair in Microscopy of Nanoscale Materials,
  will receive $7.08 million to set up a $17.8 million national ultrahigh-resolution
  electron microscopy facility for nanoscale materials research. The microscope,
  the most advanced electron microscope in the world, will allow scientists
  to probe the structure, chemical bonding and electronic structure of materials
  with atomic resolution. This facility is the shared vision of almost 90 researchers
  across Canada and is a key component to the national nanoscience strategy.
• Biochemist David
  Andrews and his research group will use the $4.4 million award
  to set up a $10.9 million centre for functional genomics and chemical genetics
  to study the molecular and biological function of genes. Andrews, Canada Research
  Chair in Membrane Biogenesis, will use new technologies to identify and uncover
  the function of genes implicated in cancer, cardiovascular pathologies and
  infectious diseases and to provide leads for drug discoveries. This initiative
  will build on projects already underway in molecular medicine and health and
  biomolecular interactions and increase the capacity of the unique high-throughput
  screening lab already in place.
• Physics & astronomy professor Hugh
  Couchman is scientific director of SHARCNET
   the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network, which
  is a collaboration of 14 universities, colleges and research institutes in
  southern Ontario, using high-performance computing for research. McMaster
  received $3.6 million from CFI for the $9.1 million University share of SHARCNET 2. The award will go towards increasing computer hardware, storage,
  network and support so the initiative continues in the international vanguard.
  The high-performance computing network enables complex research across fields
  including bioinformatics, biocomputation, physics, astrophysics, chemistry,
  finance, engineering, medical applications, high performance and grid computing
  and large scale visualization.
• Medical physicist Doug
  Boreham and his team will use the $469,572 award to build Canada's
  first biological microbeam to conduct unique low dose radiation research.
  The $1.1 million microbeam will deliver single or multiple charge ions into
  a precise target within a cell and will put McMaster researchers and their
  collaborators at the forefront of global radiation biology research on very
  low dose radiation health effects.
• Adam
  Hitchcock, Canadian Light Source – Canada Research Chair for
  Materials Analysis, was awarded $364,466 for the $950,688 initiative to develop
  and build a next generation soft x-ray scanning transmission x-ray microscope
  and buy an optical microscope to study natural and synthetic polymer systems.
• Engineer Xiaolin Wu
  received $353,651 for a $1 million project to investigate digital cinema by
  acquiring and building an engineering prototype of a high-resolution video
  recording system, a digital movie projector and accessories and a cinematic
  content creation and management system.

We can say with conviction that Canada is becoming a place where world-class
researchers want to be,” said CFI president David Strangway. This
CFI investment will further develop Canada's global reputation as a place where
outstanding research and training is being conducted.

Prime Minister Paul Martin was with Strangway in Ottawa this morning to announce
a total of $585.9 million to support 126 projects at 57 Canadian universities,
colleges, hospitals and other non-profit research institutions. These investments
were approved by the CFI Board of Directors and are awarded through two funds:
$450.7 million under the Innovation Fund enabling institutions to strengthen
their research infrastructure in all areas of research, including the social
sciences and humanities; and $135.2 million under the Infrastructure Operating
Fund which assists universities with the incremental operating and maintenance
costs associated with new infrastructure projects.

A complete list of Innovation Fund projects by university can be found at www.innovation.ca.