Canada and Sweden Partner to Become World Leaders in Forestry Genomics: Scientific Collaboration Will Help Protect and Maximize the Value of Both Countries' Forestry Resources.

Business Editors

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 2003

Two world leading forestry genomics teams from Canada and Sweden announced today a wide-ranging collaboration between their projects. The announcement was made at a scientific workshop held in Ottawa in the presence of the Prime Minister of Sweden, Goran Persson, during his official visit to Canada, and Canada's Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, Dr. Rey Pagtakhan. The partnership between the two countries allows researchers from both countries to strengthen their research projects by pooling their sequencing data to develop a more powerful and useful database. This combined poplar genomics research will provide insights and potential solutions to protecting and maximizing the value of our forests, leading to new sustainable strategies for breeding, nurturing and exploiting trees.

"Canada and Sweden are not only known for their vast forests but also for the quality of their research and for their genomics discoveries in particular", stated Prime Minister Persson. "Today, researchers from both our countries have chosen to combine their strengths in both of these sectors to achieve more than they would if they worked separately and become world leaders in a crucial sector for our economy: forests".

"In an era of increasingly complex scientific research, international collaboration is an innovative way to expand our knowledge," said Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Secretary of State (Science, Research and Development), on behalf of the Government of Canada. "Sweden and Canada are bringing together their research strengths in this excellent example of international partnership to further our knowledge in forestry genomics."

The mutually beneficial collaboration is between the University of British Columbia's Forestry Genomics Group, under the direction of Dr. Brian Ellis and three UBC colleagues, and the Swedish Tree Functional Genomics Consortium in Stockholm, under the direction of Dr. Goran Sandberg.

"The collaboration between the two large-scale forestry genomics projects focused on poplar, will greatly accelerate our research and will deepen our understanding of tree biology, particularly the genetic responses to stresses, pests and the environment. It also positions Canada and Sweden at the forefront of international research in an area of great importance to both countries", says Dr. Ellis, one of four project leaders for the Genome British Columbia/Genome Canada forestry genomics project and Associate Director of the Biotech lab at the University of British Columbia.

"This project is extremely important for Sweden. Many researchers are working on this research project and we have received a significant amount of funding to work on this collaborative effort with our colleagues from Canada", said Stefan Jansson, of the Umea Plant Science Centre of Sweden. "Today, we are really pleased to bring to our colleagues a CD-Rom containing 100,000 EST (expressed sequence tags) from the poplar genome, the first of many exchanges to take place between our two groups."

The EST's gathered by each team are complementary, so by pooling resources, both teams can assemble a joint "unigene" Populus EST collection. This information will provide the two teams with an effective tool to examine tree biology and genetic responses action to stresses, pests and the environment.

Today's announcement is the direct result of an international scientific cooperation agreement signed between Genome Canada and the Karolinska Institutet in June 2001. Since the signing of the agreement in Stockholm, two collaborative large-scale genomics projects in partnership with Swedish organizations were approved by Genome Canada. Those two projects, 1) High-throughput functional genomics using modified nuceic acids (MoNA) with Dr. Abou-Elela at the University of Sherbrooke and colleagues at the Karolinska Institutet and the University of Stockholm and 2) Expression profiles of cells and tissues in C. elegans with Dr. David Baillie at Simon Fraser University and Dr. Claes Wahlestadt at the Karolinska Institutet have a combined total budget of CDN$16 million dollars.

Today's collaboration is the third one to be concluded by the two countries. The two projects have a total budget of CDN$20 million dollars. A fourth collaborative project on health research is being discussed and is expected to be announced shortly.

"The scientific cooperation agreement signed with Sweden more than a year ago has generated a lot of activity and has certainly been the most successful agreement so far for Genome Canada", said Martin Godbout, President and CEO of Genome Canada.

"We expect that by the end of 2005, at least $50 million of dollars of join activity between our two countries will be underway".

The Sweden forestry project is funded in part by the Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and is being completed at the Umea Plant Science Centre. Umea Plant Science Centre is a centre of experimental plant biology in Umea. It was formed in 1999 by the Department of Plant Physiology, Umea University, and the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

The Canadian research on poplar is an element of Canada's large-scale forestry project being carried out at the University of British Columbia. This $11 million project is funded in part by Genome British Columbia and Genome Canada. Working collaboratively with all levels of government, universities and industry, Genome British Columbia is the catalyst to bring together a life sciences cluster of genome-related institutions and companies bringing socio-economic benefit to all British Columbians. Funded primarily by Genome Canada, with other private and public investment, British Columbia is one of five Genome Canada genomics research centres across the country.

Genome Canada is the primary funding and information resource relating to genomics and proteomics in Canada. To date, this not-for-profit corporation has invested more than $293 million across Canada. With funding from other partners, this amounts to an investment of $586 million in 56 innovative genomics and proteomics research projects. Genome Canada is dedicated to developing and implementing a national strategy in genomics and proteomics research for the benefit of all Canadians and has received $300 million from the Government of Canada to establish five Genome Centres across the country. Key selected areas of study include agriculture, bioinformatics, environment, fisheries, forestry, health and technology development as well as the ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social issues related to genomics research (GE(3)LS).