Cancer therapeutics initiative awarded $1 million

The Sudbury-based Cancer Therapeutics Research Initiative (CTRI) has received $1 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.

The research consortium’s aim is to establish a “world-class pharmaceutical research hub that will develop anticancer drugs from natural and synthetic sources,” according to a press release from Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci.

The project is expected to create 25 jobs within the first five years.

“This project builds on Sudbury’s base as a centre for higher education, along with its growing strength in biomedical research, (which) has the potential to further diversify the local economy in a significant way,” said Bartolucci.

The CTRI is a collaborative initiative between 10 Ontario scientists at five different institutions across the province, including the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Laurentian University in Sudbury, the University of Ottawa and the University of Western Ontario In London. 

CTRI partners “have screened 3,500 natural products collected from Northern Ontario’s boreal forest and rain forests around the world for natural compounds that show anticancer properties.” 

CTRI’s central research hub in Sudbury will focus on “research and development, training and education, and commercialization of services and products.”