Organization: Univ of Alberta

GSK donates $5 million to U of A virology institute

GlaxoSmithKline Inc (GSK) has made a $5-million donation to the Univ of Alberta‘s faculty of medicine and dentistry in support of virology research being conducted at the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology (formerly Glaxo Heritage Research Institute of Virology). The donation establishes the GSK Virology Research Support Endowment Fund to help sustain the institute’s…

QS ranking includes 10 Canadian universities

McGill Univ is the top ranked of 10 Canadian university that were placed in the latest world university ranking by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a UK-based student services firm. McGill ranked 19th in the 2010 ranking of 400 institutions and was one of four that placed in the top 100 ahead of the Univ of Toronto…

Alberta and Li Ka Shing fund new virology institute

Hong Kong industrialist Li Ka Shing is contributing $25 million to establish the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the Univ of Alberta, augmented by $52.5 million from the provincial government and Alberta Innovates. The institute will focus on developing and commercializing new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests to reduce the impact of viral…

U of A and Helmholtz team to conduct oilsands research

The Univ of Alberta is teaming with researchers from the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres with a five-year agreement to develop technologies for oilsands production that will reduce their carbon footprint. The partnership seeks to better manage the process of capturing and storing of carbon dioxide produced during oilsands extraction, replacing natural gas with…

Funding finalized for two Alberta genomics projects

The Alberta government has announced its contribution to two genomics projects worth $25.2 million over four years. The projects comes from Industry Canada through Genome Canada and Alberta Advanced Education and Technology through Genome Alberta. One project, worth $11.6 million and led by the Univ of Calgary’s Dr Gerrit Voordouw, will examine the biological processes…

Knowledge Infrastructure funds continue roll-out

The federal government has announced funding for two more provinces under its $2-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP). In Alberta, KIP is leveraging provincial funding to provide $348 million for the province’s colleges and universities. The exact amounts are only available for the Univ of Alberta which received $52 million from KIP and $75.6 million from…

AVAC invests in natural health company

AVAC Ltd has invested $2.9 million in SinoVeda Canada Inc to assist the company’s development of human phytomedicinal products. One of its potential products for the treatment of osteoporosis uses red clover, which is currently grown only for livestock grazing. The Edmonton-based company is also developing a Chinese herbal ingredient to prevent and treat angina…

GSK endows research chair at Univ of Manitoba

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is contributing $1 million to the Univ of Manitoba to establish an endowment for a research chair in the immunobiology of infectious disease. The funds will be used to establish the chair and recruit a top researcher as chairholder. The GSK endowment is part of the company’s $22-million initiative — Pathfinders Fund for…

StatoilHydro invests in university R&D

Norway’s StatoilHydro has entered into an $8-million, five-year R&D collaboration with one Norwegian and three Canadian universities to support PhD students in exploring more environmentally friendly methods for extracting heavy oil and oil sands. The Canadian universities will collaborate with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology within their respective areas of expertise. The Univ…

Alberta opens nanotech commercialization centre

The Alberta and federal governments are contributing $8 million and $3.5 million respectively to establish the Alberta Centre for Advanced Microsystems and Nanotechnology Products (ACAMP) in Edmonton. The Centre plans to assist the province’s nascent nanotech sector by supporting commercialization in the areas of packaging and assembly, business and product development and marketing. ACAMP will…