On September 30th, faculty members and trainees, together with representatives from industry, Toronto’s local hospitals, and other community organizations, attended a symposium to officially launch PRiME, a precision medicine initiative at the University of Toronto.
Held at the Royal Ontario Museum, the afternoon program was packed with content. After introductory remarks from Christine Allen, Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives at UofT, the Director of PRiME, Shana Kelley, provided a welcome and introduction to the mission of PRiME. “While the number of targeted therapies is increasing, the majority of patients still receive conventional therapies,” said Shana Kelley. “A multidisciplinary approach that goes beyond genomics and mutational profiling is required to accelerate new discoveries and realize the promise of precision medicine. We have that capability at U of T,” she said.
The first plenary talk was given by Jim Wells, a world-renown professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and pioneer in antibody engineering. Presentations through the rest of the day included Faculty lectures from Milica Radisic, Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry describing her myocardium-on-a-chip models and from Leah Cowen, Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, explaining her development of treatments for invasive fungal infections. The afternoon ended with Dawn Bell, Chief Scientific Officer at Novartis, providing the second plenary talk of the day.
The symposium also featured research presentations from the first cohort of PRiME Fellows, highlighting their collaborative research projects. PRiME faculty members also had their research represented in posters displayed and presented by their trainees during the coffee break.
Another highlight of the agenda was a panel discussion focused on some of the key challenges in precision medicine, globally, and more specifically, in Toronto. Led by PRiME Associate Director, Stephane Angers, the industry panelists included Michel Bouvier (CEO, IRIC), Philip Tagari (Amgen), Robert Radinsky (Janssen R&D, Johnson and Johnson Innovation), Stephanie Oestreich (Evotec), and Joel Drewry (Versant Ventures), and allowed the audience to garner insights into what approaches will help PRiME build new solutions in Toronto’s unique ecosystem.
The symposium provided the first of many opportunities for PRiME members and partners to meet and develop relationships toward building research solutions together. Read the full story in the U of T News here.
