Alberta Life Sciences Institute

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• Alberta Life Sciences Institute
• Board Meeting
• October 24, 2008
• Edmonton, Alberta

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GOOGLE DOWN

• Not exciting enough to make a difference
• Pick wrong industry
• Unable to make the product work
• Customers unable to make the product work
• Customers dont want the product
• Lose vision, lose faith and give up
• Product wont be 10x better than existing systems
• Solve the wrong problem
• Make enemies, not allies
• Run out of customers.

3
GOOGLE UP

• Make sure everyone is having fun
• Convince others you have a great idea
• Make a product your customers want
• Increase your number of customers
• Dont ask anyone to do something you wouldnt do
• Learn how to use experts. 
• Do something every day that pushes the venture
  forward
• Stay focused on your goal  SALES!!!
• Assemble the right team.
• Have more cashflow than you spend.

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Impact of BSE

• April 2003 Canada was 3rd largest exporter of
  beef with a market of 4.1 billion
• May 2003 Canadas beef export market plummeted
  to 0 for next three years
• Total losses estimated at 11 million/day during
  border closure

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2003 Canadian Prion Research
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Alberta Prion Research Institute

• Mandate
• 35 million initiative announced by the
  Government of Alberta in Feb 2005 in response to
  the BSE crisis
• Develop comprehensive programs for prion
  research, involving bovine spongiform
  encephalopathy (BSE) and related diseases
• Coordinate fundamental, applied and
  multidisciplinary research geared toward
  providing solutions and models of policy action

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Recruitment

• Alberta has recruited top-notch prion expertise
• David Westaway (Prion Scholar)
• Stefanie Czub (Prion Scholar)
• Markus Czub
• Ted Allison
• Four more active recruitment files

Dr. Stefanie Czub
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• Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases

Dr. David Westaway
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Kinds of Research

• What happens when an animal is infected?
• How do we destroy prions?
• How do prion diseases spread?
• What are the socioeconmic impacts on rural
  families and rural communities?
• Can we design better tests?

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Research Projects by Theme

• Funding of projects by theme
• Projects Funded
  (millions)
• Protein Folding and Misfolding 7 5.3
• Pathobiology of TSEs 16 8.6
• Surveillance and Control 5 4.4
• TSEs and Society 4 1.7
  32 20.0

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Projects by Target Areas

• Number of projects targeting prion issues
• Projects
• BSE 20
• Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) 13
• Specified Risk Materials (SRM) 1
• Other Neurological Diseases 7
• Social Science 3

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Alberta Research Growing
19
23
32
13
Industry Program

• Research and development by industry
• Commercialization for solutions to prion disease
• e.g. potential tests
• IDeal Program
• First application under review
• Often co-sponsored by PrioNet Canada

14
Industry Program

• ChemRoutes seeks to develop novel chemical
  compounds with potential therapeutic properties
  for targeting prion proteins and applying new
  methods for screening and testing them.
• Sanimax transforms by-products such as SRM from
  the food and meat industries into useful
  materials for other sectors.

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SRM-CAP Program

• Specified Risk Materials Program
• SRM-CAP Program built with 1.5 million from
  Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
• Purpose is to build capacity, improve access to
  specialized equipment, can create platforms

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Current HQP

• 26 Principle Investigators
• 116 Research Co-Investigators
• 49 Students (undergraduate and graduate)
• 11 Postdoctoral Fellows
• 48 Highly Trained Research Technicians

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APRI and PRIONET
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PrPCANADA

• Alberta Prion Research Institute and PrioNet
  Canada
• Poised to become the leading international
  prion event

19
Policy Development
Social Issues
Economic Issues
Policy
Political Issues
Technological Issues
20
Model for Risk Assessment Management of BSE
Problem/ Context
Risks
Evaluation
Engage Stakeholders
Options
Actions
Decisions
D. Krewski, University of Ottawa
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SYPA Across Canada
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HQP

• Strategies going forward
• Recruit select expertise to Alberta
• Integrate with PrioNets Student
• and Young Professionals
• Association (SYPA)
• Policy Fellowships

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Whats Next?

• Addressing current challenges
• Atypical BSE and atypical Scrapie
• Chronic Wasting Disease
• Specified Risk Material
• Risk analysis/mitigation strategies
• Sustaining the base

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2008 Canadian Prion Research
Red lines APRI connections Blue lines PrioNet
connections
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2008 and Beyond

• Capacity in Alberta in 2005 Zero
• Capacity in Alberta in 2008 Leading in Canada
• Capacity in Alberta in 2011 Leading the World
• Helping the way forward

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Projects by Program

• Funding of Projects by Program
• Core
• University of Alberta 9.6M 8
• University of Calgary 6.0M 2
• Subtotal 15.6M 10
• Proof of Principle
• University of Alberta 2.2M 11
• University of Calgary 1.2M 6
• Subtotal 3.4M 17
• Co-Funded
• University of Alberta 900K 4
• University of Calgary 100K 1
• Subtotal 1.0M 5
• TOTAL 20M 32

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Prion Project Timeline

• 2003 BSE crisis
• 2005 Identification of government investment
• 2006 First prion research in Alberta
• Soon First reports coming in

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Composting and SRM

• Degradation of scrapie prions by composting is
  anywhere from 100-300 fold inactivation
• Project by Mike Belosevic
• There are an estimated 78,000 tonnes/year of SRMs
  produced in Alberta

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Test Development

• Potential Live Animal Tests
• Proofs of Principle developed
• Urine test for cattle
• Stefanie Czub
• Circulating nucleic acids test
• Christoph Sensen/Stefanie Czub

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Prevention Treatment

• Recombinant antibodies are being created for use
  against the prion protein
• Collaboration between N. Kav and A. Aguzzi
  (Switzerland)
• Potential large scale production in plants
• Identifying steps in misfolding process
• B. Sykes/D. Wishart are using different methods
  to identify misfolding steps
• Potential for tests, vaccines, and treatments

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PrP Function

• Mice behaved abnormally when prion protein was
  removed
• Project by F. Jirik and G. Zamponi
• Leads to conclusion that PrP serves a function in
  the body

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Shadoo

• David Westaway from the U of A identified a
  second mammalian prion protein, Shadoo

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Integrated Efforts
Dr. David Westaway
Dr. Brian Sykes
Dr. David Wishart
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Partners

• PrioNet Canada (Network for Centre of Excellence)
• Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• Government of Alberta
• Public Health Agency of Canada
• University of Alberta
• University of Calgary
• University of Lethbridge

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Recent Communications

• Events target individual groups or combinations
  of industry, academic, and government
  representatives
• MLA Breakfast (Sept. 30, 2008)
• CWD Workshop (Feb. 28, 2008)
• PrPCANADA 2008 (Feb. 3-5, 2008)
• SRM Workshop (Nov. 27, 2007)
• Rural presentations and farm shows (ongoing)

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Exploring Future Partnerships

• International and National Potential
• Neuroprion
• National CJD Surveillance Program
• Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency
• Industry Associations

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Consultative Process