Sunnybrook Research Institute is the research component of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario. It is one of the largest research centres in Canada, second only to the University Health Network within the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Centre Network. SRI is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. Conducting over $100 million in research every year, SRI is home to a number of breakthroughs that have transformed health care. The research institute supports the activities of over 200 scientists and clinician-scientists, over 200 research associates, engineers, physicists and technicians and over 300 students and trainees that works in of state-of-the-art research space in northeastern Toronto. They work to prevent disease and develop treatments that enhance and extend life. These aims derive from SRI’s core vision: to achieve discovery and its translation into clinic to set best practices.
Disciplines and Platforms
Each scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute belongs to a platform and a program.
Research Platforms
Research Programs
Core Facilities and Services
Sunnybrook Research Institute has an extensive offering of core facilities that serve internal and external users:
Large-Scale Projects
In 2008, Sunnybrook received a $74.6 million award, the largest grant in the hospital’s history, from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Research Hospital Fund. This award will establish the Centre for Research in Image-Guided Therapeutics. The first of its kind in Canada, the centre will develop and test novel medical imaging technologies and therapeutics such as new vaccines, drugs, biological agents and imaging devices, and translate them into clinical practice in the areas of cancer, cardiac, musculoskeletal and neurosciences. The Centre for Image-Guided Therapeutics will add more than of research space at Sunnybrook and will bring together 55 scientists and clinician-scientists from across the hospital along with more than 180 research trainees. Unique facilities within the Centre will include:
Canada’s first biomedical device development lab;
the world’s first MRI-guided focused ultrasound surgery facility;
a minimally invasive electrophysiology and vascular procedures facility; and
a neurointervention facility.
The Centre was officially opened November 2, 2012. The opening was attended by several prominent figures including the Governor General of CanadaDavid Johnston. The opening also included an awards ceremony for the best summer research internship project in the Focused Ultrasound Lab.
Other Large-Scale Projects
Commercialization
Sunnybrook Research Institute is active in commercializing its research. They have issued a total of 64 patents and currently have 29 active licences. Some of their major industrial partners include GE Healthcare, Pfizer Canada Inc., Philips, sanofi pasteur and Siemens. Several spinoff companies have emerged from SRI, including VisualSonics Inc., Sentinelle Medical Inc. and Profound Medical Inc.
Breakthroughs
Some of Canadian and world firsts at Sunnybrook Research Institute include the following:
Immunologists at SRI were the first in the world to create a simple system to generate T cells in a Petri dish. This discovery points the way to the eventual development of clinical therapies for people with devastated immune systems like those with AIDS.
Cell biologists at SRI showed that lower doses of chemotherapy given with antiangiogenic drugs significantly delays the growth of tumours in preclinical models. Clinical trial teams worldwide are now seeking to validate this molecular breakthrough.
Neuroscientists at SRI showed that bright artificial light therapy is as effective as antidepressant medication in the treatment of winter depression. They also showed that it works faster and produces less agitation and sleep disturbance, and fewer palpitations.
Heart and circulation researchers at SRI provided evidence to suggest that artery grafts from the forearm should be used in place of vein grafts from the leg for heart bypass surgery. This finding challenges more than 30 years of surgical practice.
