Biotechnology

The National Research Council is the premiere biotechnology research agency of the Canadian federal government. The NRC Biotechnology Program was established in 1983 under the guiding principles of the National Biotechnology Strategy.

Five partner institutes deliver the NRC Biotechnology Program with support from NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) and NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) for technology transfer and knowledge dissemination. The NRC-Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (NRC-SIMS) supports the program with specific basic research.

NRC's Biotechnology Program is a founding member of Genome Canada and contributes to Canadian innovation in genomics through the NRC Genome and Health Initiative (GHI), a unique horizontal program that involves several NRC biotechnology institutes located across Canada. Launched in 1999, the initiative strives to bring the benefits of advances in genome sciences and health research to a variety of Canadian industrial sectors and regions. GHI is advancing fundamental and applied technical research in areas such as the diagnosis of disease, aquaculture, human pathogens, crop enhancement, environmental remediation of pollution, cancer, neurobiology and protein assembly.

THE ENVIRONMENT : DID YOU KNOW?

Centre of Excellence for Brownfields Rehabilitation

		NRC Biotechnology Research Institute
		Health Research
		Bioprocess Development
		Environmental Research

NRC-BRI, Environment Canada, the Government of Québec and the City of Montréal jointly founded the Montréal Centre of Excellence in Brownfields Rehabilitation (MCEBR). This non-profit corporation brings together representatives from governments, organizations and industry involved in the rehabilitation of contaminated sites. MCEBR stimulates, supports and promotes technology innovation in the decontamination and remediation field.

YOUR HEALTH : DID YOU KNOW?

Generating Economic Benefits from Health Discoveries

		NRC Institute for Biodiagnostics
		Development of non-invasive techniques for biomedical applications. Five key areas are targeted:
		Biosystems
		Biomedical Informatics
		Magnetic Resonance Technology
		Spectroscopy

Biotechnology holds great promise for improving human health through better diagnosis and treatment of disease. It also holds great economic promise, arising from the commercialization of Canadian discoveries.

The NRC Centre for the Commercialization of Biomedical Technology is a focal point for helping emerging entrepreneurs and start-up firms meet the challenge of competing in the global marketplace. 

The Centre, located in Winnipeg, is a key element in that city's drive to be a focal point for public health research and innovation. It is an integral part of BioMedCity, a collaborative venture by Winnipeg's research, business, investment and skills development communities to help Canada build on its public health research investments. 

The Centre is also evidence of NRC's continuing commitment to research, innovation and commercialization in Canada's cities and communities. It is one of 16 industrial partnership facilities created as part of NRC's national cluster building strategy. 

Unlocking the Mysteries of SARS

A protein that helps the SARS virus replicate itself may also shut off an important function that stops the replication. NRC biotechnology researchers based in Montreal have constructed a model of a protein called SARS PLpro that plays an important role in replication of the virus. They have also discovered, however, that the protein mimics the function of an enzyme present in the human host whose job is to send a message to the virus to stop replicating, because its work is finished – a process called deubiquitination. The ability of SARS PLpro to reverse the process of ubiquitination could help to explain why the SARS virus is so effective at evading the defences present in human cells and could lead to new targets for anti-viral drugs to fight SARS and other related viruses.

		NRC Institute for Biological Sciences
		Neurobiology
		Immunobiology
		Glycobiology

Effective Vaccine Against Meningitis-C

NRC's Dr. Harold Jennings has developed a new, highly effective vaccine (NeisVac-C) that protects people of all ages, including children as young as two months of age, against Meningitis-C (meningococcal group C).

Prior to the vaccine's development, 10% of people who contracted Meningitis-C died and many of those who survived suffered serious complications, including brain damage and deafness.

NeisVac-C was approved for use in Canada in January of 2002, the first NRC-developed vaccine technology to be approved for marketing in Canada. In 2004, Dr. Jennings was named NRC Distinguished Research Scientist for his work in developing the vaccine.

AQUACULTURE : DID YOU KNOW?

DNA Sequencing Facility

		NRC Institute for Marine Biosciences
		Aquaculture research
		Natural Toxin Identification and Research
		Advanced Mass Spectrometry
		DNA Sequencing

NRC's Institute for Marine Biosciences boasts Atlantic Canada's largest and one of the country's most active DNA sequencing facilities.

Operating in partnership with Genome Atlantic, the facility has the capacity to yield 1.5 million base pairs and prepare more than 3,000 samples a day. Equipped with world-class sample preparation and sequencing technologies, robotics and advanced bioinformatics tools, the facility provides DNA sequencing for other NRC institutes and for national and international clients. Current research includes the sequencing of several bacterial genomes, including bacteria found in fish and mammals. 

BETTER FOOD : DID YOU KNOW?

Bringing Food and Medicine

		NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute
		Cell Technologies
		Lipid Biotechnology
		Molecular and Developmental Genetics
		Plant Natural Products
		Protein Research
		Signalling and Plant Metabolism
		Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
		Mass Spectrometry
		DNA Sequencing and Synthesis
		Transgenic Plant Centre

Eat your broccoli – it's a phrase familiar to most children. But maybe their parents should have been saying, "eat your broccoli sprouts" instead. 

According to a collaborative effort by the NRC Plant Biology Institute and the University of Saskatchewan, broccoli sprouts may help protect people against heart disease and stroke. The sprouts are rich in chemicals called phase 2 protein inducers that – no surprise, given the name – promote the production of proteins that are known to reduce the impact of damaging free radicals. Free radicals, which are produced as part of a body's normal metabolism, cause damage to essential cell molecules in a manner similar to the way oxygen leads to rust in iron. 

Previous research has focused on the role of anti-oxidants, such as the chemicals in the broccoli sprouts, in preventing cancer. This research is different, in that it focuses on heart disease and stroke.

The research relies on expertise from NRC-PBI in cultivating broccoli with uniformly high levels of phase 2 protein inducers, using a technique called microspore embryogenesis. The collaboration reflects ongoing efforts to focus on the close relationship between plants and human health. Saskatchewan's burgeoning nutraceutical community relies on achieving uniformity in plant attributes; NRC-PBI helps them succeed.