New faces bring renewed spaces
Changes were underway at SickKids Research Institute in 1971 with the arrival of a new scientific director Dr. Aser Rothstein. By 1972, Dr. Rothstein was already in the thick of things, working with the team to restructure the institute.
At that time the Institute was divided into 16 divisions of research which corresponded to medical departments within the Hospital. In 1972 these included, Anaesthesiology, Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, Dentistry, Immunology, Medical Engineering, Neurosciences, Ophthalmology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Radiology, Respiratory Physiology, Surgery and Virology.
Dr. Rothstein’s goal was to re-orient the activities of the researchers in an effort to improve effectiveness and increase the impact of the research. Under his leadership, a several areas of research were identified as a focus. According to the 1972 Research Institute Annual Report, areas were chosen on the basis of a particular set of criteria:
- “Each research focus must have the potential for preventing, solving or ameliorating important clinical problems.”
- “In each research focus we should be in a position to make a unique contribution, either because of particular patient population available for study at HSC, or because of particular talented individuals on our staff who can guide the programs.”
- “Each focus will be interdepartmental in scope, involving a balance of basic research (production of new knowledge) and of applied research (application of existing knowledge to clinical problems)”
- “Each focus will be in a ‘lively’ area of biology where it seems probable that breakthroughs in knowledge and application can be anticipated.”
Under the new structure, each area of focus was given status as a Program, with a director who would be responsible for its scientific development, along with three to five investigators to form the ‘core’ of the program. Two programs were initiated in 1972: the first was the Respiration Program, encompassing research in the chest laboratory, Neonatal Division, Department of Anaesthesiology, Cardiology Division and the Department of Immunology. This Program focused on basic research on the “developmental aspects of lung function” and with applied research including “techniques for evaluation lung functions in infants, respiratory problems of the newborn, cystic fibrosis, sudden infant death and asthma.”
The second, the Neurobiology Program, was formed later that year, with basic research focused on “problems in nerve function with some emphasis on genetically determined neurological diseases.” Plans were made for more programs to be developed in the future including the Genetic Metabolic Program in 1973.