SickKids awarded $16 million CFI innovation grant for Precision Child Health research

Research teams at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have received more than $16 million to propel its Precision Child Health movement, marking the institution’s largest-ever equipment grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).   

“New technology platforms enabled by this CFI funding will generate novel insights that will rewrite what ‘precision medicine’ means,” says Dr. Stephen Scherer, Chief of Research. “Precision Child Health is the bridge that connects genetic, biological and environmental determinants of health. By connecting these domains, we can better predict, prevent, diagnose and treat each patient at an individual level.”

The grant is led by Drs. Padmaja Subbarao and David Malkin, clinician-scientists who co-lead Precision Child Health at SickKids. It represents 40 per cent of the overall project’s value, anticipated to reach $40 million. Such funding enables the SickKids Research Institute to invest in and deploy new technology infrastructure that will help realize the connected vision of three research areas: clinical multi-omics to collect rich biological and environmental data on young patients; translational genomics that include innovative genetic technology and medicine; and new precision therapies.  

“We’re on a journey to transform SickKids into a learning health system in which care and research operate in sync, integrating data from every stage of a child’s life to deliver individualized treatment,” says Subbarao, PCH Co-lead, Senior Scientist, Translational Medicine, Associate Chief of Clinical Research and Staff Respirologist. 

These efforts will leverage advanced data science and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure to interpret the mechanisms involved in disease. Importantly, it will enable data to be shared to drive exploratory studies and bring solutions back to the clinic and community.  

Developing data and machine learning-driven precision therapeutics 

The infrastructure investment also opens an entirely new capability: to develop precision therapeutics for young patients. 

Through new machine learning platforms, researchers will design protein biologics and small-molecule therapeutics to develop drugs that target disease-causing genes. Meanwhile, AI-powered tools will help design next-generation medicines, including compounds that can take aim at previously undruggable targets.

Another component of the program is a multi-omics platform, which will capture deep, long-term data from among the 100,000 new patients seen every year at SickKids. This deep well of secure information will help research teams design new diagnostic tests, conduct significantly more studies, and pursue novel genetic medicines. 

To support translational genomic medicine, SickKids researchers will screen genetic variants and model diseases with innovations that include advanced robotics and imaging systems that will be enabled by the grant. They’ll also conduct large-scale CRISPR screening as part of a global effort to analyze the human genome and uncover variations that cause disease. 

“We’re thrilled to receive this essential new investment from the Government of Canada,” says Malkin, PCH Co-lead, Senior Scientist, Genetics & Genome Biology, Co-Director of Cancer Genetics Program and Senior Staff Oncologist. “It catapults SickKids into a world-leading position to support Precision Child Health research designed to leave behind a one-size-fits-all approach to medicine and truly tailor care to each person.” 

Alongside Malkin and Subbarao, team leads for the Precision Child Health grant include SickKids scientists Drs. Gregory Costain, Julie Forman-Kay, Astrid Guttmann, Michal Koziarski, Yun Li, Jason Moffat, Lillian Sung and Michael Tyers. 

SickKids collaborates on two additional CFI awards 

SickKids is also a collaborating institution on two other projects newly funded by the CFI: an AI project set to become the world’s largest integrated registry of clinical and imaging research data; and a state-of-the-art centre to study the genome and microbiome.

VITAL (Vital real-time health data for Trials, Artificial Intelligence, and a Learning Health System) - $24.6 million  

Led by Unity Health Toronto, this project unites nine institutions in a mission to build the world’s largest repository of linked clinical and imaging data for research. The VITAL Platform will collect data every 24 hours from 160 hospitals across Ontario, Alberta and Québec to enhance Canada's capacity to drive clinical trials, advanced AI research and health system analyses. Scientific leadership for the project at SickKids includes Drs. Lisa Strug and Peter Gill. Notably:

• Data will be stored in the HPC4Health cloud environment in the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research Learning at SickKids. 
• Fewer than five per cent of Canadians with cancer are enrolled in clinical trials. VITAL is poised to support greater accessibility by automatically matching patients to trials and efficiently collecting data. 
• It will be Canada’s largest Indigenous self-governed research platform, involving 26 Indigenous primary care organizations. 

Translational Genomics and Microbiome Centre - $6.2 million 

This grant will establish the Translational Genomics and Microbiome Centre, a new core facility that unites The Centre for Phenogenomics (SickKids and Sinai Health) and the University of Toronto’s Department of Comparative Medicine. Scientific leadership for the project at SickKids includes Drs. John Sled, Jayne Danska and Lauryl Nutter. 

Complete with advanced automation and informatics systems, it will be Toronto’s first facility to provide researchers access to pre-clinical models with diverse microbiomes and humanized immune systems to study disease with greater precision. Notably:

• These models can be combined with advanced genome editing to explore gene-by-environment interactions to analyze how diseases develop, progress and respond to treatment, reflective of Canada’s diverse population.
• Enhanced clinical phenotyping, combined with high‑resolution 3D imaging, will enable deep characterization of these models to help uncover new diagnostic methods and treatments.
• The Centre will upgrade and consolidate infrastructure across existing facilities in Toronto’s Discovery District to serve scientists across the region and country.

The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, made the funding announcement today at the Université de Sherbrooke.