History
The need for a centralized core facility for human genome research at SickKids Hospital prompted the establishment of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) in 1998. The Founding Director and Associate Director were Drs. Lap-Chee Tsui and Stephen W. Scherer, respectively. Dr. Scherer is now the Scientific Director.
Funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) enabled TCAG to form by consolidating existing core facilities including the Medical Research Council of Canada Genome Resource Facility, the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network (CGDN) large insert clone core, the CGDN DNA Sequencing Core and the SickKids Biotechnology Service DNA Sequencing and Synthesis labs. A genome-wide microsatellite genotyping laboratory at the Ottawa Health Research Institute led by Dr. Dennis Bulman was added. Subsequently, operational funding from the CIHR Genomics Special Projects panel provided for additional staff.
In 2001, a proposal entitled "Genome Resource Core Platform" was submitted to the then newly formed Genome Canada. This provided operational support, enhancing existing facilities and adding a mouse genotyping core at the University of Toronto led by Dr. Lucy Osborne. In 2002, SickKids built a new Affymetrix microarray facility. This core has quickly grown to become the largest such service centre in Canada and is in the top ten in North America.
In 2004, TCAG entered a second phase of development driven by a $12 million CFI/Ontario Innovation Trust funded project entitled "Integrative Genomics for Health Research", allowing for consolidation of the mouse genotyping core with the SickKids facilities. This award also supported the establishment of an "Ontario Population Genomics Repository" (OPGP) to be used as controls in studies of common diseases. To efficiently complete this project, TCAG partnered with Dr. John McLaughlin's group at Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto).
In May, 2004, an application to the newly announced CFI Research Hospital Fund resulted in a $10.9 million dollar award to build out lab space and consolidate all operations on the 14th and 15th floors of the Toronto Medical Discovery Tower (TMDT) in the MaRS Discovery District. TCAG was the first occupant of TMDT (in August, 2005), quickly followed by other SickKids scientists. Most recently, investments in computer infrastructure from the 2003 CFI/Ontario Innovation Trust competition have resulted in the establishment of new phases of the high-performance computing cluster (HPF) that is currently used by TCAG and many other users, to allow analysis of large genomic datasets arising from new microarray and sequencing technologies. Further enhancements to the TCAG infrastructure will be supported by a $10.7 million renewal grant from CFI's Leading Edge Fund competition, entitled "Integrative Genomics for Health Research - Phase II", awarded in June 2009.
TCAG operates in large part on Science and Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) funds from Genome Canada, administered by the Ontario Genomics Institute.
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