EDMONTON — Three Alberta universities are working together to foster a future generation of multiple sclerosis researchers through the newly launched endMS Regional Research and Training Centre.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada established five of these centres across the country — the Alberta centre will be a joint effort between the University of Alberta, the University of Lethbridge, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary. “We’ll see much better alignment and a higher degree of inter-institutional co-ordination,” said Neil Pierce, president of the MS Society of Canada’s Alberta division.
Communications director Darrel Gregory said one the of the most important things about the initiative is that it will result in more researchers, and in turn, more MS research.“It’s going to be easier (for researchers) to share their work with other researchers across the country and I think that will lead to finding a cure for the disease in the shortest possible time,” said Gregory.
Dr. V. Wee Yong from the departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Oncology at the University of Calgary will head the Alberta initiative. He said the centre will have about 30 collaborators and 50 trainees to start off. Some of the trainees will include PhD and master’s students along with post-doctoral and clinical fellows.
“It’s about training and research,” said Yong of the initiative. “To train trainees at the highest level, you also have to do research at the highest level.” The centres are part of the endMS Research and Training Network, a $20 million project that is part of the ends campaign launched in September 2008. Each of the five centres will receive $100,000 per year for the next three years through the network.
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