At their recent meeting, the TRIUMF Board of Management approved the admittance of Western University as an associate member of the consortium of universities that owns and operates Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. Western joins TRIUMF as the 19th Canadian member university, reinforcing existing networks in nuclear medicine and materials science.
"At the heart of TRIUMF is an engaged and committed community of university members from across Canada and we are delighted to welcome Western University as a new member,” said Dr. Steven Liss, Chair of the TRIUMF Board and Vice Principal of Research at Queen’s University. “TRIUMF's international reputation and leadership in areas of nuclear medicine, accelerator and materials science, nuclear and particle physics draws upon the scientific excellence at our universities and provides leading edge platforms for training.”
“We are pleased to officially be a part of TRIUMF’s ambitious plans for the future,” said Dan Sinai, Associate Vice-President (Research) at Western University. “This partnership provides meaningful contributions to nuclear medicine for the betterment of Canadian health.”
Western has a strong research program in health sciences, complementing the nuclear medicine program at TRIUMF. Dr. Frank Prato, Imaging Program Leader at Western University and its affiliated hospital-based research institute Lawson Health Research Institute, collaborates with TRIUMF on the Natural Resources Canada-funded Isotope Technology Acceleration Program (ITAP) project to demonstrate and commercialize non-reactor production technology for Tc-99m using hospital-based medical cyclotrons.
“As Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, TRIUMF is a valuable resource for nuclear medicine research,” said Dr. Prato. “Under the leadership of Dr. Paul Schaffer, TRIUMF leads a Canadian team of researchers, including Lawson, in development of a technology to produce Tc-99m, a medical isotope needed by more than one million Canadians each year for the diagnosis of cancer and heart disease. We look forward to many years of collaboration to help keep Canada at the forefront of nuclear medicine."
TRIUMF’s core operations are supported via a federal contribution through the National Research Council Canada with additional funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Resources Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Western Economic Diversification. The Government of British Columbia has provided infrastructure capital funds.
–Taken from a TRIUMF press release.