Welcome to this first edition of LEEF Update. In this and future issues, we’ll introduce our BC Leadership Chairs, world-class researchers who have made British Columbia their home. You will meet three of them here.

Eventually, we will endow 20 BC Leadership and nine Regional Innovation Chairs around the province. So watch for our announcements of newly-appointed Chairs and for updates on their research achievements. Check our website regularly and - - when you do - - please sign up for future issues of LEEF Update. (more...)

British Columbia investment in research and innovation is a long-term commitment to a strong and vibrant economy, safe, healthy communities and a sustainable environment. The Province has invested more than one billion dollars in research and innovation since 2001, nearly $250 million in the 2006 provincial budget alone. These funds are for a wide array of research projects including significant investments in research to improve treatments and seek cures for major health-care challenges such as depression, cancer and spinal cord injuries.

Government is committed to investing in research and development because we believe that they are essential for the growth of a knowledge-based economy and society. (more..)

The Pacific salmon permeates our culture, history and economy. Indeed, its population fluctuations have made us acutely aware of the strength and fragility of Nature. While we recognize that the state of our forests, streams and coastal waters has a direct impact on Pacific salmon populations, we know less about the salmon’s impact on the natural environment. Should we care? Yes, we should, according to John Reynolds of Simon Fraser University (SFU), because we can’t save salmon without saving their ecosystems, and we can’t save their ecosystems without saving salmon.

Dr. Reynolds is a Professor in SFU’s Biological Sciences department and holds the Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation. (more...)

When neuroscientist John Steeves was awarded the first BC Leadership Chair back in 2002, there were 15 UBC faculty members working with him in his ICORD spinal cord injury research group (which he’d set up in 1995). ICORD -- International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries -- has since grown to 55 principal investigators and some 300 researchers, not just at UBC, but also across Canada and around the world. In 2002, it had $2 million in endowment capital, and by 2006, it has nearly $20 million. ICORD, in fact, has become the largest spinal cord injury research centre in the world. It was the BC Leadership Chair that empowered it to move forward so successfully in the past four years. (more…)

The numbers are shocking. Aboriginal groups are three to five times more likely than other Canadians to develop diabetes; five to eight times more likely to commit suicide, and at least 25 times more likely to give birth to babies with fetal alcohol syndrome. These disturbing statistics arise from genetic, social and/or environmental factors that are outside the normal purview of Canada’s health care system. The solutions require novel approaches. That’s why the Leading Edge Endowment Fund set up the Dr. Donald B. Rix BC Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health at the University of Northern British Columbia. It’s also why Dr. Laurie Chan is the Chair-holder. Dr. Chan believes the solutions for Aboriginal health problems lie in merging traditional knowledge with sound modern science. (more…)