Renovations at the Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences (SCCS) will create specialized labs for researchers working on new drug treatments using medical isotopes.
The Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (Fedoruk Centre) operates the SCCS, a scientific facility for conducting work with nuclear imaging technologies in the treatment of cancers, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and infectious diseases.
Innovation Saskatchewan is providing $800,000 to support the renovation and equipping of vacant space at the SCCS Innovation Wing.
“The Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences and the Fedoruk Centre are vital to our health research cluster and have attracted world-class researchers to Saskatchewan,” Minister Responsible for Innovation Saskatchewan Tina Beaudry-Mellor said in a press release.
“The research being conducted in this facility is generating expertise in the health and agriculture sectors, advancing Saskatchewan into the global research market.”
Provincial government officials said the funding will also support a new imaging lab – the first of its kind in Canada – for studying plants and soil bacteria to improve crop productivity.
The renovations are expected to be completed by spring 2019. The equipment is expected to be commissioned, calibrated and in service by spring 2020.
Located on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan, SCCS supplies radiopharmaceuticals to Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer by nuclear imaging.