Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I am very pleased to be here today on behalf of Genome Canada. I'm joined by Pari Johnston, who is our vice-president of policy and public affairs.
Today I'm going to talk to you about genomics, which is the branch of science that looks at the molecular underpinnings of living things. It is responsible for today's most cutting-edge biotechnologies, from DNA sequencing to synthetic biology to gene editing. I'm going to talk about how this science is helping us address the COVID pandemic. First I will say a couple of words about who we are.
Genome Canada is an independent not-for-profit that invests in large-scale Canadian science and technology to translate discoveries into valuable services and products across all sectors of the Canadian economy. We work to translate cutting-edge science into real-world applications that are transforming health care, the environment, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy and mining.
We work closely with provincial and regional partners through a federated collaborative model with six regional genome centres, matching national breadth with regional depth. We partner with universities, small and medium-sized companies, hospitals and public health labs.
This year is our 20th anniversary. Those 20 years have seen the birth and early growth of genomics, and Genome Canada, through the support of the federal government, has driven the development of a world-class network of Canadian researchers, infrastructures and technology. Today, those investments are proving essential as we mobilize quickly on the COVID pandemic, a rapid response that was 20 years in the making.
I will say a few words about how genomics helps us in the current moment. Viruses are simple but tricky. They're simple insofar as they're composed of just a string of nucleic acid—DNA or RNA—with an envelope that surrounds them. However, they are tricky in how they infect us, how they evade our immune system and how they mutate and spread.
Genomics provides us with the tools to read those nucleic acids, to get the viral blueprint, to understand the basic building blocks of the virus. That information can help inform development of vaccines and therapeutics and is invaluable in helping us track and trace the spread of the virus within Canada and around the world. Genomics can also help us understand the wide variation in responses among those who get sick and explore the genetic factors that might be involved.
Canadian researchers have been engaged in COVID-19 research from the earliest days of the pandemic. Researchers at Sunnybrook Hospital and McMaster University were among the first in the world to isolate and sequence the genome of the virus. Other related activities have been happening in pockets across Canada. As a result, Genome Canada has pulled together the Canadian COVID Genomics Network, or what we call CanCOGeN, a grassroots effort led by Genome Canada but driven by Canadian scientists, government public health labs and genomics institutions. It is dedicated to mounting a coordinated, connected national genomics response to COVID-19.
On April 23, CanCOGeN was allocated $40 million in federal support to achieve several key objectives: first, to sequence up to 150,000 viral samples and 10,000 samples from Canadian patients; then to coordinate data collection and data sharing across the provinces; then to pool the data for analysis and share results with public health authorities; and finally, to share those results globally with partners in the U.K., the U.S. and in global open-source databases. CanCOGeN will contribute to better public health policy, will inform drug development, will enable studies of future novel viruses and will ensure that Canada has a sustainable national genomics infrastructure to combat both the current pandemic and the next one.
What's next? Already looking ahead, Canada's genomics enterprise will be a partner in Canada's resilient recovery. We are ready to deploy made-in-Canada solutions through science and innovation to address Canadian issues unique to our geography and our population.
Canada is a world leader in large-scale biodata production and analysis, gene editing, synthetic biology, novel diagnostics and much more. Genome Canada supports diverse projects, such as green automobile manufacturing; improving feed for fish, poultry and swine; bioremediation of oil spills; and personalized diagnostic tools for lung transplants for children with rare diseases.
We're supporting the transformation of Canadian sectors. The demand for our programming is growing across industries, helping to drive business investment in innovation in Canada. A new report by McKinsey predicts that 60% of physical inputs to the future global economy could be produced from biological sources, identifying a biorevolution that could result in a direct economic impact of $4 trillion a year over the next 10 to 20 years.
In conclusion, Genome Canada was able to mobilize so quickly in this crisis because Canada has invested wisely in genomics science and technologies for 20 years. It's impossible to predict where today's research will be needed in the future, but it's clear that today's investments in research and researchers are essential for addressing tomorrow's challenges. Our rapid response was 20 years in the making. As Canada rebuilds, we at Genome Canada are working to address the challenges and seize the opportunities of the coming decades.
Thank you for the invitation to be here today. We'll be happy to answer any of the members' questions.