The Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children undertakes child-centred research across the life continuum from fetal origins to adult outcomes; including fundamental discovery, applied research, and outcomes and impact.

Currently, there are more than 2,200 staff and trainees involved in more than 975 funded projects, including more than 1,900 active clinical protocols. Along with 235 principal investigators and 202 project directors, there are over 900 graduate students, research fellows and visiting scientists from at last 25 countries, as well as laboratory technologists, research assistants and other support staff.
 
The total research budget for 2005-2006 was more than $139 million. Funding for research activities and operations comes from two sources. Internal funding from SickKids Foundation, where community and corporate donors contribute to the Foundation’s endowments; and external funding from approximately 750 peer-reviewed grants awarded to our researchers. In addition, the SickKids Research Institute has approximately 200 collaborative research projects with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Research at the SickKids Research Institute is organized into 12 research programs: Brian & Behaviour Research, Cancer Research, Cardiovascular Research, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics & Genomic Biology, Infection, Immunity, Injury & Repair Research, Integrative Biology, Lung Biology, Metabolism Research, Population Health Sciences and Structural Biology & Biochemistry.

SickKids research facilities include:

Core Facilities

ADVANCED BIOIMAGING CENTRE

The Advanced Bioimaging Centre is a joint facility of SickKids and Mount Sinai Hospital. It is located in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and provides electron microscopy services to scientists at both institutions, as well as the University of Toronto and the scientific community at large.

ADVANCED PROTEIN TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

The Advanced Protein Technology Centre (APTC) provides protein analysis services to the Canadian research community. APTC services include amino acid analysis, peptide sequencing, peptide synthesis and mass spectrometry.

CENTRE FOR COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY

The Centre for Computational Biology (CCB) is the computational support and service group for the SickKids Research Institute. From desktop support and application development to computing resources and bioinformatics consulting, the CCB provides a full range of computational support and services, as well as supercomputing services.

CLINICAL RESEARCH SUPPORT UNIT

The mandate of the Clinical Research Support Unit (CRSU) is to improve the quality of clinical research at SickKids by providing consultation in the areas of study design and methodology, statistical analysis, and data management.

CLINICAL RESEARCH CENTRE

The Clinical Research Centre was established to provide safe and accessible facilities for physiological types of patient-based research. Services provided include a cardiopulmonary research exercise laboratory and a clinical investigation unit that offers general patient assessment, specialized metabolic testing and bioelectrical impedance.

TRANSGENIC FACILITY AND MOUSE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL FACILITY

The Transgenic Facility is a resource centre containing a collection of laboratory equipment required for procedures involved in mouse embryo research. The Mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) Cell Facility is a core facility that provides services for gene-targeting experiments, including growing ES cells and feeder cells, electroporation of targeting vectors, and selection and expansion of targeted ES cell clones.

FLOW CYTOMETRY FACILITY

The Flow Cytometry Facility allows for cell analysis using flow cytometry technology. Flow cytometers detect and quantify a number of cellular parameters as cells are carried in a liquid stream through a nozzle that is illuminated by one or more lasers emitting light of defined wavelengths.

IMAGING FACILITY

Laser confocal microscopy and deconvolution microscopy are considered optimal systems for detection of fluorescent molecules with high resolution. Multi-photon excitation extends the capabilities of the confocal system by increasing the focal depth and minimizing photodynamic damage to the biological system. The high energy of the tunable laser is also ideal for photo-activation or photo-bleaching experiments. Most of the equipment in the Imaging Facility is not available elsewhere in Toronto, including laser tweezers and scissors that can manipulate individual organelles.

MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY FACILITY

The monoclonal antibody facility provides services for custom hybridoma production and antibody purification to the Canadian research community.

THE CENTRE FOR APPLIED GENOMICS

The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) is comprised of facilities that provide the resources, technologies and expertise essential for disease gene research and other basic and applied genetic and genomic investigations. Along with DNA sequencing and synthesis, TCAG facilities include:

• The genetic analysis facility, which includes genome-wide scans, fine-mapping genotyping, marker development and mutation analysis.
• The genome resource facility provides a gene and physical mapping service.
• The gene isolation and expression facility uses state-of-the-art technologies to facilitate the isolation of candidate genes from defined chromosome regions, to facilitate the isolation of full-length genes through library screening, RT-PCR and RACE, and to determine tissue expression profiles of genes of interest.
• The microarray facility performs both gene expression studies and array-based comparative genomic hybridization.  

Project Facilities

THE MOUSE IMAGING CENTRE

The Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) combines state-of-the-art digital imaging technologies for the characterization of mouse models of human disease and phenotype discovery.

SIDNET

SIDNET is a project that aims to express the human proteome and study human function by high throughput screens, thereby allowing the study of cellular proteins. The SIDNET protein archive enables users to access a vast library of protein clone information, as well as allows researchers to search a protein database.