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The Toronto Sick Kids Hospital opened the doors to its newly established research and learning tower on September 17. Doctors, researchers, and cancer survivors are optimistic the new tower will accelerate the pace of medical research to potentially improve the quality of life for many more sick children.
Over the last several decades, scientists and researchers who worked for Sick Kids were stationed at five different locations across the Greater Toronto Area. This “scattered” workplace was a description used by Dr. Mike Salter, one of Toronto Sick Kids heads of research, who felt that medical breakthroughs were limited due to the lack of cohesion in the Toronto Sick Kids organization.
“With coming together like this, the idea is that this will provide a force for accelerating the pace for discoveries and it’ll change the way we do research.”
The 21-story research tower is located at Bay and Elm Street in downtown Toronto, and will house over 2,000 scientists. Some of the primary research projects that will be undertaken at the tower will be related to the fields of genetics, genome biology, neurosciences, and children’s mental health.
The tower was named the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, which takes its name from the owner and CEO of Mattamy Homes. Since 1978, Mattamy Homes has built over 50,000 homes across North America, and Peter Gilgan donated $40 million to the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital in 2012.
The opening of the tower is also in many ways a symbol for the Childhood Cancer Awareness Campaign, which is ongoing throughout September and sponsored by hospitals, cancer researchers, and cord blood banking programs.