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Biotechnology

A Vancouver biotechnology company that has found a way to halt abnormal blood-cell growth to combat a range of disorders from leukemia to allergic reactions has scooped up $14.5 million US in venture capital funding from local and U.S. investors.  In one of the largest early-stage financings in B.C.'s recent biotech history, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off from the University of B.C. and the B.C. Cancer Agency, has made a deal that will see it through to the first clinical trials of its lead drug AQX-MN100, a treatment for cancer and inflammatory disease.  Source.

Psychological health important for workplace, group says

'Look after your people and they'll look after your business. "And you'll be doing the right thing." Source.

Safety precautions part of the job, say young workers

Even as WorkSafeBC prepares to launch a campaign to quell what it sees as a startling increase in construction industry injuries, concrete rigger Nigel Carter is happy to be working on his particular jobsite. Source.

New fitness tax credit

Special tax breaks, such as the federal Conservative government's new fitness tax credit to put kids in sports, add to the compliance and administrative costs of Canada's tax system, which are close to $31 billion, or nearly $1,000 for every Canadian, the Fraser Institute said in a report Thursday.  Preparing, filing and submitting tax returns plus maintaining a government bureaucracy to manage and regulate the tax system cost Canadians between $19 billion and $31 billion in 2005, says the report by the right-leaning think-tank.  "When you add up all the costs -- the time and effort spent obtaining or providing receipts and other documents, preparing and submitting the actual tax return, plus the cost of a government bureaucracy to manage the system -- they worked out to between $19 billion and $31 billion in 2005," said Jason Clemens, director of fiscal studies at the institute and co-author of the study. "That translates to a cost of $585 to $955 for every man, woman and child in the country."  Source.

Hot Trends for 2007

What will be the hot gardening trends in 2007? And what will be some of the exciting new plant introductions and key gardening events in the New Year?  The key factor shaping the direction of gardening more and more today is the reality that people have less and less time to do it.  Busy work schedules, hectic social lives plus multiple distractions and competing interests have drawn many people away from spending time in the gardens actually doing the work.  Source.

Keep your brain fit

Now that research has all but nailed down the link between healthy hearts and fit brains, organizations such as the Alzheimer's Society are trying to educate the public about how to avoid being a couch potato -- in both body and mind.  A number of studies in the past few years have shown that lifestyle changes that promote cardiovascular health also help to maintain and even improve cognitive abilities, including memory, information processing, and verbalization.  On April 24, the Alzheimer's Society will sponsor a presentation teaching up to 1,000 people how to invigorate not just their brains, but their whole lives, with simple, practical behaviours that may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's.  Source.

'Healthy' takes top spot in food trends

What do pomegranate juice, dark chocolate and beta-carotene drinks have in common? They're all among the hottest food trends of 2007 -- healthy, anti-oxidant items to be showcased at a national grocery industry convention in Vancouver this weekend.  "The biggest trend out there is better-for-you products," Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers president John Scott said in an interview. "People are really reading labels now, so they know what's in a product and they know what they want."  Source.

BCIT program aimed at filling biotechnology needs

When people think of a career in B.C.'s burgeoning biotech industry, the prospect of spending a good chunk of your life getting a doctorate degree can seem a little daunting.  But that doesn't have to be the case, as a local program geared for lab technicians and researchers attests to.  "We train [students] to go out and work right away and our students are getting snapped up," Carly Handel, the program and marketing assistant for B.C. Institute of Technology's biotechnology department, said in an interview. "Some go on to be MDs or work in other fields, but for the most part they take entry-level jobs as research associates or lab technicians."  Source.

Oil & Gas Industry

Forty-one people have died and more than 1,400 have been injured in B.C.'s oil and gas exploration industry over the past six years.  That has prompted the industry to increase safety training. Enform, an industry association responsible for training and certification, is adding health and safety initiatives to its mandate, WorkSafeBC will announce in Fort St. John today.  Source.

Federal Budget: R&D, Science, Technology

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will make a serious nod to Canada's researchers, innovators and graduate students in Monday's federal budget, followed up soon afterward with a major government policy paper on science and technology. The plan now is for the policy framework to come out possibly within days of the budget, insiders say. It will dovetail with an upcoming policy paper on the environment, which will have a heavy emphasis on research and technology.  It will also mesh with increased transfer payments to the provinces for post-secondary education included in the budget. Full article here.