The federal government has allocated $3.8 million more toward leading-edge research at the University of Western Ontario.

The money, to fund two new research chairs and renew two others, is intended to attract and retain top-notch researchers and give Canada a competitive advantage.

The funding was part of $58.6 million awarded yesterday to 61 new or renewed research chairs at 14 universities across Ontario.

Ted Hewitt, vice-president of research and international relations at Western, hailed the new money from Ottawa which makes Western, with 68 research chairs, among the top 10 research-chaired universities in Canada.

The two new researchers, he noted, both came to Western from the United States.

Joe Preston, Conservative MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, said the government "recognizes the important role research plays in our competitiveness."

He said he believes the new research chairs are "poised to make huge contributions to Canada's innovation."
The chairs:

• Peter Rogan, from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, $1.4 million, a new chair, is developing new ways to identify and interpret genetic variations so patients can get personalized, individual molecular diagnoses. He is developing software to help researchers predict what is needed to help patients overcome disease.
• Amanda Moehring, from Duke University, $500,000, a new chair, is studying genetic changes that cause one population to diverge into two distinct species and prevents them from merging back together. Instead of software, she is working with fruit flies.
• Norman Huner, renewal, $1.4 million, to continue biological work identifying a molecular sensing mechanism by which organisms detect and respond to environment change, work that will help screen and identify freezing tolerance in cereal crops.
• Lars Konerman, renewal, $500,000, to continue exploring with spectrometry the mechanisms by which protein chains unfold and assemble into their biologically active structures. This work has found "mishaps" occur in such unfolding, leading to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease

Chip Martin is a Free Press reporter