Biosciences in Calgary/Alberta

[bob1954]

How does Calgary/Alberta rate, compared to the rest of Canada & other areas of North America in the field of Bio-Sciences (Reserch, developement & the markrting of) Medical devices, vaccines, & other medical funtions? Also the R & D of anything from Bio-Diesel/Gasoline to other products used in our use of Energy and protection of Food/Water scources.

[bob1954]

This is a little strange, I thought this would have been a "somewhat" active thread. Evidently Biosciences, which is one of the more important aspects of our lives, and the research & developement of such, does'nt rate that high of a priority. IMO..

[Radley77]

Golder Associates has a large presence in Calgary. Jacques Whitford, a subdivision of Stantec also has large operations here. AGAT Labs and Maxxam Analytics provide environmental and geological testing services. When I think of companies that hire large people with biosciences in Calgary, I think of the environmental remediation companies.

I also have a friend who is a PhD candidate and specialized in neurological imaging at the U of C.

Saskatoon has a fair-sized biotech cluster, but most of the research there is more agricultural orientated and more academic (Monsanto, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), and NRC Biotech Institute).

Calgary's biotech companies tend to focus more on practical and pragmatic business solutions and rely on private funding, versus Saskatoon's biotech funding model that relies somewhat on government.

My partner's first job in Alberta was doing research for the government on why the bees keep dying, but now runs operations for an service company.

The thing about bio-sciences is that there is so much specialization and opportunities that I don't think there is a one stopshop for biosciences in Canada. How does one rank Alberta's challenging tailing ponds, against Saskatoon's agricultural basis, to Quebec's large aging population issues? To each area, biosciences will serve a different need.

[ue]

Uh well no one mentions Edmonton and it does say 'Alberta'...so...the University of Alberta has a lot of research/development facilities as does NAIT. The National Nanotechnology Center is here, along with so many world-class healthcare facilities (Cross-Cancer, Edmonton Clinic, UofA Hospital/Stollery) and technology-research centers. There is a lot in the medical field in Edmonton for sure on the Canadian scale. Same with r&d (Except on the north american scale...). So Edmonton, and probably Calgary too in different ways really contribute to Alberta stacking up well in the field.

[bob1954]

Is there rapid growth in these sectors, insofar as growing employment and new products or discoveries?

[bob1954]

This may be small, but Radient Technologies is moving some of their operations to Edmonton. It's small but this is the kind of industry that's growing rapidly. Good for Edmonton.. Kind of why I started this thread!