RECORD $1M DONATION
Major boost to researcher
It’s being described as the largest philanthropic gift for research in the history of the University of Windsor — and it’s going toward sparing the lives of lab rats and other animal test subjects. On Tuesday, the university announced a donation of $1 million from the Eric S. Margolis Family Foundation to the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, founded last year by researcher Charu Chandrasekera. Experienced in biomedical research related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, Chandrasekera started the centre specifically to develop, validate and promote laboratory methods and techniques that don’t use animal test subjects.
The funding from the Margolis foundation will establish a primary research and training facility for the centre, to be named after its benefactor.
“This next chapter will place our country on the forefront of future medical discoveries and safety testing and I am honoured to play an integral part of its inception,” Eric Margolis said.
A journalist and former owner of Jamieson Laboratories, Margolis and his wife Dana have advocated on animal-welfare issues for decades. Chandrasekera described the gift from the Margolis foundation as “transformative” — a catalyst for non-animal, human-centered research.
“I’m ecstatic. This $1 million is going to kick-start all of our programs. I’m absolutely thrilled,” Chandrasekera said on Tuesday. While the centre has done research since its inception in October 2017, Chandrasekera said its resources are currently limited and the donation will take its work to the next level.
It was Chandrasekera who initially approached the Margolis foundation to apply for funding, but she didn’t expect they would respond with an amount 10 times her original request.
“I interact with them (Eric and Dana Margolis) regularly. They are incredibly kind and caring people,” Chandrasekera said. “I knew that they would be interested in something close to their heart. But I was absolutely surprised by the magnitude of the donation.
“It was one of the biggest surprises of my life because I had only asked them for $100,000.” Chandrasekera said the funding should be fully available to the centre within a few weeks. Development of the new laboratory will begin immediately. “We’re planning to equip the lab with a number of key pieces of equipment and we’re making plans to bring in some more expertise,” she said. “We want to hire some scientists.”
According to Chandrasekera, research involving animal models fails to translate to human clinical trials by a rate of 95 per cent, and there is a growing consensus in the scientific community to adopt new approaches based on human biology rather than animal test subjects.
“Many countries, including the United States, have already established national centres to advance non-animal methodologies, but CCAAM is the first and only centre of its kind in Canada,” Chandrasekera said.