Since February 6, 2007, the Marine Biotechnology Research Centre (MBRC) has announced the establishment of the Marine Biotechnology Research Centre Foundation. This Foundation was set up in order to promote the continuity and growth of the MBRC’s activities.

The Foundation’s objectives are:

• to endorse, support and promote medical research by establishing programs and research chairs for the prevention, screening and treatment of cancer, or of any other type of illness having a major socio-economic impact;

• to endorse, support and promote research on drug substances or natural ingredients, specifically of marine origin;

• to endorse, support and promote research on products and processes recognized for individual wellness;

• to endorse, support and promote student training through research fellowships;

• to broadcast for the benefit of the population the results of the research endorsed by the Foundation;

• to endorse, support and promote the purchase and maintenance of highly-specialized equipment required for the performance of the research activities targeted by the Foundation.

The financing of the Foundation’s activities will be accomplished through a fundraising campaign directed at big corporations and private foundations, whose objectives involve research funding, including the prevention and treatment of diseases such as cancer.

Remember that 70% of drug substances with anti-cancer properties marketed in the last 25 years or so are based on molecules and naturally-occurring substances. The cold water in Québec Maritime represents, in this case, an invaluable potential for the discovery of these substances that promote health.

The Foundation’s inception, initiated by the MBRC, is in keeping with the pursuit of the strategy adopted by Québec Maritime and the Technopole maritime du Québec. It is crucial for Eastern Québec’s positioning in terms of the evaluation and communication of the health benefits of a very diversified nordic marine biomass. Already, the spillover from the research on the development of value-added products related to the prevention of certain diseases, such as cancer, are foreseeable in the medium and long term, with a link to regional development.