New McMaster centre to track health differences by ethnicity

Tracking health differences by ethnicity is the cornerstone of the new Chanchlani Research Centre at McMaster University.

The new centre is dedicated to understanding the genetic and environmental causes of common diseases among diverse cultural groups, women and the socially disadvantaged while providing innovative training to the next generation of health researchers.

The centre is funded by a $1 million donation from Vasu Chanchlani, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and founding member of the Canada India Foundation, and his wife, Jaya, a family physician in Brampton for more than 20 years. The couple has given an additional $250,000 to fund an award for an international scholar in the field.

A presentation and ribbon cutting ceremony this evening will open the research centre located in McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery.

"This gift of philanthropists Vasu and Jaya Chanchlani provides significant opportunities for McMaster," said University President Patrick Deane. As health challenges are increasingly understood in a global context, focus on ethnic and local issues promises to bring benefit not only to those specific communities, but to humanity at large."

Dr. John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the Faculty of Health Sciences, agreed: "The Chanchlani Research Centre will be the home of some of our best work and our best people: We know the centre will produce meaningful, life-changing results."

In Canada, diabetes and early heart disease are found among increasing numbers of South Asians who have migrated here from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In India alone, Type 2 diabetes affects 80 million people.

Chanchlani has said the goal of the centre is to "leverage the resources, passion and influence of people of South Asian origin by engaging them in a serious social cause that is afflicting people of South Asian origin around the world."

Director of the new centre is McMaster professor and research scientist Dr. Sonia Anand, a Canadian leader in the research of genetic and environmental causes of vascular disease.

"The Chanchlani gift will enable a group of innovative researchers with talent that ranges from genetics to social determinants to understand the causes and consequences of common diseases that afflict diverse ethnic populations, women, and the socially disadvantaged," she said.

Source: McMaster University