Winnipeg's Health and Wellness Magazine
Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/110848
CCARM: a nexus of scientific, medicinal and agriculture research It's unlikely the groundbreaking research into the health benefits of flax seed would have seen the light of day without the Canadian Centre for Agri-Food Research in Health and Medicine. Founded in 1999, CCARM is the first nutraceutical and functional food research group organized in Manitoba, and is believed to be the only one of its kind in the world. "There is no other research group like it," explains Dr. Grant Pierce, who helped found and chair CCARM, and is now one of 12 principal investigators and over 50 support staff working out of the centre, located at the St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre. One reason for its uniqueness is that CCARM's organizational structure brings together many experts across diverse disciplines under one roof. "We have a teaching hospital, (St. Boniface Hospital), a major university (the University of Manitoba) and a national agricultural organization (Agriculture and Agri-food Canada) coming together here," he says. "From an organizational standpoint, I'm not aware of any other nutraceutical/functional food group with a national agriculture organization heading clinical medical trials." The research carried out at CCARM also sets it apart from other centres because scientists can do bench-to-bedside research into food's potential health benefits. "We can look at cells. We can look at animal models of disease," he says. "We can then move that right into studying the effects on healthy people, and even disease populations, like we have done with the flax seed study. We can eventually evaluate what we all want to know: does this food reduce heart attacks, stroke and other chronic diseases." With this one-of-a-kind mandate, CCARM is forging new avenues of understanding about foods' potential medicinal benefits to human health. But without the $17-million start-up funding from the federal government, as well as support from the University of Manitoba, St. Boniface Hospital Foundation, the province, and numerous international and national health research agencies, Pierce says research like the flax study might not have ever got off the ground because CCARM wouldn't be around. "The widespread support has allowed CCARM to become a centre-point for exciting research with wide-ranging benefits over the last decade. Its research will benefit farmers and the economy – as well as the health of everyone," says Pierce. "Our goal at CCARM is not to just do the best science that we can. It's really about knowledge translation and bringing basic science research and clinical research not only to the bedside, but also to the general public in a way where we're all benefitting." CCARM is currently led by Dr. Peter Zahradka, professor of physiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. This large research group continues to excel in identifying the healthrelated benefits for pulse crops (beans, peas, lentils, etc.), canola, buckwheat, berries and their components (resveratrol), vitamins, and a variety of extracts from natural vegetation in field and forest. Canola is one of many crops being studied by CCARM researchers. January/February 2013 27