Dr. Alastair Cribb, a professor of clinical pharmacology from the Atlantic Veterinary College, has been named the University of Prince Edward Island's (UPEI) first Canada Research Chair in Comparative Pharmacology and Toxicology. The university will receive $500 000 over the next 5 years from the Government of Canada through the Canada Research Chair (CRC) program to support Dr. Cribb's research program into adverse drug reactions and breast cancer. Dr. Cribb's chair will be administered through The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which, along with the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative, is the primary supporter of Dr. Cribb's research. Cribb will also receive nearly $75 000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to fund infrastructure that supports his research.
“By promoting leading-edge research and innovation in universities, the Canada Research Chairs Program provides exciting opportunities for Canadian researchers and attracts the best research minds in the world to Canadian universities,” says the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Solicitor General of Canada, who was present at the event on behalf of the Honourable Brian Tobin, Minister of Industry. “I warmly congratulate Dr. Cribb and the University of Prince Edward Island.”
“Alastair Cribb's appointment is a recognition of the calibre of our researchers and the strong commitment to excellence in research and innovation at UPEI,” says UPEI president, Wade MacLauchlan. “We are setting the standard for the Canada Research Chairs program, and are especially grateful for the advocacy of our PEI Members of Parliament in ensuring that UPEI will have 5 of these chairs.”
The CRC is a $900-million federal program aimed at supporting outstanding researchers to help them advance their careers among world-class colleagues and gain access to top graduate students and state-of-the-art research facilities. It also gives universities an opportunity to retain their top researchers and recruit excellent researchers from around the world.
A specialist in veterinary and human clinical pharmacology, Dr. Alastair E. Cribb is Director of the Atlantic Veterinary College's (AVC) Laboratory of Comparative Pharmacogenetics, director of the PEI Institute of Health Research, and a professor in the AVC Department of Anatomy and Physiology. He joined the University in July 1996 after working for Merck Research Laboratories in Pennsylvania, USA. Cribb graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984 and then trained in clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenetics at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and at Dalhousie Medical School. He is a Scholar of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a member of the governing council of the CIHR. In 1998, he was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40. Since arriving at the UPEI, Cribb has secured more than $2 million in research funding and has had a significant impact on the research environment at the University.
During his tenure as a Canada Research Chair, Dr. Cribb's research program will examine how drugs and chemicals cause adverse reactions and how genetic differences influence susceptibility to toxicity. Adverse drug reactions are among the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States — a phenomenon Cribb believes is replicated in Canada.
Today, when new drugs are approved, or existing drugs prescribed, investigators have no concrete way of knowing if some individuals will have unusual or idiosyncratic reactions to the normal dose of an otherwise safe drug. Researchers believe that the genetic makeup of some patients causes them to experience serious adverse drug reactions. These idiosyncratic responses are prompting Cribb's efforts to improve the safety of drugs and chemicals. He and his 12-member team are studying the role of specific proteins in triggering or modifying adverse reactions, and are looking for new markers of susceptibility. This work may ultimately contribute to the design of safer drugs and to methods for tailoring therapy to individual patients.
Dr. Cribb is also active in breast cancer research, where he is trying to identify the role of genetic differences in the way that women's bodies handle estrogen in determining breast cancer risk. This study is being conducted in collaboration with clinicians at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown and involves nearly 1500 Island women. By identifying the enzymes involved in triggering the activation of estrogen and determining if genetic variations in these enzymes influence the risk of breast cancer, Dr. Cribb hopes to improve our understanding of who is at risk for estrogen-associated breast cancer.
Originally trained as a veterinarian, Cribb looks for differences between and within species for clues to further his research, which is why his chair has been awarded in the field of Comparative Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Dr./Dr Alastair Cribb