OHRI selects Duncan Stewart to continue push towards translational research

After 11 years at the helm, Dr Ronald Worton is stepping aside as head of the Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI), ushering in a new era under the leadership of Dr Duncan Stewart. Stewart will arrive at the Ottawa region's premier health research institute on July 1 to continue a restructuring that will see OHRI boost its research expertise in several more narrowly defined disease areas and increase its emphasis on translational research.

"The opportunity to lead this research centre is very exciting. There's a strong translational flavour there with some significant successes in that direction," says Stewart. "It's a good fit between my own research and the research that's currently going on there ... Translational research will transform the way medicine is practiced in the next decade and OHRI is well positioned to participate."

OHRI has an annual budget of $83 million and employs 1,200 scientists, clinicians, graduate students, postdoctoral students and support staff. While not nearly as large as Toronto's health research community, Stewart says it has great potential.

"The University of Toronto and its affiliated health research institutes are like a blue chip stock, whereas Ottawa is like an undervalued stock with great potential," he says. "What has developed under Worton and others is very impressive. It has consolidated and become much more important in stem cell and cancer and clinical research in just five or ten years. Being a little smaller can be an advantage."

Stewart will move his research into the new Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research, named to acknowledge a $7 million donation by Eric and Vizma Sprott for a permanent endowment. His research into cell- and gene-based therapies for blood vessel regeneration fits well with OHRI's emerging gene therapy and stem cell research unit, which comprises about 20% of the institute's scientific talent. As the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and an affiliate institute of the Univ of Ottawa, Stewart will also hold the Ottawa Hospital's VP research position and become a professor of medicine at the U of O.

OHRI was created in 2001 through the amalgamation of the Loeb Health Research Institute and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, the latter headed by Worton for five years (R$, February 7 12/01). Under Worton's leadership, OHRI has steadily expanded its size and research scope, which is currently being restructured.

"Duncan will be busy when he gets here … The Sprott Centre is a key part of the Institute and Stewart is involved in clinical applications of stem cell research," says Worton, who leaves at the end of March.

Before taking up the helm at OHRI, Stewart will be finalizing several clinical trials at the two health research organizations he currently heads — the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine and St Michael's Hospital.

The trials for regenerative stem cell therapy for hypertension and cardiac repair have been years in the making and Stewart says he wants to see them through to fruition.

"This is the culmination of five to ten years of work," he says. "It takes a long time to deal with efficacy, safety, translation to the clinical world, manufacturing scale-up, regulatory and ethical issues and funding."

To bridge the gap between Worton's departure and Stewart's arrival, OHRI is finalizing the appointment of an interim CEO and scientific director.

For Worton, his departure from OHRI is part of a gradual wind-up of a wide range of activities as he moves toward retirement.

"I may retain emeritus status (at OHRI) but I'll be off the payroll. I'll be chair of the Research Canada board and a board member of the Ontario Research Fund for one more year and I'll step down from the board of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research at the end of June. Within two years all the board appointments will be over."

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