Historic $130 million gift from the Rogers family to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research Peter Munk Cardiac Centre

Historic $130 million gift from the Rogers family to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research



Largest private donation in Canadian health care history will bring together the strengths of SickKids, UHN, and U of T
in individualized genomic medicine, tissue engineering, and advanced cardiac care.

Goal to reduce hospitalization for heart failure by 50 per cent in 10 years.

The Rogers family gift to be matched with an additional $139 million from partner organizations
for a total investment of $269 million.

TORONTO, November 20, 2014 – The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), University Health Network (UHN) and the University of Toronto (U of T) announced today the creation of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (the Centre) funded by an unprecedented donation of $130 million from the Rogers family – the largest monetary gift ever made to a Canadian health care initiative. The donation will be matched with $139 million in additional funds combined from SickKids, UHN, and U of T for a total investment of $269 million.

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to life,” said Loretta Rogers, wife of the late Ted Rogers. “It’s a testament to Ted’s drive for innovation and his commitment to leaving the world a better place. We know Ted would have been proud of this bold initiative that will improve heart health for all.”

Ted Rogers’ personal experience with heart disease and his interest in finding new therapies to advance heart health make the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research a fitting legacy, noted Dr. Michael Apkon, President and CEO of SickKids. “The generosity and magnitude of this gift, and the transformational effect it will have on heart research, truly reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit of Ted Rogers and his family. This powerful, collaborative partnership among SickKids, UHN and U of T will have a global impact. Together we hope to accelerate discovery and cardiac care at an unprecedented pace.”

Heart disease represents a considerable economic strain on the Canadian health care system. The annual cost for managing moderate and severe heart failure patients in Canada is as much as $2.3 billion. “Today, one million Canadians are living with heart failure, and that number is projected to increase 25 per cent over the next 20 years,” noted Dr. Barry Rubin, Chair and Program Medical Director of UHN’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. “This unprecedented gift will enable physicians and scientists working together in the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to develop new therapies that will dramatically improve the lives of patients with heart disease. One of our primary goals is to reduce hospitalization for heart failure by 50 per cent in the next decade. Ted Rogers led the development of the telecommunications industry through a constant focus on innovation. We will use Mr. Rogers’ approach to change the face of heart disease in Canada and throughout the world.”

Adding to the exceptional nexus of clinicians, scientists and engineers already accelerating the pace of change in cardiac care across the partner institutions, The Centre will be a magnet to attract the top research talent from around the world, further solidifying Toronto and Canada’s position as global leaders in cardiac care, noted Professor Meric Gertler, President of the University of Toronto. “The Toronto region is home to one of the world’s largest biomedical science and health education clusters. This exceptionally powerful network of researchers and educators is translating exciting ideas, innovations and therapies in stem cell research and regenerative medicine into clinical settings where they will address the most challenging problems across the spectrum of heart disease. With its pioneering spirit and innovative approach, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will be a world-class collaboration and a most fitting tribute to its namesake.”

The Centre will have facilities in the three participating institutions, with its directorate situated at UHN. It will be the first in the world to bring together research, education and innovation in individualized genomic medicine, stem cell research, bioengineering, and cardiovascular treatment and management under one umbrella with a single focus: improving heart health across the entire life span, from children to adults. Each partner will take the lead in a particular area of focus:
SickKids will harness the power of genomic science to decode the genetic foundations of cardiac disease, which will allow for heart disease to be better predicted before it occurs, and will support individualized therapies for children and adults, based on the unique genome of each patient.
UHN, through the application of powerful databases, new biomarkers for cardiac disease, regenerative and individualized medicine approaches and state-of-the-art-real-time home monitoring and telecommunications technologies, will focus on the translation of research discovery into the delivery of care for patients. Foundational to this approach is a customized cardiovascular data module for a new electronic patient record which is linked to a Biobank which will house a vast array of biologic samples that come from both adult and paediatric patients.
U of T will combine stem cell technology with novel approaches in cellular and tissue engineering for the regeneration of heart muscle, coronary vessels, and heart valves; enlarge our understanding of how genetic, molecular signaling, and cellular networks function as the heart develops, opening up the possibility for more effective heart therapies; and, create technologies and tools for improved heart physiology monitoring in clinical settings.

The Centre will also establish an innovation fund to drive discovery and development of next-generation therapies for heart failure, and an education fund to attract the best and brightest students and postgraduates to ensure a deep pool of talent in Canada for cardiac care and research.

To learn more about the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, go to www.TedRogersResearch.ca

Historic $130-million gift to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research Largest private donation in Canadian health-care history will bring together the strengths of SickKids, UHN and U of T in personalized genomic medicine, tissue engineering, and advanced cardiac care to address heart failure across the lifespan University of Toronto.

Historic $130-million gift to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research


Largest private donation in Canadian health-care history will bring together the strengths of SickKids, UHN and U of T in personalized genomic medicine, tissue engineering, and advanced cardiac care to address heart failure across the lifespan





“We’re thrilled to be able to bring the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to life,” said Loretta Rogers, wife of the late Ted Rogers. “We know Ted would have been proud of this bold initiative that will improve heart health for all.”With the goal to reduce hospitalization for heart failure by 50 per cent over the next decade, the Hospital for Sick Children, the University Health Network and the University of Toronto have announced the creation of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, funded by an unprecedented donation of $130 million from the Rogers family – the largest monetary gift ever made to a Canadian health-care initiative.


“The generosity and magnitude of this gift and the transformational effect it will have on heart research truly reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit of Ted Rogers and his family,” said Dr. Michael Apkon, president and chief executive officer of SickKids. “This powerful, collaborative partnership among SickKids, UHN and U of T will have a global impact. Together we hope to accelerate discovery and cardiac care at an unprecedented pace.”


Heart disease represents a considerable economic strain on the Canadian health-care system. The annual cost for managing moderate and severe heart failure patients in Canada is as much as $2.3 billion.


“Today, one million Canadians are living with heart failure, and that number is projected to increase 25 per cent over the next 20 years,” said Dr. Barry Rubin, chair and program medical director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and a professor of surgery at U of T. “This unprecedented gift will enable research teams in the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to develop new therapies that will dramatically improve the lives of patients with heart disease.”


The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will bring together more than 30 expert clinicians and researchers from across the partner institutions, as well as up to 80 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical fellows who represent the future of the field. This critical mass of expertise will improve treatments for heart patients – and develop entirely new therapies. The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will be a magnet to attract additional research talent from around the world, solidifying Toronto’s and Canada’s position as a global leader in cardiac care, said Professor Meric Gertler, president of U of T.


“The Toronto region is home to one of the world’s largest biomedical science and health education clusters,” said Gertler. “This exceptionally powerful network of researchers and educators is translating exciting ideas, innovations and therapies in stem cell research and regenerative medicine into clinical settings where they will address the most challenging problems across the spectrum of heart disease.


“With its pioneering spirit and innovative approach, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will be a world-class collaboration and a most fitting tribute to its namesake.”








The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will have facilities in each of the three participating institutions. It will be the first in the world to bring together research, education and innovation in personalized genomic medicine, stem cell research, bioengineering, and cardiovascular treatment and management under one umbrella with a single focus: improving heart health across the entire lifespan, from children to adults.


Each institutional partner will take the lead in a particular area:
SickKids will harness the power of genomic science to decode the genetic foundations of cardiac disease, which will allow for heart disease to be better predicted before it occurs, and will support individualized therapies for children and adults, based on the unique genome of each patient.
UHN, through the application of powerful databases, new biomarkers for cardiac disease, regenerative and individualized medicine approaches and state-of-the-art-real-time home monitoring and telecommunications technologies, will focus on the translation of research discovery into the delivery of care for patients. Foundational to this approach is a customized cardiovascular data module for a new electronic patient record which is linked to a Biobank which will house a vast array of biologic samples that come from both adult and paediatric patients.
U of T will focus on combining stem cell technology with novel approaches in cellular and tissue engineering for the regeneration of heart muscle, coronary vessels and heart valves. This cutting-edge science, which is crucial to restoring damaged hearts, will be led out of U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, one of the many fields in which the university is recognized as a world leader.


Professor Peter Zandstra, a lead U of T investigator for the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, says patients with valve disorders, for example, typically need several complex operations during their lifetime to implant larger valves to accommodate the growing heart. They also require drugs to keep their heart from rejecting valve replacements.


“Research at the centre could one day lead to the regeneration of a valve with the patient’s own cells – eliminating a lifetime of chronic illness,” he said.


Cardiac fibrosis is a stiffening of the heart tissue that leads to a variety of cardiac diseases, including heart failure. Zandstra says advances in tissue engineering at U of T will accelerate the discovery of biomaterials that could be used to treat fibrosis, bringing new hope to patients.


Research at the University will also enlarge our understanding of how genetic, molecular signalling and cellular networks function as the heart develops, opening up the possibility for more effective heart therapies.


The establishment of the new centre will enable U of T scientists to create technologies and tools for improved heart physiology monitoring, in clinical settings and for patients at home. These efforts will lead to more seamless, integrated care for heart patients.


The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will also establish a competitive innovation fund to drive discovery and development of next-generation therapies for heart failure, and an education fund to attract the best and brightest students and postgraduates to ensure a deep pool of talent in Canada for cardiac care and research.


Over the next decade, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will help enable more people – adults and children alike, in Canada and around the world – to live long, healthy and happy lives.

NEW HEART CENTRE WILL BE “TRULY TRANSFORMATIONAL” BOOST TO RESEARCH the University Health Network’s (UHN) Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC).

A loud and prolonged standing ovation greeted news of the establishment of the new Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. But the reverberations of the announcement Thursday will extend far beyond the few hundred invited guests and media, to the medical research community around the world.


“The only thing that you can say is that this is truly transformational,” said Dr. Barry Rubin, Chair and Program Medical Director at the University Health Network’s (UHN) Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC).


The Centre will launch three integrated programs that draw on the combined strengths of UHN, U of T and SickKids in individualized genomic medicine, tissue engineering and advanced cardiac care. Along with that, it will also establish an innovation fund to drive discovery and development of the next-generation therapies for heart failure, and an education fund to attract the best and brightest students and postgraduates to ensure a deep pool of talent in Canada for cardiac care and research.


“The greatest element of this gift is the ability to bring the three centres together to leverage their different expertise and to make it much more than the sum of its individual parts,” Rubin said in an interview. “Even though the money is unprecedented, it’s also unprecedented to have the three centres work together and focus on a single disease – heart failure.”






A primary goal of the Centre is to reduce hospitalization for heart failure by 50 per cent over the next decade.


The Centre, named for Ted Rogers, the Toronto-born broadcasting pioneer and philanthropist who died of heart failure in 2008, is being established with an unprecedented $130-million donation from the Rogers Foundation plus $139 million from​ the three institutions to raise the funding total to $269 million.


“We’ve been dealing with some challenges with shrinking funding from traditional sources and that can really cramp the style of the world-class research that we can do and that we have available,” said Dr. Heather Ross, a cardiologist at PMCC who is also the Director of the Ted Rogers Centre of Excellence in Heart Function. “A gift of this enormity really allows us to get on and get it done.”


While the Centre launches with 33 leading clinicians and researchers from UHN, U of T and SickKids, it’s expected to continue to attract the best in scientific talent from around the world to work on solving the critical challenges to heart health and create breakthrough in cardiac treatment, diagnosis and tools.


The Centre, which will be co-located in the three institutions but have its directorate at Toronto General Hospital, will recruit eight world-class research chairs and an Executive Director with an eye to mobilizing the best ideas and innovations to impact heart health in Canada and globally.


“There’s a huge opportunity to make an impact on a very sizeable number of Canadians,” Rubin said. “And, what we learn in the Centre we can translate to other places.


“In the future, we envision people won’t they need to go to Boston or Rochester for their treatment but people there will say they need to come to the Ted Rogers Heart Centre for treatment.”​

Historic $130 million gift from the Rogers family to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.. The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids),

Historic $130 million gift from the Rogers family to establish the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), University Health Network (UHN) and the University of Toronto (U of T) announced today the creation of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (the Centre) funded by an unprecedented donation of $130 million from the Rogers family – the largest monetary gift ever made to a Canadian health care initiative. The donation will be matched with $139 million in additional funds combined from SickKids, UHN, and U of T for a total investment of $269 million.


“We’re thrilled to be able to bring the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to life,” said Loretta Rogers, wife of the late Ted Rogers. “It’s a testament to Ted’s drive for innovation and his commitment to leaving the world a better place. We know Ted would have been proud of this bold initiative that will improve heart health for all.”

Ted Rogers’ personal experience with heart disease and his interest in finding new therapies to advance heart health make the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research a fitting legacy, noted Dr. Michael Apkon, President and CEO of SickKids. “The generosity and magnitude of this gift, and the transformational effect it will have on heart research, truly reflects the pioneering and innovative spirit of Ted Rogers and his family. This powerful, collaborative partnership among SickKids, UHN and U of T will have a global impact. Together we hope to accelerate discovery and cardiac care at an unprecedented pace.”

Heart disease represents a considerable economic strain on the Canadian health care system. The annual cost for managing moderate and severe heart failure patients in Canada is as much as $2.3 billion. “Today, one million Canadians are living with heart failure, and that number is projected to increase 25 per cent over the next 20 years,” noted Dr. Barry Rubin, Chair and Program Medical Director of UHN’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. “This unprecedented gift will enable physicians and scientists working together in the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research to develop new therapies that will dramatically improve the lives of patients with heart disease. One of our primary goals is to reduce hospitalization for heart failure by 50 per cent in the next decade. Ted Rogers led the development of the telecommunications industry through a constant focus on innovation. We will use Mr. Rogers’ approach to change the face of heart disease in Canada and throughout the world.”


Adding to the exceptional nexus of clinicians, scientists and engineers already accelerating the pace of change in cardiac care across the partner institutions, The Centre will be a magnet to attract the top research talent from around the world, further solidifying Toronto and Canada’s position as global leaders in cardiac care, noted Professor Meric Gertler, President of the University of Toronto. “The Toronto region is home to one of the world’s largest biomedical science and health education clusters. This exceptionally powerful network of researchers and educators is translating exciting ideas, innovations and therapies in stem cell research and regenerative medicine into clinical settings where they will address the most challenging problems across the spectrum of heart disease. With its pioneering spirit and innovative approach, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will be a world-class collaboration and a most fitting tribute to its namesake.”



The Centre will have facilities in the three participating institutions, with its directorate situated at UHN. It will be the first in the world to bring together research, education and innovation in individualized genomic medicine, stem cell research, bioengineering, and cardiovascular treatment and management under one umbrella with a single focus: improving heart health across the entire life span, from children to adults. Each partner will take the lead in a particular area of focus:


SickKids will harness the power of genomic science to decode the genetic foundations of cardiac disease, which will allow for heart disease to be better predicted before it occurs, and will support individualized therapies for children and adults, based on the unique genome of each patient.
UHN, through the application of powerful databases, new biomarkers for cardiac disease, regenerative and individualized medicine approaches and state-of-the-art-real-time home monitoring and telecommunications technologies, will focus on the translation of research discovery into the delivery of care for patients. Foundational to this approach is a customized cardiovascular data module for a new electronic patient record which is linked to a Biobank which will house a vast array of biologic samples that come from both adult and paediatric patients.
U of T will combine stem cell technology with novel approaches in cellular and tissue engineering for the regeneration of heart muscle, coronary vessels, and heart valves; enlarge our understanding of how genetic, molecular signaling, and cellular networks function as the heart develops, opening up the possibility for more effective heart therapies; and, create technologies and tools for improved heart physiology monitoring in clinical settings.

The Centre will also establish an innovation fund to drive discovery and development of next-generation therapies for heart failure, and an education fund to attract the best and brightest students and postgraduates to ensure a deep pool of talent in Canada for cardiac care and research.

To learn more about the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, go to www.TedRogersResearch.ca

- See more at http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/about-us/news/2014/11/historic-gift-from-rogers-family#sthash.8Y8sPxlx.dpuf

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