VIDO head Lorne Babiuk is leaving the Saskatoon vaccine research organization to become the vice-president of research at the University of Alberta.
Babiuk has worked at the University of Saskatchewan for 33 years, including 24 with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the U of S.
Andy Potter, a VIDO senior scientist, said Babiuk is irreplaceable, so the organization and the university will have to consider the structure of the position that Babiuk is vacating as well as the vacancy itself.
“He and VIDO have grown together. His experience and contacts, research and the ability to be fundraiser, administrator and scientist at the same time are rare,” Potter said.
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Once known as the Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization, VIDO has evolved from a prairie livestock disease research facility into a zoonotic disease centre that includes human vaccine research with connections spanning the globe.
That evolution culminated earlier this month with completion of the funding for a $110 million Level 3 disease containment research facility called Intervac.
Babiuk said it is a good time to depart with Intervac under construction beginning this spring and due to start performing research in January 2010.
“I have built a research institute within a fairly narrow area of science. I will be moving into a job where I continue to work with great researchers, but I will be assisting them in a much wider arena. Not just medicine and infectious disease, but humanities, engineering, agriculture, the whole academic arena,” he said.
“I wasn’t ready to retire and this is a good point in the life of VIDO and Intervac to introduce someone or others to the institute,” he said.
Potter said the search for new leadership at VIDO is a U of S administrative process, but whoever is found will likely need time to wind up their current work to join VIDO.
“Lorne is leaving but he will still be maintaining an academic link to the university and his students and research. He will still be with us beyond July when he moves to Alberta,” said Potter.
Babiuk is also the Canada Research Chair in Vaccinology and Biotechnology, has 25 patents and 18 patents pending, has published 460 peer-reviewed articles and has mentored 100 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers.
He said of all his accomplishments at VIDO, his role of mentor is the one of which he is most proud.
“We have set a lot of great researchers to work here and around the world. And the university, farmers and society have all benefited from those great minds, their work and they continue to act as advocates for VIDO and we continue to reap the benefits,” he said.
VIDO was established in 1975 and was known for developing products like Ecolan-RC to treat calf scours and the creation of the spin-off companies Biostar, Biowest and Star Biotech.
Babiuk’s work linked the academic institution to industry, allowing it to build research laboratories and a rural research station.
“I’m looking forward to learning the culture (of the U of A) and then setting to work to assist researchers in lowering roadblocks to achieving their research goals,” he said.
