Lab renamed to honour Stollery Foundation’s contributions

The University of Alberta announced on October 31 that it would be renaming a lab located in the Katz Group Centre for Pharmacy and Health Research building to honour the contributions of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. The new name of the lab will be the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation Innovation Laboratories. 

The Stollery Foundation has contributed $85.5 million since 2006 through the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute (WCHRI) based out of the U of A.

Brenda Hemmelgarn, the dean of the faculty of medicine and dentistry, spoke at the announcement. 

“The Foundation’s been an integral part to so much of the work coming out of the [WCHRI],” she said. “It itself is a deeply important and impactful organization that has been making great strides in what has been historically an understudied area.”

“This lab space is going to house those individuals to continue the great work that they have done,” Hemmelgarn said. “Many of these are making great advancements in both women and children’s health.”

Sandy Davige, a professor and the executive director of WCHRI, said that people sometimes refer to WCHRI as the research engine of the U of A. The Stollery Foundation “can be considered the fuel for that engine.”

She said the funding from the Stollery Foundation has allowed them to fill some of the gaps in the under-researched areas of women and children’s health.

Todd Alexander, a professor and researcher, added that “the greatest investment is the students in these laboratories have going on and will go on to be the next generation of child health researchers in this province, this country, in the world.”