One of the top AIDS researchers in Canada is moving to the United States because of cuts in funding, he says.

Rafick-Pierre Sékaly has extensive expertise in vaccine research, including new approaches for HIV and cancer vaccines.

"I think if you really want to prevent other scientists from leaving this country, this great country, you really need to reinvest massively into basic sciences," Sékaly said, noting he expects to more than double his $3.5 million research budget by moving to the U.S., where President Barack Obama has boosted funding for science.

Sékaly has been appointed as scientific director of the new Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Florida.

Sékaly is taking a group of 25 scientists with him to Florida to continue their vaccine research, the institute said.

Lack of research funding isn't unique to AIDS research, said Mark Wainberg, director of the McGill AIDS clinic.

"We lack sufficient money across the board, for all types of medical research, and indeed, for physics research and chemistry research.

Loss for Canada

Wainberg lamented the loss of Sékaly to Canada's scientific community, saying that perhaps the saddest part is the loss of the young researchers who were trained at the expense of Canadian taxpayers and will follow Sékaly to the U.S.

Jay Nelson, director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Portland, Ore., who will co-direct the facility in Florida, called it a coup to recruit a scientist of Sékaly's calibre.

Sékaly's lab in Montreal has received research grants from the federal government, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Sékaly has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine and the Journal of Experimental Medicine. His work has resulted in 20 patents.

In January, the federal budget called for $147.9 million in cuts over three years to the three agencies that grant research funds to universities.

In March, a group of scientists, many working in fields of basic research such as mathematics, signed a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to reverse the funding cuts. That letter has since attracted more than 2,200 signatures.