Ann Perry

‘Welcome home’: U of T’s on-campus housing offers more than a place to live

lanthierj — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:11:10 +0000

‘Welcome home’: U of T’s on-campus housing offers more than a place to live

lanthierj Thu, 10/05/2023 - 10:11

Cutline

Harmony Commons, a new, 746-bed student residence at U of T Scarborough, is part of U of T’s broader plan to meet the growing need for student housing across its three campuses (photo by Don Campbell)

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

Back to School 2023

Student Experience

Current Students

Future Students

Subheadline

The university expects to add 1,450 more spaces across its three campuses over the next several years

Zupaash Naveed arrived at �ؿ�ζSM just a few weeks ago, but she already feels right at home.

The first-year computer science co-op student is part of the first cohort to live at Harmony Commons, a new, 746-bed student residence at U of T Scarborough that opened at the beginning of September.

The residence is part of U of T’s broader plan to meet the growing need for student housing across its three campuses, with 1,450 more spaces expected to be added over the next three years.

“It’s amazing. There’s so much more here than I expected,” says Naveed, a National Scholar from Oshawa, Ont. “The technology is great, the layout is modern and clean, and it gives me the opportunity to be fully immersed among my first-year peers.”

Zupaash Naveed is one of more than 10,300 students living in university housing this year across U of T’s three campuses (photos by Racquel Russell)

Reserved for first-year students, Harmony Commons has doubled the number of residence spaces at U of T Scarborough as part of the university’s broader strategy to provide more housing options for students. It is also one of the largest buildings in North America built to highly energy-efficient passive house standards.

Then there is the food.

“I love it,” says Naveed, pointing to the breakfast pastries and variety of international cuisines on the menu. She also appreciates the halal options and praises food services staff for being attentive to diverse dietary requirements. “They really take care of me.”

Naveed is one of more than 10,300 students living in university housing this year across U of T’s three campuses. Many are new undergraduate students – both domestic and international – who, like Naveed, qualified for the university’s first-year residence guarantee. Spaces are also available for upper-year and graduate students, as well as students with families.

Staff and volunteers greet new student residents at Harmony Commons on move-in day (photo by Don Campbell)

“Living in residence can be a transformational experience for our students, particularly in their first year as they navigate the transition from high school to university,” says Sandy Welsh, vice-provost, students. “Being far from family and friends, adjusting to the demands of university studies, and, for our international students, adapting to life in a new country can be challenging.

“Our residences provide a ready community and support system that enhance our students’ well-being and academic success.”

Demand for university housing is growing amid rising rents and declining vacancy in the Greater Toronto Area. While surveys suggest more than 55 per cent of U of T students live with family and commute to one of the three campuses, many others, particularly in their upper years, seek off-campus rental options – with U of T providing resources, education and support – or on-campus alternatives.

U of T is already a major provider of student housing, with several new buildings under construction. These include Oak House, a 500-bed residence on the St. George campus near Spadina and Sussex Avenues that is scheduled to open in 2024, and a new, 350-bed residence at Trinity College that is expected to be ready in fall 2025. Two more projects – one at U of T Mississauga and the other on the St. George campus – are in development and will provide 600 additional residence spaces.

“We are working hard to build more residences faster because we know how important they are to our student experience, and we are engaging with governments around policy changes that will help us do this,” says Scott Mabury, vice-president, operations and real estate partnerships.

The university receives no government support for student housing. U of T is advocating for new financing or funding mechanisms to help universities respond to students’ demand for housing, as well as continuing to work with governments at all levels on appropriate zoning frameworks that can lower barriers to adding new spaces.

“Students bring a lot of life and business to the neighbourhoods surrounding our three campuses. Building more student residences makes for a better academic experience for them and for more dynamic neighbourhoods in this city,” Mabury said.

Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop tours Harmony Commons a few days before the residence opened to students (photo by Don Campbell)

For Ana Divarzak, an international student from Brazil, living in residence provided a strong foundation for life at university and in Canada. Now in her third year of a biotechnology specialist and chemistry major, she arrived at U of T Mississauga in 2021 three weeks into the fall term due to visa delays and the then-mandatory 14-day quarantine for travellers entering Canada due to COVID-19. When she finally reached her residence she found a “welcome home” sign with messages from all her floormates that was taped to the door of her room, surrounded by a rainbow of candy.

“The support and welcome I experienced from day one in residence have made a huge difference for me, especially as an international student,” says Divarzak, who now works as a community assistant at U of T Mississauga. In that role, she supports eight residence student staff in Living Learning Communities (LLC), which group together students who share similar interests and areas of study.

Ana Divarzak (supplied image)

Divarzak chose to live in the life sciences Living Learning Community in her first year and credits it with enhancing her overall university experience. “It helped me make friends a lot more easily because we were in the same courses and we saw each other all the time in class, and we also had weekly community gatherings hosted by our residence LLC program facilitators and don that offered opportunities for social interaction and reflection.”

Back at U of T Scarborough, residence adviser Joshua Cloete says that in addition to acting as a resource for students on his floor, one of his main goals is to build an engaged and supportive community.

He says he can already see the difference Harmony Commons is making to the first-year experience.

“In the past month, I’ve seen more social interactions and bonding and friendships form than in my whole first year,” says Cloete, a second-year paramedicine student. “Everyone on my floor already knows everyone else.”

Health system needs to plan now for adoption of regenerative medicine therapies: U of T researchers

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 16:41:12 +0000

Health system needs to plan now for adoption of regenerative medicine therapies: U of T researchers

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 08/17/2020 - 12:41

Cutline

A new paper, drawing on a workshop hosted by U of T's Medicine by Design and others, says work needs to be done now to ensure regenerative medicine therapies are safe, effective, affordable and available to patients who need them (photo by Kenneth Chou)

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

CCRM

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Medicine by Design

Regenerative Medicine

University Health Network

Regenerative medicine holds the potential to revolutionize health care, but critical work needs to be done now to ensure the new therapies will be safe, effective, affordable and widely available to patients who need them.

That is one of the key conclusions of a paper published recently in Cell & Gene Therapy Insights that outlines the recommendations of an international workshop hosted by Medicine by Design at the �ؿ�ζSM in collaboration with CCRM, the Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaborative (THETA) at University Health Network (UHN), and Loughborough University in the U.K.

“As more regenerative medicine therapies move closer to the clinic, now is the time to engage policy-makers, governments, health-care providers and other stakeholders in these important conversations,” said Murray Krahn, the paper’s corresponding author and director of THETA.

“Laying this groundwork early will ensure our health-care system can adopt and implement regenerative medicine therapies efficiently and effectively, and in ways that align with the social values of Canadians,” added Krahn, who is also an attending physician at UHN and a professor at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Medicine.

Funded by a $114-million grant from the federal government’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund, Medicine by Design brings together more than 130 researchers from across U of T and its affiliated hospitals to advance and accelerate regenerative medicine discoveries. As part of its mandate, it convened the June 2019 workshop that led to the paper, bringing together 37 researchers, clinicians, ethicists, policy-makers and industry leaders from Canada and the U.K. to discuss challenges in the adoption of regenerative medicine therapies.

The challenges include how to generate robust data when the number of patients enrolled in clinical studies may be small and how to determine if these therapies will be effective over the long-term.

Other key questions are how much these therapies should cost, who should pay for them and whether the often hefty price tag of novel therapies justifies the clinical benefit compared with existing treatments. These considerations are particularly important in countries with publicly funded health-care systems, such as Canada, where resources are limited. Ethical and social issues such as accessibility and patient experience also formed part of the workshop discussions.

Workshop participants discussed lessons learned from recent regulatory approval and implementation of a handful of CAR T-cell therapies, which re-engineer the patient’s immune system to fight certain types of cancer, and how they might be applied to regenerative medicine therapies.

“The pivotal next steps for future working groups to tackle revolve chiefly around addressing the evidence generation issues, relevant stakeholder engagement, targeted policy-maker engagement and understanding future payment system mechanisms,” the paper concludes. Its co-authors are: Maya Chaddah, a freelance science communicator; Allison Brown, director, strategy and translation at Medicine by Design; Siofradh McMahon, senior manager, clinical translation and regulatory affairs at CCRM; James Kusena, a PhD candidate at the Centre for Biological Engineering and Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University in the U.K. and an alumnus of Medicine by Design’s Summer by Design program; Karen Bremner, a research associate at THETA; and Ann Perry, associate director, administration, at Medicine by Design.

Krahn has convened a working group, made up of some of the workshop participants and others, to continue working on some of these issues. Early conversations have focused on creating a database for all regenerative medicine projects that will allow researchers to study their economic and clinical benefits compared with current therapies. As well, the group will explore the use of early health technology assessment methods.

Medicine by Design is also actively driving policy discussions. Affordability and accessibility form one of six topics Medicine by Design has invited researchers to address through its Grand Questions Program. Launched in July, the program is investing $3 million in bold ideas and developing transformative solutions that will be of critical importance to regenerative medicine over the next 20 years.

“If regenerative medicine therapies are to become the new standard of treatment for many diseases, we need to examine critically how they will intersect with regulators, policy-makers, payers and patients,” said Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design and a U of T University Professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Through this paper and our Grand Questions Program, Medicine by Design and our partners are leading this conversation.”

Medicine by Design builds on decades of made-in-Canada excellence in regenerative medicine dating back to the discovery of stem cells in the early 1960s by Toronto researchers James Till and Ernest McCulloch. Regenerative medicine uses stem cells to replace diseased tissues and organs, creating therapies in which cells are the biological product. It can also mean triggering stem cells that are already present in the human body to repair damaged tissues or to modulate immune responses. Increasingly, regenerative medicine researchers are using a stem cell lens to identify critical interactions or defects that prepare the ground for disease, paving the way for new approaches to preventing disease before it starts.

Medicine by Design draws hundreds to annual research event, praise from federal innovation minister

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 14:51:21 +0000

Medicine by Design draws hundreds to annual research event, praise from federal innovation minister

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 12/09/2019 - 09:51

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Michael Sefton (centre), the executive director of Medicine by Design, says the regenerative medicine initiative wouldn't have been possible without the support of the federal government, which provided a $114-million grant (photo by Neil Ta)

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine

Chemistry

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

MaRS

Medicine by Design

Mount Sinai Hospital

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Vivek Goel

Federal innovation, science and industry minister Navdeep Bains congratulated the �ؿ�ζSM’s Medicine by Design community on its successes and affirmed the government’s commitment to science “as the foundation of innovation” at the regenerative medicine initiative’s annual research symposium.

“Your research will have a transformational impact on how we treat many common diseases, such as stroke, diabetes and liver failure, creating better health outcomes for all Canadians,” Bains said in a video message to the audience of 350 researchers, students, and industry and government representatives who gathered at the MaRS Discovery District last week.

“As the minister responsible for science and innovation, I look forward to working with the medical science sector to help Canadians live healthier lives and push the boundaries of innovation.”

Bains highlighted the federal government’s support of Medicine by Design through a $114-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and pointed to the 2018 budget as “the biggest reinvestment in fundamental research in Canadian history.”

The symposium, which marked the mid-point of Medicine by Design’s seven-year federal grant, focused on the role of technology in advancing biological insights and driving innovation, and noted the new portfolio of cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional projects the initiative announced in October. Speakers included high-profile international experts in regenerative medicine and cell therapy, including: Nancy Allbritton, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington; Joseph Gold, senior director of manufacturing at the Center for Biomedicine & Genetics at City of Hope in California; and Dr. Markus Grompe, a professor at Oregon Health & Science University.

“Medicine by Design perfectly reflects our belief that it is at the convergence of cross-disciplinary excellence that the next truly game-changing discoveries in research and innovation will take place,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “And it is a flagship example of the types of strategic, cross-divisional initiatives the �ؿ�ζSM will continue to build.”

In addition to Medicine by Design, examples of such initiatives at U of T include PRiME, a precision medicine initiative, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

“There are very few universities in the world where these kinds of initiatives can take flight, and U of T is one of them,” Goel added.

Medicine by Design brings together more than 130 principal investigators at U of T and its affiliated hospitals who are collaborating at the convergence of life and physical sciences, engineering, medicine and computer science to catalyze transformative discoveries in regenerative medicine and accelerate them toward the clinic. It builds on decades of made-in-Canada excellence in regenerative medicine dating back to the discovery of stem cells in the early 1960s by Toronto researchers James Till and Ernest McCulloch.

“The success we have achieved at Medicine by Design has been made possible in large part to the tremendous efforts of the federal government and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund,” said Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design, a University Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), and the Michael E. Charles Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“As we advance our research agenda, we are positioning these breakthrough discoveries to have the greatest impact on patients.”

Michael May, CEO of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, hosts a panel discussion at Medicine by Design’s (photo by Neil Ta)

Translating research discoveries into new therapies, products and companies was a prominent theme at the event and will be a key focus for Medicine by Design over the next three years. A panel discussion moderated by Michael May, CEO of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, and featuring speakers from GE Healthcare, Novartis Canada, AllosteRx Capital, Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners and St. Michael’s Hospital, explored the challenges and opportunities inherent in this process. The discussion highlighted the unique strengths of Toronto’s regenerative medicine ecosystem, including: a world-leading public research university with broad strengths in medicine, life and physical sciences, as well as engineering; an expansive network of affiliated academic and community hospitals; expertise in translation, scale-up and manufacturing; and strong relationships with government.

Shana Kelley, a University Professor in the departments of chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and biochemistry, and at IBBME, spoke about the new team project she is leading, which aims to identify and modulate cell differentiation bottlenecks.

“Medicine by Design has been career-changing for me,” Kelley said. “It has given me opportunities to connect with outstanding collaborators with whom I would not otherwise have had the chance to work.”

The symposium also offered an opportunity for 40 trainees to present their research during a poster session. Louise Moyle, a post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of Penney Gilbert, an associate professor at IBBME, won first place. David Philpott, a PhD candidate in Kelley’s lab, placed second, while Alba Marin, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Cristina Amon in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, came third. The prizes were sponsored by StemCell Technologies Inc.

Jeffrey Harding, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of Andras Nagy, a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health System, won the BlueRock Therapeutics prize for the poster with the greatest translational potential.

Medicine by Design to accelerate regenerative medicine discovery and translation with new $20-million investment

davidlee1 — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:52:34 +0000

Medicine by Design to accelerate regenerative medicine discovery and translation with new $20-million investment

davidlee1 Fri, 10/11/2019 - 11:52

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Freda Miller (left), a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, and University Professor Shana Kelley of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy are leading two of the teams that Medicine by Design is funding

Ann Perry

Jovana Drinjakovic

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Medicine

Gene Therapy

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Medicine by Design

Meric Gertler

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Stem Cells

Medicine by Design is strengthening the �ؿ�ζSM as a global leader in regenerative medicine with a new investment of as much as $20 million in research that will accelerate stem cell and gene therapy, advance understanding of how the body repairs itself and generate new technologies that will propel the field for decades.

The three-year awards will support as many as 12 multi-disciplinary research teams across U of T and its affiliated hospitals that are working at the convergence of engineering, medicine and life and physical sciences. These teams are leading the development of stem cell-based strategies to replace damaged heart and liver tissue and induce the body to self-repair damaged nerve and muscle, as well as tackling key challenges in the field such as the lack of control in producing specific tissue types from stem cells, with the goal of turning discoveries into new therapies, products and companies sooner.

“Medicine by Design has generated breakthroughs that are transforming regenerative medicine and sparking tremendous activity throughout Canada’s life sciences ecosystem,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “This new investment will build on these advances, lay the foundation for translating these innovations into tangible benefits to patients and society, and advance Toronto’s position as the leading international centre of excellence in regenerative medicine for decades to come.”

Funded by a $114-million grant from the federal government’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund, Medicine by Design is a strategic research initiative at U of T that is catalyzing transformative discoveries in regenerative medicine and accelerating them toward the clinic. It builds on decades of made-in-Canada excellence in regenerative medicine dating back to the discovery of stem cells in the early 1960s by Toronto researchers Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch.

This is the second time Medicine by Design has awarded large-scale funding for collaborative team projects. Research supported by the first round of Team Project awards (2016-2019) has already driven significant advances, including the first “map” of the human liver, which attracted further funding this year from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Another Medicine by Design-funded team has developed “safe cells” that are programmed to be killed if they become harmful, a key advance in improving the utility of cell therapies.

Over the past three years, Medicine by Design-funded researchers have also launched 15 startups.

The new awards will build on these discoveries and continue to spur innovations that will push the field forward, said Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design.

“By bringing together leading investigators across disciplines and institutions to confront the most challenging problems in the field, we have created new collaborations that have fundamentally changed how the regenerative medicine community in Toronto works together,” said Sefton, a University Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the Michael E. Charles Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“These new projects all have significant potential to achieve transformative and globally competitive outcomes and advance groundbreaking discoveries toward the clinic, transforming how we treat many devastating diseases.”

One team led by Shana Kelley, a University Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, is developing a suite of advanced tools to enable researchers to gain new insights into how stem cells differentiate into any specialized cell type.

Freda Miller, a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), heads a team that is developing a platform that will enable the rapid identification and testing of signals that activate stem cells in muscle and brain to repair damaged tissue, which could transform the treatment of muscular dystrophy and demyelinating disorders, such as multiple sclerosis.

Restoring heart function after heart failure is the focus of another team led by Michael Laflamme, a senior scientist at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at University Health Network (UHN).

“We’ve come a long way from deriving stem cell-derived heart muscle cells in the Petri dish to optimizing them now for eventual use in patients,” said Laflamme. “This massive effort would not have been possible without Medicine by Design, which brought us all together toward a common goal of finding a cure for heart failure.”

Medicine by Design selected projects for funding after an extensive evaluation process, which included consultation with the research community, external peer review and scientific and strategic advice from Medicine by Design’s scientific advisory board.

Other funded research includes projects aimed at:

Using stem cells to regenerate damaged livers, led by Gordon Keller, director of the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at UHN, in collaboration with Ian McGilvray, a senior scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI) and a transplant surgeon at UHN, Sonya MacParland, a scientist at TGHRI specializing in liver immunology, Molly Shoichet, a University Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, Axel Guenther, an associate professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Gary Bader, a professor in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, and Christine Bear, a senior scientist at SickKids.

Reprogramming brain cells to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and stroke, led by Cindi Morshead, a professor and chair of the division of anatomy in the department of surgery, in collaboration with: Isabelle Aubert and Carol Schuurmans, senior scientists at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, Maryam Faiz, an assistant professor in the department of surgery, and Melanie Woodin, a professor in the department of cell and systems biology and dean of U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science.

Understanding how immune cells function in healthy and damaged blood vessels, led by Clint Robbins, a scientist at TGHRI, in collaboration with Myron Cybulsky and Jason Fish, both senior scientists at TGHRI.

Studying how material exchange – a process whereby cellular material from transplanted cells is transferred to host cells – could play a role in improving outcomes of cell-based retinal therapy aimed at preserving and restoring sight. This project is led by Molly Shoichet in collaboration with Derek van der Kooy, a professor at the department of molecular genetics and the Donnelly Centre, Valerie Wallace, a senior scientist at the Krembil Research Institute at UHN, and Julie Lefebvre, a scientist at SickKids.

Additional projects, including those focused on the effect of aging on cardiac disease, organoids, diabetes and organ repair, are under review, with final decisions expected by December.

Leading researcher in regenerative medicine becomes first Medicine by Design scholar in residence

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:57:06 +0000

Leading researcher in regenerative medicine becomes first Medicine by Design scholar in residence

noreen.rasbach Tue, 07/16/2019 - 11:57

Cutline

Professor Shulamit Levenberg is visiting the �ؿ�ζSM beginning this week with a view toward identifying collaborative research opportunities (photo courtesy of Technion)

Ann Perry

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

IBBME

Medicine by Design

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

Professor Shulamit Levenberg, a leading interdisciplinary researcher in stem cells and tissue engineering at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has started her month-long appointment as Medicine by Design’s first scholar in residence.

While at the �ؿ�ζSM, the dean of Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering will deliver a series of talks, meet with faculty members who have complementary research interests and engage with trainees, with a view toward identifying collaborative research opportunities.

“The goal of the Medicine by Design scholar in residence program is to invite top international investigators in regenerative medicine and related fields to Toronto to engage with our dynamic community, catalyze new collaborations and advance international partnerships,” said Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design, a University Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the Michael E. Charles Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“Professor Levenberg is a leader in her field and we hope her visit will strengthen a long and productive relationship.”

Levenberg’s visit will build on existing collaborations between Technion and U of T and its affiliated hospitals. Lyon Sachs, an alumnus of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has given $2 million to the university to accelerate joint research projects between U of T and Technion in biomedical and civil engineering. The McEwen Stem Cell Institute and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network have also partnered with Technion to create a centre aimed at developing new ways to treat heart disease, with a focus on regenerative medicine.

Levenberg will deliver a talk on Thursday, July 18 at noon titled “Vascularization Dynamics in Engineered Tissues” as part of Medicine by Design’s Global Speaker Series. She will give another talk titled “Engineering Vascularized Tissue Constructs” on July 23 at 11 a.m., hosted by the translational biology and engineering program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. She will also hold office hours at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, room 508, on the following dates:

Thursday, July 25 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 1 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 7 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Levenberg earned her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she focused on cell adhesion dynamics and signalling, and pursued her post-doctoral research in tissue engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the lab of Professor Robert Langer. In 2004, she joined the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, where she conducts interdisciplinary research on stem cells and tissue engineering. She also serves as the director of the Technion Center for 3D Bioprinting and The Rina & Avner Schneur Center for Diabetes Research.

She spent a sabbatical year as a visiting professor at the Wyss Institute for Biology Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and a summer sabbatical (2017) at the University of Western Australia as a winner of the Raine Visiting Professor Award. Levenberg received the Krill Prize for excellence in scientific research, awarded by the Wolf Foundation, and was named by Scientific American as a “research leader” in tissue engineering for her seminal work on vascularization of engineered tissues. She also received the France-Israel Foundation Prize, the Italian Excellence for Israel Prize, the Teva Research Prize and the Juludan Prize. In 2018, she received the Rappaport Prize for Biomedical Sciences.

Levenberg has authored more than 100 publications and presented her work at more than 100 international conferences as an invited or keynote speaker. She is founder and chief scientific officer of two start-up companies in the areas of cultured meat and nanolitre arrays for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing. She is a member of the Israel National Counsel for Bioethics and is actively involved in training young scientists.

U of T researchers part of international team awarded US$4 million by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to map human liver

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 20:07:17 +0000

U of T researchers part of international team awarded US$4 million by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to map human liver

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 07/15/2019 - 16:07

Cutline

From left to right: Sonya MacParland, Ian McGilvray and Gary Bader (photo courtesy of University Health Network)

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Immunology

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Medicine by Design

Mount Sinai Hospital

Physiology

Research & Innovation

surgery

University Health Network

A group of �ؿ�ζSM researchers are part of a 19-person international team awarded US$4 million by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to advance understanding of the human liver across diverse life stages and genetic backgrounds.

The U of T researchers – all funded through Medicine by Design – published the first single-cell map of the human liver last fall. They are: Gary Bader, a professor and computational biologist at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research; Sonya MacParland, a scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI) at the University Health Network (UHN) who is also an assistant professor in U of T’s departments of immunology and laboratory medicine and pathobiology; and Ian McGilvray, a senior scientist at TGHRI, a transplant surgeon at UHN and a professor in U of T’s department of surgery.

Part of the Human Cell Atlas, an international effort to map all cells in the human body, the collaboration brings together liver-mapping efforts from around the world to build a more complete picture of the human liver.

“We have been working on building a global team of researchers who are all interested in mapping the human liver in different ways,” said Bader, who is a member of the organizing committee of the Human Cell Atlas.

“This grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative really speeds up the development of the human liver map and allows us to move in novel directions by combining diverse research projects and data into one map.”

The international collaboration, Bader added, is a “direct extension” of the liver mapping work he and his Toronto collaborators have already done with support from Medicine by Design, an interdisciplinary research program at U of T focused on regenerative medicine and cell therapy.

Their project – titled “A Reference Cell Atlas of Human Liver Diversity Over a Lifespan” – is one of 38 that are sharing US$68 million in funding through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Seed Networks for the Human Cell Atlas program. Co-founded by Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg and pediatrician Priscilla Chan, who is married to Zuckerberg, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative seeks to harness technology to solve some of the world’s greatest problems and is actively supporting the Human Cell Atlas.

The three-year award is significant because it supports international collaborations that are often ineligible to receive money from country-specific research funders, Bader said. The liver project includes computational biologists, clinicians, engineers and life scientists from Canada, Singapore, Germany, Belgium, the U.K., the U.S. and Israel.

The team will meet in Toronto to kick off the project in late July.

The international nature of the research team means it will have access to samples that better represent the full diversity of human livers, including age, sex and genetics.

“One of the goals of the Human Cell Atlas is to capture human diversity,” Bader said. “We have a specific plan to collect a range of samples to cover a lot of diversity, allowing us to understand the variability in the human liver across the population.”

For the Toronto-led part of the project, Bader, MacParland and McGilvray have joined forces with a new collaborator, Mei Zhen, a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health System and a professor in U of T’s department of physiology. Zhen is an expert in volumetric electron microscopy, a technology that captures high-resolution, 3D images by assembling individual images of extremely thin slices of tissue samples. Zhen has been developing this technology for studying neural systems in C. elegans, tiny worms that are part of the nematode family.

This is believed to be the first time the technology will be used to image the liver as part of a tissue map project. Bader said the organ is a good candidate because it is made up of tiny, repeating, hexagonal-shaped structures called lobules.

“Because of the biology of the liver, it is an interesting opportunity to understand the whole organ by studying its individual modules,” Bader said.

The Toronto team plans to link these images with genomics data by applying computational methods and deep learning to analyze the vast amounts of data the project will generate, ultimately creating a unified map.

“Medicine by Design helped catalyze this team, and we are delighted it is taking a leadership role in international efforts to create a next-generation map of the human liver,” said Michael Sefton, the executive director of Medicine by Design, a University Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the Michael E. Charles Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“This investment by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is an affirmation of the excellence and innovation of their research, and supports the collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that is at the core of Medicine by Design.”

All data, tools and protocols generated from the Chan Zuckerberg Seed Networks for the Human Cell Atlas projects will be freely available to the research community.

U of T's Medicine by Design invests $1.2 million to advance regenerative medicine research and translation

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 14 May 2019 21:05:07 +0000

U of T's Medicine by Design invests $1.2 million to advance regenerative medicine research and translation

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/14/2019 - 17:05

Cutline

Leo Chou, an assistant professor at U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and a Medicine by Design investigator, is leading one of four projects selected for the 2019 New Ideas Awards (Photo by Bill Dai)

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

Pediatrics

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute

Chemical Engineering

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Fields Institute

Hospital for Sick Children

Immunology

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Sunnybrook Hospital

surgery

U of T Scarborough

University Health Network

UTIAS

What can a swarm of drones tell us about how our bodies make blood? Can folding strands of DNA into origami-like structures help researchers engineer more targeted treatments for lupus and multiple sclerosis? What new insights can mathematical and computational modelling offer into how tissues and organs form?

These are just a few of the questions that nine research teams across the �ؿ�ζSM and its affiliated hospitals are investigating thanks to $1.2 million in 2019 New Ideas and Seed Fund awards from Medicine by Design. The awards support basic and translational research aimed at advancing new concepts that are expected to be of critical importance to regenerative medicine in the coming decades, using tools such as synthetic biology and mathematical modelling.

“With these awards, we are pushing the frontiers of regenerative medicine by encouraging creativity, risk-taking and excellence at the convergence of science, engineering and medicine,” said University Professor Michael Sefton, who is executive director of Medicine by Design and a faculty member at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“These projects exemplify the best of Medicine by Design by bringing people together across disciplines and institutions to tackle novel questions and test new approaches.”

Medicine by Design selected the nine funded projects from among 22 short-listed proposals, which were evaluated and ranked through an external peer review process. Sixty research teams at U of T and its affiliated hospitals submitted expressions of intent last fall in response to an open call.

Medicine by Design is a regenerative medicine research initiative at U of T with a mandate to accelerate transformational discoveries and translate them into new therapies for common diseases. It is made possible thanks in part to a $114-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund – the single-largest research award in U of T’s history.

New Ideas Awards

Leo Chou leads one of four projects selected for 2019 New Ideas Awards, which provide $100,000 per year for two years. Chou, an assistant professor at IBBME and a new Medicine by Design investigator, is collaborating with Bebhinn Treanor, an associate professor in the department of biological sciences at the U of T Scarborough, to study how DNA nanotechnology could be used to ramp up or dampen immune responses, offering new ways to treat disease.

The project elegantly fuses their diverse expertise. Chou uses a process known as DNA origami to pinch and “staple” a long strand of DNA at precise points to create a variety of nanoscale shapes that can arrange biomolecules into precise two- and three-dimensional patterns. Treanor, an immunologist, studies how antigens – fragments of viruses or bacteria with unique markers – trigger immune cells in our bodies called B cells to produce specific antibodies to bind to and inactivate the associated virus or bacteria. Both are intrigued by the fact that, in nature, antigens arranged in periodic spacing provoke a much more potent immune response than individual antigens.

Together, they plan to use Chou’s DNA nanostructures as building blocks to study how the layout, structure, and nature of an array of antigens can affect the dynamics and strength of B cell activation.

The immediate goal is to figure out the basic design principles. “Like all good, fundamental studies, it might open up a lot of doors,” said Chou, who earned his PhD at IBBME in 2014 and returned to U of T in January as a faculty member after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“It might lead us to interesting biology that we just don’t understand, or haven’t discovered, yet.”

Ultimately, Chou and Treanor hope to create synthetically designed particles that can act as precision vaccines to heighten or dampen immune responses. This approach could lead to more targeted therapies for autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, arthritis and multiple sclerosis, in which the normal immune process goes haywire and mounts an attack on a person’s own cells. Chou also thinks their technology platform could be applied to better control the activation of other cell types, which could help enable cell-based therapies by making the cell-manufacturing process more efficient.

Other 2019 New Ideas projects include:

Dr. Robert Hamilton, a cardiologist and senior associate scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a professor in the department of paediatrics at U of T, is leading a project that aims to create precision immunotherapies for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. This heritable, autoimmune condition causes the myocardium, or heart muscle wall, to break down over time and can lead to sudden death. Sachdev Sidhu, a professor at U of T’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, is the co-investigator, and SickKids clinicians Dr. Donna Wall and Dr. Joerg Krueger are also part of the project team.
Dr. Sevan Hopyan, an orthopaedic surgeon and senior scientist at SickKids and an associate professor in the departments of molecular genetics and surgery at U of T, is making a computational tool to gain new insights into the physical processes that influence how embryonic tissues are organized and shaped. Known as morphogenesis, this process at the earliest stages of life remains poorly understood but could hold important clues for researchers developing regenerative medicine therapies. The co-investigator on this project is Yu Sun, a professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering at U of T, while Huaxiong Huang, the deputy director of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, is collaborating.
Krishna Mahadevan, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, is leading a team that aims to create new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease by engineering gut bacteria that can sense inflammation, and then secrete molecules that dampen it and promote regeneration of the intestinal lining. Combining synthetic biology and stem cell biology, the project also draws on the expertise of co-investigators Keith Pardee, an assistant professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and a Medicine by Design investigator, and Tae-Hee Kim, a scientist at SickKids and an assistant professor in U of T’s department of molecular genetics.

Seed Fund Awards

To increase the number of cutting-edge ideas it invests in, Medicine by Design created a new award this year called the Seed Fund Award, which provides $75,000 for one year to each of five projects.

Angela Schoellig (left) leads one of these projects, which is forging innovative ties between biomedical engineering and robotics. An assistant professor at U of T’s Institute for Aerospace Studies, she works at the interface of robotics, controls and machine learning, with research interests in self-driving vehicles and autonomous aerial vehicles, or drones.

Schoellig is using her award funding to study complex collective behaviour in living and non-living systems. Known as emergence, the phenomenon refers to the dynamic evolution of a system to develop complexity that cannot be easily predicted from the properties of its individual parts. In nature, a common example of emergence is murmuration, which occurs when hundreds of birds congregate and fly in organized, swooping patterns.

Schoellig and co-investigator Peter Zandstra, a University Professor at IBBME, are combining their respective expertise in robotic drones and blood-forming systems to gain new insights into emergence that could lead to advances in both fields. They hope that identifying common elements in these diverse systems will help them understand how a collection of individual entities in a disordered state develops complex, co-ordinated activities, ultimately advancing the capacity to predict and even control desirable emergent behaviour. Such findings could have many applications, including improving the reconstitution of healthy blood systems in patients who have undergone stem cell transplants. The research could also enhance the ability of robots to perform collaborative tasks in dynamic environments, such as airspace defence, search and rescue, and package delivery. Zandstra is also director of the School of Biomedical Engineering and the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia.

The other four successful Seed Fund Award projects range from brain organoids to new strategies to treat hearing loss.

Dr. Peter Carlen, a neurologist and senior scientist at the Krembil Research Institute at University Health Network (UHN) and a professor in U of T’s departments of medicine and physiology, as well as IBBME, is leading a project aimed at creating personalized treatments for the one-third of epilepsy patients whose disease does not respond to drugs. He plans to do this by generating cerebral organoids – brain-like mini-organs grown in a dish – from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. His team will then use these organoids to study why the patients have not responded to medication, and to determine optimal pharmacotherapy options. Co-investigators on the project are Cathy Barr, a senior scientist at Krembil and SickKids and a professor in U of T’s department of psychiatry, and Roman Genov, a professor in U of T’s department of electrical and computer engineering.
Sarah Crome, a scientist at UHN, an assistant professor at U of T’s department of immunology and a Medicine by Design investigator, heads a project investigating whether immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells that reside in tissues can be harnessed to promote regeneration, prevent rejection and ultimately improve the success of cell-based immune therapies.
Alain Dabdoub, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute and an associate professor in the departments of otolaryngology and laboratory medicine and pathobiology at U of T, leads a project aimed at regenerating the auditory neurons that transmit sound from the inner ear to the brain as a strategy to reverse hearing loss. Building on work he has already performed in mice in vitro, Dabdoub will investigate how to convert glial cells in a mouse model of neuropathy as well as human glial cells in vitro into auditory neurons.
Miguel Ramalho-Santos, a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health System, a professor at U of T’s department of molecular genetics and a Medicine by Design investigator, is using his Seed Fund Award to study whether the way genes are packed inside the nucleus of human pluripotent stem cells affects their ability to generate cerebral organoids, a tool that holds potential to model neurological diseases and test medications outside the body.

With these new awards, Medicine by Design funds more than 130 investigators across U of T and its affiliated hospitals.

'Summer camp for researchers' aims to accelerate regenerative medicine discoveries into new therapies

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 19:12:56 +0000

'Summer camp for researchers' aims to accelerate regenerative medicine discoveries into new therapies

noreen.rasbach Tue, 09/25/2018 - 15:12

Cutline

Some of the 26 participants in Summer by Design, which one PhD candidate said "opened my eyes to how many potential jobs there are for us as scientists, from policy-making to intellectual property law" (photo by Jackie Denholm)

Topic

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

Technology

How can regenerative medicine researchers move innovative discoveries out of the lab efficiently and effectively to benefit patients sooner?

That’s a key question a group of high-performing PhD candidates and post-doctoral and clinical researchers from across Canada and around the world tackled in July at Summer by Design.

The workshop, hosted by the �ؿ�ζSM’s Medicine by Design initiative in partnership with the Rotman School of Management and CCRM, offered 26 participants an opportunity to learn from experts in clinical translation and commercialization and explore the city’s dynamic life sciences ecosystem.

“It really makes you see that the research you are doing could have an impact in the future,” said Emily McGaugh, a PhD candidate in U of T’s department of physiology who is working on regenerative medicine approaches to Type 1 diabetes in the laboratory of Cristina Nostro at University Health Network (UHN).

“It’s these collaborations and this networking that can really move regenerative medicine forward.”

Will Mitchell, the Anthony S. Fell Chair in New Technologies and Commercialization and a professor of strategic management at Rotman, led sessions on negotiations, marketing, leadership and global strategy. Staff at CCRM, MaRS Excite, UHN and Torys LLP offered insights into economic reimbursement, regulatory affairs, clinical trials, technology and market assessment, and manufacturing and scale-up.

“Summer by Design opened my eyes to how many potential jobs there are for us as scientists, from policy-making to intellectual property law,” said Alisa Molotova, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge.

Workshop participants also studied BlueRock Therapeutics and met with executives to learn more about the company, based partly in Toronto, and the Cell+Gene platform it is pioneering. One of BlueRock’s therapeutic applications relies on technology developed by Medicine by Design-funded researchers and BlueRock founding scientists Gordon Keller and Michael Laflamme at UHN, and aims to develop, manufacture and deliver native heart muscle cells with engineered functionality to restore function in patients who have had heart attacks or are suffering from chronic heart failure.

Summer by Design also allowed the group – composed of emerging researchers from the �ؿ�ζSM and its affiliated hospitals, the University of British Columbia, and universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Australia – to make connections with participants from around the world.

“This is like summer camp for researchers,” said Michael May, chief executive officer of CCRM. “They’re bonding, they’re learning from each other and they will stay connected forever. We want to see our alumni driving the industry for years to come.”

Meet Medicine by Design’s 2018 Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award winners

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 14:41:20 +0000

Meet Medicine by Design’s 2018 Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award winners

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 07/06/2018 - 10:41

Cutline

"Some of the best research in Canada happens here in Toronto," says Daniel Dennis, one of five emerging researchers to receive a post-doctoral fellowship award from the �ؿ�ζSM's Medicine by Design

Ann Perry

Topic

Our Community

Department of Chemistry

Dublin Awards. Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Medicine

Hospital for Sick Children

Medicine by Design

�ؿ�ζSM Mississauga

Five emerging researchers are pushing the frontiers of regenerative medicine in diseases ranging from Duchenne muscular dystrophy to heart failure thanks to the 2018 Post-Doctoral Fellowship Awards from the �ؿ�ζSM's Medicine by Design.

The awards support high-calibre post-doctoral fellows at U of T and its affiliated hospitals who have outstanding potential to become independent researchers in regenerative medicine, a branch of medicine that develops methods to re-grow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues.

Each award is valued at as much as $50,000 per year for three years. This year’s award recipients work in laboratories at three faculties across U of T and at the Hospital for Sick Children, demonstrating the diversity of research excellence in regenerative medicine in Toronto.

The award program is part of the mandate of U of T’s Medicine by Design initiative to accelerate regenerative medicine breakthroughs and translate them into new treatments for common diseases. Medicine by Design is made possible thanks in part to a $114-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund – the largest single research award in U of T’s history.

Medicine by Design's Ann Perry caught up with each of this year's recipients for a quick Q & A.

Daniel Dennis

Supervisor: Freda Miller, SickKids Research Institute and U of T's department of molecular biology

Tell us about your post-doctoral research.

My post-doctoral research is on white matter damage, which occurs in demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. My focus is on determining the growth factors that naturally influence white matter formation and using them as a basis for discovering drugs that can help the brain heal itself when white matter damage occurs.

Why did you choose to do your post-doc in Toronto?

Toronto is an ideal place to do research in regenerative medicine because of the highly collaborative environment filled with people with diverse skills and expertise. Some of the best research in Canada happens here in Toronto, so it’s a tremendous learning environment. More specifically, being mentored by Dr. Freda Miller and Dr. David Kaplan is great for my professional development.

What do you plan to do after your post-doc?

After my post-doc, I plan to continue my research on white matter damage and repair, and I hope to get my own laboratory.

Ji-Eun Kim

Supervisor: Tae-Hee Kim, SickKids Research Institute and U of T's department of molecular genetics

Tell us about your post-doctoral research.

Intestinal cells are replaced every few days by a process called differentiation from self-renewing intestinal stem cells. Understanding this process is very important in gut health. I am studying the role of gut microbiota in stem cell differentiation, which affects the onset of necrotizing enterocolitis. This disease is the most common gastrointestinal disorder in pre-term infants, with a 30 per cent mortality rate.

Why did you choose to do your post-doc in Toronto?

Toronto has a tremendous concentration of internationally renowned researchers in regenerative medicine and developmental biology. The extremely collaborative and interdisciplinary environment and amazing facilities enable fast data generation and drive cutting-edge research.

What do you plan to do after your post-doc?

My long-term career goal is to become a principal investigator in academia, and I want to guide students by sharing what I have learned and experienced during my life.

Erica Scott

Supervisor: Aaron Wheeler, U of T's department of chemistry

Tell us about your post-doctoral research.

My post-doc focuses on developing a tool that enables analysis of neural stem cell networks at single-cell resolution. It does this by combining a single-cell laser lysis technique, microfluidics and then RNA and DNA sequencing. We hope to describe the high degree of variability between neural stem cells and their environment to best harness their therapeutic potential.

Why did you choose to do your post-doc in Toronto?

I chose Toronto because of its competitive, but also uniquely collaborative, research program, and because of the interdisciplinary nature and fantastic project brought forth by my laboratory.

What do you plan to do after your post-doc?

I am planning to apply for faculty positions in neurogenetics.

Eric Strohm

Supervisor: Craig Simmons, U of T's department of mechanical and industrial engineering

Tell us about your post-doctoral research.

Heart failure is the leading cause of death worldwide. It affects more than 26 million people globally and it is not curable. It often results from poor contraction of the heart’s muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes. This can occur due to genetic mutations, secondary effects from another disease or drugs such as chemotherapeutics, or from damage such as a heart attack. Professor Simmons is developing a cardiac microtissue platform that simulates a beating heart (a “heart-on-a-chip”) that can be used to model cardiac diseases and evaluate therapies for heart failure. The cardiomyocyte beat properties and contractility are important metrics in these systems, but there are limited ways to measure them.

My post-doctoral work focuses on using ultrasound to measure the contractile forces of the cardiomyocytes and tissues. I’ve built a custom acoustic microscope that can focus ultrasound to a very small point to measure cell contractility in a range of platforms, including standard cell culture plates and specialized heart-on-a-chip systems. By changing the ultrasound frequency, this versatile system can scale from measurements of single cells to 3D microtissues. Applications include evaluating drug cardiotoxicity, screening drug candidates to treat heart failure, and quantifying stem cell-based therapies for regenerative cardiac repair.

Why did you choose to do your post-doc in Toronto?

I wanted to apply the ultrasound techniques that I developed during my PhD studies at Ryerson University to the exciting fields of stem cell research and regenerative medicine. I met with Professor Simmons and we identified several projects that could capitalize on our expertise in different fields. Toronto is a world leader in regenerative medicine, with excellent academic opportunities and a thriving startup culture. For these reasons, Toronto is an ideal place for me to continue my academic career.

What do you plan to do after your post-doc?

My goal is to create and develop ideas that have real-world utility. I’d like to lead a laboratory so I can pursue my own research interests.

Karen Yuen

Supervisor: Patrick Gunning, U of T Mississauga's department of chemical and physical sciences

Tell us about your post-doctoral research.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a highly aggressive muscular degeneration disorder that has no effective treatment or cure. Symptoms first appear when patients are between two and six years old, and they usually die in their twenties or thirties. Recently, a breakthrough study has indicated that blocking the activity of a transcription factor protein, STAT3, can induce the regenerative ability of the muscle stem cells. Building on this knowledge, we aim to develop a highly potent STAT3 inhibitor drug that would regenerate the disease-comprised muscle cells. To achieve this goal, we will chemically optimize the most advanced STAT3 inhibitors available to date for targeting muscle cells with reduced side effects. We will then evaluate these drug candidates in cell and animal models of muscular degeneration diseases, including DMD.

Why did you choose to do your post-doc in Toronto?

I chose Toronto to conduct my post-doctoral research because it is a well-known global hub of regenerative medicine expertise, with numerous world-renowned scientists that have made seminal contributions toward groundbreaking discoveries. The opportunity to work with Professor Patrick Gunning, who has made huge impacts in the field of STAT protein inhibitors, was instrumental in my decision to come to Toronto. His vast knowledge, coupled with state-of-the-art research facilities, offer an excellent working environment for me to further my research.

What do you plan to do after your post-doc?

Given my passion for science, I would like to remain in the field, but I am uncertain if that will happen in an academic or industry environment. With this award, I hope to become a better-rounded scientist through learning and collaboration, and contribute to regenerative medicine.

U of T's Medicine by Design awards $1 million to advance new ideas in regenerative medicine

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

U of T's Medicine by Design awards $1 million to advance new ideas in regenerative medicine

noreen.rasbach Tue, 06/26/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

Melanie Woodin, a professor in the department of cell and systems biology, is one of five recipients of 2018 New Ideas Awards from Medicine by Design

Ann Perry

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Dentistry

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Medicine by Design

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

For the 3,000 Canadians living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), there is no effective treatment or cure. The neurodegenerative disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, destroys brain cells that control voluntary muscle movement, leading to paralysis and killing 80 per cent of patients within two to five years of diagnosis.

“It’s really like getting a death sentence,” said Melanie Woodin, a professor in the department of cell and systems biology at the �ؿ�ζSM who studies the biology of the brain.

Thanks to a 2018 New Ideas Award from U of T’s Medicine by Design initiative, Woodin is pursuing research that could eventually help delay or even prevent the onset of these devastating symptoms. Central to her strategy is repurposing chemogenetics – a tool scientists already use to study normal brain function – to target and regulate the activity of affected brain cells, creating the neurological equivalent of a remote control.

Woodin is one of five researchers at U of T and its affiliated hospitals who are receiving 2018 New Ideas Awards as part of Medicine by Design’s strategy to accelerate regenerative medicine discoveries and turn them into new therapies. The awards, which are each worth $100,000 per year for up to two years, support innovative, early-stage research that has the potential to make a significant impact on regenerative medicine research and translation. Other funded projects are investigating new approaches to treat skeletal muscle injuries, stroke and Duchenne muscular dystrophy and improve the success of blood stem cell transplants.

“Through these New Ideas Awards, Medicine by Design is sowing the seeds of new discoveries and catalyzing innovation,” said University Professor Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design and a faculty member at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry. “These projects are high-risk, but they also have the potential to advance regenerative medicine in significant ways.”

In Woodin’s case, the innovation lies in applying an existing tool in a novel way to new insights into electrical activity in the brain in ALS.

Electrical activity in the brain is the result of a balance between excitation and inhibition of neurons, like the accelerator and brake in your car. Links between electrical imbalances in the brain and conditions such as epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease are well established, and evidence is emerging they may also be at play in ALS. Recent research has found that people who carry a protein mutation for ALS have hyperactivity in an area of the brain called the primary motor cortex, even before they show symptoms of the disease. Studies have shown that excitability promotes the degeneration of the neurons in ALS patients, leading Woodin to theorize that dampening it could delay the onset of the disease.

Woodin plans to explore her theory by harnessing chemogenetics, which allows scientists to modify proteins that occur naturally in the brain to respond only to specific molecules outside the brain – such as a drug – so they can control when the proteins are active. Using an animal model, Woodin will inject an engineered protein directly into the motor cortex via a virus. The brain will integrate the protein because it recognizes it as something it already makes, said Woodin. She will then activate it by administering a small dose of clozapine, a drug that has long been approved to treat certain psychiatric disorders, with the goal of reducing excitability and restoring the brain’s electrical balance.

“Success looks like, at a minimum, delayed progression of the motor symptoms,” said Woodin, who is collaborating on the project with Janice Robertson, a professor at U of T’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology and a researcher at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. “Ultimately, we want to increase not only motor performance, but also survival.”

Woodin has already shown that coming at the problem from the other direction — by ramping up the brain’s inhibitory functions, or applying the brakes — can help restore electrical balance and hold off muscle weakness and paralysis in mice with ALS.

If Woodin’s new strategy to directly lower excitability in the motor cortex works in mice, the next hurdle will be finding a less invasive way to deliver the engineered proteins in preparation for clinical trials in humans. One possibility may be to inject the protein-laden virus into the blood stream and then use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided focused ultrasound to allow it to cross the blood-brain barrier, a tool pioneered at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Medicine by Design is already funding a 2017 New Ideas project led by Carol Schuurmans at Sunnybrook Research Institute that is exploring whether this novel tool can be used to treat retinal disease.

The 2018 New Ideas Awards are also supporting research into another possible application of ultrasound in regenerative medicine. Dr. Jane Batt (pictured left), a respirologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, a scientist at the hospital’s Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science and an associate professor in the department of medicine at U of T is investigating whether ultrasound-mediated gene delivery can help skeletal muscle repair itself after traumatic injuries that result in peripheral nerve damage.

She is collaborating with Dr. Howard Leong-Poi, head of the division of cardiology and a clinician scientist at the Keenan Research Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, and an associate professor in the department of medicine at U of T.

Other 2018 New Ideas Award winners are:

Maryam Faiz, an assistant professor in the division of anatomy in U of T’s department of surgery. Her New Ideas project will examine whether astrocytes – one of the most abundant cells in the central nervous system – can be reprogrammed to replace lost cells following stroke and ultimately restore cognitive function. She is collaborating with Cindi Morshead, a professor and chair of the division of anatomy.
Paul Santerre, a professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and the Faculty of Dentistry. He is developing nanoparticles to deliver genome-editing machinery to skeletal muscle cells, potentially opening up a new way to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Santerre is collaborating with Dr. Ronald Cohn, pediatrician-in-chief at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a professor in the department of pediatrics at U of T, and Anthony Gramolini, a professor in the department of physiology.

Dr. Donna Wall is a section head of the Blood & Marrow Transplant/Cell Therapy program and a senior associate scientist in developmental and stem cell biology at SickKids, and a professor in the departments of pediatrics and immunology at U of T. Wall’s project will look at the impact of inflammation on the success of blood stem cell transplants, and whether patients experiencing inflammation due to infection or other immune responses need to undergo different preparation to reduce the risk of rejection. Wall’s collaborators are John Dick, a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at University Health Network and a professor in the department of molecular genetics at U of T; and Dr. Rebecca Marsh, clinical director of the Primary Immune Deficiency Program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Medicine by Design selected these projects through a competitive, peer-reviewed process. This is the fifth time Medicine by Design has awarded New Ideas funding. Learn about previous New Ideas projects.

Medicine by Design also supports 19 collaborative team projects that are accelerating regenerative medicine discoveries in a variety of disease areas, including heart failure, diabetes, and neural diseases. Building on decades of made-in-Toronto discoveries, Medicine by Design is developing new peaks of excellence and strengthening Canada as a global leader in regenerative medicine thanks to a $114-million investment from the federal government’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund.