Geoffrey Hinton wins Nobel Prize in Physics

A U of T University Professor Emeritus, Hinton shared the honour with Princeton University's John J. Hopfield for discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks

Geoffrey Hinton, a University Professor Emeritus of computer science at the �ؿ�ζSM, has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Widely regarded as the “godfather of AI,” Hinton shared the prize with John J. Hopfield of Princeton University for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.

Hinton said he was “flabbergasted” at the honour as messages poured in from around the world.

“I had no expectations of this,” he told U of T News shortly after the win was announced in Stockholm Tuesday morning. “I am extremely surprised and I'm honoured to be included.”

He later told reporters at a press conference he was “in a cheap hotel in California” with no Internet and a poor phone connection when he was notified about his Nobel Prize.

“I was going to get an MRI scan today, but I think I’m going to have to cancel that.”

Hinton and Hopfield are credited with wielding tools from physics to advance basic research in the field. Specifically, Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images in data, while Hinton invented a way to find properties in data and perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures.

“On behalf of the �ؿ�ζSM, I am absolutely delighted to congratulate University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton on receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “The U of T community is immensely proud of his historic accomplishment.”

Hinton was selected for the high-profile award for his use of the Hopfield network – invented by his co-laureate – as the foundation for a new network called the Boltzmann machine that can learn to recognize elements within a given type of data.

The Boltzmann machine can classify images and generate new examples of the pattern on which it was trained, with Hinton and his graduate students later building on this work to help usher in today’s rapid development of machine learning – a technology that now underpins a host of applications ranging from large language models such as ChatGPT to self-driving cars.

Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

“The laureates’ work has already been of the greatest benefit. In physics we use artificial neural networks in a vast range of areas, such as developing new materials with specific properties,” said Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

The win by Hinton and Hopfield was covered by media and other organizations around the globe, with The New York Times describing the Nobel committee’s decision as “an acknowledgement of AI’s growing significance in the way people live and work,” and the prestigious journal Nature noting Hinton’s innovations now “form the basis of many state-of-the-art AI tools.”

Hinton joined U of T as a professor of computer science in 1987 after working in various universities in the U.K., where he was born, and in the United States. He went on to be named a University Professor – U of T’s highest academic appointment – in 2006.

Driven by a desire to understand the human brain, Hinton and his graduate students built on his early efforts with an array of developments that paved the way for an explosion in deep learning. One of the first cohort of researchers supported by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Hinton’s work helped catapult Canada to its current status as a global leader in AI development.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, noted Hinton persisted with his research even as the scientific community lost interest in artificial neural networks during the 1990s, and ultimately “helped start the new explosion of exciting results” in the 2000s.

Hinton, for his part, said during a U of T press conference Tuesday evening that his achievements wouldn’t have been possible without support for curiosity-based research – something he said Canada was good at.

He added that his shock at winning the Nobel stemmed from the fact that, while his work has drawn on statistical physics, he isn’t a physicist himself – and even “dropped out of physics after my first year in university because I couldn’t do the complicated math.”

He also said that he plans to donate the money associated with the prize to various charities, including one that provides jobs for neurodiverse young adults.

Hinton likened the influence of AI to that of the Industrial Revolution during a virtual press conference with the academy earlier in the day – “But instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability.”

He added that the rise of AI “is going to be wonderful in many respects,” citing health care and workplace productivity as two areas poised to benefit hugely from the technology. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control,” Hinton said.

In early 2023, Hinton quit his job at Google and focused on sounding the alarm about the risks of rapid and unfettered AI development. He outlined his reasoning in a 46-minute U of T video last year, urging young researchers to focus their efforts on the emerging field of AI safety – a message he repeated in media interviews following his Nobel win.

He has continued to tackle the issue at lectures and public appearances around the world, including at U of T and at Cambridge University, his alma mater.

“I am thrilled Geoffrey Hinton, an esteemed colleague and dear friend has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics,” said Melanie Woodin, dean of U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science.

“Geoff is an historic visionary whose groundbreaking work in deep learning and neural networks has made U of T and the Toronto region a leading global centre for AI. And it speaks volumes about his integrity that while he helped lay the foundation for the artificial intelligence revolution, he is also one of the leading voices urging that we develop this technology responsibly and ethically.”

Similarly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lauded Hinton for his efforts to realize responsible AI development, releasing a statement and writing on X: “Geoffrey, we’re glad to have a mind like yours developing safe and responsible AI for the world.”

Geoffrey Hinton delivers a lecture about responsible AI to U of T students and faculty (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Hinton, who is co-founder and chief scientific adviser at the Vector Institute in Toronto, joins an illustrious list of past Nobel Prize in Physics winners that includes Albert Einstein and Marie Curie (who also won a Nobel in chemistry). The prestigious award is the latest in a long list of accolades for Hinton. They include the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award – widely considered “the Nobel Prize of computing” – in 2019 alongside collaborators Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio.

Hinton is the fourth U of T faculty member to win a Nobel Prize over the years.

Sir Frederick Banting and J.J.R Macleod won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work with Charles Best in 1923 to isolate insulin. In 1986, John Polanyi was one of three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the new field of reaction dynamics.

Other members of the U of T community, including several alumni, have received or been associated with the international honour.

Oliver Smithies, a past professor at U of T, was a joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2007 for discovering the “principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.”

Also in 2007, Professor Robert Jefferies shared in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which he was a key Canadian representative as an international leader in Arctic science and global change biology.

In 1999, U of T Professor James Orbinski accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders, which was recognized for its humanitarian work.

Anti-nuclear activist and U of T alumna Setsuko Thurlow accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway in 2017 on behalf the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

In 2001, Michael Spence, an alumnus of �ؿ�ζSM Schools, was one of three joint winners of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to analyses of markets with asymmetrical information.

Bertram Brockhouse, who completed two degrees at U of T, was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter.

Arthur Schawlow, an alumnus, was one of three winners of the same prize in 1981 for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.

In 1998, U of T alumnus Walter Kohn was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for development of the density-functional theory.

Former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who received a bachelor’s degree from U of T, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

Health-care system often fails people with disabilities who give birth in Ontario: Studies

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 17:21:24 +0000

Health-care system often fails people with disabilities who give birth in Ontario: Studies

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 04/05/2023 - 13:21

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Two new studies led by U of T researchers examine inadequate care for people with disabilities who gave birth in Ontario (photo by iStock)

Alexa Battler

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

U of T Scarborough

The day Alyssa told her doctor she was pregnant, the doctor looked at her wheelchair and asked if she had come to terminate the pregnancy. Alyssa had been trying to get pregnant for a year.

Alyssa, who uses a pseudonym for privacy, is one of 31 people interviewed for two new studies on the health-care experiences of people with disabilities who gave birth in Ontario.

One study looked at care during pregnancy, while the other asked people with different disabilities about multiple forms of postpartum care. Their stories illustrate a health-care system entrenched in ableism, from infrastructure to interactions.

“Nearly one in eight pregnancies in Ontario are to someone with a disability, so inadequate care is an issue that affects a large proportion of the population,” says Hilary Brown, an assistant professor in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough and co-author of the study.

Hilary Brown, assistant professor in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough (photo by Ken Jones)

Four themes emerged in participants’ stories during pregnancy: their care needs were unmet; there was a lack of coordination between health-care providers; they faced frequent ableism; and advocacy played a key role in getting the care they needed. The postpartum period was characterized by needs remaining unmet, health-care providers lacking knowledge of disabilities, and a fear of judgment, discrimination and intrusive surveillance.

Study participants had given birth in the last five years and have a physical, sensory or intellectual or developmental disability, or multiple disabilities. Participants with all disability types noted a gap in communication between different care providers, leaving many responsible for coordinating their care during pregnancy.

There was also a steep drop-off in services after giving birth, when attention largely shifted to newborn care despite parents still dealing with injuries such as tearing and hemorrhaging.

Throughout their care, disability-specific education, equipment and providers were noted as difficult to find and afford. Facilities such as bathrooms and neonatal intensive-care wings couldn’t accommodate mobility devices, and one participant had to be weighed by having their husband pick them up and step on the scale.

Another parent who was Deaf was not provided an American Sign Language interpreter at their pediatrician appointments – a common occurrence for those with sensory disabilities – and believed the lack of communication contributed to the doctor’s eventual decision to call child protective services.

Both during and after pregnancy, participants recounted experiences with providers that had negative attitudes toward disabilities. A common assumption observed during pregnancy was that participants were unfit to be parents due to their disabilities, and some later hesitated to seek mental-health care because they felt they had to prove themselves as parents. Others reported social workers were judgmental and intrusive, and participants from all disability groups had a strong desire to avoid child protective services as much as possible.

“Negative attitudes and not having knowledge about disability unfairly burdens patients and their family members with having to advocate to have their needs met,” says Lesley Tarasoff, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough, who co-authored the study and conducted the interviews.

Participants reported that positive relationships with providers who were knowledgeable about disabilities was helpful, and the study calls for proactive, multidisciplinary care for people with disabilities. For instance, several participants began breastfeeding in ways that accommodated their disability but were told by nurses and lactation consultants that they were doing it wrong.

“We need to be integrating disability into training early for medical students and adding continuing education on disability for providers currently practicing,” says Tarasoff. “And we need to be including people with disabilities in developing the curriculum and delivering it.”

Brown and Tarasoff recently collaborated with the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health to turn their data into action. They created tip sheets to help people with disabilities navigate childbearing, and also to help health-care providers and administrators address ableism and provide respectful, accessible care. Each recommendation is listed alongside quotes from the studies’ participants, and the researchers hope this is the first of many resources they’ll create.

The studies are part of a larger investigation into the health-care experiences of people in Ontario with disabilities during the perinatal period – the time from pregnancy to one year after giving birth. Brown says the investigation’s findings are reinforcing that the health-care system needs transformative change.

“It's important to acknowledge that a lot of these disparities are driven by social and structural factors,” Brown says. “These are inequities that need to be corrected.”

U of T grad’s startup tackles energy crisis in Nigeria: CNN

siddiq22 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:32:06 +0000

U of T grad’s startup tackles energy crisis in Nigeria: CNN

siddiq22 Tue, 04/04/2023 - 13:32

Cutline

(photo by Phill Snel)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

Startup

Sustainability

Millions of people in Nigeria live without access to electricity – but �ؿ�ζSM alumnus Olugbenga Olubanjo is aiming to change that with his startup Reeddi, which rents out small, lightweight solar-powered batteries that can power devices such as TVs, laptops and refrigerators, CNN reports.

Olubanjo, who grew up in Nigeria, told the U.S. news outlet that he developed the idea for the company during his time in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. When he phoned up family and friends back home, he said their calls would often be disrupted by power outages. “I felt obliged to do something,” he said.

In 2021, Reeddi was one of the 15 finalists for the inaugural Earthshot Prize launched by Prince William.

Reeddi’s capsule batteries are currently only available in Nigeria, where Olubanjo says he hopes to optimize Reeddi’s model before expanding to other countries in Africa.

Read the story at CNN

After a life-changing accident, Beau Hayward finds 'a new direction' at U of T

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 14:12:46 +0000

After a life-changing accident, Beau Hayward finds 'a new direction' at U of T

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/04/2023 - 10:12

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Beau Hayward, a third-year student studying history and archaeology, says sustaining a spinal cord injury in 2018 caused him to re-evaluate what was truly important in his life (photo courtesy of the Division of People Strategy, Equity & Culture)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

History

Undergraduate Students

Woodsworth College

For Beau Hayward, pursuing a degree at the �ؿ�ζSM is a dream – one that arose from a life-altering event.

In the summer of 2018, he dove off the dock of a friend’s cottage in Sudbury, Ont. and unexpectedly struck the bottom. Face down in the water and unable to turn over, he started to drown. Luckily, a friend found Hayward and was able to revive him on shore.

But Hayward sustained a spinal cord injury that damaged his C4 and C5 vertebrae, which caused him to become an incomplete quadriplegic, meaning he still has limited function in his upper body. A period of profound adjustment followed that involved “continuously working towards regaining my independence in any way possible.”

That included a new mindset to focus on what was truly important, and worthy of his time and energy: studying history and archaeology at U of T.

“History has always been a point of interest for me,” says Hayward, 33, a third-year student in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a member of Woodsworth College.

Beau Hayward takes his dog, Aster, for a walk on the St. George campus (photo courtesy of Beau Hayward)

“As I grew up, my dad and I started watching war movies and I fell in love with the stories. As time went on my interest diverged from military history into more political and social theory.”

He says he’s especially interested in 20th-century American history and wants to learn as much as he can about the U.S. civil rights movement.

“I'd like to study some of the documents that are coming out now, [with] archives being declassified because their 50-year classification limit is over,” he says. “The documents include what was going on with the CIA and the FBI and all the crazy stuff going on during the Cold War.

“It’s a pretty cool time to study that type of history.”

Hayward’s own history involves working as an iron worker for 10 years before the accident.

“I just did it for the money,” he says, adding that while he enjoyed the camaraderie of his co-workers, he was left feeling unhappy and unfulfilled.

“After my accident I promised myself that whatever I ended up doing, I would do something I love. I wasn't going to spend any more time doing things that didn't bring me any joy in life.”

These days, Hayward says he is finding joy in connecting with his professors, and “having access to some of the brightest people in the field.”

“They turn you on to some amazing material and help guide you through really complex issues,” he says. “They also give you a space to ask questions.”

He also speaks highly of U of T’s accessibility efforts.

“Before school, I heard, ‘U of T is an old school, it's not really that accessible,’” says Hayward. “That’s a myth and it’s a shame because it really is accessible.”

He singled out the work of Michelle Morgani, an accessibility adviser on U of T’s Accessibility Services team.

“Michelle has been my adviser since day one,” says Hayward. “She helps me get funding. She helps me get educational assistance. She helps me get assistive tech. She does it all.”

Beau Hayward and his partner Meghan (photo courtesy of Beau Hayward)

He says it took time to get accustomed to navigating campus with a wheelchair.

“There are physical barriers I have to deal with once in a while, but probably 95 per cent of the classrooms are fine. It's not ideal sometimes, but they're workable,” he says, adding that newer classrooms have designated seating areas, adjustable desks and accessible washrooms – all of which make it easier for him to focus on his studies.

He says it took time to get accustomed to navigating campus with a wheelchair.

“There are lots of spaces for people with disabilities, especially for wheelchair users.”

Hayward has offered his input into several accessibility projects, including taking part in a work-study position with the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education's sports and recreation diversity and equity team from 2020 to 2022.

“It’s a work in progress for sure, but the university is taking steps to involve people like myself with disabilities, which is a great indication of their commitment to going beyond code and asking individuals with disabilities to consult,” he says.

Like most students, Hayward balances his academic demands with being active. An avid snowboarder before his accident, Hayward says he is now a sit skier.

“It's a real physical challenge – just the balance point on the ski and turning and having the strength takes a lot of practice,” he says. “But sit skiing has been my opportunity to get back on the mountain.”

He’s recently tried wheelchair rugby, too.

“That's been the best community that I've found thus far,” he says. “It was designed for quadriplegics. Most of the guys I play with are Paralympians and they have so much to offer in way of insight.”

He’s also looking forward to trying hand-cycling this summer, while he and his partner, Meghan, are fans of sailing. He also plays a mean game of bocce ball.

“It's fun, easy and affordable,” he says. “And for me, it’s a good option to bring people together that have a range of abilities so that everyone can play.”

Hayward is also looking forward to completing another semester.

“My experience at the university has been one of the best of my entire life,” he says. “After my accident, my life flipped upside down. I had to find a new direction and a new way to contribute, and the community at U of T welcomed me and that made the transition easy. School has given me purpose.”

Discovery of new gene mutation could play a role in breast cancer prevention: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 16:22:03 +0000

Discovery of new gene mutation could play a role in breast cancer prevention: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/03/2023 - 12:22

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(photo by Michael Hanschke/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Heidi Singer

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Cancer

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Research & Innovation

Women's College Hospital

An international team of researchers have discovered a new genetic mutation that could help predict the likelihood of hereditary breast cancer.

The discovery, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, sprang not from the latest technology, but from decades-long research relationships that spanned continents.

Mohammad Reza Akbari

Mohammad Reza Akbari, a cancer researcher at Women’s College Hospital and professor of genetic epidemiology at the �ؿ�ζSM’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, says he and his colleagues in Poland identified the mutation in a gene called ATRIP by working with a highly homogenous population of Polish breast cancer patients.

That, in turn, helped them to spot what might have been impossible to see otherwise.

“People say discovering a cancer-causing mutation is like finding a needle in a haystack,” says Akbari. “But I think it’s more like finding a specific piece of hay. The low-hanging fruit has already been picked, but we still don’t know what causes breast cancer in at least one-third of families with generations of cases.”

In 1994, an international group of scientists, including Akbari’s colleague Steven Narod, a senior scientist at Women’s College Hospital and a professor at Dalla Lana School of Public Health and in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, discovered the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations that cause breast cancer in the vast majority of women who carry them. It was a momentous finding. But BRCA1/2, together with a small cluster of subsequently uncovered gene mutations only account for two-thirds of breast cancers that run in families.

For the other third, there has been no test to help members make decisions about how to protect themselves with procedures like preventative mastectomies.

It has been years since a new gene has been identified in the breast cancer world. The remaining mutations might lurk in the lesser-known quarters of our genomes or would be more rare than BRCA mutations or less obviously tied to breast cancer. But Akbari and his colleagues in Poland had something very valuable: access to a “founder” population of patients – a large group of people whose genetic mutations are magnified because they are descended from a small group. Founder populations exist in many parts of the world such as Quebec, Iceland and Poland.

Starting in 1998, the familial breast cancer research team, led by Narod, had established ties with Polish scientists, allowing the Women’s College Hospital group access to a founder population of breast cancer patients. After joining Women’s College Hospital a decade ago, Akbari cultivated these ties, working collaboratively with Cezary Cybulski at Pomeranian Medical University to establish a large breast cancer recruitment program – and making sure to visit frequently.

The two research groups clicked.

“They’ve been great collaborators,” says Akbari, of the Polish group, along with fellow researchers Jean-Yves Masson and Amir Abbas Samani, from Laval University and U of T respectively. “There was no ego involved, just a willingness to work together. I’ve never seen such a thing anywhere else. We made a great team.”

Akbari and his colleagues sequenced the genomes of about 500 Polish breast cancer patients, plus a control group, and validated the preliminary findings with more than 25,000 breast cancer patients and controls from Poland. He found his smoking gun: a genetic mutation associated with more than a 100 per cent increased risk of breast cancer in the women studied. But the risk estimation was based on a single founder mutation in a gene known as ATRIP. Next, they searched for the mutations in the UK Biobank, which contains half a million genomes from a more diverse group of people. In that population, the relationship between the mutation and the likelihood of developing breast cancer was even stronger – more than 200 per cent.

The mutation is rare – affecting only 0.25 percent of breast cancer patients in the study. But the team made a parallel discovery that could help tailor treatments to the next generation of breast cancer patients. They found that the breast tumours of the patients with a germline ATRIP mutation had a hallmark trait indicating they would respond to an existing class of targeted therapies called PARP Inhibitors. And this could apply to an even wider group.

If a breast cancer patient doesn’t have the ATRIP mutation in their germline DNA, the mutation might still appear in their tumors, meaning they could potentially respond to PARP inhibitors.

“These are preliminary data and more research needs to be done before being able to use it in clinic,” Akbari cautions. “But it shows that the finding can have implications for a greater number of people.”

Akbari is hopeful about the public health ramifications since breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women around the world.

“When we understand why breast cancer occurs in families, we can easily screen all the members and determine who is at high risk and who’s not,” says Akbari. “If the risk is big enough, women can choose preventive surgeries or more aggressive screenings to detect it earlier. And every gene we identify will improve our general knowledge of breast cancer biology – which will pave the road for developing more effective targeted treatment of breast cancer in all patients.”

U of T appoints Christine Szustaczek vice-president, communications

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 15:23:11 +0000

U of T appoints Christine Szustaczek vice-president, communications

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/03/2023 - 11:23

Cutline

Christine Szustaczek, an award-winning public relations and communications leader, has been appointed U of T's vice-president, communications for a five-year term (supplied image)

Topic

�ؿ�ζSM Communications

Meric Gertler

UTC

The �ؿ�ζSM has appointed Christine Szustaczek, an award-winning public relations and communications leader, as vice-president, communications for a five-year term.

Szustaczek’s appointment, which takes effect May 15, 2023 through June 30, 2028, was recently approved by the university’s Governing Council following a comprehensive international search. As head of �ؿ�ζSM Communications (UTC), Szustaczek will be charged with enhancing internal communications and sharing U of T’s story – including the wide-ranging impact of its world-leading research and scholarship – with a global audience.

An alumna and former U of T administrator, Szustaczek currently serves as vice-president, external relations at Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, where she is responsible for strategic communications, public relations, institutional events, marketing, brand strategy, government relations, community engagement, advancement and alumni relations.

“On behalf of the entire �ؿ�ζSM community, I am delighted to welcome Christine Szustaczek to the senior leadership team,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “As leader of the tri-campus �ؿ�ζSM Communications, Ms. Szustaczek will play a critical role in advancing strategic external and internal communications and public engagement for the university.

“She brings to this important position a communications approach that combines academic rigour with real-world practice – and a remarkable record of leadership and accomplishment in higher education and the broader public sector.”

A trusted adviser to Sheridan’s president and vice-presidential colleagues, board of governors and deans and directors, Szustaczek previously held the position of chief communications officer at the college. During that period, she advanced internal communications, guided the institution through multiple complex issues and oversaw an important rebranding effort. Prior to that, she served as Sheridan’s associate vice-president, communications, public affairs and marketing, where she integrated the three distinct teams to advance institutional objectives. She began her time at Sheridan in the newly created position of director of corporate communications and external relations.

“I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of vice-president, communications at the �ؿ�ζSM, one of the world’s top-ranked public universities,” said Szustaczek. “The opportunity to return to U of T and help lead an institution that fuels individual, economic, and societal transformation is both humbling and exhilarating. I look forward to working across the three campuses to serve our constituents and stakeholders, showcase people’s inspiring and game-changing work, and to explain to the public how U of T continually lives up to its character and delivers on the promise of its Defy Gravity brand.”

Szustaczek is widely regarded as an agile and collaborative leader who is highly skilled in managing relationships and developing people. Her work has been recognized by her peers with more than 50 prestigious awards, including the Heather Pullen Memorial Award for Ethical Public Relations and multiple awards from the Canadian Public Relations Society, the International Association of Business Communicators and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. She has also published in the Journal of Education Advancement and Marketing and the Journal of Professional Communication.

Before joining Sheridan, Szustaczek spent eight years running her own consultancy, helping a range of broader public sector agencies – including many colleges and universities – share their unique stories and communicate their impact.

She also spent six years working at U of T – first as a senior development officer and senior donor relations officer in the division of university relations and the Rotman School of Management, and then as director of communications and associate director of development in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. She also served as U of T Engineering’s acting executive director of advancement.

Szustaczek holds an honours bachelor of arts degree in international relations and a minor in economics from U of T, and a master’s degree in communications management from McMaster University. She is accredited in public relations by the Canadian Public Relations Society and is a member of the board of directors of the Alice and Murray Maitland Foundation and Sheridan College’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre at Pinewood Studios in Toronto.

President Gertler thanked the advisory committee for its advice and guidance. He also thanked David Palmer, U of T’s vice-president, advancement, who has served so ably as interim vice-president, communications since Oct. 1, 2022.

Researchers develop mRNA-based delivery tech for gene editing in the lungs

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:39:22 +0000

Researchers develop mRNA-based delivery tech for gene editing in the lungs

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 03/31/2023 - 15:39

Cutline

(photo by iStock, photo illustration by MIT)

Eileen Hoftyzer

Topic

Breaking Research

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Research & Innovation

A team of researchers, including Bowen Li from the �ؿ�ζSM’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, has developed a new lipid nanoparticle with potential to deliver gene editing tools to cells in the lung – a promising step toward developing new, inhalable therapies for lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

“The discovery of this lipid nanoparticle is a significant step forward,” said Li, adding that it demonstrates the potential to deliver gene editing tools to the lung via inhalation. “This has been very difficult to achieve to date and it has huge potential for clinical translation.”

Bowen Li

A first author of the study published in Nature Biotechnology, Li is currently an assistant professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and helped lead the research during a post-doctoral stint at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Daniel Anderson, senior author and professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, said it was the first demonstration of highly efficient delivery of RNA to the lungs. “We are hopeful that it can be used to treat or repair a range of genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis,” he told MIT News.

The research team also designed an innovative high-throughput platform that enabled it to quickly develop and test hundreds of candidate lipid nanoparticles, significantly speeding up identification of the lead candidate. The novel platform has potential to be used to develop lipid nanoparticles for countless other applications – work that Li is continuing in his research program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“Behind this work is our high-throughput platform, and we aim to repurpose this platform to identify nanoparticles for delivering various RNA therapies to different disease-affected organs,” says Li who completed his post-doctoral fellowship with Anderson and Robert Langer, Institute professor at MIT and senior author of the study.

In 2019, Anderson’s group developed nanoparticles that could deliver mRNA that produced a bioluminescent protein to lung cells. The current research takes the approach one step farther by delivering mRNA that produces a protein capable of editing the genome.

mRNA explored as novel approach to deliver gene editing tools

The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool holds promise as a potential approach to treat diseases caused by genetic mutations because it can change specific genetic sequences to produce proteins that have a therapeutic effect. It is composed of RNA that targets a specific DNA sequence and the Cas9 enzyme, which “cuts” the genome to add or remove sections.

In the past, researchers delivered CRISPR-Cas9 to targeted cells using a modified virus. But the tool’s comparatively large size and the potential of the virus to stimulate an unwanted immune response have blunted its success.

However, new mRNA technology – similar to what is used in COVID-19 vaccines – has potential for gene editing. Since mRNA is involved in making proteins, it may be possible to deliver mRNA that allows the target cell to produce the Cas9 enzyme instead of delivering the enzyme itself. This advance could lessen the risk of an immune response and allow for repeated doses.

To be successful, this approach requires identifying a lipid nanoparticle that can surround the mRNA and help it cross the cell membrane, allowing the mRNA to be delivered to the right cell.

Innovative approach identifies candidate lipid nanoparticle

Delivering mRNA directly to lung cells has proven to be particularly challenging. A layer of mucus acts as an additional barrier for lipid nanoparticles and, while the lung contains several types of cells, only a few are relevant targets for gene editing to treat lung disease.

The research team designed several hundred lipid nanoparticles and used a novel, high-throughput platform to quickly test and find the best candidates that could deliver gene editing tools to lung cells.

They identified a previously undescribed lipid nanoparticle that was able to reach the target lung cells, cross the cell membrane and escape the endosome to deliver the mRNA where it could be translated into Cas9 and, ultimately, resulted in the genome being edited.

The candidate lipid nanoparticle was able to deliver mRNA to two specific types of lung cells – club cells and ciliary cells – that are implicated in cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. The ability to deliver to multiple cells could also result in a longer-lasting therapeutic effect.

“Club cells live longer than ciliary cells and they can differentiate into the ciliary cells. Even if the ciliary cell dies, the edited club cells could differentiate into ciliary cells and maintain the efficacy,” Li explains.

Research will now focus on testing the lipid nanoparticle under disease conditions, such as in models of cystic fibrosis where the mucus is very thick, as well as on developing a formulation that can be inhaled. And Li plans to continue using the high-throughput platform in his current research program to develop and test lipid nanoparticles for a range of applications.

The research received support from Translate Bio, the National Institutes of Health, the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy startup fund, a PRiME post-doctoral fellowship, the American Cancer Society, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

'We’re still in the middle of this': Rotman Dean Susan Christoffersen unpacks global banking woes

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:07:50 +0000

'We’re still in the middle of this': Rotman Dean Susan Christoffersen unpacks global banking woes

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 03/31/2023 - 15:07

Cutline

(photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Jared Lindzon

Topic

Global Lens

Global

Rotman School of Management

The banking crisis that has toppled several financial institutions in recent weeks remains ongoing – and while the Canadian financial sector is well protected against the contagion, experts say it is not entirely immune.

When Silvergate Capital, a lender that focused heavily on the crypto industry, announced it was shutting down operations on March 8, it was broadly received as a standalone incident that was the result of the lender being overly dependent on the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Susan Christoffersen

But the sudden collapse of California-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) a couple of days later wasn’t so easy to dismiss. It marked the largest banking failure since the global financial crisis of 2008. A few days after that, Signature Bank suffered the same fate, becoming the third-largest bank failure in American history. Then came Credit Suisse, which was on the cusp of collapse when it was bought out by Swiss banking rival UBS on March 19.

While the underlying circumstances can be varied and complex, a bank failure generally occurs when a financial institution is unable to fulfill its obligations to creditors and depositors – either due to insolvency or a liquidity crunch. And, worryingly, a bank failure can spread particularly quickly in a digital era stoked by social media.

“We’re still in the middle of this,” says Susan Christoffersen, dean of the �ؿ�ζSM’s Rotman School of Management. “There’s a contagion problem that can happen when you have a banking crisis and that’s the reason why you absolutely need regulators to do what they’re doing now.”

When a bank faces unexpected liquidity pressures from depositors, it typically is forced to sell off its assets at heavily discounted prices, which can devalue similar assets held by rival banks. Christoffersen says this, in turn, can adversely affect the capital buffers and the confidence of depositors at otherwise healthy banks, placing them at risk.

“This is why it’s so important for regulators to step in and not let banks like SVB sell off its assets at massive losses,” says Christoffersen, whose research includes a focus on the role of financial institutions in capital markets.

In the wake of the SVB failure, American regulators quickly rolled out emergency measures that put the bank under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC guaranteed depositors would have access to all their funds even though the organization only insures individual deposits up to US$250,000. North of the border, the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) similarly insures deposits held at Canadian banks up to $100,000.

“It seems that the interventions are certainly helping, but it creates nervousness,” Christoffersen says. “If I had an uninsured deposit, I might be anxious about whether or not this crisis might affect my bank since it is difficult to know in real time the quality of assets being held and the potential impacts of economic shocks. The speed at which money can move also adds a whole other level of uncertainty.”

Though regulators have taken steps to reduce their frequency and impact, bank failures remain a risk – particularly during periods of high inflation and rising interest rates.

Christoffersen explains that banks generally use deposits in ways that boost the economy, such as handing out loans to new businesses or homebuyers. But that leaves banks vulnerable to a sudden panic because the money is invested over the long term, making it difficult to meet short-term liquidity demands should all customers want to pull their money out at the same time.

In the case of SVB, the bank succumbed to pressure from both the liability side and the asset side. On the liability side, SVB was heavily dependent on depositors from a single industry – tech – and recessionary pressures coupled with a scarcity of alternative funding sources meant SVB’s customers were more reliant than most on the funds they had sitting in the bank.

“It also had an abnormally high rate of depositors who were not covered by the FDIC guarantee,” added Christoffersen. “[Clients] were much more wary of their bank’s financial difficulties and were much faster to pull their cash out since it wasn’t insured.”

SVP also invested a lot of its assets in low-interest, longer-term bonds.So, as interest rates went up, the value of the bonds plummeted and eroded capital buffers.

While the circumstances surrounding SVB’s collapse may be unique, it nevertheless highlighted the degree to which the sector relies on consumer confidence. Which means the high-profile banking failures dominating the news in recent weeks potentially puts every bank at risk.

Christoffersen, however, says that Canadian institutions are much less exposed.

“Our banks fared very well during the [2008] financial crisis, and I think part of it is the different regulatory environment that we’re in,” she says.

For example, while the United States has a patchwork of state and federal regulators overseeing its financial sector, Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) oversees all banks in Canada regardless of size or ownership structure. Furthermore, while there are more than 4,200 banks south of the border, there are just 81 banks operating on Canadian soil – 34 of which are owned and operated domestically.

“Our banks are fewer, larger, and tend to have more diversified types of deposits. In addition, our regulations are more standardized; we have pretty robust capital requirements,” says Christoffersen. “That means the asset values can fluctuate pretty significantly without resulting in insolvency and affecting depositors.”

Canada’s largest banking failure occurred at the Home Bank of Canada in 1923. Since then, only two small regional banks – the Canadian Commercial Bank and Northland Bank – have gone under, both in September of 1985. (Both institutions were founded during the oil and gas boom of the mid-1970s and invested heavily in energy-related real estate, only to have their loan portfolios deteriorate in the early 1980s due to rising interest rates and downward pressure on the Canadian dollar.)

“Canada has a pretty robust and healthy system – that’s the benefit of having larger and more diversified banks that can better manage risks,” says Christoffersen. “That doesn’t mean bank runs can’t happen here, but I’m not pulling my money out just yet.”

This story originally appeared at the Rotman Insights Hub.

Loss of key protein could be crucial to understanding ALS: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 15:57:59 +0000

Loss of key protein could be crucial to understanding ALS: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 03/31/2023 - 11:57

Cutline

Janice Robertson, left, and Philip McGoldrick, right, found that the loss of the C9orf72 protein may contribute to the underlying cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (supplied images)

Eileen Hoftyzer

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

Researchers at the �ؿ�ζSM have shown that loss of a key protein in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may contribute to the underlying cause of both diseases.

The protein, known as C9orf72 (C9) and expressed by a gene with the same name, affects movement of molecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm in the neurons affected in ALS and FTD, the researchers found.

“Here we have uncovered a role for C9orf72 in regulating nucleocytoplasmic transport, a crucial mechanism that causes cellular dysfunction if disrupted,” says Janice Robertson, a professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and scientist at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

The journal Cell Reports published the findings.

A mutation in the gene C9 is the most common genetic cause of ALS, found in about 40 per cent of familial cases and 10 per cent of sporadic cases. Mutations in this gene may cause disease in two different ways: gain of function, where the mutation leads to the creation of abnormal RNA and proteins; or loss of function, where the C9 protein is reduced, affecting its normal function.

While many research teams have focused on the gain-of-function mechanisms, Robertson’s lab has been studying what happens in cells when C9 protein is absent or reduced.

“Most of the research in the field has been done on the gain-of-function mechanisms, but recent clinical trials targeting these mechanisms have not been entirely successful, suggesting that gain-of-function mechanisms may not be the sole contributors to disease,” says Philip McGoldrick, a research associate in Robertson’s lab and first author on the study. “Our previous research has suggested that normal C9 protein levels could be protective against disease, and other researchers have shown that the gain-of-function mechanisms are exacerbated when C9 protein is lost; however, we don’t know through which pathways this modifying effect occurs.”

In the past, researchers have proposed that interruptions in the mechanism that shuttles molecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm, known as nucleocytoplasmic transport, may be an underlying cause of ALS. And Robertson’s lab has previously uncovered that the C9 protein interacts with other molecules that are important in this transport system.

In their newest research, they focused specifically on how the loss of C9 affects nucleocytoplasmic transport. They used cell lines, motor and cortical neurons and animal models to visualize the activity of the key transport molecules when C9 was reduced or absent.

In each case, they were able to show that loss of the C9 protein affected nucleocytoplasmic transport such that important molecules and proteins that perform functions related to gene expression and translation are not where they should be.

“Previously, researchers thought that loss of function was having a very minor effect, but there’s been lots more work that has showed that you actually may need multiple mechanisms to result in disease,” says McGoldrick. “Our work makes an important contribution because it shows for the first time that loss of C9 can affect nucleocytoplasmic transport mechanisms that we know are also affected by the gain-of-function mechanisms.”

McGoldrick recently received a Career Transition Award from the ALS Society of Canada and Brain Canada that will support his continuing studies on the topic and help his transition to an independent research career in Canada. The award provides both salary support and research funding for three years.

“The Career Transition Award is a well-deserved accolade for Philip and exemplifies the importance of his research toward findings a cure for ALS and FTD,” says Robertson.

With the award, McGoldrick plans to continue studying transport between the nucleus and the cytoplasm and the nuclear pore – the structure through which transport takes place – to gain more insight into the underlying mechanisms of ALS and how the C9 protein may be involved.

“This is a massive boost to my career,” he says. “It will enable me to pursue this research for the next few years and will make a substantial contribution to what we know about C9 loss of function contributing to disease.”

The research was supported by the ALS Society of Canada, Brain Canada, the James Hunter ALS Initiative and ALS Double Play.

'The new Excel': MBA students flock to machine learning course

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 18:42:46 +0000

'The new Excel': MBA students flock to machine learning course

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/30/2023 - 14:42

Cutline

(ATHVisions/Getty Images)

Topic

Artificial Intelligence

Finance

Rotman School of Management

With recent instability in some U.S. banks and the crypto “winter” that began last year, experts say it’s more important than ever for finance professionals to understand the innovations – and challenges – in the sector.

“The world is changing quickly, and so too are the skills needed to thrive,” says John Hull, a University Professor of finance at the �ؿ�ζSM’s Rotman School of Management.

Hull is the academic director of the Rotman Financial Innovation Hub (FinHub), which is designed to help fintech practitioners, students and faculty to share insights and equip students with best-in-class knowledge of financial innovation. He created the hub five years ago with Andreas Park, professor of finance at U of TMississauga, and the late Peter Christoffersen, who was a professor of finance at Rotman.

“We recognized there were lots of things happening in the financial sector that are transformative and different, and we wanted to develop the knowledge base and pass it on to the students so they can compete in this space,” says Park, who has a cross-appointment to Rotman.

Each year, students can take courses taught by FinHub-affiliated faculty. That includes Hull and Park, who offer courses on machine learning, blockchain, decentralized finance and financial market trading.

One of the most in-demand MBA electives is machine learning and financial innovation, which introduces students to the tools of machine learning. A similar course is compulsory for students in the master of financial risk management and master of finance programs.

Students are required to learn Python in the course, with Hull calling the programming language “the new Excel” as it becomes a common requirement for many jobs in finance.

“I’ve met traders in their 40s who go and learn Python because it simplifies their workflow,” says Park. “It’s all about inferring data and making sense of it, and then predicting future data using machine learning tools. And to do that, you need to learn Python.”

The machine learning course is offered to full-time MBA students in March and April of their first year. It’s also available as an elective in their second year.

“Many MBA students get involved in machine learning as part of their summer internship, so it's important to give them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with machine learning and Python applications prior to that time,” says Hull.

MBA student Cameron Thompson took the course prior to an internship at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and says the hands-on practice in class was invaluable, with or without an extensive background in computer programming.

“Being familiar with common machine learning terminology from day one on the job was quite useful,” says Thompson, who will be returning to BCG full-time following graduation. “The course builds a solid foundation for using data in a strategic way and then adds the machine learning content – it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing an application.”

In his second year, Thompson pursued an independent FinHub study project – sponsored by the Bank of Canada – that involved working with researchers from Rotman and the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering on a natural language processing model.

MBA grad Fengmin Weng, who took the elective course with Hull, says the insights from class prepared her to lead a machine learning project at TD.

“Machine learning is definitely the trend in the financial industry, particularly in the risk management area,” says Weng, who came from an accounting background when she pursued the master of financial risk management program.

“It definitely helps us to make better decisions around our strategy,” she says. “If you want to develop your career in the risk area, machine learning is your weapon.”

Richard Liu, who received his MBA from Rotman three years ago, says the machine learning course was one of the most eye-opening parts of his MBA experience. Today, he says he uses many of the concepts from the course in his work as a financial planner.

“I’m able to recognize when it’s more effective to train computers to enhance our work, how to coexist with robo-advisors and how to automate some of our financial planning processes,” says Liu.

Students involved with FinHub courses are equipped with the tools to think critically about the implications and benefits of emerging technologies in the financial sector, says Park, adding that “they’re able to enter an organization and use these tools to help improve processes and strategies.”

Hull, meanwhile, says student who take the course gain insight into the direction the finance world is heading – namely “that machine learning is becoming more and more important in business."

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