Medicago, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has the potential to rapidly develop a vaccine in response to a newly sequenced influenza strain, allowing for large-scale vaccination of the population very early during a pandemic. The company would like to know how many doses of vaccine is required and what distribution strategies should be used to maximize population-wide benefits of vaccination in the event of an influenza pandemic.

With childhood obesity and inactivity on the rise at an alarming rate, many government, education, and health agencies are promoting the development of physical literacy to combat this “epidemic.” The concept of childhood physical literacy refers to the development of fundamental movement skills that permit a child to move confidently and with control, in a wide range of physical activities. Wearable technologies have been quickly gaining in popularity, with devices and apps that can track fitness, sleep patterns, mood and even air quality.

Clinical experience demonstrates that canine patients commonly suffer from neuropathic pain and little is known to address this issue. Our study aims to investigate different tools for the diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic pain. Forty dogs with naturally-occurring neuropathic pain will be included in a prospective, randomized, masked clinical trial using appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The goal of the Perpetual Nomads project is to make illustration depicting many indigenous and environmental issues through traditional art media and digital media. The team will be exploring the viability of creating Mixed Reality interactive experiences to increase the awareness, empathy, egalitarianism and environmental concern in users through these illustrated narratives. Since people use new technologies and traditional arts for expressing themselves in so many ways, its crucial for youth to be exposed to powerful ideas relating to consciousness, sustainability and connectivity.

This project is to use genetic engineered “cold-sore” virus to treat prostate cancer. The virus is engineered to reduce its toxicity to normal tissues but can specifically attack and kill tumour cells. Meanwhile, the virus releases a group of anti-tumour immune stimulating factors to activate immune system to eliminate prostate tumour. This project will use a unique prostate tumour mouse model to test the virus.

The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the cellular mechanistic effects of supplementation with a hypocaloric meal replacement product (Optifast-900; Nestlé Canada) containing cysteine and glycine, which are amino acid precursors of the antioxidant glutathione. Impaired cellular glutathione redox normally occurs with aging and metabolic disorders, however, this study will focus on a population in which we have previously observed impaired muscle cellular glutathione redox and slow weight loss during the exclusive dietary consumption of Optifast-900.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends to include electrophysiological measures in their auditory processing disorder (APD) assessment battery. But few audiologist include electrophysiological assessment due to lack of evidence. There is strong evidence of auditory brainstem abnormality in these children. However, very less is understood about stimulus processing within the cochlea, auditory brainstem coding in noise (ipsilateral) and the thalmocortical functioning in APD children.

NeuroRx is an imaging contract research organization (CRO) specialized in the central nervous system (CNS) that utilizes state-of-the-art digital image processing techniques to produce accurate and precise outcome measures for clinical trials of drugs in development. Prior to analysis, all scans must pass Quality Control (QC). The goal of this project will be to incorporate advanced computer algorithms to automatically classify the quality of high-resolution structural brain Magnetic Resonance Images. The advanced computer algorithms will include deep learning algorithms.

Fibroproliferative disorders are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A large group of interstitial lung diseases (ILD) can cause progressive scarring of lung tissues, affecting the ability to breathe. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is one of the major forms of ILD and is characterized by a progressive decline in lung function. Although the pathogenesis of IPF is not completely understood, work from our group and others suggest that transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-?1) is involved in the fibrogenic process.

Seizures are rare while dreaming in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. New research, however, suggests seizures may rebound during unstable REM sleep. This may be due to brain wiring (“connectivity”) since a highly connected brain is more prone to seizures, and connectivity changes from wakefulness to sleep. Brainwave tracings (“EEG”) can generate connectivity maps (“connectomes”) but adequate connectome resolution requires many EEG electrodes (“high density EEG”). This study uses high density EEG to examine brain connectomes and seizure susceptibility in unstable REM sleep.