Viruses that infect the brain, such as Zika virus, are a significant threat to public health in Canada since many are poorly understood, and no vaccines or antivirals exist to combat them. We are investigating the use of “mini-brain” organoids derived from human stem cells as a model to study Zika virus infection that mimics […]

Plastics are the prime contributor to the global litter crisis. Every second, a quarter tonne of non-degradable plastics enter the world’s oceans. Despite this, petroleum-based plastic production continues to increase, with more than 300 billion kilograms of virgin plastic produced annually. Our team is slightly altering the metabolism of a strain of bacteria to efficiently […]

There are many exciting therapeutic applications for proteins. Many diseases are caused by faulty enzymes, which can sometimes be replaced. Antibodies and antibody-like molecules are being developed to specifically target cancers and other diseases. However, in order to administer these products, they must be made in a way that has minimal effect on the patient’s […]

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is a bacterium that causes 65% of gastric ulcers and cancers worldwide. Current anti HP treatments often fail because the bacteria have become resistant and they have serious side effects. We are looking into using molecules produced by bacteria called Lactobacilli that are a natural component of the human gastro-intestinal flora to […]

Clearcut logging and acid deposition affect plants, lichens and slugs (lichen consumers) and may facilitate the introduction and spread of alien invasive slugs, which can increase grazing pressures on at-risk lichens. The main research goal of this project is to improve our understanding of how clearcutting practices affect herbs and slugs and facilitate both the […]

Vaccines are one of the most important medical breakthroughs, proactively saving millions of lifes and reducing human morbidity. Yet there remains a need to make current vaccine formulations more effective and affordable, which requires testing and optimizing new formulations. In addition, there remains diseases for which there are no efficient vaccine. To develop and test […]

Economic development often has dire consequences for wildlife and environmental conservation. In Taiwan coastal waters, a small dolphin population is being affected by large-scale habitat loss and degradation resulting from development projects, pollution, vessel traffic and a massive fishing industry. The research aims to identify the threats having the greatest impacts on different aspects of […]

Since 1868, the Canadian government has enforced legislation to protect fishes and their habitats. In 2012, amendments to the Fisheries Act shifted legislation from the protection of fish habitat to the protection of fisheries productivity. The Act requires that proposed development projects include plans to mitigate negative impacts to fisheries productivity. In the event that […]

Biobased products, mostly derived from plant biomass, have the potential to improve the sustainability of Canada’s natural resources and environmental quality while competing economically. Plant biomass, composed primarily of cell walls and modification of cell wall properties has the potential to improve biomass conversion to biobased products such as biofuels as well as improve feedstock […]

Cannabis has been in use for a long period of time both as medicine and as well as a recreational drug. With the current legalization of the crop in Canada, cannabis industry is expanding but there is limited information on improving the medical cannabis in terms of the content of minor cannabinoids such as THCV […]

As an analytical platform, the Sanofi Pasteur Analytical Sciences (Toronto) Molecular Biology Centre (MBC) is applying and optimizing the use of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). The detection of adventitious viruses in biological products relies on a set of methods defined by the regulatory agencies called the compendial methods. High-throughput sequencing has the potential to improve the […]

The ultimate objective of this research project is to use a form of artificial intelligence to be able to classify and identify images of microscopic particles. Machine Learning is the term applied to this type of process, in which an algorithm is created by the computer software itself (i.e. mostly hidden from human intervention) to […]