Allergic rhinitis (AR) is in inflammatory disease characterized by nasal symptoms. It affects 20-25% of Canadians and is recognized as the most common allergic disorder worldwide. Patients can experience one of several types of responses to allergen onset hence a key hurdle to developing effective treatment plans is accurate diagnosis. The allergic responses are characterized […]

Med-El’s BoneBridge implant provides the sensation of sound to hearing-impaired persons. The device’s transducer is surgically implanted in the skull. Key surgical problems are to find a location on the individual patient’s skull that is thick enough to house the transducer and to place and configure the transducer to maximize sound energy transfer to the […]

Residential displacement is common among people who use drugs (PWUD). However, we know little about the impact residential displacement has on their social and health outcomes. PWUD living with HIV may experience particularly detrimental consequences due to their structural vulnerability and complex realities of their everyday lives. Focusing on PWUD living with HIV, this study […]

While studies show that dietary fibres are beneficial in many diseases, they are not digested or absorbed directly by the host, but rather fermented by gut microbes. Fermentation byproducts (mostly short-chain fatty-acids; SCFAs) are responsible for health benefits. Only select inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) patients benefit from fibres; many patients report sensitivity to high fibre […]

Masters athletes (>35 years) are a rapidly growing population that participate in a variety of sports. While exercise has tremendous health benefits, there is a small absolute risk of a heart attack and sudden death during exercise. Prevention strategies, such as heart screening aim to identify heart disease that may serve as a trigger for […]

Burn injuries and wounds caused by burns are big health problems and in Canada alone cost nearly $290 million. Additionally, these wounds usually persist and become infected and subsequently drastically compromise patients’ health, result in significantly longer hospitalization, delayed wound healing, higher costs and higher risk of death. Therefore, prevention and management of wound infections […]

Probiotics are suggested to greatly reduce the risk of mortality and risk of infection in the gut of preterm infants. However, probiotics are rarely given to babies in hospitals in North America. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of probiotics supplementation in improving intestinal heath and preventing gut complications in premature […]

Persons with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) and healthy individuals will be recruited for a study to identify novel blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of PAD. Participants will be matched for age and sex. They will have their Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) measured. They will then be asked to return to […]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer. Tumors in the colon are commonly found as polyps. Polyps are usually benign but adenomatous polyps can grow into cancer. Detection of malignant polyps at an early stage greatly improves CRC prognosis. However, it is difficult to distinguish between pre-cancerous and benign polyps visually using conventional […]

Despite the amazing level of shared neural machinery between humans and nonhuman primates, only humans appear to sense and react to musical rhythm. This ability spontaneously occurs very early in development, and has played a major role in human culture for millennia. The goal of this project is to advance our understanding of the neural […]

As the Canadian population is aging, more and more Canadians will show cognitive decline. Aging and certain types of neurological disorders is often associated with deficits in executive functions: goal maintenance, planning, task switching and attention. These functions are critical for the maintenance of functional independence. Few validated rehabilitation approaches for these types of deficits exist. One […]

Poor drug accumulation at tumor sites negatively affects the efficacy of many anti-cancer therapeutics. Development of non-invasive strategies that can effectively monitor drug biodistribution is important, especially given the increasing number and complexity of nanotherapeutic agents in clinical development. The use of positron emission tomography in conjunction with a radiolabeled drug delivery system has the […]