A new therapy was developed in order to combat cancers by stimulating our immune system to fight agents the cancer cells in the body. The activated immune system is more efficient to fight the cancer cells than the common drugs, but stimulating the immune system is very expensive and labour-intensive with the currently developed protocols. […]

Making sure patients have well controlled post-operative pain is imperative for patient well-being, optimal recovery, and to prevent chronic pain from developing. Opioid medications are often used to treat post-surgical pain, but some people respond in unpredictable ways and this may be related to their genetics. Pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing is a way of finding out […]

At Emergent BioSolutions our vision is to “Protect and Enhance Life”. The Antibody Therapeutics Business Unit focuses on applying immunotherapies to prevent and treat human infectious diseases. This includes finding effective strategies to meet existing and emerging threats to public health and intentional biothreats. As part of these efforts the Lead Generation Program was created […]

Drug resistance of medically relevant microorganisms poses a grave threat to human health and has severe economic consequences. Fungal pathogens pose an additional complication as they are closely related to their human host. Current therapies to treat fungal infections are limited and drug resistance has already emerged in the clinic. We have conducted extensive research […]

Monitoring the immuno-modulatory effects of vaccine formulations is critical for novel vaccine development. While animal models have been effective, increasing evidence suggests differences when translating to humans. We have designed a platform which uses fresh human whole blood coupled with a high-throughput single cell analysis, mass cytometry (CyTof Helios), to characterize and model the immune […]

Medical marijuana describes the legal use of cannabis plants for treating health-related issues. In Canada, there are currently about 40,000 medical marijuana users, and this number is expected to increase by over 1000% during the next decade. The large majority of patients use medical marijuana for its psychological effects, such as for anxiety, depression, pain […]

Pain is a global clinical problem. Chronic pain caused by cancer, osteo/rheumatoid arthritis, operations, injuries and spinal problems affects millions of people worldwide. The current treatments for severe pain is unsatisfactory and include opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids and tricyclic anti-depressants. Most of these drugs have limitations with regard to addiction, toxicity and thus there is […]

Pharmaceutical companies are required to perform stability testing of their drug products by regulation. A drug product that succeeds on stability testing means that its identity, potency, and purity remain within pre-established limits over its shelf life. Nowadays, drug products are more frequently reformulated in response to a highly competitive market, new research discoveries and […]

Pertussis, caused by the strict human pathogen B. pertussis or Bordetella parapertussis, is a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening respiratory tract illness when it occurs in unprotected infants. Despite the introduction of acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines and great initial success of the immunization program, pertussis outbreaks were reported in adolescents and adults in Canada since 1993. […]

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 […]

Despite the high prevalence of Inflammatory Bowel diseases (IBD) in industrialized countries, particularly in Canada, the mechanisms controlling these debilitating gastrointestinal pathologies remain poorly understood. IBD is though to arise from an uncontrolled immune response to the intestinal microbiota, inducing a persistent inflammatory reaction in the gut. Death of epithelial cells and loss of epithelial […]

The proposed project will explore variations in the whole brain after 1 year of treatment that may exist between those who are taking an injectable antipsychotic versus those who are taking an oral antipsychotic in a cohort of first-episode of psychosis. All patients are treated in a naturalistic, early intervention setting at the Douglas Institute […]