IBBME

U of T Entrepreneurship Week: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 21:45:09 +0000

U of T Entrepreneurship Week: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 03/10/2020 - 17:45

Cutline

Catherine Chan of U of T startup Honeybee Hub, which connects researchers with study participants, speaks with attendees at the True Blue Expo in 2019 (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

True Blue Expo

The Hub

Computer Science

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Dentistry

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Health Innovation Hub

IBBME

Impact Centre

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Nutritional Sciences

Rotman Commerce

Social Entrepreneurship

From speeding the discovery of life-saving drugs to reducing the amount of plastic clogging the oceans, University of Toronto entrepreneurs and their startups are engaged in tackling some of the most pressing challenges of the day.

Over the past decade, U of T has nurtured 500 startups that have secured some $1.5 billion in investment. Many of the companies were founded by students who sought to provide innovative solutions to problems. Others were launched by professors who were looking to implement their research in the real world.

What they all have in common is that they emerged from a university entrepreneurship ecosystem that’s ranked first in Canada and among the top 10 in the world.

With Entrepreneurship Week underway, here’s a look at 10 exciting U of T startups to keep an eye on in 2020:

Structura Biotechnology

(photo by Chris Sorensen)

When researchers in the United States worked to create the first 3D, atomic-scale map of the part of the novel coronavirus that infects human cells, a key step toward creating a vaccine, they relied on software created by U of T startup Structura Biotechnology.

Structura’s cryoSPARC program, which uses artificial intelligence to create 3D visualizations of protein, was spun out of Ali Punjani’s PhD research in computer science at U of T and was designed by alumnus Suhail Dawood. The startup received support from U of T’s UTEST accelerator.

The software enables scientists to visualize images captured using cryogenic electron microscopy, a Nobel Prize-winning technique that enables the capture of high-resolution photos of proteins by shooting electrons at frozen samples.

The technique has already garnered the attention of several big drug companies, but Punjani’s sister, Saara Punjani, the company’s chief operating officer, said the use of cryoSPARC in efforts to battle the coronavirus is an exciting development.

“Part of the reason we got into it is, at the end of the day, because we are looking to make a difference,” she told U of T News.

Roll Technologies

(photo couretsy of Roll Technologies)

Founded by U of T Scarborough alumnus Richard Cao, e-scooter startup Roll Technologies recently deployed 200 e-scooters and 50 electronic bikes (e-bikes) in Kelowna, B.C. after securing a deal with the city.

Cao’s father works in the e-bike and e-scooter manufacturing sector in China. That helped Cao formulate the idea behind Roll Technologies and develop some of the necessary connections. He then went to The Hub, U of T Scarborough’s startup accelerator, and worked with Director Gray Graffam, who set about differentiating Cao’s company from others in the burgeoning e-mobility space.

Originally from Shanghai, Cao described e-scooters as “a popular and effective form of shared mobility – and one that provides a green solution to a common urban transportation problem.”

BenchSci

(photo courtesy of BenchSci)

BenchSci, which uses machine learning to help scientists find the appropriate antibodies for their experiments, is backed by investors including Google’s Gradient Ventures, and counts some of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies among its clients.

The company grew out of frustrations experienced by Tom Leung, who, while working on his PhD in epigenetics, had experiments fail because his antibodies weren’t detecting target proteins. In search of a better solution, Leung reached out to David Chen, who was doing doctoral research in neuroscience, and Elvis Wianda, who was doing his PhD in medical biophysics.

The trio initially worked with U of T’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i) to get BenchSci up and running. They were later recruited to the Creative Destruction Lab by then-MBA candidate Liran Belenzon, who eventually joined the company as CEO.

Going forward, Belenzon says he envisions BenchSci “playing a crucial role in transforming scientists into ‘super-scientists’ and helping them get cures to patients faster.”

Ecopackers

(photo courtesy of Ecopackers)

Conceived by CEO Nuha Siddiqui during her time as president of the U of T chapter of the social entrepreneurship club Enactus, Ecopackers is on a mission to reduce the world’s reliance on single-use plastics.

The company, developed with support from the Creative Destruction Lab, got its start manufacturing biodegradable packing peanuts made from agricultural byproducts. It has since expanded into producing eco-resins that can be used by manufacturers in place of plastic.

Unlike many existing bioplastics, Ecopackers’ resin is designed to be compatible with existing manufacturing technologies and processes.

“We were one of the only eco-focused companies out there that wasn’t going against the plastic manufacturers – we were actually trying to work with them to develop products that worked with their technology,” Siddiqui, a Rotman Commerce graduate, told U of T News.

The all-woman leadership team behind Ecopackers – which also includes chief technology officer Chang Dong and chief operating officer Kritika Tyagi – is now working on pilot products with manufacturers around the world.

Cohesys

(photo by Erin Vollick)

Spun out of research by Professor Paul Santerre at the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), Cohesys is a biomedical startup that has developed a better alternative to the rigid metal plates and screws used to repair facial fractures.

The company’s BoneTape is a flexible, adhesive and degradable material that holds promise in improving surgery times, reducing complications and boosting outcomes for patients who undergo facial surgery.

Supported by UTEST and the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), Cohesys raised a total of $1.4 million in funding as it looks to pursue preclinical animal studies, biotechnology industry magazine BioWorld reported.

“This is the only adhesive that sticks to wet bone,” Michael Floros, CEO of Cohesys and a recent IBBME post-doctoral researcher, told U of T News last year. “There is no other tape for bones or anything similar out there.”

Reeddi

(photo courtesy of Olugbenga Olubanjo)

As an international graduate student at U of T, Olugbenga Olubanjo regularly spoke with family and friends in his native Nigeria over the phone, only to have the calls cut short due to power outages back home. He decided to do something about it – and Reeddi was born.

The company, which was nurtured by the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, provides portable energy via capsules that can be charged at solar-powered stations. Customers rent the capsules at affordable prices and earn credits when they return them on time.

Reeddi wants to bring clean and affordable energy to communities in Nigeria and beyond, with Olubanjo saying the startup has attracted interest from organizations and communities in countries like South Africa, Indonesia, India and the United States.

“Anywhere where there’s an energy or electricity issue is where we come into play. We want to be in as many countries as possible,” Olubanjo told U of T News.

AmacaThera

(photo by Roberta Baker)

A gel-based drug delivery system developed by U of T startup AmacaThera could eliminate the need to prescribe powerful painkillers after surgery – and reduce the risk of developing opioid addiction.

Developed in the lab of University Professor Molly Shoichet, in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry and IBBME, the gel is capable of significantly increasing the duration of anesthetics injected at the site of surgical incisions.

Whereas drugs delivered through conventional injections disperse in a matter of hours, AmacaThera’s solution is capable of keeping the anesthetic at the surgical site for up to three days.

“If this could obviate the need for people to take opioids in the first place, it would have a real societal benefit,” Shoichet told U of T News early last year.

AmacaThera is the third startup built on research from Shoichet’s lab. It received support from UTEST and the Creative Destruction Lab.

Honeybee Hub

Finding suitable participants for research studies can be an arduous and time-consuming process – something Honeybee Hub is looking to change.

Co-founded by CEO Catherine Chan (left) while she was pursuing her master’s degree in nutritional sciences, Honeybee Hub’s solution is an online platform that helps researchers find subjects for their studies and makes it easier for the public to find studies to participate in.

Chan got the idea while working on her master’s thesis and was encouraged to pursue it by her supervisor, Harvey Anderson, a professor in the departments of physiology and nutritional sciences in the Faculty of Medicine.

She then partnered with co-founder Weiwei Li, who earned a master’s degree in applied science, with the company receiving mentorship and support from the Impact Centre.

“Researchers are spending too much time on advertising and administrative tasks rather than their expertise, and we want to change that,” Chan told U of T News.

Nanology Labs

(photo by Steve Southon)

Nanology Labs is a pharmaceutical startup that has developed a low-toxicity MRI contrast agent that can improve cancer detection.

Launched by Mohammad Ali Amini while he completed his PhD, Nanology Labs leverages over two decades of research in the lab of Amini's supervisor, Professor Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

The company’s innovative MRI contrast agent, called Manganescan, uses the element manganese, which naturally exists in the human body and is safer and less toxic than contrast agents made from gadolinium.

Built with support from numerous U of T accelerators including the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), UTEST and the Impact Centre, Nanology Labs has won several awards including the $25,000 top prize at the 2019 RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the True Blue Expo.

“If you want to be successful, create your own path,” Amini told U of T News last year. “This is what I’ve learned.”

Niu Body

(photo by Roberta Baker)

Co-founded by chemical engineering alumna Laura Burget, Niu Body creates skin-care products that are all-natural yet affordable.

Burget was inspired to start the company after taking a course on entrepreneurship and small business in her fourth year. She teamed up with Connie Lo, who has a background in business and accounting, and launched the company with an initial budget of only $4,000.

In just two years, the number of retailers carrying Niu Body’s products swelled from one to over 300.

“Consumers are demanding better quality, more natural ingredients and at an affordable price,” Burget told U of T News in September. “Our company’s mission is to create natural skin-care products that won’t break the bank.”

Burget credited her U of T engineering degree with her credibility in the business world.

“When I tell manufacturers and investors I have a chemical engineering degree, it tells them I know what I’m talking about and what I’m capable of.”

Leading researcher in regenerative medicine becomes first Medicine by Design scholar in residence

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 15:57:06 +0000

Leading researcher in regenerative medicine becomes first Medicine by Design scholar in residence

noreen.rasbach Tue, 07/16/2019 - 11:57

Cutline

Professor Shulamit Levenberg is visiting the University of Toronto beginning this week with a view toward identifying collaborative research opportunities (photo courtesy of Technion)

Ann Perry

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

IBBME

Medicine by Design

Regenerative Medicine

Research & Innovation

Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

Professor Shulamit Levenberg, a leading interdisciplinary researcher in stem cells and tissue engineering at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has started her month-long appointment as Medicine by Design’s first scholar in residence.

While at the University of Toronto, the dean of Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering will deliver a series of talks, meet with faculty members who have complementary research interests and engage with trainees, with a view toward identifying collaborative research opportunities.

“The goal of the Medicine by Design scholar in residence program is to invite top international investigators in regenerative medicine and related fields to Toronto to engage with our dynamic community, catalyze new collaborations and advance international partnerships,” said Michael Sefton, executive director of Medicine by Design, a University Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the Michael E. Charles Professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“Professor Levenberg is a leader in her field and we hope her visit will strengthen a long and productive relationship.”

Levenberg’s visit will build on existing collaborations between Technion and U of T and its affiliated hospitals. Lyon Sachs, an alumnus of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has given $2 million to the university to accelerate joint research projects between U of T and Technion in biomedical and civil engineering. The McEwen Stem Cell Institute and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at University Health Network have also partnered with Technion to create a centre aimed at developing new ways to treat heart disease, with a focus on regenerative medicine.

Levenberg will deliver a talk on Thursday, July 18 at noon titled “Vascularization Dynamics in Engineered Tissues” as part of Medicine by Design’s Global Speaker Series. She will give another talk titled “Engineering Vascularized Tissue Constructs” on July 23 at 11 a.m., hosted by the translational biology and engineering program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. She will also hold office hours at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, room 508, on the following dates:

Thursday, July 25 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 1 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 7 – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Levenberg earned her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she focused on cell adhesion dynamics and signalling, and pursued her post-doctoral research in tissue engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the lab of Professor Robert Langer. In 2004, she joined the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, where she conducts interdisciplinary research on stem cells and tissue engineering. She also serves as the director of the Technion Center for 3D Bioprinting and The Rina & Avner Schneur Center for Diabetes Research.

She spent a sabbatical year as a visiting professor at the Wyss Institute for Biology Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and a summer sabbatical (2017) at the University of Western Australia as a winner of the Raine Visiting Professor Award. Levenberg received the Krill Prize for excellence in scientific research, awarded by the Wolf Foundation, and was named by Scientific American as a “research leader” in tissue engineering for her seminal work on vascularization of engineered tissues. She also received the France-Israel Foundation Prize, the Italian Excellence for Israel Prize, the Teva Research Prize and the Juludan Prize. In 2018, she received the Rappaport Prize for Biomedical Sciences.

Levenberg has authored more than 100 publications and presented her work at more than 100 international conferences as an invited or keynote speaker. She is founder and chief scientific officer of two start-up companies in the areas of cultured meat and nanolitre arrays for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing. She is a member of the Israel National Counsel for Bioethics and is actively involved in training young scientists.

U of T researchers at Ontario Economic Summit to talk innovation, training students for 'jobs of the future'

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 17:00:44 +0000

U of T researchers at Ontario Economic Summit to talk innovation, training students for 'jobs of the future'

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/09/2017 - 12:00

Cutline

U of T's Raquel Urtasun, who heads Uber's self-driving car lab in Toronto, fields questions from eager students at a career event in September. She is among the U of T speakers at this year's event (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Chris Sorensen

Topic

City & Culture

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

The University of Toronto is taking centre stage at this year’s Ontario Economic Summit as government officials, business leaders and key influencers meet to discuss how to take advantage of new technologies and disruptive business models to promote the province’s growth.

Organized by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the annual event is one of the biggest meetings on the economy in the province, featuring addresses from Premier Kathleen Wynne and several members of her cabinet, as well as appearances by other party leaders and representatives from Canada’s biggest companies.

U of T, one of the event’s presenting partners, kicked off the three-day summit in Niagara-on-the-Lake this week by underscoring the critical role the university and other post-secondary institutions will play in driving Ontario’s knowledge economy forward.

“Collaboration between academic researchers and industry is a key ingredient in Ontario’s future economic success, allowing new innovations to move more quickly from the laboratory into the private sphere, and training students for the jobs of the future,” said Vivek Goel (left), U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation, who delivered the conference’s opening remarks.

Thanks in part to groundbreaking research at institutions like U of T, Toronto and the surrounding region have emerged as a global innovation hotspot in potentially disruptive fields like artificial intelligence, or AI, regenerative medicine, sustainable energy and fintech, among others.

In the case of AI, Toronto is already well-known for its contributions to deep learning, a branch of AI that mimics the human brain and allows computers to make inferences from datasets without being specifically programmed. The technology, pioneered by U of T University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, who also does AI research for Google, is expected to revolutionize a number of industries, from health care to transportation.

In a bid to capitalize on an early lead, U of T earlier this year partnered with the federal and provincial governments, as well as industry, to create the Vector Institute for artificial intelligence research in Toronto.

At the summit, U of T's Raquel Urtasun, an associate professor of computer science and a founding member of Vector, is scheduled to deliver an overview of AI technologies and what they mean for governments and businesses. She will then participate in a panel discussion that looks at the impact of AI on productivity and how best to capitalize on it.

Urtasun, one of AI’s stars, was tapped earlier this year to head up ride-sharing giant Uber’s new self-driving car lab in Toronto – an example of how U of T’s research prowess is luring big, multinational companies to Ontario.

“Uber is here because the talent for innovation in AI and self-driving cars is here,” Urtasun told U of T News in September. She went on to say that Toronto and the surrounding region “has all the right things to become a Silicon Valley of AI.”

Other foreign firms that have either set up shop in Ontario or have dramatically increased their presence in recent months include: pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which is teaming up with Versant Ventures to launch BlueRock Therapeutics, a US$225 million bet on regenerative medicine that will be headquartered in Toronto, as well as New York and Boston, and helmed by U of T researchers Gordon Keller and Michael Laflamme; U.S. health giant Johnson & Johnson, which last year opened the first international location of its JLABS life science incubator in Toronto through a partnership with U of T; and Fujitsu Laboratories Inc., which recently said it was setting up a research and development centre in Toronto in partnership with U of T that will be focused on quantum-inspired computing.

But it’s not just big multinational firms who are capable of turning top talent and groundbreaking research produced by institutions like U of T into high-paying jobs and stable economic growth. The university is also at the centre of a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem that’s helping to grow the next generation of great Canadian companies.

U of T alone boasts several entrepreneurship hubs across its three campuses catering to entrepreneurs of all levels and stripes. They include the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), UTEST, Impact Centre, Health Innovation Hub (H2i), Entrepreneurship Hatchery, Start@UTIAS, Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL), ICUBE and The Hub.

In the case of CDL, affiliated with U of T’s Rotman School of Management, the system it developed to rapidly scale science-based startups has been so successful it’s been expanded to business schools across the country, from Vancouver to Halifax. CDL also recently announced its first U.S. location through a partnership with New York University’s Stern School of Business.

U of T is also home to a new ONRamp co-working and collaboration space, located across the street from the MaRS Discovery District. The facility is open to entrepreneurs from across U of T’s three campuses as well as those from partner institutions at McMaster University and Western University.

Among the successful startups that have emerged from U of T’s ecosystem in recent years are: satellite provider Kepler Communications; AI-powered legal research firm Ross Intelligence; WinterLight Labs, which uses AI to analyze speech and track cognitive disabilities; and Deep Genomics, which uses AI to help search for disease cures.

Pooja Viswanathan, who did her post-doc at U of T, co-founded Braze Mobilty, which makes obstacle detection devices for wheelchairs (photo courtesy Braze Mobility)

One entrepreneur who has benefited from U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is Pooja Viswanathan, the CEO of Braze Mobility.

Her startup, co-founded with U of T's Alex Mihailidis, a senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, sells obstacle detection systems that can be attached to wheelchairs, which are often bulky and difficult to manoeuvre. Braze's devices provide users with more freedom to move about without fear of crashing into people or objects.

Viswanathan, who did her post-doctorate in U of T’s computer science department and is scheduled to appear at the summit as part of an entrepreneur showcase, said Braze not only received considerable support from U of T’s Impact Centre incubator, but that Toronto’s Discovery District in general was an ideal place to launch a health technology company.

“I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else,” she said. “We really have an innovation corridor on University Avenue. We were just steps away from MaRS, the rehab sciences department at U of T, as well as Toronto Rehab.

“It’s been really critical for us, actually – the location we’re at – because we’ve been able to tap into all of these resources, which have all supported us to some extent.”

Injectable tissue patch could help repair damaged organs: U of T research

ullahnor — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 17:33:10 +0000

Injectable tissue patch could help repair damaged organs: U of T research

ullahnor Mon, 08/14/2017 - 13:33

Cutline

The flexible tissue scaffold, shown here emerging from a glass pipette with a tip one millimetre wide, unfolds itself after injection into the body. This could enable surgeons to use minimally invasive techniques (photo by Miles Montgomery and Rick Lu)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Cardiac

IBBME

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Tissue Engineering

Subheadline

New biomaterial developed by U of T engineering researchers could be delivered through minimally invasive surgery

A team of U of T engineering researchers is mending broken hearts with an expanding tissue bandage a little smaller than a postage stamp.

Repairing heart tissue destroyed by a heart attack or medical condition with regenerative cells or tissues usually requires invasive open-heart surgery. But now biomedical engineering Professor Milica Radisic and her colleagues have developed a technique that lets them use a small needle to inject a repair patch, without the need to open up the chest cavity.

Radisic’s team are experts in using polymer scaffolds to grow realistic 3D slices of human tissue in the lab. One of their creations, AngioChip, is a tiny patch of heart tissue with its own blood vessels – the heart cells even beat with a regular rhythm. Another one of their innovations snaps together like sheets of Velcro™.

Such lab-grown tissues are already being used to test potential drug candidates for side-effects, but the long-term goal is to implant them back into the body to repair damage.

“If an implant requires open-heart surgery, it’s not going to be widely available to patients,” says Radisic.

She says that after a myocardial infarction – a heart attack – the heart’s function is reduced so much that invasive procedures like open-heart surgery usually pose more risks than potential benefits.

“It’s just too dangerous,” she says.

From left to right, PhD candidate Miles Montgomery discusses his research with MP Peter Van Loan, Professor Milica Radisic and then Minister of State for Science and Technology Ed Holder, during a tour of U of T’s Institute for Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering in 2014 (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Miles Montgomery, a PhD candidate in Radisic’s lab, has spent nearly three years developing a patch that could be injected, rather than implanted.

“At the beginning, it was a real challenge,” he says. “There was no template to base my design on, and nothing I tried was working. But I took these failures as an indication that I was working on a problem worth solving.”

After dozens of attempts, Montgomery found a design that matched the mechanical properties of the target tissue and had the required shape-memory behaviour: as it emerges from the needle, the patch unfolds itself into a bandage-like shape.

“The shape-memory effect is based on physical properties, not chemical ones,” says Radisic.

This means that the unfolding process doesn’t require additional injections and won’t be affected by the local conditions within the body.

The next step involved seeding the patch with real heart cells. After letting them grow for a few days, researchers injected the patch into rats and pigs. Not only did the injected patch unfold to nearly the same size as a patch implanted by more invasive methods, the heart cells survived the procedure well.

“When we saw that the lab-grown cardiac tissue was functional and not affected by the injection process, that was very exciting,” says Montgomery. “Heart cells are extremely sensitive, so if we can do it with them, we can likely do it with other tissues as well.”

The scaffold is built out of the same biocompatible, biodegradable polymer used in the team’s previous creations. Over time, the scaffold will naturally break down, leaving behind the new tissue.

The team also showed that injecting the patch into rat hearts can improve cardiac function after a heart attack: damaged ventricles pumped more blood than they did without the patch.

“It can’t restore the heart back to full health, but if it could be done in a human, we think it would significantly improve quality of life,” says Radisic.

There is still a long way to go before the material is ready for clinical trials. Radisic and her team are collaborating with researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children to assess the long-term stability of the patches, as well as whether the improved cardiac function can be maintained.

They have also applied for patents on the invention and are exploring the use of the patch in other organs, such as the liver.

“You could customize this platform, adding growth factors or other drugs that would encourage tissue regeneration,” says Radisic. “I think this is one of the coolest things we’ve done.”

The research is published in Nature Materials. The project was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Ontario Research Fund.

Why drugs don’t reach cancer cells: U of T researchers develop technology to provide answers

ullahnor — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:03:37 +0000

Why drugs don’t reach cancer cells: U of T researchers develop technology to provide answers

ullahnor Tue, 08/08/2017 - 14:03

Cutline

From left to right, PhD candidates Abdullah Syed and Shrey Sindhwani discuss their findings with Professor Warren Chan (photo by Neil Ta)

Heidi Singer

Author legacy

Heidi Singer

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

For cancer patients, understanding the odds of a treatment’s success can be bewildering.

The same drug, applied to the same type of cancer, might be fully successful for one person’s tumour and do nothing for someone else. Physicians are often unable to explain why.

Now, University of Toronto researchers are beginning to understand one of the reasons. Biomedical engineering students Abdullah Syed and Shrey Sindhwani, and colleagues at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), have created technology to watch nanoparticles entering into tumours – revealing barriers that prevent their delivery to targets and the variability between cancers.

“The biggest thing we’ve noticed is that nanoparticles face multiple challenges posed by the tumour itself on their way to cancer cells,” says Sindhwani, an MD-PhD student working with Professor Warren Chan of IBBME. Syed and Sindhwani co-published their findings online and on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“So the treatment might work for a while – or worse, there’s just enough of the drug for the cancer to develop resistance. This could be prevented if we can figure out the ways in which these barriers stop delivery and distribution of the drug throughout the cancer.”

Tiny “nanoparticles” offer great hope for the treatment of cancer and other diseases because of their potential to deliver drugs to targeted areas in the body, allowing more precise treatments with fewer side-effects. But so far the technology hasn’t lived up to its promise, due to delivery and penetration problems.

To dismantle this roadblock, the two graduate students searched for a way to better view the particle’s journey inside tumours. They discovered that the tough-to-see particles could be illuminated by scattering light off their surfaces.

“The sensitivity of our imaging is about 1.4 millionfold higher,” says Syed. “First, we make the tissue transparent, then we use the signal coming from the particles to locate them. We shine a light on the particles, and it scatters the light. We capture this scattering light to learn the precise location of the nanoparticles.”

It was already understood that nanoparticles were failing to accumulate in tumours, thanks to a meta-analysis of the field done by researchers at U of T. But the researchers have developed technologies to look at nanoparticle distribution in 3D, which provides a much fuller picture of how the particles are interacting with the rest of the tumour biology.

“The goal is to use this technology to gather knowledge for developing mathematical principles of nanoparticle distribution in cancer, similar to the way principles exist for understanding the function of the heart,” says Syed.

And because each tumour is unique, this technology and knowledge base should help future scientists to understand the barriers to drug delivery on a personalized basis and to develop custom treatments.

The next step is to understand what, in cancer’s biology, stops particles from fully penetrating tumours – and then to develop ways to bypass cancer’s defences.

But the technology is also useful for diseases other than cancer. With the help of Professor Jennifer Gommerman, a multiple sclerorsis researcher in the department of immunology, Syed and Sindhwani captured 3D images of lesions in a mouse model mimicking multiple sclerosis using nanoparticles.

“This is going to be very valuable to anyone trying to understand disease or the organ system more deeply,” says Sindhwani.

Syed adds: “And once we understand barriers that don’t allow drugs to reach their disease site, we can start knocking them down and improving patient health.”

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

From Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk: U of T faculty, students take Science Rendezvous across Canada

Romi Levine — Fri, 12 May 2017 20:34:32 +0000

From Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk: U of T faculty, students take Science Rendezvous across Canada

Romi Levine Fri, 05/12/2017 - 16:34

Cutline

Kids learned about biology at U of T Scarborough's Science Rendezvous celebrations last year (photo by Ken Jones)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Subheadline

“I'm hoping we light a little spark in these kids so they can discover and learn”

It took two days and five flights for University of Toronto PhD student Daniel Szulc to get to Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories – all for the sake of science.

Szulc is running programming for the territory’s celebration of Science Rendezvous – a Canada-wide science and engineering festival for the entire family, which takes place this Saturday.

The Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) student will be flying on a tiny plane from Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik and Aklavik throughout the day, running interactive workshops for children living in remote areas so they feel included in the day-long fun. The free festival engages students of all ages.

“We're running some demos with the classrooms where the children and students can do hands-on experiments and actually experience being a scientist,” Szulc says. “I'm hoping we light a little spark in these kids so they can discover and learn.”

Here's how you can celebrate Science Rendezvous at U of T

He described the area he'll be working in as “absolutely beautiful.”

“Because it's so remote, it's really difficult to get materials up here and get individuals up here so bringing science up here can allow kids to get a chance to interact with things that they don't normally interact with,” says Szulc.

Science Rendezvous, now in its 10th year, was the brainchild of U of T University Professor R. J. Dwayne Miller, who having been inspired by a similar event in Germany, decided to launch a festival in Canada in partnership with universities and organizations all over the country.

At U of T's downtown Toronto campus, there's plans to once again celebrate science in a big way. Students will get to explore outer space using virtual reality, watch an earthquake simulation and learn about edible bugs. Check out the exhibits lining St. George Street, take a tour of the campus’s state-of-the-art labs and participate in the Canada 150-themed Science Chase scavenger hunt.

“Science is about asking questions, solving problems, challenging dogma,” says University Professor Molly Shoichet, U of T President Meric Gertler's senior adviser on science and engineering engagement. “Imagine what we would be doing if we didn't? We probably would still be using leaches to cure diseases.

“Science Rendezvous ignites that spirit of discovery, engaging us all to invent a better future.”

Robots, solar cars, rockets, satellites, and drones, oh my! Come see them all at #SR2017 this Saturday, May 13th! #OdySci #ChooseScience pic.twitter.com/kZa3aCdrCe
— SR UofT (St. George) (@UofTSR) May 11, 2017

Unfortunately, U of T Scarborough’s Science Rendezvous activities, which were to take place at the Toronto Zoo, have been cancelled due to a strike.

Last year, the festival was attended by 300,000 people. Miller, like Szulc, sees it as an opportunity to inspire a new generation to “unleash their inner geek.”

“Everybody's born a scientist. Everybody's curious. We just need to get that instilled in a way that it's part of a lifelong pursuit so you stay thinking critically.”

This year, all Science Rendezvous sites are taking part in a water-testing experiment.

“It'll be a good opportunity to engage the local communities, and to get excited about water science and create a picture of the water health in Canada,” says Katie Miller, Science Rendezvous’ executive director. “They will upload the results to the website. It will create an overall picture of what is going on around the country.”

In the Northwest Territories, Szulc will be running the water-testing experiment and will be teaching high school students how to produce energy through water splitting.

“Then we're having elders come in to have their perspective on water – how they assess water, really trying to create culturally-relevant programming so students can see that their culture and their life here also connects to science, and they can use science to enhance it,” Szulc says.

#TBT to these young scientists having a great time at SR2016! Come to #SR2017 and these fashion choices could be yours! #OdySci pic.twitter.com/TBmFhbSbnH
— SR UofT (St. George) (@UofTSR) April 20, 2017

Science Rendezvous is a lot of fun, but it’s also a chance for scientists to showcase their work to a wider audience, says Professor Miller.

“It's a great opportunity for the scientists themselves to give back to the general public, tell them what they're doing with public money and explain what it's good for,” he says.

The event also helps to ignite a passion for science that many scientists feel is under threat south of the border.

“Now more than ever it's becoming apparent at how much we need to be more active and engaging our general population,” says Katie Miller. “For a while, it was assumed it was seen as being important, and now we really need to re-engage with the general population on a regular basis and keep that importance relevant in their mind.”

U of T researcher and JLABS draw U.S. drug delivery startup to Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 10 May 2017 16:49:21 +0000

U of T researcher and JLABS draw U.S. drug delivery startup to Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 05/10/2017 - 12:49

Cutline

U of T's Christine Allen and Pendant Biosciences are working on a new polymer-based drug delivery system (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Chris Sorensen

Author legacy

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Shawn Glinter, the CEO of Nashville-based Pendant Biosciences, was born in Winnipeg and played hockey in college.

But it took a leading University of Toronto researcher – and last year’s launch of life sciences incubator JLABS @ Toronto – to rekindle his interest in Canada.

Though Pendant originally licensed its polymer-based drug delivery technology from Vanderbilt University, the path to commercializing it soon led Glinter and his team to Christine Allen, a professor in U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“I courted her for about a year before she finally said yes,” says Glinter.

Allen's research focuses on new technologies for drug delivery. She's one of only a handful of people in North America familiar with Pendant's polymer technology, which promises to make drugs more efficient, longer lasting and opens the door to drug-impregnated implants and other medical devices.

Glinter calls her a “rock star” in the field.

Now the relationship is poised to grow even closer – and more productive – after Pendant was accepted into Toronto's JLABS life sciences incubator earlier this year. The 40,000 sq. ft. facility, which celebrates its one-year anniversary on Thursday, is housed on one of U of T’s floors in the MaRS West Tower and provides biopharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer digital health startups with shared lab and office space, as well as connections to experts, industry and investors.

Toronto's JLABS location, the first to be opened outside the United States, is the result of a unique collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Janssen, U of T, MaRS Innovation, the Ontario government and several hospital partners. The number of resident startups calling Toronto's JLABS home has nearly doubled over the past 12 months, with nearly half of them boasting connections to U of T. They include WinterLight Labs, Nanovista, 6Biotech App4Independence and DNAstack.

Learn more about entrepreneurship and startups at U of T

The presence of JLABS in Toronto has added to the city's growing reputation as a life sciences hub, centred on U of T and its adjoining cluster of partner hospitals, research institutes and business incubators.

Global giant Johnson & Johnson “made a conscious decision to invest in Toronto life sciences,” says Glinter, when asked about the decision to move his company north (Glinter himself plans to remain in Nashville but will travel to Toronto several times a month). “That, to me, speaks volumes.”

Allen, meantime, envisions her graduate students and post-doctoral researchers moving seamlessly back and forth between Toronto's JLABS and her lab at U of T – precisely the type of private-public cross pollination that was envisioned by its founders. She says Pendant’s biodegradable polymer technology promises to vastly improve drug treatments for patients because it’s far more flexible than Poly (lactide-co-glycolide), or PGLA, the industry’s current polymer of choice.

“Think of all the drugs that are out there and how every single molecule is different,” Allen says. “But molecule-material interaction impacts drug formulation performance. It impacts its stability, the amount of drug you can incorporate and the drug’s release-rate.”

For patients, that could mean the difference between having one injection every three to six months, instead of every couple of days.

“It’s about making drugs more effective,” Allen says. “If you can give patients an injection, and they don’t have to come back to the doctor every day, week or month that improves their compliance and quality of life.”

Pendant’s polymer can also be stretched into thin sheets to be used for coatings on medical devices or fashioned into tiny nanoparticles. Another possible application: using the polymer to make transparent, drug-infused contact lenses that allow allergy sufferers to forgo eye drops.

Allen’s partnership with Pendant has been very much a two-way street.

She says working with the hard-driving Glinter and his team has injected her lab with a strong dose of business savvy and helped her better understand the market opportunities facing Nanovista, another startup that she co-founded with David Jaffray, a professor in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine and the director of the Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, as well as Jinzi Zheng, an assistant professor at U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME). Nanovista makes an imaging agent that helps surgeons see tumours more precisely.

“I think JLABS has been great for Toronto,” Allen says. “It’s been huge for us, and it’s been huge for Canada. And we can make the most of this at U of T because we’re right across the street.”

Professor Christopher Yip chosen to head international partnerships

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 14:03:54 +0000

Professor Christopher Yip chosen to head international partnerships

geoff.vendeville Fri, 03/31/2017 - 10:03

Cutline

Professor Christopher Yip, the director of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, was chosen to take up the international partnerships portfolio (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Author legacy

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Global Lens

International

Global

International partnerships

IBBME

Professor Christopher Yip, a leading researcher in the field of single-molecule biophysics, has been appointed the University of Toronto’s first associate vice-president, international partnerships.

He starts a five-year term on July 1 and aims to foster international academic and industry collaborations. He will be reporting to Vice-President, International Ted Sargent and Vice-President, Research and Innovation Vivek Goel.

Read the official announcement

Yip brings almost a decade of leadership experience within U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), a team of more than 100 faculty members from engineering, medicine and dentistry who look for innovative solutions to pressing problems at the intersection of health-care and engineering.

“U of T is known for its strengths in a number of different areas,” he told U of T News. "Part of my job will be to help enable and grow new emerging areas of impact in the U of T ecosystem.”

The benefits of forging new partnerships around the world are multifaceted, he said. “It aids in increasing the profile of the university, the students and the research. It also improves the profile of Canada more broadly.”

On large research projects, borders tend to become blurred.

“Research is borderless," he said. “We will identify how teams can come together on large projects that take full advantage of each institution's strengths.”

He added: “It’s the opposite of what you see right now around the world, where people are saying ‘Let’s put more and more borders up and block things.’”

Whether in a lab or administrative position, Yip says his goal is always to support others.

“For me, it’s important to provide resources and opportunities to let people drive initiatives, and that’s my main focus.”

Yip joined the university in 1997. He is a faculty member in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry, department of biochemistry, IBBME and U of T's Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. His lab research group of post-doctoral, graduate and undergraduate students studies the phenomena that take place at the molecular scale.

“We’re developing and applying new ways of understanding how molecules assemble and form structures, and developing new ways of visualizing these processes,” he said.

The applications of their research extend to biology, biophysics, nanotechnology and engineering.

In recent years, Yip's lab has hosted students from Singapore and Cuba, and sent U of T students to Asia and Europe. He also facilitated a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy which led two of his grad students to study at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque.

“It was very much a two-way street. They learned from us and we learned from them,” Yip said.

Yip is the author of more than 90 peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters, and has won a Premier's Research Excellence Award among other academic distinctions. From 2000 to 2010, he held a tier II Canada Research Chair in molecular imaging.

“Our ability to continue to recruit the best scholars and students from around the world hinges on our global reputation,” said Professor Goel. “Through the IBBME, Chris has clearly demonstrated the ability to foster collaboration at all levels, bringing together a multidisciplinary community of students, scholars and external partners to support the impact of their research globally.”

Professor Sargent said: “Chris Yip, in his leadership, has stimulated and seeded outstanding new team initiatives. He has shown how to bring collaborating researchers together within U of T to put our best foot forward to the world. And he has built global partnerships that leverage and showcase the best U of T has to offer. He is perfectly poised to unite U of T’s International and Research and Innovation portfolios into a coherent platform building global partnerships.’

Will he have the stamina for the new position?

His hobby suggests he does. Yip is an avid runner, who has 25 marathons and 25 half-marathons under his belt. His best time completing a marathon was three hours and seven minutes.

MBA and PhD students at U of T come together to map regenerative medicine ecosystem

ullahnor — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:34:21 +0000

MBA and PhD students at U of T come together to map regenerative medicine ecosystem

ullahnor Thu, 02/02/2017 - 16:34

Cutline

Yonatan Lipsitz (centre), a PhD candidate at U of T's Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, discusses regenerative medicine commercialization at a team meeting as Anna Kobb (left) and Arif Aziz (right) look on (photo courtesy of Rotman)

Ann Perry

Author legacy

Ann Perry

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

Medicine by Design

IBBME

CCRM

Rotman School of Management

When Arif Aziz learned last fall about a new independent study project that was bringing together MBA candidates and PhD students in health sciences and engineering to map the global market for stem cell therapies, he jumped at the opportunity.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the posting,” said Aziz, an MBA candidate at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. “I thought to myself, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

The for-credit project – part of a unique collaboration launched in fall 2016 between Rotman and U of T’s Medicine by Design initiative — offered Aziz a chance to combine his business training with his expertise in regenerative medicine.

He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute before making the leap to industry to work as a consultant in the bioscience sector and pursue his MBA.

“We have all this cool science,” said Aziz, part of the five-member team, which also included three PhD candidates from the laboratories of Medicine by Design-funded researchers and another student from Rotman’s MBA program. “So how can we commercialize it? How can we translate it into something that impacts society?”

Arif Aziz (left) and Anton Neschadim (centre), both of Rotman's MBA program, and Jessica Yu (right), a PhD candidate in the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, discuss issues in regenerative medicine commercialization at a team meeting (photo courtesy of Rotman)

These are key questions that researchers, doctors, life sciences companies and investors are grappling with in the global race to harness stem cells to improve treatments for conditions such as stroke, diabetes and liver disease. U of T has long been at the forefront of regenerative medicine research, starting in the early 1960s with the identification of blood stem cells by biophysicist James Till and hematologist Ernest McCulloch.

Medicine by Design is building on this legacy of excellence by bringing together more than 100 researchers from across U of T and its affiliated hospitals, along with hundreds of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in collaborative teams to accelerate breakthroughs in regenerative medicine.

With its commercialization partner, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), the initiative is also driving Toronto’s regenerative medicine ecosystem and propelling new therapies to market – and ultimately to patients – more quickly.

Toronto has seen significant clinical translation and commercialization activity in regenerative medicine in recent months.

In December, bioscience giant Bayer AG and venture capital firm Versant Ventures announced a $225 million (U.S.) investment – one of the largest Series A launches the bioscience sector has ever seen – to create Toronto-based BlueRock Therapeutics.

Engineered smart scaffolds at U of T could help repair damaged hearts and muscles

ullahnor — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 17:07:36 +0000

Engineered smart scaffolds at U of T could help repair damaged hearts and muscles

ullahnor Fri, 01/27/2017 - 12:07

Cutline

Professor Paul Santerre (left) and PhD candidates Yasaman Delaviz (middle) and Meghan Wright (right) are developing implantable materials that can activate the body’s innate response to damage, including heart attacks (photo by Neil Ta)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

IBBME

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Cardiac

Muscle

A scar on your skin may be insignificant, but a scar on your heart could be deadly. Scar tissue in muscle can impair its function and lead to long-term damage like limping or heart failure.

Leading-edge research from the University of Toronto is addressing this challenge. Two multidisciplinary teams consisting of engineers, biologists, physicians and other medical experts are designing implantable materials that activate the body’s innate response to injury, leading to more complete healing and preventing harmful complications.

These projects are made possible through Medicine by Design and the Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP), two major collaborative research initiatives led by U of T Engineering faculty members that have been created in the last three years. Medicine by Design and TBEP unite researchers from U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and many other faculties across University of Toronto, as well as external partners at hospitals and research institutions.

Learn more about Medicine by Design

Learn more about the Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP)

Repairing heart tissue

After a heart attack, the body’s immune system clears away dead cells and stimulates the remaining tissue to repair itself, but the fix is rarely seamless.

“The repair process leaves scars behind,” says Paul Santerre, a professor at IBBME who is one of the principal investigators at TBEP. “After years of running inefficiently because of those scars, gradually the walls of the heart begin to weaken, leading to heart failure.”

Santerre and his team have taken a form of polyurethane – a type of plastic – and chemically formulated new monomer configurations, enabling the material to instigate a repair response by the immune system.

“If you get a splinter in your finger, your body will recognize that as something foreign that needs to be eliminated,” says Santerre. “Our degradable polymers bind to proteins that are signals for the immune system, telling it not to go into an inflammatory state, but rather go into a repair state.”

The team recently received funding to develop a cardiac patch that could be used following a heart attack. “The ultimate goal would be to build a construct out of our material, seed it with a patient’s own stem cells in the lab, grow the tissue within a couple of weeks and then insert that as a patch to coach local repair.”

The patch could lead to more complete healing, minimizing long-term damage.

Santerre is also collaborating with fellow TBEP members Craig Simmons and Hai-Ling Margaret Cheng on other applications of the material, such as generating replacement heart valves or regrowing small blood vessels in the heart.

“To have leading experts in biomechanics, medical imaging and genomics all within seconds of my office, that’s really going to accelerate this work.”

Accelerating muscle recovery

After a traumatic injury, muscles can become swollen to the point where they constrict blood flow. This condition, known as compartment syndrome, can lead to death of muscle tissue.

The standard treatment is to cut open the affected area to relieve the pressure but recovery can take months. Now, a team of biomedical engineers, biologists and physicians aims to speed up the process by activating a type of stem cell found in muscle tissue called satellite cells.

“Satellite cells are essential for repairing muscle,” says Penney Gilbert, assistant professor at U of T's Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), one of the researchers on the project. “We need them to wake up, make copies of themselves, fuse and fix the broken muscle fibres to repair the damage.”

Gilbert and her team study the signaling proteins produced by nearby cells that activate satellite cells. They hope that by mimicking these molecules, they can enhance the body’s natural response to trauma.

“We could synthesize all those different proteins and deliver them to the area, but it would be very cumbersome,” says Michael Sefton, University Professor in chemical engineering at IBBME, who is a lead researcher on the collaboration.

Instead, the team aims for a simpler approach. They want to create an implantable material that incorporates the effect of the signaling proteins into its chemical structure. This more elegant solution would still activate the satellite cells while ensuring that the response stays localized and lasts throughout recovery.

“We want a device, not a drug,” says Sefton.

The project is among 20 collaborations funded through Medicine by Design. Sefton and Gilbert are collaborating with U of T Engineering Associate Professor Alison McGuigan as well as a number of medical researchers at Toronto-area hospitals.

“We have expertise along the entire pathway from the fundamental biology of the satellite cells to the creation of a bio-active material,” says Sefton. “Everyone is contributing to an integrated whole.”

After a heart attack, the body’s immune system clears away dead cells and stimulates the remaining tissue to repair itself, but the fix is rarely seamless.

The patch could lead to more complete healing, minimizing long-term damage.

“To have leading experts in biomechanics, medical imaging and genomics all within seconds of my office, that’s really going to accelerate this work.”

IBBME

U of T Entrepreneurship Week: 10 startups to watch

Structura Biotechnology

Roll Technologies

BenchSci

Ecopackers

Cohesys

Reeddi

AmacaThera

Honeybee Hub

Nanology Labs

Niu Body

Read more about entrepreneurship at U of T

Leading researcher in regenerative medicine becomes first Medicine by Design scholar in residence

U of T researchers at Ontario Economic Summit to talk innovation, training students for 'jobs of the future'

Injectable tissue patch could help repair damaged organs: U of T research

Why drugs don’t reach cancer cells: U of T researchers develop technology to provide answers

From Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk: U of T faculty, students take Science Rendezvous across Canada

Here's how you can celebrate Science Rendezvous at U of T

U of T researcher and JLABS draw U.S. drug delivery startup to Toronto

Learn more about entrepreneurship and startups at U of T

Professor Christopher Yip chosen to head international partnerships

Read the official announcement

MBA and PhD students at U of T come together to map regenerative medicine ecosystem

Read more about the investment

Engineered smart scaffolds at U of T could help repair damaged hearts and muscles

Learn more about Medicine by Design

Learn more about the Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP)

Repairing heart tissue

Accelerating muscle recovery