Jenny Hall / en High performance computing at 茄子直播 gets a boost from CFI鈥檚 cyberinfrastructure initiative /news/high-performance-computing-u-t-gets-boost-cfi-cyberinfrastructure-initiative <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">High performance computing at 茄子直播 gets a boost from CFI鈥檚 cyberinfrastructure initiative</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-07-30T09:05:21-04:00" title="Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 09:05" class="datetime">Thu, 07/30/2015 - 09:05</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">At 茄子直播, researchers use high performance computing to model global warming and investigate the origins of the universe</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/government" hreflang="en">Government</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">鈥淭his investment will enable researchers to really make strides on some of the most pressing questions of our time,鈥 says Vivek Goel</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>High performance computing at the University of Toronto&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;and across Canada&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;will benefit from $30 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation&nbsp;through its <a href="http://www.innovation.ca/en/OurFunds/CFIFunds/CyberinfrastructureInitiative">Cyberinfrastucture Initiative</a>.</p> <p>The program supports leading-edge research by providing the digital infrastructure and robust computational power required to make sense of big data.</p> <p>Peter Braid, Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo,&nbsp;announced on July 30 the development of a national high performance computing platform, saying, 鈥淭he country鈥檚 research community needs advanced technology to investigate some of the most complex questions of the day.鈥</p> <p>鈥淲e live in the era of big data,鈥 says Professor <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, 茄子直播鈥檚 vice-president, research and innovation. 鈥淪o much of our scientific and scholarly inquiry deals in data sets so large that traditional processing methods fall short, effectively hampering our progress.</p> <p>鈥淭his investment will enable researchers to really make strides on some of the most pressing questions of our time. At 茄子直播, for example, we have researchers using high performance computing resources to model global warming and to investigate the origins of the universe.鈥</p> <p>The funding will be used to create hubs at four institutions&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;茄子直播, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria and the University of Waterloo. Together, they will form a national platform managed by Compute Canada and available to researchers at all Canadian universities regardless of location or discipline.&nbsp;</p> <p>Compute Canada is an independent organization that oversees high performance computing resources in Canada. Over the course of the next two years, it will use the funding to replace 24 aging systems with four new systems to consolidate resources and centralize services. The four sites were selected through a national competition and a panel of expert reviewers. Each site offers an expandable and modern data centre and on-site personnel.&nbsp;</p> <p>Scinet, the 茄子直播 system, will be upgraded thanks to the investment and will see its computing power increase by tenfold. The 茄子直播 hub is Compute Canada鈥檚 largest and will be a 鈥渓arge parallel system,鈥 meaning it will be capable of &nbsp;handling some of the country鈥檚 largest computational jobs, ranging from hundreds to thousands of simultaneous processors.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥溓炎又辈 is extremely grateful to CFI and to the government of Canada for this investment,鈥 says Goel. 鈥淚n addition to powering cutting-edge research, it will position on Canada on the competitive global stage, allowing us to attract and retain the brightest researchers as well as to pioneer made-in-Canada innovation.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-07-30-supercomputer.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 30 Jul 2015 13:05:21 +0000 sgupta 7179 at Bruce Kuwabara on 鈥渉igh-speed city building鈥 and the Pan Am/Parapan Am athletes鈥 village /news/bruce-kuwabara-high-speed-city-building-and-pan-amparapan-am-athletes-village <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Bruce Kuwabara on 鈥渉igh-speed city building鈥 and the Pan Am/Parapan Am athletes鈥 village</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-07-03T09:10:14-04:00" title="Friday, July 3, 2015 - 09:10" class="datetime">Fri, 07/03/2015 - 09:10</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">鈥淭he legacy of the Games is all about creating a sustainable neighbourhood with a mix of uses 鈥 not just condos,鈥 Kuwabara says (photo 漏 Brent Wagler_KPMB)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/pan-am" hreflang="en">Pan Am</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/architecture" hreflang="en">Architecture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">茄子直播</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">鈥淚t鈥檚 the challenge of our time to rethink how we live in growing cities like Toronto, and how we can become an exemplar of how to live in the 21st century,鈥 says renowned architect </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>茄子直播&nbsp;alumnus&nbsp;<strong>Bruce Kuwabara</strong> is one of Canada鈥檚 leading architects. A founding partner at KPMB, he is an Officer of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada鈥檚 gold medal in 2006.</p> <p>His firm was one of many working on the design of the Pan Am/ Parapan Am Games Athletes鈥 Village in Toronto鈥檚 West Don Lands, a project that will provide housing to athletes and then become a mixed-use neighbourhood. (<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/episodes/2015/07/03/canary-district-1/">Listen to Kuwabara discuss the project on CBC Radio</a>.)</p> <p>茄子直播 News writer <strong>Jenny Hall&nbsp;</strong>spoke to him about the challenges inherent in the project&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;and the challenges of city building in the 21st century.</p> <p><strong>Tell us about the project.</strong><br> The mission was to create a home away from home for something like 7,600 athletes who are coming in two waves, first for the Pan Am Games and later for the Parapan Am Games. It鈥檚 been an integrated design process that allows a substantial amount of one of the waterfront neighbourhoods 鈥&nbsp;the West Don Lands&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;to be developed almost all at once.</p> <p>The West Don Lands plan had already been put in place (<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/how-persistence-and-pan-amparapan-am-games-paid-affordable-housing">read about the alumna who worked on the plan</a>)&nbsp;and the landscaping of the public realm was in place. There was a plan of streets and blocks. At the east end of Front Street, there is a new park called Corktown Commons. It鈥檚 got a lot of topography&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;it was designed to protect all of the land west of it from the 500-year flooding of the Don River. So you鈥檙e getting a lot of infrastructure plus a complete neighbourhood.&nbsp;</p> <p>Our scheme works within fairly strict guidelines that were established by the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto. Because there were so many buildings to be built all at once, we formed a partnership with architectsAlliance to co-lead the design of all the buildings. We invited other architects to work with us, too. A firm called Daoust Lestage worked on some housing that will start out as athletes鈥 housing and then become affordable rental housing.&nbsp;MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects&nbsp;designed the YMCA.</p> <p><strong>It must be tricky to design buildings that have one use in the short term and another in the longer term.</strong><br> It鈥檚 a pretty bold move, that you would begin by accommodating the one use, then after the Games are over, another. The challenge of the project is orchestrating the diversity of design, and trying to achieve what we called 鈥渃oherent diversity,鈥 which means that the buildings aren鈥檛 identical, but they work together.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>How did you do it?</strong><br> You think about the short-term accommodation&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;this has to be a very good village for athletes. This is their experience of living in a Toronto neighbourhood. But you have to keep an eye on the end user. There are two sets of requirements. For example, in our building code, to have accessible washrooms, you have to be able to set a five-foot diameter circle in the plan. But in this case, because of the Games, they wanted a five-foot square, which is very different&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;it鈥檚 larger because of the corners. That鈥檚 a challenge. You need a seamless transition from one use to another.</p> <p>It鈥檚 easy to imagine an athletes鈥 village becoming student housing&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;George Brown will have some student housing in the neighbourhood. But when you get into the sites we designed, which are condominiums, you get into another order of transition. The condo is in place, but a living space might be divided in half with a temporary partition to form two bedrooms. And the kitchens won鈥檛 be there&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;the athletes are eating in a dining tent. There are no finishes on the floor. The appliances aren鈥檛 there. The end users, many of whom have already bought their units, are expecting their units to be pristine when they walk in. What we鈥檙e gearing up for right now is the post-Games transition.</p> <p><strong>I know the West Don Lands planning has been going on for more than a decade, but what was the time frame for actually getting these buildings designed and built?</strong><br> Very short. From beginning to end, three years. It鈥檚 high-speed city building. Because of the time constraints and the drop-dead deadline, everyone had to make really good decisions right off the bat.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Do you have thoughts about this neighbourhood being the legacy of the Games?</strong><br> Most of the units are sold. When all the athletes are gone and everything fades into memory, it has to be something. And that something is called the Canary District. So we went from the West Don Lands to the Pan Am Games Athletes鈥 Village, and it will eventually transition over several months and emerge as the Canary District.</p> <p>For us, the legacy of the Games is all about creating a sustainable neighbourhood with a mix of uses&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;not just condos. I don鈥檛 think you can make a city with just condos and retail. The Canary District will have social housing, rental units and student housing. And we had a strategy &nbsp;to try to immediately create a sense of neighbourhood and amenity. For example, Front Street is shifted in its alignment to the south, which makes the north sidewalk east of Cherry Street very wide. It鈥檚 like a linear plaza that鈥檚 landscaped. You don鈥檛 see this anywhere else in Toronto. What鈥檚 really gratifying is that a lot of the people who bought in are intending to live there, unlike some other areas where foreign investors buy units and rent them out.</p> <p><strong>How will the Canary District fit into Toronto?</strong><br> Toronto is in the midst of one of the greatest growth spurts in the history of the city. Therefore, the broad challenge for Toronto and places like the University of Toronto is how to think about the urban future that is upon us. How do you make liveable and sustainable cities at higher densities? How do you make a world that is compact, dense, diverse, and walkable? I think the Canary Distract will be all of that. What鈥檚 great about it is that it鈥檚 not about high rise towers, though. That鈥檚 why a lot of people like it.</p> <p>At this moment in time, there are so many things going on in Toronto. There鈥檚 the whole transformation of Regent Park. Alexandra Park is being changed. We鈥檙e working on the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health site. The Queen鈥檚 Quay revitalization project just opened.&nbsp;</p> <p>It鈥檚 the challenge of our time to rethink how we live in growing cities like Toronto, and how we can become an exemplar of how to live in the 21st century. The question we have to ask is are we making the world we want?&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-07-03-bruce-kuwabara-pan-am.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 03 Jul 2015 13:10:14 +0000 sgupta 7122 at His study paved the way for drugs that help millions (including his mother-in-law) /news/his-study-paved-way-drugs-help-millions-including-his-mother-law <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">His study paved the way for drugs that help millions (including his mother-in-law)</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-06-16T11:51:16-04:00" title="Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - 11:51" class="datetime">Tue, 06/16/2015 - 11:51</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">鈥淲e always have a little light on that says, beyond the pure joy and satisfaction of understanding how this works, might this be relevant to treatment of human disease, and might this have commercialization potential?鈥 (photo by Bernardo Yusta)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/our-faculty-staff" hreflang="en">Our Faculty &amp; Staff</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/pharmacy" hreflang="en">Pharmacy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/diabetes" hreflang="en">Diabetes</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/connaught-fund" hreflang="en">Connaught Fund</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Daniel Drucker on the importance of basic science, commercialization and failure </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> When <strong>Daniel Drucker </strong>was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in the mid-1980s, he worked in a lab studying GLP-1, a hormone released in your gut after you eat.</p> <p> Like any good scientist, he was motivated by curiosity. He wanted to know how this uncharted biological process worked and what effects it had in the body.</p> <p> What he didn鈥檛 know back then 鈥&nbsp;what he couldn鈥檛 have known<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;</span>was that 19 years later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would approve a new class of drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes based on his work on GLP-1.</p> <p> Subsequent work on a chemical that gets in the way of gut hormones doing their jobs yielded another class of drug called DDP-4 inhibitors. Both classes of drugs help people with diabetes lower their blood sugar without causing weight gain or hypoglycaemia, which were troublesome side effects of previous generations of drugs.</p> <p> Today, millions of people<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;</span>including Drucker鈥檚 own mother-in-law<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;</span>benefit from these drugs.</p> <p> 鈥淭he path to commercial success and the introduction of a drug to the clinic is not always a rapid, straightforward journey,鈥 he says. 鈥淭here are all kinds of challenges to be met, and it can be a long and difficult process. But many things in life are like that.鈥</p> <p> Drucker, who is today a professor of medicine at 茄子直播 and a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, has gone on to repeat his commercialization success. In addition to paving the way for the development of diabetes drugs, his lab discovered the actions of another hormone, GLP-2, and filed a series of patents describing how it improves intestinal growth and function. Today, teduglutide, a drug for short bowel syndrome based on that research, is available in Europe and the U.S. and is pending approval in Canada.&nbsp;</p> <p> He has also developed cell lines and mice engineered for the study of gut hormones. He makes these cell lines and mice freely available to academic researchers worldwide and licenses them to researchers in industry.</p> <p> 茄子直播 benefits directly from Drucker鈥檚 success. The university鈥檚 approach to inventions and commercialization includes the sharing of revenues with the institution. In&nbsp;some cases&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;and Drucker has been one over the years&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;the revenue is directed to the Connaught Fund, a special 茄子直播 endowment dedicated to the support of research and innovation. Connaught awarded Drucker a New Staff Grant in 1987 to study the molecular biology of glucagon gene expression.</p> <p> In the 25 years since Drucker鈥檚 initial discovery, the accolades have rolled in. They include the American Diabetes Association鈥檚 Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, Japan鈥檚 Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes research and election to the Royal Society in London.</p> <p> But, he says, despite his impressive record, he never sets out to commercialize his findings.</p> <p> 鈥淲e study basic mechanisms of hormone action. We do not set out initially to design our experiments with a view towards discovering an invention. We do the science, we hope that we ask good questions and we hope that our findings are novel and of interest.鈥</p> <p> But, he says the key is in the mindset, in doing good science and being open to whatever emerges in the lab.</p> <p> 鈥淲hen we make observations or discoveries, we always have a little light on that says, beyond the pure joy and satisfaction of understanding how this works, might this be relevant to treatment of human disease, and might this have commercialization potential?&nbsp;Keeping that light on is part of what we want to do.鈥</p> <p> 鈥淜eeping the light on鈥 is something we could do a much better job of, he says. 鈥淚n Canada, we have fantastic basic science. We lag behind in commercialization.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p> Statistics bear this out. In a recent World Economic Forum report, Canada fell from its spot as the 12th most innovative country in the world in 2010 to 25th in 2014. And, according to the Conference Board of Canada, 鈥淐ountries that are more innovative are passing Canada on measures such as income per capita, productivity and the quality of social programs.鈥</p> <p> How help close the innovation gap? Drucker has a few thoughts on the matter.&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>First, support basic science.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p> 鈥淚f you say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e only interested in work that has commercialization potential,鈥 you鈥檙e likely to miss 95 per cent of the key basic science discoveries, which at the time they鈥檙e made, may not have immediately obvious commercialization potential. Understanding at a very basic level how things work underlies the commercializing of subsequent more applied applications in the vast majority of instances. So neglecting basic sciences, or attempting to redirect funding away from basic science toward work that clearly has an obvious commercialization flavour, is a long-term recipe for failure.鈥</p> <p> <strong>Second, reward commercialization.</strong></p> <p> This means, he says, that we need both regulatory change, such as tax regimes more favourable to commercialization revenue, and culture change within institutions.&nbsp;</p> <p> 鈥淲e can do a better job educating and rewarding people involved in commercialization. In many parts of the academic enterprise, it鈥檚 either passively or almost actively discouraged to interact with companies or to partake in commercial activity.鈥</p> <p> <strong>Finally, embrace failure.</strong></p> <p> 鈥淲e have had discoveries where although the science turned out to be correct, the commercialization potential never materialized. Inventors and scientists shouldn鈥檛 feel that every single patent they file has to be a home run. You need to file patents and protect your discoveries. Sometimes these will be commercializable and have great value, but many times they won鈥檛. And there鈥檚 no way to predict it. There shouldn鈥檛 be any stigma attached to failure.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-06-16-dan-drucker-diabetes.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 16 Jun 2015 15:51:16 +0000 sgupta 7085 at From Milton's velodrome to Toronto's West Don Lands: using the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games to build a legacy /news/miltons-velodrome-torontos-west-don-lands-using-pan-amparapan-am-games-build-legacy <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">From Milton's velodrome to Toronto's West Don Lands: using the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games to build a legacy</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-05-29T06:57:42-04:00" title="Friday, May 29, 2015 - 06:57" class="datetime">Fri, 05/29/2015 - 06:57</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The Cisco Milton Velodrome was built to be a community recreational centre, with multi-use courts, a walking track, fitness centre and a retail bike and repair shop (all photos courtesy Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sports" hreflang="en">Sports</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/pan-am" hreflang="en">Pan Am</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/architecture" hreflang="en">Architecture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">茄子直播</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> Some projects are new, large-scale and dazzling&nbsp;鈥 the <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/milton-velodrome">Milton Cisco Velodrome</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/welcome-toronto-pan-am-sports-centre">CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatic Centre and Field House</a>&nbsp;at the University of Toronto Scarborough.</p> <p> Others&nbsp;feature&nbsp;improvements to existing facilities&nbsp;鈥 a new shooting range at <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/pan-am-shooting-centre">Innisfil's trap and skeet club</a>, <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/caledon-equestrian-park">upgrades to Caledon's publicly-owned equestrian park</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;new, wheelchair-accessible tennis courts at the <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/university-toronto-scarborough-tennis-centre">University of Toronto Scarborough Tennis Centre</a>.</p> <p> But whether you're talking about a new bridge to <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/royal-canadian-henley-rowing-course">the rowing facility in St. Catharines</a>&nbsp;or new buildings and spectator seating at the <a href="http://www.toronto2015.org/venue/welland-flatwater-centre">Welland Pan Am Flatwater Centre</a>, the <a href="http://panam2015.utoronto.ca/">Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games</a> are&nbsp;changing the built landscape in Ontario, even before the Games begin.&nbsp;</p> <p> 鈥淧retty much every permanent venue that鈥檚 getting built is something that the communities surrounding them really needed in their final state,鈥 says&nbsp;<strong>Mark Sterling</strong>, director of the Master of Urban Design program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, on planning.</p> <p> Large-scale events such as&nbsp;the Olympics or the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games are sometimes seen as&nbsp;expensive sinkholes that siphon resources from more pressing social and economic problems. But can they&nbsp;be good for their host cities and countries?</p> <p> It depends entirely, says Sterling, on the planning.</p> <p> <img alt src="/sites/default/files/WestDonLands_SpacingMag_600x400.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 233px; margin: 10px; float: right;">For the past 15 years, Sterling has been working in various capacities as a consultant to the City of Toronto and to Waterfront Toronto on the redevelopment of the Central Waterfront, the Port Lands and the West Don Lands, former industrial lands south and east of Toronto鈥檚 financial district along Lake Ontario.&nbsp;</p> <p> (<em>Photo at right of&nbsp;West Don Lands by Spacing Magazine via Flickr</em>.)</p> <p> There had been public sector interest in redeveloping the West Don Lands since the 1980s, but various plans were stymied by problems of soil contamination and the fact that the area is on a flood plain. Eventually, in the mid-2000s, momentum gathered behind a plan, and Waterfront Toronto kicked off a process to pre-plan what was envisioned as an 80-acre mixed use site that would ultimately contain 6,000 residential units&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;many of them affordable&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;businesses, retail and 23 acres of parkland. (<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/how-persistence-and-pan-amparapan-am-games-paid-affordable-housing">Read about the 茄子直播 Law alumna who devoted decades to the revitalization of the West Don Lands</a>.)</p> <p> 鈥淚 got involved as part of a team doing what鈥檚 called a public realm master plan,鈥 says Sterling, who served as urban design lead on the project. 鈥淲e were designing the streets and most of the parks in detail. My role was to work with the engineers and landscape architects to make sure that as we were planning the detailed design of the streets and blocks and open space of the area, we were integrating the thinking about the way the buildings would frame those spaces.</p> <p> 鈥淭hen the Pan&nbsp;Am games showed up.鈥</p> <p> By the time the West Don Lands were selected as the site of the Pan Am athletes鈥 village, the plan for the neighbourhood had already made its way through municipal approvals processes. Construction was ready to begin 鈥 and it was expected to take 15 to 20 years to complete.</p> <p> But, Sterling recounts, 鈥淲hen Pan Am came along, all of a sudden there was an impetus to say, well, maybe we could build most of the buildings now. The buildings required for the Pan Am village were all built according to the plan that was already in place.鈥</p> <p> <img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-05-29-UTSCRockClimbing_22-scr-%281%29.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 376px; margin: 10px; float: right;">In other words, he says, the Games were a catalyst for a project that was already in the works.&nbsp;</p> <p> 鈥淚n a normal development cycle, we would have expected one building to be built every two to three years. So this really kick-started the whole thing. It kick-started affordable housing provision as well because there was quite a strong mandate in that area to provide affordable housing.鈥</p> <p> But the built legacy of the Games isn鈥檛 just in the West Don Lands. They&nbsp;will take place at 32 venues in 16 municipalities within a 5,300 square kilometre footprint 鈥 ten are newly built and 15 are existing facilities that have been upgraded.</p> <p> (<em>At right, students try out the climbing facilities at UTSC; photo by Ken Jones</em>.)</p> <p> Heather Irwin, a Pan Am spokesperson, says that the venues will provide Canada鈥檚 best athletes to access world-class training facilities at home. They will also, she says, serve the communities in which they鈥檙e located, communities as far flung as Haliburton and Niagara Falls.</p> <p> 鈥淐ommunity use and sport legacy is baked into their design,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an afterthought.鈥</p> <p> For example, says Irwin, the Cisco Milton Velodrome 鈥渋s the only velodrome of its kind in Canada, and only the third in North America that meets top international standards.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p> The Ontario Cycling Association and the Milton Cycling Academy both plan to make the facility their home bases after the Games.&nbsp;</p> <p> The velodrome was also built to be a community recreational centre, with three multi-use courts, a walking track, fitness centre, community bicycle storage and a retail bike and repair shop.</p> <p> <img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-05-29-cyclists-embed.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 416px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p> That the Pan Am venues will have a useful legacy after the Games is something 茄子直播鈥檚 Sterling attributes to 鈥 once again 鈥 good planning.&nbsp;Population in southern Ontario is growing, and provincial plans call for intensification. Because of this, he says, most communities had public projects they wanted to undertake, and the Pan Am bid allowed them to&nbsp;leverage the planning that was already underway.&nbsp;</p> <p> If Toronto is an example of deriving positive benefits out of a major event like the Pan Am Games, there are other cases that resulted in less than happy endings for the host city. Athens, for example, which hosted the 2004 Olympics, is littered with decaying, abandoned venues.</p> <p> And Sterling was invited recently to attend a workshop in Lima, Peru, host of the 2019 Pan Am Games, given by a group of planners and architects.&nbsp;</p> <p> 鈥淭hey were concerned that they were either going to get a lot of temporary facilities that would just disappear or, given that decision making was going to have to happen quickly, they might get the wrong kind of legacy. They don鈥檛 have any legacy projects waiting in the wings like we did.鈥</p> <p> A city should only take on these events like Pan Am, says Sterling, 鈥渋f you can use them for something you already know you want to do. Some of the failed Olympics have amounted to a big party with a lot of expensive concrete stuff left over. The positive ones are the ones where they鈥檝e actually made a difference in their cities.</p> <p> 鈥淭he legacy question is a big one. There鈥檚 no reason to do this otherwise.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-05-29-pan-am-velodrome.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 29 May 2015 10:57:42 +0000 sgupta 7050 at From better cancer treatments to healthier crops: new backing for 茄子直播 scientists /news/better-cancer-treatments-healthier-crops-new-backing-u-t-scientists <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">From better cancer treatments to healthier crops: new backing for 茄子直播 scientists</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-05-29T06:49:38-04:00" title="Friday, May 29, 2015 - 06:49" class="datetime">Fri, 05/29/2015 - 06:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Ue-Li Pen (centre) of the department of astronomy &amp; astrophysics, is working on a project that will allow Canada to participate in international collaborations </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/science" hreflang="en">Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/government" hreflang="en">Government</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/engineering" hreflang="en">Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/donnelly-centre" hreflang="en">Donnelly Centre</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/astronomy" hreflang="en">Astronomy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> Six 茄子直播 researchers have been awarded a total of $14.6 million from the<a href="http://www.innovation.ca/"> Canada Foundation for Innovation</a> for infrastructure in support of projects tackling topics as diverse as cancer treatment and food security.</p> <p> 鈥淲e are enormously grateful to CFI for these investments,<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">鈥</span> said Professor <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, 茄子直播鈥檚 vice-president, research and innovation. 鈥淎mbitious, world-leading science requires powerful infrastructure, and we are fortunate that the Government of Canada recognizes that. It is through projects like these that our researchers will tackle society鈥檚 most pressing problems.鈥</p> <p> The winning projects and lead researchers are:&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>George Eleftheriades</strong>, Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, $2.6 million for 鈥淐ERES: Centre for Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Surfaces.鈥 The centre will be the Canadian focal point for high-frequency electromagnetic wave research, bringing together researchers from a variety of fields to solve problems in the communications, security and medical sectors. A core technology to be developed is a thin, lightweight surface that controls the generation, propagation and scattering of electromagnetic waves.</p> <p> <strong>Patrick Gunning</strong>, department of chemical and physical sciences, 茄子直播 Mississauga, $2,382,000 for 鈥淐entre for Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics.鈥 Gunning will lead the establishment of a new centre for cancer drug discovery, focusing on some of the deadliest cancers known, including varieties of brain and blood cancer.</p> <p> <strong>David Guttman</strong>, department of cell and systems biology, $1,807,480 for 鈥淔ood Security in a Changing World: Centre for Plant-Microbe Chemical Genomics.鈥 The centre aims to apply approaches commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to the promotion of plant health in order to help farmers produce high quality and high value crops in the face of population growth and climate change.</p> <p> <strong>Hoi-Kwong Lo</strong>, Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, $762,660 for 鈥淪mart Grid: Cyber-Physical Operation, Security and Quantum Technology.鈥 The project aims to make the sophisticated power generation and distribution systems we will reply on in the future smart and secure.</p> <p> <strong>Ue-Li Pen</strong>, department of astronomy and&nbsp;astrophysics, $400,000 for 鈥淐anadian VLBI Infrastructure.鈥 The project will build very-long-baseline interferometry, which is a technique used in radio astronomy in which observations are made simultaneously by telescopes in different locations. It will enable new observations and measurements and allow Canada to participate in international collaborations.</p> <p> <strong>Sachdev Sidhu</strong> &amp; <strong>Raymond Reilly</strong>, Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, $3,283,502 for 鈥淓ngineered Biologics: Targeted Diagnostics and Therapeutics.鈥 The project will bring together two teams of scientists. One group will generate hundreds of antibodies&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;a relatively new class of cancer therapy. The other will use these antibodies to create diagnostics and targeted therapies that are more effective and less toxic than existing treatments.</p> <p> Funding awarded to these projects comes from CFI鈥檚 Innovation Fund, which supports promising and innovative directions in research or technology development in areas where Canada currently is, or has the potential to be, competitive on the global stage.&nbsp;</p> <p> In addition, each project was awarded funding from the organization鈥檚 Infrastructure Operating Fund, which helps cover a portion of the operating and maintenance costs associated with the funded infrastructure.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-05-29-CFI-Ue-li-Pen_600x400.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 29 May 2015 10:49:38 +0000 sgupta 6998 at Canada Research Chairs: government backs leading scholars in mental health, human rights and more /news/canada-research-chairs-government-backs-leading-scholars-mental-health-human-rights-and-more <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Research Chairs: government backs leading scholars in mental health, human rights and more</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-04-10T07:10:27-04:00" title="Friday, April 10, 2015 - 07:10" class="datetime">Fri, 04/10/2015 - 07:10</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> CRC Julie Lefebvre, CRC Leonardo Salmena</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jane-stirling" hreflang="en">Jane Stirling</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/nicole-bodnar" hreflang="en">Nicole Bodnar</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/nicole-bodnar" hreflang="en">Nicole Bodnar</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall, Jane Stirling and Nicole Bodnar</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/our-faculty-staff" hreflang="en">Our Faculty &amp; Staff</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/physics" hreflang="en">Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/math" hreflang="en">Math</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/law" hreflang="en">Law</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/kinesiology" hreflang="en">Kinesiology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/engineering" hreflang="en">Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dalla-lana-school-public-health" hreflang="en">Dalla Lana School of Public Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Minister of State for Science and Technology visits UTM to award 11 new, eight renewed chairs</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> University of Toronto researchers made a grand showing April 9 in the federal government鈥檚 announcement of $139 million for the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program, $17.6 million of which will go to 11 new and eight renewed chairs at 茄子直播.</p> <p> Ed Holder, Canada鈥檚 Minister of State for Science and Technology, visited the University of Toronto Mississauga campus to make the announcement. 鈥淭hrough our government鈥檚 updated science, technology and innovation strategy, we are making the record investments necessary to push the boundaries of knowledge, create jobs and opportunities, and improve the quality of life of Canadians,鈥 he said.</p> <p> Launched in 2000, the <a href="http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/about_us-a_notre_sujet/index-eng.aspx">Canada Research Chair program</a> is aimed at helping the country attract and retain research leaders in engineering and natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. <strong>Leonardo Salmena</strong> of 茄子直播's&nbsp;department of pharmacology and toxicology and holder of the new CRC in Signal Transduction and Gene Regulation in Cancer, spoke on behalf of the chairholders.</p> <p> 鈥淭he Canada Research Chairs program will allow my team to build an infrastructure to conduct excellent science,鈥 Salmena said. 鈥淢ore importantly, it will allow me to have a hand in training Canada鈥檚 future researchers.鈥</p> <p> Salmena is researching the molecular basis of acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer originating in bone marrow. Through his role as a chairholder, he hopes his research can be used to develop new strategies for preventing and treating this form of cancer.</p> <p> 鈥淲e are grateful to the government of Canada for this investment,鈥 said Professor <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, 茄子直播鈥檚 vice-president, research and innovation. 鈥淭he CRC program has enabled universities across Canada, 茄子直播 among them, to attract and retain the best researchers from around the world. As such, the program is critical to the long-term prosperity of our nation.鈥</p> <p> The diverse array of researchers backed by the program includes such leaders as <strong>Lisa Forman</strong>&nbsp;of 茄子直播's&nbsp;Dalla Lana School of Public Health&nbsp;and the&nbsp;University of Toronto Mississauga's <strong>Joel Levine</strong>.</p> <p> Levine&nbsp;studies the social interaction of fruit&nbsp;flies (<a href="http://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-joel-levine/">hear Levine in a People Behind the Science podcast with Marie McNeely</a>) in a bid to understand&nbsp;the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie innate patterns of social interaction. (<a href="http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/utms-latest-canada-research-chair-recipient-flies-new-heights">Read more about Levine</a>.) Forman,&nbsp;a leading international human rights law scholar, is leveraging her Canada Research Chair to advance health as a human right for all as an integral component of responses to global health equity.</p> <p> 鈥淭he right to health is a fundamental human right recognized in international law that can help political and health leaders to better address global health inequities,鈥 said Forman, Lupina Assistant Professor in Global Health and Human Rights.</p> <p> Supported by CRC funding, Forman鈥檚 research seeks to strengthen the international legal framework on the right to health to better respond to global health inequity in a number of ways.</p> <p> 鈥淔or example, there鈥檚 a loophole in the right to health argument that permits states to deny health care on the basis of limited resources, including for the poorest and most vulnerable populations,鈥 said Forman, who is also director of the Comparative Program on Health and Society, a health fellowship program funded by the Lupina Foundation, which supports graduate research across 茄子直播 on the social determinants of health.</p> <p> International lawyers have tried to fix this loophole by developing the idea of 鈥渕inimum core obligations鈥 to meet essential health needs that cannot be denied under any circumstances, said Forman. But she added the definition of minimum core obligations does not specify the health needs it covers and fails to specify the obligations of wealthier countries to assist poor countries to meet core obligations.</p> <p> 鈥淭hese gaps in the definition limit the ability of the right to health to protect people's health against government inaction and cuts in international health funding. My research proposes to fill this gap by analyzing how courts and scholars around the world have interpreted this concept, and using this analysis to reconceptualise how we define and implement minimum core obligations.鈥</p> <p> (<a href="http://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/page/professor-lisa-forman-receives-crc-research-chair-and-jus-prize-ground-breaking-human-rights">Read more about Forman's work</a>.)</p> <p> 茄子直播鈥檚 new chairholders are:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/engineering-better-healthcare-system-placing-defibrillators-where-theyre-needed-most-redesigning-cli"><strong>Timothy Chan</strong></a>, department of mechanical and industrial engineering 鈥 CRC in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health</li> <li> <strong>Lisa Forman</strong>, Dalla Lana School of Public Health 鈥 CRC in Human Rights and Global Health Equity</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/researchers-create-black-box-use-operating-rooms-improve-patient-care"><strong>Teodor Grantcharov</strong></a>, department of surgery and St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital 鈥 CRC in Simulation and Surgical Safety</li> <li> <strong>Monica Justice</strong>, department of molecular genetics and the Hospital for Sick Children 鈥 CRC in Mammalian Molecular Genetics</li> <li> <strong>Larissa Katz</strong>, Faculty of Law 鈥 CRC in Private Law Theory</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/recognizing-u-t-s-rising-stars"><strong>Julie Lefebvre</strong></a>, department of molecular genetics and Hospital for Sick Children 鈥 CRC in Developing Neural Circuitries</li> <li> <strong>Joel Levine</strong>, department of biology, 茄子直播 Mississauga 鈥 CRC in Neurogenetics</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/understanding-depressed-mind-how-brains-new-mothers-may-hold-keys-treatment"><strong>Jeffrey Meyer</strong></a>, department of psychiatry and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 鈥 CRC in Neurochemistry of Major Depression</li> <li> <strong>Elizabeth Page-Gould</strong>, department of psychology 鈥 CRC in Social Psychophysiology</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/workout-buddies-helping-cancer-survivors-get-exercise"><strong>Catherine Sabiston</strong></a>, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education 鈥 CRC in Physical Activity and Mental Health</li> <li> <strong>Leonardo Salmena</strong>, department of pharmacology and toxicology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (University Health Network) 鈥 CRC in Signal Transduction and Gene Regulation in Cancer</li> </ul> <p> In addition to funding the new chairs, eight chairs were renewed:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Patricia Brubaker</strong>, department of physiology 鈥 CRC in Vascular and Metabolic Biology</li> <li> <strong>George Elliott</strong>, department of mathematics 鈥 CRC in Mathematics</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/2014-killam-prize-winners-andreas-mandelis-and-sajeev-john"><strong>Sajeev John</strong></a>, department of physics 鈥 CRC in Optical Sciences</li> <li> <strong>Tony Lam</strong>, department of physiology and University Health Network 鈥 CRC in Obesity</li> <li> <strong>Andras Nagy</strong>, department of molecular genetics and Mount Sinai Hospital 鈥 CRC in Stem Cells and Regeneration</li> <li> <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/ozin-wins-albert-einstein-award-science-0"><strong>Geoffrey Ozin</strong></a>, department of chemistry 鈥 CRC in Materials Chemistry and Nanochemistry&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> <li> <strong>Nicholas Rule</strong>, department of psychology 鈥 CRC in Social Perception and Cognition</li> <li> <strong>Elise Stanley</strong>, department of physiology and University Health Network 鈥 CRC in Cellular Neuroscience</li> </ul> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-04-10-crc.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:10:27 +0000 sgupta 6945 at The problem with solitary confinement /news/problem-solitary-confinement <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The problem with solitary confinement</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-03-30T07:35:17-04:00" title="Monday, March 30, 2015 - 07:35" class="datetime">Mon, 03/30/2015 - 07:35</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Even during the years Alcatraz prison (pictured above) housed convicts, the practice of solitary confinement was criticized for harming the mental health of prisoners (photo by Shannon O'Toole via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/public-policy" hreflang="en">Public Policy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/government" hreflang="en">Government</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">鈥淭he desire for retribution is understandable, but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily make good policy,鈥 says sociologist Kelly Hannah-Moffat</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> <em>It鈥檚 a practice that has been in the news since the Ashley Smith case first made headlines and, last week,<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-launches-review-of-solitary-confinement-in-prisons/article23630682/"> the Ontario government announced it had launched a review</a> of its solitary confinement policies.&nbsp;</em></p> <p> <em><strong>Kelly Hannah-Moffat</strong> is an expert on prisons, risk assessment and punishment, particularly as experienced by women and marginalized populations. A professor of sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and director of the <a href="http://criminology.utoronto.ca/">Centre of Criminology &amp; Sociolegal Studies</a>, she spoke with writer <strong>Jenny Hall </strong>about the practice 鈥 what is it, what is it supposed to accomplish, and how is it being used?&nbsp;</em></p> <p> <strong>What does solitary confinement really mean in practice?&nbsp;</strong><br> Most of the time solitary confinement refers to being in a cell with a restricted amount of possessions. You鈥檙e in a cell with a steel bed that is attached to the wall. Sometimes you have a mattress, sometimes you don鈥檛. There will be a toilet and a sink attached to the wall. You might have a barred door or a full metal door with a small window. There鈥檚 a slot at the bottom that a meal tray can go through.&nbsp;</p> <p> Normally you are in that cell for 23 hours a day and allowed out for an hour for showers or for recreation, which is quite basic and involves moving to another space, sometimes a closed-in concrete space that has some natural light or natural air. You can walk around, but you鈥檙e by yourself. Normally, the movement between the cell and the recreation space is in restraints 鈥 shackles and handcuffs. Many cells are subject to 24-hour monitoring by camera.&nbsp;</p> <p> There is very little human interaction. Solitary confinement basically prevents you from associating with other prisoners, and severely restricts your movement and can prevent access to visits, treatment, programmes and services.</p> <p> <strong>Are you allowed to have books?</strong><br> <img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-03-30-solitary-cell-embed.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 226px; margin: 10px; float: right;">It depends on the type of solitary confinement you鈥檙e in. If you have all your privileges withdrawn, then no. But if you鈥檙e allowed some privileges, then you could have a book. If you鈥檙e on a suicide or self-injury watch, you may not have a mattress, you may not have a blanket, you may not have your own clothes and you wouldn鈥檛 have a book or anything you could use to start a fire, harm yourself, or cover a camera.&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>Can you explain the different types of solitary confinement?</strong><br> A more punitive or disciplinary segregation would occur if an offender has violated one of the institutional rules. More commonly used is something called administrative segregation, where someone can be placed in segregation for security reasons 鈥 to protect their safety or the safety of other prisoners or to protect the security of the institution. This might be somebody who causes fights or is prone to victimization due to their offences or status. It might be someone suffering with acute or unmanageable mental health issues who can鈥檛 self-regulate in the wider population or somebody who chronically self-injures or is at risk for committing suicide.&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>How common is solitary confinement?</strong><br> Correctional Service Canada will say that it does not use solitary confinement but instead uses forms of administrative segregation or a 鈥渟ecure unit.鈥 This is a bit of linguistic gymnastics because each is a secured space where there is minimal freedom and high surveillance. So in effect, we don鈥檛 have clear numbers. But we do know from reports from the correctional investigator, who is a federal ombudsman who looks into complaints and grievances and looks at issues pertaining to the rights of federally sentenced prisoners, that there were 8,221 admissions into segregation in 2012-13. This is up from 7,137 in 2003-04. We also know that a significant proportion of complaints about conditions pertain to segregation, and that many people in segregation have mental health difficulties or are at risk of self-harm or suicide.</p> <p> <strong>So the typical person in segregation is not our image of the horrible, violent offender.</strong><br> We tend to have a skewed perception of prisoners, especially those who are in segregation. We see them as 鈥渢he other,鈥 as the terrifying violent predators or the mythical personalities we see on TV who are overly vicious and lethal. But that鈥檚 not representative.&nbsp;</p> <p> Many have mental health problems or cognitive impairments. It鈥檚 no surprise when you look at files of people in prison. They are struggling with complex and interconnected issues: addiction, abuse, trauma. They were often in the child welfare system or had family-of-origin issues. They haven鈥檛 done well at the front end of their life, so it鈥檚 not surprising when they get to the back end that this is where they are.</p> <p> <strong>Is it legal to put people with mental health issues or cognitive impairments into solitary confinement?</strong><br> The UN declaration for the minimum standard for treatment of prisoners says that you should not put people with mental health difficulties in segregation.&nbsp;</p> <p> That has not been honoured, and that鈥檚 partly because we don鈥檛 have very good capacities to address mental health needs in custody. People in custody don鈥檛 have good access to psychiatric nurses, to psychologists, to staff with appropriate levels of training to deal with people who are ill.&nbsp;</p> <p> The Office of the Correctional Investigator and many international and local advocates, inquires and inquests have raised many concerns about the continuation of this practice and its damaging and sometimes lethal effects. Yet it continues.</p> <p> <strong>Does solitary confinement work when it鈥檚 applied for disciplinary reasons?</strong><br> You might have a sense that if we put somebody in segregation, they鈥檙e going to learn their lesson, and they鈥檙e going to come out and behave properly and follow the rules. There鈥檚 no empirical evidence to actually support that. Generally speaking, we know that deterrence is not particularly effective in getting compliance from people. International research shows that segregation has harmful effects, and that it can actually exacerbate the negative behaviour you are trying to control. It can create irreversible psychological damage.</p> <p> <strong>Could that same logic mean that prison in general isn鈥檛 effective?</strong><br> There is no evidence that says prison is effective. It isolates people鈥檚 mobility for a short period of time, but it does very little to ensure that someone won鈥檛 reoffend in the future. You can selectively incapacitate people, you can hold them in a space and prevent them from moving and interacting with other people for a defined period of time, but in the long term that doesn鈥檛 solve the underlying problems that bring people into conflict with the law. In fact, in terms of solitary confinement specifically, people in segregation for a long period of time will start to exhibit the very problems that you鈥檙e trying to prevent. It can create aggression, depression, suicidal ideation, a range of mental health issues that may not have been there previously, or it can exacerbate&nbsp;pre-existing ones.</p> <p> <img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-03-30-kingston-pen-cellblock-aimee-flickr-10196096834_d839f8694f_z.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 416px; margin: 10px 20px;"></p> <p> (<em>Cellblock in Kingston Penitentiary, closed in 2013; photo by Aimee via Flickr)</em></p> <p> <strong>So if it doesn鈥檛 work, why has the system evolved the way it has? Is it an issue of lack of resources so solitary confinement is overused?</strong><br> Part of it is resources. Part of it is who has jurisdiction over the provision of mental health services and how to arrange for those services to be delivered to people under federal sentence. One of the big issues that came up in the Ashley Smith case is how to move people into secure hospital settings where they can be treated for problematic behaviours that are then understood as symptomatic of a mental illness. In a hospital setting, you鈥檙e using treatment interventions. You鈥檙e not using punitive restrictions that will escalate into various types of use of force 鈥 macing, using restraints, having masks over people鈥檚 faces or having them in shackles and leg irons. There is international best practice on how to do this that is not being followed.</p> <p> There has also been resistance to looking at community-based alternatives. We know, for example, that for those prone to self-injury, having somebody to sit there and talk to you and listen to you and just having access to non-judgmental conversations is really important.&nbsp;</p> <p> The other side of this is that there鈥檚 a tremendous toll on the staff that have to work in those units. There is very little training given to people who work in maximum-security segregation units. Investing in the HR side of things is difficult to do. We are in an era of fiscal restraint, and we have punitive sensibilities 鈥 you get what you deserve.&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>And it seems that being tough on crime is a popular political stance.&nbsp;</strong><br> Taking a hard line on crime is politically popular, but it鈥檚 very short-sighted. Parole is an excellent example of this. In Canada, we have a determinate sentencing structure, which means we send people to prison for a specific period of time. Except for life sentences, all sentences have an expiry date. Every sentence ends, which de facto means that these individuals will return to the community. The question is how would you like that person to be returned? Would you like them to come back angrier and more damaged? Or would you like them to come back with a renewed sense of purpose and opportunities to take their lives in different directions?</p> <p> The desire for punishment is very human. If you or someone you care about has been victimized, the desire for retribution is understandable, but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily make good policy. Getting rid of or severely restricting parole options, for example, keeps people in prison longer. It鈥檚 very expensive and releases them less prepared to cope with the things they鈥檙e going to have to cope with 鈥 jobs, housing, transportation, child care, family reunification. And if you magnify that and think about segregation, do you really want to release someone to the street from solitary confinement?&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>Is there any hope for improvement? What can be done?</strong><br> We see the sensational cases like Ashley Smith, and we ask how, in a modern democracy where we see ourselves as law-abiding and humane, could that happen? There are lots of community advocates accomplished at dealing with mental health issues and with chronic self-injury. Bringing some of that expertise into the prison system is an important thing, but it is equally important to limit the use of custody and provide better support for individuals in the community. Prevention is preferable, and that can be achieved by ensuring that proper social supports and resources are accessible to people in need, especially for people struggling with mental health issues or addictions. &nbsp;</p> <p> There are also some basic standards about what is humane treatment. We need to clarify the threshold of what constitutes excessive punishment. We have rules that limit the amount of time someone is in segregation. We have rules about doing reviews. But it鈥檚 all done in-house. Where is the oversight? You鈥檝e got corrections policing itself. You鈥檝e got bodies like the correctional investigator, who has for years done special reports around deaths in federal custody and segregation and mental health, and has made a series of very thoughtful recommendations 鈥 but they don鈥檛 get implemented. In some cases, it鈥檚 lack of political will. Sometimes it鈥檚 jurisdictional problems. Sometimes it鈥檚 resource constraint. Sometimes it鈥檚 myopic thinking.&nbsp;</p> <p> I don鈥檛 fault the people who work directly in institutions. Both people in custody and people who work in institutions want safe and secure spaces, but I don鈥檛 think segregation is a vehicle for doing that. It鈥檚 a short-term solution to an immediate and often preventable problem. And sometimes it exemplifies and demonstrates the failures in the system. This was stunningly obvious in Ashley Smith鈥檚 case, where you saw the woman being transferred across the country from place to place and the same things happening over and over again and escalating and escalating. There鈥檚 a pattern here, and somebody needs to be looking at the patterns holistically and at the prisoner as an individual, asking, what does she need right now? What will she need tomorrow and the next day? How do we create a holistic plan to move her forward as opposed to just trying to prevent the next incident of self-injury? It鈥檚 more of an individual than an event-based approach that is useful.&nbsp;</p> <p> For me, it鈥檚 about identifying those systemic barriers to change. We sometimes talk about more law, more policy, more regulation. We actually don鈥檛 need that. We鈥檝e got tons of that. We need cultural shifts in how we think of these things, strong enforcement mechanisms, a respect for the culture of law and the limits that laws present, and more holistic approaches.</p> <p> <strong>Why is change so hard?</strong><br> Prisoners are out of sight, out of mind and often vilified. &nbsp;Prison walls are more than metaphorical. It is quite difficult for people to get inside to learn about what is going on. There鈥檚 very little transparency and accountability for the decision-making that occurs inside. And there鈥檚 no significant judicial oversight other than the office of the correctional investigator, and there鈥檚 no requirement that corrections actually follow the recommendations of the correctional investigator 鈥 or of a coroner鈥檚 inquest or an inquiry. Judges鈥 rulings must be honoured and inquest recommendations are acknowledged, but when they then filter down into daily practices, little real substantive changes in living conditions inside occur. And prisoners do not have a tendency to complain. They don鈥檛 always know their rights. Even if they do, they think the exercising of their rights is futile because people who are adjudicating their grievances are in the very intuitions they鈥檙e grieving.&nbsp;</p> <p> It鈥檚 a perfect storm in a way, and it鈥檚 an unsympathetic population of people. Few will take up their cause, but it鈥檚 a barometer on our civility. Yes, when you violate a law and you harm somebody, you deserve a consequence. &nbsp;But what ought that consequence look like? And how do we make punishment, especially in its extreme forms, productive as opposed to inhumane?</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-03-30-solitary-confinement-flickr-shannon-otoole.jpg</div> </div> Mon, 30 Mar 2015 11:35:17 +0000 sgupta 6909 at How to kill a fungus 鈥 and why /news/how-kill-fungus-and-why-0 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">How to kill a fungus 鈥 and why</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-03-18T06:26:59-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - 06:26" class="datetime">Wed, 03/18/2015 - 06:26</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Leah Cowen, a recent winner of the NSERC Steacie Memorial Fellowship, is trying to understand and combat drug resistant fungi (photo courtesy the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Steacie Fellowship winner Leah Cowen pioneers our understanding of drug-resistant fungal pathogens</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> MRSA,&nbsp;C. difficile&nbsp;鈥 most of us have become familiar with the ominous alphabet of drug-resistant bacteria. We鈥檝e heard the alarms about the improper use of antibiotics and warnings of&nbsp;a frightening future without drugs to treat strep throat or&nbsp;protect us during routine surgical procedures.</p> <p> The University of Toronto's <strong>Leah Cowen</strong>, a professor in the department of molecular genetics and recent winner of a Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council, is sounding a slightly different alarm. (<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/nserc-awards-big-night-u-t-researchers-take-home-three-steacie-fellowships-one-postdoctoral-prize">Read more about Steacie fellows at 茄子直播</a>.)</p> <p> 鈥淔ungal superbugs are a cause of just as much human mortality worldwide as some bacterial pathogens,鈥 Cowan says. They鈥檙e killing about 1.5 million people per year, which is on par with bacterial pathogens such as those causing tuberculosis or the parasites causing malaria.鈥</p> <p> Yet drug-resistant fungi don鈥檛 get nearly the attention their bacterial cousins do.</p> <p> 鈥淔ungi mostly affect immune-compromised individuals,鈥 she explains. 鈥淢ost fungal pathogens are opportunistic, so they can only cause disease when provided an opportunity. This means the major patient groups are transplant recipients, people undergoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment and people infected with HIV.鈥</p> <p> And that last group of patients&nbsp;means there&nbsp;is a global inequity in terms of who is hardest hit by fungal superbugs.</p> <p> 鈥淭he global burden is much greater in places like sub-Saharan Africa,鈥 she says. 鈥淔ungal superbugs don鈥檛 rank as much of a threat to the average North American or European, so there鈥檚 less media attention. We didn鈥檛 get nearly as concerned about Ebola, for example, until it came to North America and Europe.鈥</p> <p> To make matters worse, fungi are hard to kill, and that鈥檚 because they have a lot in common with their human hosts. Like us, fungi are eukaryotes. This means our cells are organized similarly, containing a nucleus and a series of organelles, which are smaller membrane-enclosed structures inside the cell that perform specific functions. Fungi and humans also have similar sets of genes and cellular processes.</p> <p> Because of these similarities, when you try to kill a fungus, you often end up introducing disastrous side effects in the human host. Many bacteria, on the other hand, are relatively easy to kill. As a result, while we have a dozen or so classes of antibiotics, there are only three classes of anti-fungal drugs. And fungi are quickly developing resistance to them.</p> <p> Cowen, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease, wants to know exactly how this happens, so she is investigating how fungal pathogens cause disease and how they evolve resistance to the drugs we use to try to kill them.</p> <p> A believer in the importance of both fundamental and applied research, Cowen complements her exploratory work with drug development. She鈥檚 particularly focused on a protein called HSP90, which is known as a chaperone protein.</p> <p> 鈥淚nside cells, it鈥檚 incredibly crowded,鈥 she says. 鈥淧eople often don鈥檛 appreciate this. You get images from biology textbooks, and it looks like each protein is doing its own thing and has its own space. In reality, a cell is a very densely packed environment. Proteins bump into each other all the time and engage in what people call promiscuous interactions&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;interacting with proteins they鈥檙e not supposed to be interacting with.鈥</p> <p> Enter HSP90. Like a chaperone at a dance urging hormone-happy teenagers not to stand too close, HSP90鈥檚 job is to make sure these promiscuous interactions don鈥檛 happen. It has long been known that HSP90 plays a role in cancer, but Cowen discovered during her post-doctoral fellowship that it is also critical in facilitating drug resistance in fungal pathogens.</p> <p> 鈥淚f you inhibit HSP90, you can reverse drug resistance of many fungal pathogens,鈥 she says. 鈥淵ou can also block new resistance from emerging. We also discovered that it is a key regulator of many facets of biology that is required to cause disease. As a chaperone, it regulates the function of many key circuit points in the cell&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;it basically allows the cell to function.鈥</p> <p> In other words: stop the chaperone, stop the disease.</p> <p> The tricky part, though, is that this chaperone protein has a counterpart in the human cell. The challenge is to figure out how to disable it in fungi and not in humans.</p> <p> 鈥淲e are developing molecules that can go in and selectively target the fungal protein with minimal effects on the human protein.鈥</p> <p> Fungi, says Cowen are 鈥渦nderstudied and underappreciated.鈥 In addition to threatening human health, they pose a major threat to plants and agriculture&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;fungi are responsible for the Irish potato famine and Dutch elm blight.</p> <p> 鈥淚 was always very interested in the microbial world around me,鈥 she says when asked about the origins of her interest in bacteria鈥檚 less famous cousin.</p> <p> 鈥淚 did my undergraduate in microbiology and immunology in part because I thought microbes provide fantastic systems to address scientific questions. They reproduce really quickly. They鈥檙e the most abundant organisms on the planet. They outnumber human cells in our own bodies by an order of magnitude. They influence all aspects of human health and ecosystem health. Yet they鈥檙e so tractable in the lab. You can come up with an idea, do an experiment, and have an answer in a couple days.鈥</p> <p> 鈥淭hese life forms have a huge impact on every aspect of our planet.鈥</p> <p> <em>Jenny Hall is a writer with the office of the vice-president, research and innovation, at the University of Toronto.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-03-18-leah-cowen-in-lab.jpg</div> </div> Wed, 18 Mar 2015 10:26:59 +0000 sgupta 6882 at NSERC awards: big night for 茄子直播 as researchers take home three Steacie Fellowships, one postdoctoral prize /news/nserc-awards-big-night-u-t-researchers-take-home-three-steacie-fellowships-one-postdoctoral-prize <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">NSERC awards: big night for 茄子直播 as researchers take home three Steacie Fellowships, one postdoctoral prize </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-02-17T03:21:01-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - 03:21" class="datetime">Tue, 02/17/2015 - 03:21</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(photos by NSERC)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nserc" hreflang="en">NSERC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/science" hreflang="en">Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/awards" hreflang="en">Awards</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council backs path-breaking work in diverse fields</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>University of Toronto researchers working on topics ranging from extreme weather on distant planets to better genetic testing for newborns are taking&nbsp;home four prizes in this year鈥檚 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council鈥檚 (NSERC) annual awards ceremony.</p> <p>Three of NSERC鈥檚 six E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships went to 茄子直播. The fellowships are intended to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising university faculty who are earning a strong international reputation for original research.</p> <p><strong>Leah Cowen</strong> of the department of molecular genetics was cited for her work combatting drug-resistant fungi. We hear a great deal about bacteria that have evolved to resist antibiotics, giving rise to the emergence of 鈥渟uperbugs,鈥 but less well known are the threats posed by drug-resistant fungi. Yet fungal diseases can have a devastating effect on humans, plants, agriculture and wildlife. Cowen鈥檚 research is uncovering new ways to help us defend against them.</p> <p><strong>Aaron Wheeler</strong> of the department of chemistry is developing better ways to test newborns for serious yet treatable genetic diseases. The current mode of testing&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;a blood draw that is then processed in a lab&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;is manual and slow. Wheeler is using digital microfluidic technology to develop an automated process. He is also working on extending his techniques beyond genetic disorders to screen mothers and babies for infectious diseases like rubella and inborn disorders like fetal alcohol syndrome.</p> <p><strong>Wei Yu</strong> of the department of electrical and computer engineering was cited for his work creating practical applications that stretch the limits of wired and wireless networks so that they perform better and are more cost-effective. For example, the copper telephone wire inside your home was never designed to stream movies over the internet. Yu鈥檚 work helps to make this possible. His discoveries on the fundamental capacity limits of communication channels have had an impact on the design and architecture of next generation wireless cellular networks.(<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/investing-next-generation-wireless-meet-wei-yu">Read more about Yu's work</a>.)</p> <p>The two-year Steacie Memorial Fellowships come with a $250,000 grant and allow the winners to submit applications for additional grants to pay for equipment needed for their research.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 an incredible honour,鈥 said Cowen of winning the Steacie Fellowship. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hugely enabling, both in terms of the respect and the honour it imparts upon the awardees, and the additional funding, which is tremendously important.鈥</p> <p>The Howard Alper Postdoctoral Prize was awarded to <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/planets-outside-our-solar-system-more-hospitable-life-wed-thought"><strong>J茅r茅my Leconte</strong> </a>of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and the Centre for Planetary Science at 茄子直播 Scarborough for his development of tools to study the climate of remote planets. Some of the planets outside our solar system have habitable zones similar to Earth, while others experience temperatures higher than 2200潞C and winds at supersonic speeds. Understanding such extreme environments gives us better insight into&nbsp;the processes governing climate in general, something that is urgently relevant to life on Earth.</p> <p>Valued at $20,000, the Alper Prize is awarded to the most outstanding candidate in NSERC鈥檚 postdoctoral fellowship competition. It recognizes academic excellence, existing and potential research contributions, interpersonal and communication skills,&nbsp;and leadership abilities.</p> <p>鈥淢y congratulations to all our NSERC award winners,鈥 said Professor <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, 茄子直播鈥檚 vice-president of research and innovation. 鈥淭hey are conducting both fundamental research that is pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and applied research that will improve health and quality of life worldwide in the coming years. We are grateful to NSERC for this recognition of and investment in 茄子直播 researchers.鈥</p> <p>The four award winners will join others from across the country at a Feb. 17 award ceremony in Ottawa hosted by the Governor General.</p> <p><em>Jenny Hall is a writer with the office of the vice-president of research and innovation at the University of Toronto.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-02-17-NSERC-winners-compilation.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 17 Feb 2015 08:21:01 +0000 sgupta 6806 at NSERC invests $5.3 million in 茄子直播 research /news/nserc-invests-53-million-u-t-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">NSERC invests $5.3 million in 茄子直播 research </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-02-10T05:19:41-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - 05:19" class="datetime">Tue, 02/10/2015 - 05:19</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">NSERC funding will allow Professor Frank Wania (above) and Professor Carl Mitchell to test their simple, inexpensive technique for sampling mercury in the atmosphere</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sarah-mcdonald" hreflang="en">Sarah McDonald</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jenny-hall" hreflang="en">Jenny Hall</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Sarah McDonald and Jenny Hall</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nserc" hreflang="en">NSERC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/environment" hreflang="en">Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/engineering" hreflang="en">Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Better, cheaper mercury detection among 12 funded projects</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded more than $5.3 million to 12 University of Toronto research projects.&nbsp;</p> <p>The objective of NSERC鈥檚 strategic project grants program is to increase research and training in targeted areas that could strongly enhance Canada's economy, society and/or environment within the next ten years. The program is aimed particularly at funding early-stage, high-risk projects that might otherwise have trouble attracting the funds needed to carry out their research.</p> <p>One of the winning projects is helmed by Professors <strong>Frank Wania</strong> and <strong>Carl Mitchell</strong> of the department of physical and&nbsp;environmental sciences at 茄子直播 Scarborough. The pair has developed a simple, inexpensive technique for sampling mercury in the atmosphere.</p> <p>A neurotoxin that accumulates in the food chain, mercury finds its way into fish and sea creatures and ultimately threatening human health. Measuring mercury鈥檚 prevalence in the air helps us understand where it鈥檚 coming from.</p> <p>鈥淩ight now we have very good machines to measure mercury in the atmosphere,鈥 said Wania. 鈥淏ut they are complicated and expensive machines that need trained personnel to set up, operate and maintain. That limits where such measurements are made. Most of the measurements are made in rich countries, and even there&nbsp;the spatial coverage is really small.鈥</p> <p>Wania and Mitchell already have a prototype built; the NSERC funding will allow them to calibrate and test it. They鈥檒l be looking at how quickly their tool takes up mercury, and how it鈥檚 affected by forces like wind and temperature.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭hese 12 projects have the potential to bring great benefit to society in coming years, and we are extremely grateful to NSERC for championing this kind of work, and for its continued investment in 茄子直播 research,鈥 said Professor <strong>Vivek Goel</strong>, 茄子直播鈥檚 vice-president of research and innovation.</p> <p>Other recipients of NSERC Strategic Project Grants are:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li><strong>D. Grant&nbsp;Allen</strong>, chemical engineering and applied chemistry, 鈥淒eveloping biofilm-based microalgal bioreactors for the efficient production of fuels, chemicals and clean water.鈥&nbsp;</li> <li><strong>Ya-Huei Cathy Chin</strong>, chemical engineering and applied chemistry, 鈥淐atalytic conversion of methane from alternative feedstocks to higher value products.鈥</li> <li><strong>George V. Eleftheriades</strong>, electrical and computer engineering, 鈥淔ield-discontinuity metasurfaces for electromagnetic wave manipulation.鈥</li> <li><strong>Ramin Farnood,</strong> chemical engineering and applied chemistry, 鈥淒eveloping novel electro-spun nano-fibre membrane absorption systems for water treatment.鈥</li> <li><strong>Peter Herman</strong>, electrical and computer engineering, 鈥淨uantized structuring of transparent film and plates with ultrafast laser interference and filamentation.鈥 &nbsp;</li> <li><strong>Charles Jia</strong>, chemical engineering and applied chemistry, 鈥淗igh performance, low-cost porous carbons from oil sands petroleum coke.鈥</li> <li><strong>Ryan Johnson</strong>, computer science, 茄子直播 Scarborough, 鈥淎 novel system architecture for online operational analytics.鈥</li> <li><strong>Frank Kschischang</strong>, electrical and computer engineering, 鈥淓rror control for terabit links: spatially-coupled staircase codes.鈥</li> <li><strong>Kiriakos Kutalako</strong>s, computer science, 鈥淐omputational and optical processing architectures for next-generation mobile cameras.鈥</li> <li><strong>Gerald Penn</strong>, computer science, 鈥淎rticulatory speech synthesis for natural user interfaces.鈥</li> <li><strong>Konstantinos Plataniotis</strong>, electrical and computer engineering, 鈥淒REAMs: Enhancing &nbsp;driver interaction with digital media through cognitive monitoring.鈥</li> </ul> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-02-10-NSERC-Wania.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 10 Feb 2015 10:19:41 +0000 sgupta 6786 at