Breaking Research

Microfluidic device reveals how tumour shapes can predict cancer aggressiveness

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 15:46:03 +0000

Microfluidic device reveals how tumour shapes can predict cancer aggressiveness

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 12/18/2024 - 10:46

Cutline

Associate Professor Edmond Young of U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (left) and PhD alum Sina Kheiri co-developed the Recoverable-Spheroid-on-a-Chip with Unrestricted External Shape – or "ReSCUE" – platform (photos courtesy of Edmond Young and Sina Kheiri)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Breaking Research

department of mechanical and industrial engineering

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Subheadline

The platform, developed by U of T researchers, allows for unprecedented control and manipulation of tumour shapes

Researchers in the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have designed a microfluidic platform that can be used to predict cancer cell behaviour and aggressiveness, opening up new avenues for personalized and targeted cancer treatment.

The Recoverable-Spheroid-on-a-Chip with Unrestricted External Shape (ReSCUE) platform, developed by a team led by Edmond Young, an associate professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, gives researchers the ability to recover and release tumoroids – tumour cells derived from patients – to perform downstream analysis and characterization.

This allows for unprecedented control and manipulation of tumour shapes, a largely unexplored area in cancer research.

“While there are several platforms for in vitro modelling of spheroids – three-dimensional aggregates of cells that can mimic tissues and mini tumours – a challenge in the cancer research field has been the inability to control the shape, recovery and location of these cancer organoids,” says Sina Kheiri, a PhD alum and co-lead author of the study, which was published in Advanced Materials.

“So, researchers end up with these tumours-on-a-chip that can’t be easily characterized because they are stuck on the device and can only be observed through optical microscopy.”

The platform also enables researchers to grow cancer organoids in different shapes. This is important, Kheiri says, because much of the current research on cancer cell in vitro modelling is focused on spherical tumours, but tumours in a body can take many different shapes.

“In many invasive cancers, the tumour shape is not spherical. For example, in a recent study of 85 patients with breast cancer, only 20 per cent of tumours were spherical,” he says. “If modelling studies are limited to spherical tumour shapes, then we are not looking at the full parametric space and scale of tumours that are seen in real life. We are only looking at a small portion of the whole answer to understand cancer cell behaviour.”

Kheiri’s PhD research was co-supervised by Young and Eugenia Kumacheva, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of chemistry who is cross-appointed to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Kumacheva’s lab developed a biomimetic hydrogel that is used as a scaffold in the multi-layer ReSCUE platform, allowing the patient-derived cancer cells to grow and organize the way they would inside human tissue.

The platform was developed in collaboration with David Cescon, a clinician scientist and breast medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and associate professor in the Institute of Medical Science at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Cescon’s team provided access to the cancer cells that were used to form breast cancer organoids.

This image shows culture, release and transfer of tumoroids from the ReSCUE platform, as well as the released breast cancer disk-, rod-, and U-shaped tumoroids cultured in biomimetic hydrogel over zero, seven, 14 and 21 days (image courtesy of Young Lab)

The idea that tumour shapes determine cancer cell behaviour was a serendipitous discovery for Kheiri: while optimizing and developing the microfluidic platform, he discovered that some of the patient-derived tumoroids were forming positive curvatures because of the shape of the microwell. 

“I was playing with the aspect ratio of the microwells and observed that when the wells had a more rod-like or elongated shape, rather than a circular or disc shape, the tissues formed cellular strands at the regions with positive curvature,” he says. “I didn’t see that in tumoroids from the same cancer-cell sample that formed a spherical shape.

"So, we started to make different shapes and analyze the effects of shape or curvature on cancer behaviour."

The team looked at disk-, rod- and U-shaped tumoroids; they found higher cell activity and higher proliferation at the positive curvatures – where the tumour shape is convex and outward curving.

This could mean that the growth of cells in these areas is more invasive compared to areas of the tumour that have a flat curvature.

“Understanding the relationship between tumour shape and cell behaviour is important for predicting tumour aggressiveness and planning appropriate treatment strategies, such as targeted radiation therapy or drug delivery,” says Kheiri. “We want to open this door and give researchers a platform that they can use to study how different tumour shapes respond in anti-cancer drug treatment, in radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”

Now a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Kheiri continues to provide support to the Young lab on development of the ReSCUE platform. The researchers recently submitted a U.S. patent and are looking to build on their results.

“We hope that these uniquely shaped mini tumours can help biologists and cancer researchers better understand the biology of cancer cells and how they respond to drugs,” says Young.

“We’re going to add even more complex features, such as surrounding vasculature. The more control we have over the features we can include in our models, the more realistic they become, and the more accurate our drug testing will be.”

Should you eat soy after menopause? U of T researchers dispel myth about soy and cancer

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 00:53:18 +0000

Should you eat soy after menopause? U of T researchers dispel myth about soy and cancer

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 12/03/2024 - 19:53

Cutline

A study led by researchers at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine's department of nutritional sciences found that soy isoflavones – estrogen-like compounds – had no effect on key markers of estrogen-related cancers (photo by Yagi Studio/Getty Images)

Betty Zou

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

Nutritional Sciences

St. Michael's Hospital

Subheadline

“We hope our study will help people feel more comfortable including soy foods in their diet"

A study led by experts at the ��Ƶ's Temerty Faculty of Medicine is providing reassuring evidence on consumption of soy foods during postmenopause.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 40 trials in over 3,000 participants, U of T researchers gathered results on the effects of soy isoflavones – estrogen-like compounds naturally found in plants – on biological outcomes related to risk of endometrial and other female-related cancers.

Their results, published in Advances in Nutrition, found that isoflavones had no effect on key markers of estrogen-related cancers, supporting the safety of soy as a food as well as potential therapy.

“The risk of cardiovascular disease increases substantially as women* go through menopause, so soy can offer dual benefits during this particular phase of life,” says the study’s senior author Laura Chiavaroli, an assistant professor in Temerty's department of nutritional sciences and affiliate scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto.

Assistant Professor Laura Chiavaroli (left) and PhD student Gabrielle Viscardi (supplied images)

Yet, Chiavaroli notes many people are hesitant to eat soy foods because they contain isoflavones, which have a similar structure to estrogen. In animal studies, large doses of isoflavones have been linked to a higher risk of cancer.

“Something we hear very often is that people have a lot of concern about consuming soy because there are so many conflicting messages out there,” says Gabrielle Viscardi, a second-year PhD student in the department of nutritional sciences and the study’s lead author.

This is despite the fact that several health advocacy groups, including the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, already recommend soy foods as part of a healthy diet. Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have both recognized soy – a high-quality and complete source of protein – as effective in reducing the risk of heart disease

Soy foods have also been shown to alleviate hot flashes associated with menopause, which affect many women and impact their quality of life.

The trials considered for the U of T study followed postmenopausal women from around the world who had consumed either soy isoflavones or a non-isoflavone control for at least three months.

The researchers concluded that consumption of soy isoflavones did not affect the four key estrogen-related markers, namely: thickness of uterus lining, vaginal maturation index (a measure of estrogen status) and levels of circulating estrogen and follicle-stimulating hormone.

Their findings support the idea that soy isoflavones behave differently from human estrogen, particularly when it comes to cancers that depend on estrogen to develop. “We have estrogen receptors throughout our bodies but, contrary to the hormone estrogen, isoflavones from soy don’t bind to all the estrogen receptors equally,” says Viscardi, who is also a registered dietitian. “That’s why we see a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system and no effect on the female reproductive system.”

This difference in biological activity explains why soy isoflavones have been considered as a possible alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is used to treat menopause symptoms by replacing the estrogen that the body stops producing during this period.

Chiavaroli notes some people don’t want to take HRTs and are seeking alternative options.

Further, HRTs may also not be a good option for people at an increased risk of estrogen-sensitive cancers like breast cancer, as well as those with a history of heart disease and stroke. For these individuals, consuming soy foods as part of a balanced diet could help manage their menopausal symptoms while also reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Chiavaroli says the study's findings also align with Health Canada’s dietary guidelines that encourage people to choose plant-based proteins more often, a move that would also convey benefits for the environment.

“We hope our study will help people feel more comfortable including soy foods in their diet without being concerned that it’s going to increase their risk of estrogen-dependent cancer,” says Chiavaroli.

The study was funded by the United Soybean Board (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through the Canada-wide Human Nutrition Trialists’ Network.

* Although menopause is sex-specific, the study retains use of the term "women" as it is used conventionally in studies and guidelines on menopause

PhD student's radiopharmaceutical to play key role in clinical trial for lung cancer treatment

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 20:59:25 +0000

PhD student's radiopharmaceutical to play key role in clinical trial for lung cancer treatment

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 11/26/2024 - 15:59

Cutline

Stephanie Borlase developed a radiopharmaceutical, which will be used during a clinical trial at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to track delivery of immunotherapy drugs across the blood-brain barrier (photo by Dana Thompson)

Eileen Hoftyzer

Topic

Breaking Research

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Graduate Students

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Subheadline

The compound developed by U of T's Stephanie Borlase will be used to track delivery of immunotherapy drugs to metastases in the brain

A radiopharmaceutical developed by ��Ƶ PhD student Stephanie Borlase is poised to play a key role in a clinical trial that could inform improvements to lung cancer treatment.

The trial at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, planned for 2025, will test whether ultrasound can disrupt the blood-brain barrier and increase uptake of immunotherapy into brain metastases – tumours caused by cancer cells spreading to the brain from elsewhere in the body.

Although immunotherapy has shown potential as a treatment for lung cancer, it is not able to cross the blood-brain barrier. Borlase’s radiopharmaceutical, which she developed as part of her doctoral research at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, will be used to track delivery of immunotherapy drugs to brain metastases with a PET (positron emission tomography) scan.

“This project provides me with the opportunity to learn different aspects of research and be on the forefront of patient treatments,” says Borlase. “It is such an amazing opportunity to be able to see what is happening in the hospital with current patients and clinical trials and know that my research is actually getting to patients.”

Borlase completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Manitoba, before seeking out a PhD program where she could conduct research that could potentially be translated into therapies for patients with hard-to-treat cancers.

In 2022, she began her PhD with Professor Raymond Reilly, director of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Oncology (CPO), whose research focuses on developing radiopharmaceuticals to image and treat cancer.

By attaching radioactive isotopes to highly targeted agents, radiopharmaceuticals allow clinicians to image tumours through scans and deliver therapeutic doses of radiation directly to the tumour.

Borlase has been working towards pairing the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (also known by the brand name Keytruda) with a radioactive isotope that can be imaged by PET – resulting in a radiopharmaceutical that could allow physicians to determine whether the therapy enters the brain and concentrates better in tumours after the application of focused ultrasound.

For the first two years of her PhD, Borlase worked in the CPO’s Good Manufacturing Practices facility to prepare the new radiopharmaceutical for clinical trials, optimizing and formulating the drug in a quality suitable for use in humans, and testing it in pre-clinical models.

Reilly says that this is an exceptional experience for a graduate student. “One of the greatest impacts and rewards of pharmaceutical sciences research is to see your work advanced to a clinical trial to make a difference in patient outcomes, which Stephanie has this wonderful opportunity to do,” he says.

“Not only is she developing the radiopharmaceutical, but she will be working closely with the oncologists and imaging specialists to design and conduct the trial and will get first-hand experience in seeing the results of her PhD research in the PET images of the patients in the trial.”

The trial follows on the heels of another study in which clinicians and scientists at Sunnybrook used a radiopharmaceutical provided by Reilly’s team to track the delivery of a breast cancer drug to brain metastases, resulting in the first evidence that the technique improved uptake of the drug.

For her part, Borlase says she hopes the trial will lead to better therapies for a form of cancer that is notoriously difficult to treat.

“I always hope that researchers can develop new treatments for cancer because it is such a terrible disease that is never going to disappear. Even if we cannot completely cure the brain metastases, we can work to prolong survival to give these individuals more time with their families and friends,” says Borlase, who recently received a Research Training Award from the Canadian Cancer Society and Brain Canada Foundation.

“It's such a rare opportunity for PhD students to be able to work with clinician-scientists or oncologists and actually see their research translate into a clinical setting, so the fact that I am able to do this is incredible.”

R u there? Using abbreviations in your texts reduces the chance of getting a reply: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:07:13 +0000

R u there? Using abbreviations in your texts reduces the chance of getting a reply: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/25/2024 - 09:07

Cutline

(photo by Envato)

Topic

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

Researchers find that people who use common messaging shorthands such as "lol" and "ttyl" are perceived as putting less effort into the conversation

Tapping out smartphone messages using shorthand such as “btw” (by the way) or “tbh” (to be honest) may feel breezy and efficient – but a new study warns these and other common abbreviations may make it less likely to get a response.

Whether you’re on a dating app or messaging with fellow gamers, it turns out that using abbreviations makes people believe you’re putting less effort into the conversation. They’ll find your message less sincere and not as worthy of a reply as the exact same text written in full.

“Abbreviations imply informality and casualness – so we thought if somebody uses one, you might read that as a signal of closeness and be more likely to respond,” says study co-author Sam Maglio, a marketing professor in the department of management at the ��Ƶ Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

“We figured that was perfectly plausible and we found out that was perfectly wrong. An abbreviation makes the other party tune out.”

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, was based on the results of experiments in the lab and the field, survey data and archival field data.

One experiment examined Tinder conversation histories submitted by 700 users across five continents. Researchers calculated the percentage of abbreviations participants used in their messages on the popular dating app. They found that for every one-per-cent increase in abbreviations, average conversation length decreased by about seven per cent.

When other Tinder users were surveyed, 80 per cent believed their matches wouldn’t care if they used abbreviations. But that wasn't reflected in the data – regardless of profile characteristics, topics discussed, message length or the sophistication of word choices.

Another experiment focused on Discord, a messaging platform popular among young people. They sent almost 2,000 messages to members of a Discord channel dedicated to anime TV shows, asking for a show recommendation.

“We set ourselves up to fail. We tried to find the most challenging arena for this effect to work: young people who live online – and it still worked,” says Maglio.

The Discord messages were probing whether reactions changed based on the type of abbreviations used. That includes: phonological abbreviations that condense words based on how they sound, such as “plz” or “thnx”; acronyms and initialisms like “hru” (how are you?) and “ttyl” (talk to you later); subbing letters or numbers for words, as in “u 2”; and contractions, which shorten words by removing letters, such as “rlly” or “wud.” All forms of abbreviations were less likely to get a reply than their spelled-out counterparts on the platform. The only exception was for the messages that used phonological abbreviations (although this exception was not noted in a subsequent experiment).

In a virtual speed dating experiment, roughly 200 young Americans were paired up for five-minute dates. Half were encouraged to integrate words from one of two lists – an abbreviated version and a spelled-out one – into their conversations. Dates had a much greater desire to continue talking to non-abbreviated texters and viewed them as more sincere. More of their dates also offered to share their contact information to continue chatting after the experiment.

The researchers’ lab-based tests yielded similar results – and the thousands of participants who participated in these studies all rated how much effort they felt were put into the texts, how sincere they felt the sender was being and how likely they were to reply.

The results were the same across the board: abbreviations meant less effort, less sincerity and a lower desire to reply.

“It’s possible that some participants treated the sincerity question as a kind of general ‘good or bad’ evaluation,” says study co-author David Fang, a U of T alumnus.

“We mainly chose sincerity because it's important for relational building. Participants are taking a stab at defining what they perceive sincerity to be – for instance expressing genuineness in the interaction.”

To treat glioblastoma, researchers focus on tumour vulnerabilities

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:21:00 +0000

To treat glioblastoma, researchers focus on tumour vulnerabilities

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/21/2024 - 09:21

Cutline

From left to right: researchers Graham MacLeod, Fatemeh Molaei and Stéphane Angers, director of U of T’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (supplied images)

Anika Hazra

Topic

Breaking Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Cancer

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

"Our study increases our understanding of this type of cancer and proposes a different approach to treating it that will hopefully improve the prognosis of patients"

A team led by researchers at the ��Ƶ has uncovered new targets that could be the key to effectively treating glioblastoma, a lethal type of brain cancer.

The targets were identified through a screen for genetic vulnerabilities in patient-derived cancer stem cells that represent the variability found in tumours.

The study was published recently in the journal Cancer Research.

“Glioblastoma tumors have evaded treatment thus far because their composition is highly variable both within and between tumours,” said Graham MacLeod, co-first author on the study and senior research associate at U of T’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

“The tumours vary quite a bit from person to person, and even within a single tumour there are multiple cell types that harbour differences at the genetic level.”

Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer in adults. It is also the most challenging to treat due to the resistance of glioblastoma cancer stem cells, from which tumours grow, to therapy. Cancer stem cells that survive after a tumour is treated go on to form new tumours that do not respond to further treatment.

A key finding of the research is that the variability among glioblastoma cancer stem cells can be observed across a gradient between two cell subtypes. On one end is the developmental subtype, which resembles cells in which normal neurodevelopment has gone awry. On the other is the injury-response subtype, which is an inflammatory state. The aim of the study was to identify potential treatment methods to target each subtype, thereby tackling tumours in a more holistic manner.

This study follows earlier research published in Cell Reports that identified vulnerabilities in glioblastoma cancer stem cells that impact their sensitivity to chemotherapy. The next step was to study how vulnerabilities in glioblastoma cancer stem cells vary in a large and diverse set of patient-derived cell lines to identify the most common of these vulnerabilities in each of the subtypes.

The team performed screens in glioblastoma stem cell lines from 30 patients, making this the largest screening study of its kind. The patient-derived cell lines were generated by the lab of Peter Dirks, chief of the division of neurosurgery at SickKids and a U of T professor of surgery and molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Within the cancer stem cell samples, the team found genes responsible for the proliferation of the two cell subtypes that could be targeted to prevent tumour growth. Combining drugs to target both cell subtypes simultaneously could potentially make for a more effective glioblastoma treatment.

“A lot of the research on glioblastoma is conducted with a limited number of immortalized cell lines grown in serum,” said Fatemeh Molaei, co-first author on the study and graduate student at the Donnelly Centre and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “These cells aren’t the best model as they don’t resemble true glioblastoma cells as much as we would like. The findings from our study represent what we see in a patient’s tumour more accurately because our cell lines are derived directly from a large group of patients.

“It’s through our screens of this group of cell lines that we were able to identify the OLIG2 and MEK genes as drug targets for the developmental cell subtype and the FAK and B1-Integrin genes as targets for the injury-response subtype.”

Stéphane Angers, principal investigator on the study and director of the Donnelly Centre, said it had already been established that there are different subtypes of glioblastoma stem cells, but that their differences are not currently being addressed in the clinic.

“In the future, our results will help in designing new treatments that are tailored to patients by targeting the predominant cell subtype, or both subtypes simultaneously,” said Angers, who is also a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Temerty Faculty of Medicine. “The ability of glioblastoma to adapt to therapeutic treatment is its greatest strength and our biggest challenge. Our study increases our understanding of this type of cancer and proposes a different approach to treating it that will hopefully improve the prognosis of patients.”

This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Light in a bottle: U of T researchers use AI to capture photons in motion

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 15:07:26 +0000

Light in a bottle: U of T researchers use AI to capture photons in motion

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 11/19/2024 - 10:07

Cutline

A scene rendered using videos from an ultra-high-speed camera shows a pulse of light travelling through a pop bottle, scattering off liquid, hitting the ground, focusing on the cap and reflecting back (supplied image)

Krystle Hewitt

Topic

Breaking Research

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Graduate Students

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

A novel AI algorithm simulates what an ultra-fast scene – such as a pulse of light speeding through a pop bottle – would look like from any vantage point

Close your eyes and picture the iconic “bullet time” scene from The Matrix – the one where Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, dodges bullets in slow motion. Now imagine being able to witness the same effect, but instead of speeding bullets, you’re watching something that moves one million times faster: light itself.

Computer scientists from the ��Ƶ have built an advanced camera setup that can visualize light in motion from any perspective, opening avenues for further inquiry into new types of 3D sensing techniques.

The researchers developed a sophisticated AI algorithm that can simulate what an ultra-fast scene – a pulse of light speeding through a pop bottle or bouncing off a mirror – would look like from any vantage point.

David Lindell (supplied image)

David Lindell, an assistant professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, says the feat requires the ability to generate videos where the camera appears to “fly” alongside the very photons of light as they travel.

“Our technology can capture and visualize the actual propagation of light with the same dramatic, slowed-down detail,” says Lindell. “We get a glimpse of the world at speed-of-light timescales that are normally invisible.”

The researchers believe the approach, which was recently presented at the 2024 European Conference on Computer Vision, can unlock new capabilities in several important research areas, including: advanced sensing capabilities such as non-line-of-sight imaging, a method that allows viewers to “see” around corners or behind obstacles using multiple bounces of light; imaging through scattering media, such as fog, smoke, biological tissues or turbid water; and 3D reconstruction, where understanding the behaviour of light that scatters multiple times is critical.

In addition to Lindell, the research team included U of T computer science PhD student Anagh Malik, fourth-year engineering science undergraduate Noah Juravsky, Professor Kyros Kutulakos and Stanford University Associate Professor Gordon Wetzstein and PhD student Ryan Po.

The researchers’ key innovation lies in the AI algorithm they developed to visualize ultrafast videos from any viewpoint – a challenge known in computer vision as “novel view synthesis.”

Traditionally, novel view synthesis methods are designed for images or videos captured with regular cameras. However, the researchers extended this concept to handle data captured by an ultra-fast camera operating at speeds comparable to light, which posed unique challenges – including the need for their algorithm to account for the speed of light and model how it propagates through a scene.

Through their work, researchers observed a moving-camera visualization of light in motion, including refracting through water, bouncing off a mirror or scattering off a surface. They also demonstrated how to visualize phenomena that only occur at a significant portion of the speed of light, as predicted by Albert Einstein. For example, they visualize the “searchlight effect” that makes objects brighter when moving toward an observer, and “length contraction,” where fast-moving objects look shorter in the direction they are travelling. The researchers were also able to create a way to see how objects would appear to contract in length when moving at such high speeds.

Anagh Malik (supplied image)

While current algorithms for processing ultra-fast videos typically focus on analyzing a single video from a single viewpoint, the researchers say their work is the first to extend this analysis to multi-view light-in-flight videos, allowing for the study of how light propagates from multiple perspectives.

“Our multi-view light-in-flight videos serve as a powerful educational tool, offering a unique way to teach the physics of light transport,” says Malik. “By visually capturing how light behaves in real-time – whether refracting through a material or reflecting off a surface – we can get a more intuitive understanding of the motion of light through a scene.

“Additionally, our technology could inspire creative applications in the arts, such as filmmaking or interactive installations, where the beauty of light transport can be used to create new types of visual effects or immersive experiences.”

The research also holds significant potential for improving LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor technology used in autonomous vehicles. Typically, these sensors process data to immediately create 3D images right away. But the researchers’ work suggests the potential to store the raw data, including detailed light patterns, to help create systems that perform better than conventional LIDAR to see more details, look through obstacles and understand materials better.

While the researchers’ project focused on visualizing how light moves through a scene from any direction, they note that carries “hidden information” about the shape and appearance of everything it touches. As the researchers look to their next steps, they want to unlock this information by developing a method that uses multi-view light-in-flight videos to reconstruct the 3D geometry and appearance of the entire scene.

“This means we could potentially create incredibly detailed, three-dimensional models of objects and environments – just by watching how light travels through them,” Lindell says.

Researchers shed light on the experiences of caregivers in Nunavut's family service system

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:22:13 +0000

Researchers shed light on the experiences of caregivers in Nunavut's family service system

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/14/2024 - 13:22

Cutline

Researchers at OISE and the Umingmak Centre have released a report that provides insights into the experiences of caregivers of children involved in Family Services in Iqaluit, Nunavut (photo by Saffron Blaze)

Marianne Lau

Topic

Breaking Research

Nunavut

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

Nunavut's Umingmak Centre partnered with the Critical Health and Social Action Lab at OISE to better understand the needs of caregivers and enhance child advocacy in the territory

Researchers at the Umingmak Centre, a child advocacy centre in Nunavut, and the ��Ƶ’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) have released a study that identifies systemic challenges in Nunavut’s child welfare system – and recommends strategies to strengthen caregiver support.

Available in Inuktitut and English, the study is one of the first to directly engage caregivers in Nunavut and emphasizes the importance of understanding of Inuit culture. It found that difficulties in information sharing, resource insecurities, caregiver exploitation and institutional harm are critical issues impacting caregivers’ experiences within Family Services.

The study noted that respondents talked about these challenges differently depending on their backgrounds, including race and socioeconomic status. Unlike their settler counterparts, few Inuit caregivers said they felt burnt out or expressed a need for psychological supports – a phenomenon researchers attributed to a profound and deeply personal sense of exhaustion that has cut across generations.

The report’s authors say the findings underscore a critical need for significant reforms in child welfare, including culturally safe support mechanisms for caregivers following disclosures of child maltreatment and abuse.

“Improving caregiver relationships with services could lead to more community members offering to become caregivers, reducing the number of children leaving the territory into the foster care system,” says study co-lead Romani Makkik, a senior researcher at the Umingmak Centre who is Inuk.

The researchers also highlight the importance of respectful engagement with Inuit communities and the equitable provision of resources that acknowledge and address historical and ongoing systemic injustices.

“Families thrive when they receive meaningful information in a culturally safe, timely, and respectful manner," says Jeffrey Ansloos, an associate professor of Indigenous health and social policy at OISE who is Cree and English, and a citizen of Fisher River Cree Nation. “Achieving this requires a fundamental shift in power dynamics and a focus on relational accountability in service delivery, leadership, and research.

“While much work remains to improve child advocacy in Nunavut, Inuit leadership and strong support for Inuit families must be central. This is why Umingmak’s work is so important.”

Caregivers involved in Family Services have long faced unique challenges and a lack of support while navigating child protection processes in Nunavut. For Inuit caregivers, this is exacerbated by the experience of intergenerational trauma, anti-Inuit racism, and the complex history of Family Services and law enforcement complicity in settler colonization across Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland).

In response, the Umingmak Centre opened in Iqaluit in 2019 to provide trauma-informed, culturally safe care for children and families involved in Family Services due to abuse. A critical gap soon emerged: while caregivers sought services for children, they rarely sought support for themselves, despite the distress that child welfare processes may cause – especially for those facing intergenerational trauma, racism or a lack of cultural safety.

To better understand the needs of caregivers and enhance child advocacy, the Umingmak Centre partnered with the Critical Health and Social Action Lab (CHSA Lab) at OISE, an Indigenous-led research centre led by Ansloos that focuses on advancing health justice through community partnerships.

Between October 2022 and July 2023, the research team conducted 30 interviews with Inuit and settler caregivers who had interacted with the Umingmak Centre, as well as Inuit and settler service providers.

Challenging power dynamics in research

One challenging aspect of the project was ensuring the researchers did not replicate the institutional harms they were studying through their own methods, says Cara Samuel, a doctoral candidate at OISE who acted as project co-ordinator for the study.

The team used a collaborative story analysis method for interpreting the interviews. Guided by the principles of Unikkaaqatigiinniq (storytelling) and Iqqaumaqatigiinniq (all knowledge coming into one), the team analyzed interviews in their entirety to preserve the integrity of each individual’s story.

“Often, how we approach research inadvertently reinforces inequitable power dynamics that prioritize Western or Southern knowledge,” says Samuel. “We wanted to elevate Inuit Qauijimajatuqangit (Inuit knowledge) and cultural resources in our research paradigm and centre lived experience.”

Community leadership and partnership

The CHSA Lab’s emphasis on community partnership ensured genuine collaboration and shared decision-making at every stage of the project.

“We were partners, which means equity in leadership and shared responsibilities for the work and its outcomes,” says Samuel.

“Research is only powerful when led by the community it serves, and we were fortunate to work with dedicated partners in Nunavut committed to justice for Inuit families,” adds Ansloos, who is the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies in Health, Suicide Studies, and Environmental Justice. “Our team worked hard to engage a wide range of people, but Umingmak's research leadership, Romani Makkik, and her long-standing relationships and trusted work in the community made our deeper engagement with Inuit caregivers possible.”

Makkik says that the report will play a crucial role in improving Umingmak’s services and shaping future programs – and that the Umingmak Centre hopes to strengthen its partnerships with government services and community organizations to improve services for children and caregivers across Nunavut more broadly.

Soil’s secret language: U of T researchers decode plant-to-fungi communication

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 21:07:22 +0000

Soil’s secret language: U of T researchers decode plant-to-fungi communication

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 11/13/2024 - 16:07

Cutline

The interaction between fungi and plant hormones could be harnessed to yield hardier crops, reduce fertilizer use and minimize phosphate run-off into waterways, according to a new study by U of T researchers (photo by iStock|amenic181)

Neil Macpherson

Topic

Breaking Research

Cell and Systems Biology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

The discovery could lead to new strategies for cultivating hardier crops and combatting disease-causing fungi

Researchers at the ��Ƶ have cracked the code of plant-to-fungi communication.

Using baker’s yeast, the researchers discovered that the plant hormone strigolactone (SL) activates fungal genes and proteins associated with phosphate metabolism, a system that is key to growth.

This insight into how fungi respond to chemical signals at the molecular level – detailed in a new study published in the journal Molecular Cell – could lead to new strategies for cultivating hardier crops and combatting disease-causing fungi.

Shelley Lumba (supplied image)

“As we begin to understand how plants and fungi communicate, we will better understand the complexities of the soil ecosystem, leading to healthier crops and improving our approach to biodiversity,” says Shelley Lumba, lead author and assistant professor in the department of cell and systems biology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science.

In the soil, plant roots engage with fungi in a silent molecular “language” to direct their structure. When plants release SLs, they signal fungi to attach to their roots, providing phosphates – the fuel plants need to grow, and a major component of most fertilizers – in exchange for carbon.

For the study, Lumba and her fellow researchers investigated why and how fungi respond to SLs. Eighty per cent of plants rely on this symbiotic relationship, and enhancing this interaction with beneficial fungi could yield hardier crops, reduce fertilizer use and minimize phosphate runoff into waterways.

For the study, Lumba and her fellow researchers investigated why and how fungi respond to the plant hormone strigolactone. Illustration: Bradley et al., 2024, Molecular Cell 84, 1–17.

In other cases, disease-causing fungi can exploit chemical cues to infect crops, sometimes wiping out entire harvests. Understanding this chemical language could also help block such pathogens.

The researchers treated baker’s yeast with SLs and observed which genes were turned off and on in response. They found that this chemical signal increased the expression of genes labelled “PHO” that are related to phosphate metabolism. Further analysis showed that SLs function through Pho84, a protein on the surface of yeast that monitors phosphate levels, activating a cascade of other proteins in the phosphate pathway.

The researchers determined that plants release SLs when starved for phosphate, signalling the yeast to change its phosphate uptake.

They found the phosphate response to the SL signal holds true not only for domesticated fungi such as baker’s yeast but also for wild fungi – specifically the detrimental wheat blight Fusarium graminearum and the beneficial symbiotic fungus Serendipita indica.

“Gene expression as an output from chemical treatment is key to this approach – it identifies the effect of the SL response on fungal growth.” says Lumba.

Scientists can use this straightforward method to systematically identify plant-derived small molecules that communicate with fungi. Enhancing the interaction with beneficial fungi could lead to advances in agriculture and mitigate pollution and food insecurity.

“The potential impact of this research can improve the lives of so many,” says Lumba. “It’s about healthy soil for a healthy planet.”

With files from A&S News

Negative body image affects ability to learn and perform physical movements: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 15:10:56 +0000

Negative body image affects ability to learn and perform physical movements: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/08/2024 - 10:10

Cutline

The negative impact of body-related embarrassment on movement time was greater among men than women, according to a new study by researchers in U of T's Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (photo by Charday Penn/Getty Images)

Jelena Damjanovic

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

"We believe this finding could have impacts on learning and life-long participation in sports and physical activity"

Self-consciousness about one’s body has a direct impact on the ability to learn and perform movement tasks, according to a new study by researchers from the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE).

For the study, published in the journal Body Image, participants were asked to recall and write about a time when they felt either proud or embarrassed about their bodies, before completing a movement task.

“Overall, participants in the embarrassed group performed worse than the participants in the proud group, suggesting that evoking negative emotions about the body negatively impacted performance,” says Jude Bek, a post-doctoral fellow who co-authored the study with Professors Catherine Sabiston and Tim Welsh and PhD candidate Delaney Thibodeau.

The researchers also found that the negative impact of embarrassment was stronger among men than women; specifically, re-living body-related embarrassment showed great impact on movement time in men, and on task accuracy in women.

“I was surprised to see a stronger effect of embarrassment in the men, but it is possible that many women already have a heightened sense of body-related embarrassment, so this may have caused them to be less impacted by being asked to recall a time when they felt embarrassed about their body,” says Bek.

Sabiston says she, too, was surprised that embarrassment had a stronger effect in men than women. “For men, the requirement to re-live an embarrassing experience pertaining to their body may have elicited a stronger stress response and therefore greater attention bias that impacted motor performance,” Sabiston says, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health

The study builds on previous work by Sabiston and Welsh aimed at testing the impact of body image factors on cognitive and motor performance outcomes. The main foundation of the work is that these emotions lead people to shift attention away from the task at hand to their appearance.

“If they are focused on their body, they are not focused on the task and therefore the performance on the task could be impaired,” says Sabiston, who worked with Welsh on a study that found that tight and revealing clothing negatively impacts motor performance compared to loose, concealing clothing.

“It is interesting to see emotions also having an impact on motor performance – such findings have been commonly observed in cognitive and academic tasks, but this is the first time it was shown in motor performance,” says Welsh. “We believe this finding could have impacts on learning and life-long participation in sports and physical activity.”

Sabiston has carried out several studies that have shown that negative body image is related to drop-out from sports and physical activity due to decreased motivation to participate. She says the sport world is “ripe with body-focused cues and stimuli” ranging from uniform fit and narratives of idealized athletic body types to teammate comparisons and spectator comments.

“Recent public discourse from the Olympics and Paralympic Games also show athletes are often the targets of body-focused stimuli,” she says.

The researchers hope their findings will lead coaches and trainers to reconsider how they provide feedback – if making athletes feel embarrassed leads to decreased performance and learning during training and competition, it might also affect their motivation to stay involved, potentially quelling the benefits of sport participation.

Sabiston says that coaches, parents and guardians are in the best position to make the change in sport culture through thoughtful and intentional communication that doesn’t focus on appearance, but rather on positive role modelling.

“Sport administrators can benefit from designing or allocating uniforms that de-emphasize the body shape and appearance and are comfortable, so they are not a constant focus for athletes,” she says. “Administrators can also reduce appearance-focused media, like posters and print material, in training and performance centres.

“And, athletes can benefit from an awareness of the impact that these body-focused stimuli and cues have on their performance by proactively engaging in stress management and coping strategies such as motivational self-talk, mindfulness and self-compassion practices.”

While these findings have implications for sport skill development and competence, the researchers suggest they may go beyond sport to other important achievement-focused domains such as academics. They also say this study makes clear the need to continue to include men in research focused on body image.

Up next, the researchers intend to delve deeper into the broader implications of negative body image resulting from excessive body scrutiny in sport, including injury risk.

Missing a deadline has a bigger impact than you might think: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 15:22:40 +0000

Missing a deadline has a bigger impact than you might think: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/04/2024 - 10:22

Cutline

(photo by Envato Elements)

Alexa Battler

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

People who were told work was submitted late considered it to be of lower quality than the same work submitted early or on time

Missing a deadline has more complex consequences than you might think.

Researchers at the ��Ƶ found that if you submit a piece of work late, people will think it’s lower in quality than if you were to submit the exact same work on time or early.

This is because missing a deadline can prompt others view you as less competent – and therefore your work must also be lacking, according to the study.

“All the research that we could find looked at how deadlines impact the minds and actions of workers,” says study co-author Sam Maglio, a professor of marketing in the department of management at U of T Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

“We wanted to know how a deadline impacts the minds and actions of others when they look at those workers.”

Researchers surveyed thousands of people in the U.S. and U.K. across 18 experiments and studies, including managers, executives, human resources personnel and others whose jobs included evaluating others.

They presented participants with the same examples of work, including advertising flyers, art, business proposals, product pitches, photography and news articles – and then asked them to rate it. But first, they mentioned whether it was either submitted early, right at the deadline or late. Respondents who were told it was late consistently rated the work as worse in quality than those who were told the same work was early or on time.

“Everyone saw the exact same art contest entry, school submission or business proposal, but they couldn't help but use their knowledge of when it came in to guide their evaluation of how good it was,” says Maglio, who co-authored the study with alumnus David Fang.

The study, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, also finds there isn’t much benefit to submitting work early since evaluators tended to rank work submitted before and at the deadline as the same quality, meaning there’s no boost in an evaluator’s opinion of an employee who submits work early.

Late submission made evaluators rate work about as negatively as work that had objective shortcomings in quality such as not meeting a word count. Furthermore, it didn't matter how late the work was submitted. Work submitted one week after the deadline caused both the employee and the work to be viewed just as negatively as work that was one day late. That remained the case if the employee gave their manager advance warning that they would miss the deadline. Even for an employee with a history of getting their work in on time, one missed deadline still damaged their competence and integrity in evaluators’ eyes.

A missed deadline also led evaluators to believe an employee had less integrity, and they reported they’d be less likely to ask that employee to do other tasks in the future. The researchers note this could limit an employee’s opportunities to prove themselves and earn promotions.

However, the reason behind the missed deadline mattered, researchers found. If it was due to forces beyond an employee’s control, such as jury duty, evaluators didn’t end up with as negative a view of the employee or their work as they did when the reason was one within their control. Researchers also found the negative effects weren’t as severe if the deadline or work were framed as not particularly important.

“Communication around deadlines is vital. If it's a hard, and not a soft, deadline, you as the manager should let your employees know. If the reason why you missed the deadline was beyond your control, you as the employee should let your manager know,” Maglio says. “That seems to be one of the few instances in which people cut you a break.”

The results persisted across language, age and culture. A field experiment was conducted in a high school in China that had students grade pieces of art in a staged contest. The art was on a piece of paper that also included the date it was submitted, showing that one version came in after the deadline and the other was in early. Even though the kids were explicitly told to ignore all other details on the paper other than the art itself, the version submitted after the deadline received lower grades.

“That study breaks down the power imbalance that usually characterizes boss-employee relationships. These judging kids didn’t set the deadline. This is a peer-to-peer evaluation. But the effect holds,” Maglio says. “It also makes the broader point that it doesn't really matter who set the deadline. In the eyes of the evaluator, any miss is a meaningful miss.”