Department of Chemical &amp; Physical Sciences / en 12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards /celebrates/12-u-t-researchers-recognized-connaught-innovation-awards <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards</span> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-type/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-06-01T14:09:19-04:00" title="Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 14:09" class="datetime">Thu, 06/01/2023 - 14:09</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-people field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-people/faculty" hreflang="en">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-campus field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-campus/mississauga" hreflang="en">Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-campus/st-george" hreflang="en">St. George</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/connaught-innovation-award" hreflang="en">Connaught Innovation Award</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-chemical-physical-sciences" hreflang="en">Department of Chemical &amp; Physical Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-chemistry" hreflang="en">Department of Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-electrical-computer-engineering" hreflang="en">Department of Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-materials-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Department of Materials Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-molecular-genetics" hreflang="en">Department of Molecular Genetics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/ibme" hreflang="en">IBME</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/university-toronto-mississauga" hreflang="en">şüŔęĘÓƵ Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-image-orientation field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">landscape</div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Twelve researchers at the şüŔęĘÓƵ are receiving Connaught Innovation Awards to help accelerate the development and commercialization of promising technologies with strong socio-economic potential that will have a positive impact on society.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">“The şüŔęĘÓƵ congratulates this year’s recipients, whose work is addressing some of society’s most important challenges,” said <b>Leah Cowen</b>, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “From energy-saving windows to the use of plant hormones as appetite suppressants or the development of therapeutic targets that hold promise for a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases, these researchers’ inventions have the potential to make life-changing impacts here in Canada and around the world.”</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">This year's recipients are:</p> <ul> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://bme.utoronto.ca/faculty-research/core-faculty/julie-audet/"><strong>Julie Audet</strong>, Institute of&nbsp;Biomedical Engineering</a>: &nbsp;A tool to optimize complex formulations based on evolutionary computation accelerated by artificial neural networks</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://physiology.utoronto.ca/faculty/denise-belsham"><strong>Denise Belsham</strong>, department of physiology</a>: The use of a plant hormone CX as an appetite suppressant</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://moleculargenetics.utoronto.ca/faculty/alan-cochrane"><strong>Alan Cochrane</strong>, department of molecular genetics</a>: Development of broad-spectrum, host-directed antivirals</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://golovin.mie.utoronto.ca/"><strong>Kevin Golovin</strong>, department of mechanical and industrial engineering</a>: Reducing microplastic fibre pollution using low friction polymer brush as textile coatings</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~gulak/home.php"><strong>Glenn Gulak</strong>, department of electrical and computer engineering</a>: A hardware accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption-based machine learning applications</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cps/people/patrick-gunning"><strong>Patrick Gunning</strong>, department of chemical and physical sciences</a>, şüŔęĘÓƵ Mississauga: Development of an artificial intelligence-driven platform to explore the undruggable genome</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://mse.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/professors/hatton/"><strong>Benjamin Hatton</strong>, department of materials science and engineering</a>: Smart building facades for scalable operational energy management</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://www.chemistry.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/ronald-kluger"><strong>Ronald Kluger</strong>, department of chemistry</a>: Production and evaluation of hemoglobin-bis-tetramers for oxygen transport to increase supply of lungs for transplant by enhancing ex vivo perfusion of donor lungs</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://www.chemistry.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/eugenia-kumacheva"><strong>Eugenia Kumacheva</strong>, department of chemistry</a>: A platform for safety evaluation of chemical agents</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://lmp.utoronto.ca/faculty/janice-robertson"><strong>Janice Robertson</strong>, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology</a>: Targeting TDP-43 aggregation as therapeutics for TDP-43 proteinopathies</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/non-invasive-approach-for-electrical-nerve-stimulation-among-five-projects-supported-by-2023-connaught-innovation-awards/"><strong>Paul Yoo</strong>, Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a>: Novel electrodes for non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation</li> <li class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://mse.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/professors/zou-yu/"><strong>Yu Zou</strong>, department of materials science and engineering</a>: Autonomous additive manufacturing system&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">The Connaught Innovation Award, which provides one-time seed funding to support the development and commercialization of the researchers’ innovative technologies, is backed by <a href="https://connaught.research.utoronto.ca/">the Connaught Fund</a> – the <a href="https://connaught.research.utoronto.ca/opportunities">largest internal university research funding program in Canada</a>. Established 50 years ago through the sale of Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, which is known for the discovery and production of insulin, the fund supports U of T scholars through programs such as&nbsp;the <a href="https://research.utoronto.ca/funding-opportunities/db/connaught-new-researcher-award">Connaught New Researcher Award</a>, the <a href="https://research.utoronto.ca/funding-opportunities/community-partnership-research-program-0">Connaught Community Partnership Research Program</a>,&nbsp;the <a href="https://brn.utoronto.ca/opportunity/connaught-challenge/">Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers</a><b>,</b>&nbsp;<a href="https://research.utoronto.ca/funding-opportunities/db/mclean-award">the McLean Award</a>&nbsp;and international doctoral scholarships.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-source field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">UTC</div> <div class="field field--name-field-top-story-hub-page- field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Top Story (Hub page)</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 01 Jun 2023 18:09:19 +0000 lanthierj 301839 at Patrick Gunning recognized with Connaught Innovation Award /celebrates/patrick-gunning-recognized-connaught-innovation-award <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Patrick Gunning recognized with Connaught Innovation Award</span> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-type/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2021-03-29T06:56:42-04:00" title="Monday, March 29, 2021 - 06:56" class="datetime">Mon, 03/29/2021 - 06:56</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-people field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-people/faculty" hreflang="en">Faculty</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-campus field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-campus/st-george" hreflang="en">St. George</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-awards-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/connaught-innovation-award" hreflang="en">Connaught Innovation Award</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">U of T Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/celebrates/awards-tags/department-chemical-physical-sciences" hreflang="en">Department of Chemical &amp; Physical Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-image-orientation field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">landscape</div> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/media/DSC_3314-Edit-2-crop.jpg" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Professor <strong>Patrick Gunning</strong> of the department of chemical and physical sciences at the şüŔęĘÓƵ Mississauga has received a Connaught Innovation Award for his team's work on HDAC6 inhibitors to treat&nbsp;hematological malignancies – cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.</p> <p>A Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and the director of the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry, Gunning has founded three pharmaceutical companies with more than&nbsp;$22 million&nbsp;in funding&nbsp;and has developed a dynamic and diverse medicinal chemistry program targeting protein-protein interactions.</p> <p>His team develops inhibitors of proteins that drive the rarest and most&nbsp;lethal human cancers, including glioblastoma, acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and refractory medulloblastoma.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We have spent four years building a drug discovery platform that has afforded highly selective HDAC6 inhibitors,” Gunning says. “Their improved safety profile and well-retained efficacy allows for broader dosing regimens to be achieved while mitigating severe side effects from off-target inhibition.”</p> <p>Studies have shown the HDAC6 inhibitors have a superior synergy and safety window than current HDAC inhibitors, Gunning says.</p> <p>“Given these promising findings, we aim to improve selectivity margin, anticancer effects and oral exposure.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-source field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">UTC</div> <div class="field field--name-field-top-story-hub-page- field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Top Story (Hub page)</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:56:42 +0000 lanthierj 168876 at