12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards

Twelve researchers at the ��Ƶ 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.

“The ��Ƶ congratulates this year’s recipients, whose work is addressing some of society’s most important challenges,” said Leah Cowen, 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.”

This year's recipients are:

Julie Audet, Institute of Biomedical Engineering: A tool to optimize complex formulations based on evolutionary computation accelerated by artificial neural networks
Denise Belsham, department of physiology: The use of a plant hormone CX as an appetite suppressant
Alan Cochrane, department of molecular genetics: Development of broad-spectrum, host-directed antivirals
Kevin Golovin, department of mechanical and industrial engineering: Reducing microplastic fibre pollution using low friction polymer brush as textile coatings
Glenn Gulak, department of electrical and computer engineering: A hardware accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption-based machine learning applications
Patrick Gunning, department of chemical and physical sciences, ��Ƶ Mississauga: Development of an artificial intelligence-driven platform to explore the undruggable genome
Benjamin Hatton, department of materials science and engineering: Smart building facades for scalable operational energy management
Ronald Kluger, department of chemistry: 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
Eugenia Kumacheva, department of chemistry: A platform for safety evaluation of chemical agents
Janice Robertson, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology: Targeting TDP-43 aggregation as therapeutics for TDP-43 proteinopathies
Paul Yoo, Institute of Biomedical Engineering: Novel electrodes for non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation
Yu Zou, department of materials science and engineering: Autonomous additive manufacturing system

The Connaught Innovation Award, which provides one-time seed funding to support the development and commercialization of the researchers’ innovative technologies, is backed by the Connaught Fund – the largest internal university research funding program in Canada. 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 the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program, the Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers, the McLean Award and international doctoral scholarships.

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Patrick Gunning recognized with Connaught Innovation Award

lanthierj — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:56:42 +0000

Patrick Gunning recognized with Connaught Innovation Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 03/29/2021 - 06:56

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Innovation Award

U of T Mississauga

Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences

landscape

Professor Patrick Gunning of the department of chemical and physical sciences at the ��Ƶ Mississauga has received a Connaught Innovation Award for his team's work on HDAC6 inhibitors to treat hematological malignancies – cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.

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 $22 million in funding and has developed a dynamic and diverse medicinal chemistry program targeting protein-protein interactions.

His team develops inhibitors of proteins that drive the rarest and most lethal human cancers, including glioblastoma, acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and refractory medulloblastoma.

“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.”

Studies have shown the HDAC6 inhibitors have a superior synergy and safety window than current HDAC inhibitors, Gunning says.

“Given these promising findings, we aim to improve selectivity margin, anticancer effects and oral exposure.”

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