Groundbreakers / en Working across disciplines, U of T and UHN researchers are rapidly revolutionizing lung transplant surgery /news/working-across-disciplines-u-t-and-uhn-researchers-are-rapidly-revolutionizing-lung-transplant <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Working across disciplines, U of T and UHN researchers are rapidly revolutionizing lung transplant surgery</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1341427905-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=AuFmpDBk 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1341427905-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=EE2lX88P 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1341427905-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vErznTEZ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1341427905-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=AuFmpDBk" alt="a pair of hands holds a paper cutout of a pair of lungs"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-29T09:28:25-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 29, 2022 - 09:28" class="datetime">Tue, 11/29/2022 - 09:28</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">(Photo by Phira Phonruewiangphing via Getty Images)</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/tina-adamopoulos" hreflang="en">Tina Adamopoulos</a></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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine-design" hreflang="en">Medicine by Design</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-health-network" hreflang="en">University Health Network</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px">Hundreds of people in North America die each year waiting for a lung transplant – but it has little to do with a lack of donors.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">About 80 per cent of donated lungs are deemed unsuitable for transplant, according to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. That’s because lungs are much more vulnerable to damage and deterioration than other organs.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">But<b> Shaf Keshavjee</b> is working on a way to restore donated lungs – and help save lives.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Shaf-Keshavjee-crop.jpg" alt><em>Shaf Keshavjee</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/ShafKeshavjee_2.mp3" alt></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">He’s the architect of a system called<a href="/news/uhn-and-u-t-receive-24-million-federal-grant-transplant-research"> Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP)</a> that preserves lungs outside the body in a transparent dome, so doctors can better prepare them for transplant. The system keeps donated lungs intact for up to 12 hours.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We’ve taken everything we know about lung ventilation, how to look after an injured lung and the perfusion of [blood through] the lung together, to create a protective system outside of the body,” says Keshavjee, a surgeon-in-chief at the Sprott Department of Surgery at the University Health Network (UHN) and professor in the department of surgery at the Ƶ.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“People have tried to do this for almost 100 years.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Keshavjee is continuing his work to refine the EVLP system as the lead investigator of the Organs by Design project. His research work is funded by U of T’s <a href="https://mbd.utoronto.ca/">Medicine by Design (MbD)</a> – a strategic initiative that brings together researchers at U of T and its affiliated hospitals at the convergence of science, engineering and medicine, to advance regenerative medicine discoveries and improve health outcomes. MbD is supported by Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF). &nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">To find solutions, each initiative draws on the breadth and depth of research at U of T, one of the world’s top public research universities, by bringing together flexible, multidisciplinary teams of researchers, students and partners from industry and government.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Increasing the number of healthy lungs for donation is one such challenge – and it’s far from the only lung transplant-related innovation that’s being advanced by U of T’s strategic initiatives.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Keeping lungs alive, outside of the body</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Stored in a glass dome that maintains temperature, humidity and sterilization, the EVLP system gently maintains the lung with a ventilator and filter system that ensures an adequate supply of oxygen, blood, nutrients and protein to the organ.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Prior to transplantation, the lung is reassessed for tissue elasticity, blood vessel pressure and oxygen capacity.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Keshavjee built the EVLP technology alongside <b>Marcelo Cypel</b>, a thoracic surgeon at UHN and professor of surgery at U of T. The researchers are building on a legacy of ground-breaking research in lung transplantation in Toronto that stretches back decades. That includes a team of surgeons at Toronto General Hospital (TGH), led by the hospital and U of T’s <strong>Joel Cooper</strong>, who<a href="https://www.uhn.ca/corporate/News/pages/event_lung_transplant_anniversary.aspx"> performed the first successful human lung transplant operation</a> in 1983.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In addition to restoring damaged lungs, the EVLP system provides surgeons with more information that can improve their ability to achieve a successful transplantation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Keshavjee’s team is also working on a diagnostic tool that will allow surgeons to make rapid decisions based on crucial data collected by the EVLP system.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Retrieving life-saving data in minutes&nbsp;</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Andrew Sage</b>, an assistant scientist at UHN’s Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and sessional lecturer at U of T, is building rapid diagnostics to swiftly supply doctors with a roadmap for lung repair.</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Andrew-Sage_Headshot-crop.jpg" alt><em>Andrew Sage</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The map is needed because lung transplant operations are a race against time – and doctors need to make rapid decisions based on the best available information.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“When we put lungs on the EVLP platform, we are able to generate a tremendous amount of information on the ability of the lung to properly function and, importantly, this data represents lung function in isolation – free from confounding signals that arise from the rest of the body,” Sage says.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Our goal is to develop novel testing modalities that can provide detailed information to the surgeon to make enhanced decisions about the organ.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The rapid diagnostics tool – called the Toronto Lung Score – quickly details the injury status of the organ, inflammation and likelihood of ideal post-transplant outcomes, among other information, based on a small sample of solution that travels through the lungs on the EVLP system. It’s being developed in partnership with <a href="https://sqidiagnostics.com/">SQI Diagnostics</a>, a Toronto-based diagnostics development company.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">At present, the tool provides results in under 40 minutes, but the team is working to trim the response time to less than 15.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The next step? <b>Bo Wang</b>, a professor at the <a href="https://tcairem.utoronto.ca/">Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine</a>, is working with the team to explore how AI and computer science can further improve analysis so practitioners can learn more from the ex vivo circuits.</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">A new gold standard to store transplant lungs</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Ana Cristina Andreazza&nbsp;</b>is working on better ways to keep donor lungs healthy in the EVLP system – all of which promises to translate into better outcomes for patients.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Andreazza-Headshot-crop.jpg" alt><em>Ana Cristina Andreazza</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Andreazza,<b> </b>a professor in the departments of psychiatry and pharmacology and toxicology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, is leading efforts to improve storage of donated lungs through her research work with the <a href="https://www.mito2i.ca/">Mitochondrial Innovation Initiative</a> (MITO2i).</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Andreazza heads an interdisciplinary team as scientific director of MITO2i. Made up of a network of clinicians, advocates and researchers across the university, NGOs and strategic partners, MITO2i is an ISI that discovers and supports new technologies and integrative platforms&nbsp;to understand the role mitochondria play in a wide range of diseases and how treating mitochondrial dysfunction can be therapeutic – and transform how clinicians approach the diagnosis and treatment of disease.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">While the gold standard to store a transplanted lung is currently 4 C, Andreazza<b> </b>says the temperature puts the organ’s mitochondria – the powerhouses of cells – into a dormant state that could be impairing transplant outcomes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“If we think through the lens of mitochondria metabolism, 4 C is not ideal,” says Andreazza, whose team is providing a better understanding of mitochondria’s role in human health and disease.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“When you transplant them from 4 C to a 37 C human body, you can imagine the clash that would happen.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Working with Cypel, the surgeon at UHN, they found that increasing the temperature to 10 C better preserves mitochondria during EVLP, reducing the risk of rejection following transplant surgery.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">A proof-of-concept pilot study, published last year in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354615071_Static_lung_storage_at_10C_maintains_mitochondrial_health_and_preserves_donor_organ_function"><i>Science Translational Medicine</i></a><i>, </i>found that<i> </i>recipients of transplant lungs stored at 10 C&nbsp; required a ventilator for less than two days following surgery, on average. They demonstrated no signs of one of the earliest complications of a lung transplant, such as shortness of breath or dry cough, three days after the procedure.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">A warmer storage temperature also prolongs the time donor lungs can be safely preserved, from the current maximum of six-to-eight hours, to between 10 and 16 hours. This, in turn, makes international organ transport possible, increasing availability for patients on waitlists.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Looking ahead, researchers at MITO2i<u> </u>are seeking answers to three key questions. Are there better ways to monitor mitochondria? Can unhealthy organs be repaired? And how can mitochondria be improved before organ transplantation?</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Mapping the genetic variation of mitochondria&nbsp;</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Enter<b> Erika Beroncal</b>, project manager at MITO2i and a master’s student in the department of pharmacology and toxicology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/Erika-Beroncal-headshot-crop.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 250px;"><em>Erika Beroncal</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">One of 13 recipients of MITO2i’s<a href="https://www.mito2i.ca/awardees"> 2022 Graduate Student Scholarship Awards</a>, Beroncal is embarking on a research project to examine the genetic variance of mitochondria and its importance in lung transplant success.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">She recently presented the project at the second annual<a href="https://www.mito2i.ca/2022-research-symposium"> MITO2i Research Symposium</a>, a two-day virtual event that brought faculty, students and research partners together to share new developments in mitochondrial research and medicine.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Ultimately, Beroncal hopes to contribute to knowledge that will open doors for novel therapeutic interventions to enhance lung transplant outcomes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“By working with people across disciplines to produce knowledge about mitochondria, I’m seeing current developments and learning how it affects real life,” Beroncal says.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Through my research work, I know I’m able to make an impact in this field.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>This article <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">is&nbsp;part of a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;about U of T's Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice –&nbsp;and the research community that's driving it.</em></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&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> Tue, 29 Nov 2022 14:28:25 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 178364 at Advancing health science with smartphones, bio-printers and organs-on-chips: Groundbreakers S2 Ep. 5 /news/advancing-health-science-smartphones-bio-printers-and-organs-chips-groundbreakers-s2-ep-5 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Advancing health science with smartphones, bio-printers and organs-on-chips: Groundbreakers S2 Ep. 5</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>mattimar</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-22T12:07:10-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 12:07" class="datetime">Tue, 11/22/2022 - 12:07</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-youtube field--type-youtube field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="youtube-container"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RQYOY1K840c?wmode=opaque" width="450" height="315" id="youtube-field-player" class="youtube-field-player" title="Embedded video for Advancing health science with smartphones, bio-printers and organs-on-chips: Groundbreakers S2 Ep. 5" aria-label="Embedded video for Advancing health science with smartphones, bio-printers and organs-on-chips: Groundbreakers S2 Ep. 5: https://www.youtube.com/embed/RQYOY1K840c?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </figure> </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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institute-biomedical-engineering" hreflang="en">Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>What is smartphone science? And how are researchers using these devices as mobile laboratories?</p> <p>In season two, episode five of the <em>Groundbreakers</em> video series, host <b>Ainka Jess</b> speaks with <b>Ayden Malekjahani</b> about how smartphones are being used to explore new avenues in science. A PhD candidate at the Ƶ’s <a href="https://bme.utoronto.ca/">Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a>, Malekjahani is developing a quantum dot smartphone device to diagnose and track COVID-19.</p> <p>“These devices really are ubiquitous and they are in the hands of everyone,” he said. “So, if we're able to build some tools that are very modular, small devices that you can hook up to someone's smartphone at a local clinic or a local community centre, then we believe that we can drive the cost down of these diagnostics rather than every single person visiting a large hospital or a doctor's office getting an individual test.”</p> <p>The episode also features&nbsp;<a href="https://craftmicrofluidics.ca/">Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT)</a> researchers:&nbsp;<b><a href="https://chem-eng.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/faculty-members/milica-radisic/">Milica Radisic</a></b>, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering who works with <a href="/news/using-organ-chip-platform-researchers-devise-potential-strategy-treat-severe-covid-19">organ-on-a-chip technologies</a>;&nbsp;and <b><a href="https://www.mie.utoronto.ca/faculty_staff/guenther/">Axel Guenther</a></b>, a professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering who developed <a href="/news/u-t-researchers-handheld-3d-skin-printer-helps-heal-large-severe-burns-study-finds">a bio-printer</a>&nbsp;that can&nbsp;treat large burn wounds.</p> <p><em>Groundbreakers</em> is a multimedia series that includes articles at <em>U of T News</em> and features research leaders involved with U of T’s <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a>, whose work will transform lives.</p> <h3><a href="https://youtu.be/RQYOY1K840c">Watch S2 Ep. 5 of Groundbreakers</a></h3> </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> Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:07:10 +0000 mattimar 178278 at How should we navigate the next pandemic? U of T researchers are finding the answers /news/how-should-we-navigate-next-pandemic-u-t-researchers-are-finding-answers <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">How should we navigate the next pandemic? U of T researchers are finding the answers</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1239582912-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=v84XslgC 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1239582912-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=luysWjJN 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1239582912-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=2842Em7h 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1239582912-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=v84XslgC" alt="people walk past a sign that reads &quot;vaccination clinic enter here&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-15T14:43:23-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 15, 2022 - 14:43" class="datetime">Tue, 11/15/2022 - 14:43</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 Institute for Pandemics, based at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is dedicated to&nbsp;preventing, addressing and recovering from pandemics&nbsp;– with a public health focus (photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)</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/tina-adamopoulos" hreflang="en">Tina Adamopoulos</a></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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institute-health-policy-management-and-evaluation" hreflang="en">Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation</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/joint-centre-bioethics" hreflang="en">Joint Centre for Bioethics</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px">COVID-19 is the ninth pandemic, or large-scale epidemic, the world has experienced in the past century – and it won’t be the last.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">To help the public and policymakers better navigate the next global outbreak, the Ƶ has created the<a href="https://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/pandemics/"> Institute for Pandemics</a>&nbsp;(IFP) based at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The institute is dedicated to&nbsp;preventing, preparing for, fighting and recovering from pandemics&nbsp;– with a public health focus. It’s built around three strategic pillars: readiness, recovery and resilience.&nbsp;</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/nelson%20lee.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 323px;"><em>Nelson Lee</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We want to recover from this current public health crisis – it’s not over yet,” says <b>Nelson Lee</b>, interim director of the Institute for Pandemics and a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health who is an expert on emerging infectious diseases, pandemics and epidemics. “But we also want to get ready for the next one in order to make better responses and decisions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“The Institute for Pandemics will take an interdisciplinary approach to better understand transmission, how it's affecting our society and the economy, and how to make better public health decisions by pooling together researchers from social sciences, public health, medicine and pharmacy to engineering, and health economists, computer data scientists and more.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The IFP is the vision of professor <b>Adalsteinn Brown</b>, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and co-founder of the Institute.&nbsp;The research areas of the IFP are led by <b>David Fisman</b>, a professor in the school’s epidemiology division; associate professor <b>Jennifer Gibson</b>, director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics, and <b>Geoffrey Anderson</b>, a professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Fisman will lead the Centre for Pandemic Readiness, which is dedicated to research to prevent the next pandemic and limit transmission.&nbsp;Gibson will helm the Centre for Pandemic Resilience, which aims to build equitable health systems that are safeguarded by data-driven, innovative technologies. Anderson will lead the Centre for Pandemic Recovery, which will provide evidence-based understandings of the broader negative socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 to guide better, fairer policies.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">A U of T<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/#:~:text=The%2520Institutional%2520Strategic%2520Initiatives%2520portfolio,industry%252C%2520community%2520and%2520philanthropic%2520partners."> Institutional Strategic Initiative</a>, the IFP will connect researchers across academic disciplines to find accurate, sustainable, and reflective solutions to the multi-layered challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. It will also act as a trusted voice to sort through the information – and misinformation – about how to move ahead.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">The inequities exposed by the pandemic were ‘striking’</h4> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Prof.-Arjumand-Siddiqi_000020crop.jpg" alt><em>Arjumand Siddiqi</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Arjumand Siddiqi</b> is a professor and division head of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. As a social epidemiologist, Siddiqi studies the impact of economic and social factors – including race and ethnicity – that cause unequal health outcomes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Siddiqi’s work focuses on Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She is particularly interested in how wealthy countries use and share their wealth, including the ripple effects of social policy decisions and how the legacies of white-settler colonialism affect diverse societies.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/ArjumandSiddiqi.mp3" alt></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">While COVID-19 is an airborne disease that puts everyone at risk, Siddiqi’s work shows that socioeconomic factors make some communities much more vulnerable than others. This includes people who lack the ability to work from home, live in crowded conditions or share a space with an essential service worker.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Social epidemiologists trace the patterns of disparities in a health crisis, including the social determinants of health. Compared to previous outbreaks like SARS, Siddiqi describes COVID-19’s impact on vulnerable communities as striking – yet predictable.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Your social position is a powerful source in dictating what your life is like and whether you have the resources and autonomy to stay healthy or whether you will be made by society to be vulnerable,” says Siddiqi, a Canada Research Chair in Population Health Equity.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Those consequences of not having resources or autonomy lead to health [issues] in a lot of different ways – and this time around, it led to increased exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">At a July 2020<a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-1/HESA/meeting-32/evidence"> Standing Committee on Health session</a> in Canada’s House of Commons, Siddiqi outlined how some neighbourhoods in Toronto were more affected than others by the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Black neighbourhoods were 40 times more likely to be at risk of contracting COVID-19 than white, upper-class neighbourhoods, she said.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">At the time, an interactive map of COVID-19 rates per neighbourhood released by Toronto Public Health reported that the city’s northwest neighbourhoods – home to predominantly working-class Black communities – saw COVID-19 infection rates of 450 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, neighbourhoods located in central Toronto – and home to higher-income, white residents – had approximately 15 cases per 100,000 people.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">How do we move forward to build resilient communities? Siddiqi says that, from an institutional perspective, providing information and access to health care is essential – but ensuring they have the economic power to thrive is crucial.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">How did lockdown measures affect our mental health?</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">From children attending classes on Zoom to the blurring of parents’ work and home lives, COVID-19 lockdown measures had a far-reaching impact on our sense of community and well-being.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/John%20Sina%20Moin.jpeg" style="width: 300px; height: 300px;"><em>John Sina Moin</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>John Sina Moin</b>, a post-doctoral researcher at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is exploring the mental health outcomes that COVID-19 measures had on vulnerable populations – primarily mothers, children&nbsp;and youth.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The international study, set for release early next year, compares the socioeconomic challenges and health disparities faced by mothers with young children and young adults living in Toronto and London, England since the pandemic. The study will concentrate on four age-based cohorts: mothers with children who are one to five years old; mothers with children who are six to 12 years old; youth who are 13 to 17 years of age and young adults between the ages of 18 to 24.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“When it comes to children and youth, remote learning largely disrupted their social routine,” Moin says. “Mothers carried a heavier burden of taking care of children while balancing work and single-parent families had even more socioeconomic pressures.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We think that this had a detrimental impact on their mental health.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Moin’s research shows that mothers of one to five-year-old and mothers with children who are six to 12 years old&nbsp;experienced more strains on their mental health. Moin says that for the latter cohort, this may be due to increased demands to help children with schooling, which was not a factor for mothers with younger kids. As for challenges faced by mothers with babies, he notes that stressors may include social distancing and not being able to get the same level of support from friends and family before the pandemic started. This cohort may also experience anxiety about the future of their children and the rising cost of living.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Meanwhile, a September 2021 report released by the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210927/dq210927a-eng.htm">Survey on COVID-19 and Mental Health (SCMH)</a>, found that one in four Canadians who were 18 or older screened positive for symptoms of depression, anxiety&nbsp;or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That was up from one in five from the previous year.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In Moin’s study, too, teenagers and young adults experienced increased mental health support needs.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">While the shift to remote learning was one of the largest hurdles for all youth cohorts, those between the ages of 18 to 24 lost many rites of passage into adulthood – including experiencing campus life or living on their own for the first time. They also had difficulty landing part-time jobs to supplement their incomes.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Moin is continuing to process the data collected in both Toronto and London and will further explore the mental health experiences and impacts on families based on income and other factors such as deprivation score.</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Leveraging technology for accessible, quality care</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Virtual doctor visits remain a safe and accessible way to access health care as we recover from the pandemic – and Moin says the practice may be one of the pandemic’s silver linings.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">That’s because virtual care makes it easier for people with physical disabilities or who live in remote areas to access a doctor – and doesn’t necessarily require sophisticated technology. Moin, for example, led a study on accessing <a href="https://www.canadianjournalofdiabetes.com/article/S1499-2671(22)00094-6/fulltext">type 2 diabetes care during the pandemic</a> that found, among other things, that 90 per cent of virtual care was delivered by telephone in Ontario.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Even so, Moin says the province is lagging in its efforts to capitalize on virtual care, including investing in apps or remote technologies to measure blood-sugar levels or high blood pressure, for example.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Moin says it’s critical to learn from our collective experience with COVID-19 – including fully embracing innovative, virtual health-care services that are more accessible and don’t sacrifice patient care – so we’re better prepared for future health threats.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Moin says we must also take the time and effort to understand where we can best leverage technology and where traditional means of delivering care are still most effective. That way, we can improve care for patients by taking advantage of the best means of health care available. This will leave us better prepared for future health threats.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We need to learn from history and everything that has happened with this pandemic,” he says. “Part of this is being resilient to stop shocks to the system, like future pandemics or other global events.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“There are many lessons to be learned to help us in the future.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>This article <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">is&nbsp;part of a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;about U of T's Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice –&nbsp;and the research community that's driving it.</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> Tue, 15 Nov 2022 19:43:23 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 178144 at Students push the boundaries of research and innovation: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.4 /news/students-push-boundaries-research-and-innovation-groundbreakers-s2-ep4 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Students push the boundaries of research and innovation: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.4</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-08T10:04:32-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - 10:04" class="datetime">Tue, 11/08/2022 - 10:04</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-youtube field--type-youtube field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="youtube-container"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AnvrorYh_pY?wmode=opaque" width="450" height="315" id="youtube-field-player--2" class="youtube-field-player" title="Embedded video for Students push the boundaries of research and innovation: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.4" aria-label="Embedded video for Students push the boundaries of research and innovation: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.4: https://www.youtube.com/embed/AnvrorYh_pY?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </figure> </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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine-design" hreflang="en">Medicine by Design</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robotics" hreflang="en">Robotics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">U of T Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p class="xx"><span style="background:white"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">From launching rovers into space to exploring whether green cannabinoids can treat epilepsy in children, students&nbsp;at the Ƶ are taking research and innovation in bold new directions.</span></span></p> <p class="xx"><span style="background:white"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">In Ep. 4 of the&nbsp;<i>Groundbreakers</i>&nbsp;video series,&nbsp;</span><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">host&nbsp;<b>Ainka&nbsp;Jess</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">goes behind the scenes with student researchers from&nbsp;</span><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://robotics.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Robotics Institute</span></a><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://mbd.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Medicine by Design</span></a><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">&nbsp;strategic initiatives, as well as the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/for-entrepreneurs/black-founders-network/" target="_blank"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Black Founders Network</span></a><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">.</span></span></p> <p class="xx"><span style="background:white"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Some of their work is literally out of this world.</span></span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white">“I think as humans we are very curious creatures and I see planetary robots as a way to extend our reach in the solar system, so I’m actually really excited about what these rovers can do in the future,” says <b>Olivier Lamarre</b>, a PhD candidate in planetary robotics at U of T’s&nbsp;<a href="https://starslab.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">STARS Laboratory</span></a>.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">The episode also features&nbsp;<b>Kareem Abdur-Rashid</b> and<b>&nbsp;Kamaluddin Abdur-Rashid</b> – both alumni of U of T and co-founders and <a href="https://www.chemistry.utoronto.ca/news/father-and-son-team-create-green-cannabinoids">co-directors of Kare Chemical Technologies</a> – and<b>&nbsp;Justine&nbsp;Bajohr</b>,&nbsp;a PhD candidate <a href="https://www.faiz-lab.com/">in the lab of <b>Maryam Faiz</b></a>, an assistant professor in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.</span></span></p> <p class="xx"><span style="background:white"><i><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Groundbreakers</span></i><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">&nbsp;is a multimedia series that includes articles at <i>U of T News</i> and features research leaders involved with U of T’s <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a>, whose work will transform lives.</span></span></p> <h3 class="xx"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnvrorYh_pY"><span style="background:white"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Watch S2 Ep.4 of Groundbreakers</span></span></a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&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> Tue, 08 Nov 2022 15:04:32 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 178033 at Who owns your face? Scholars at U of T's Schwartz Reisman Institute explore tech's thorniest questions /news/who-owns-your-face-scholars-u-t-s-schwartz-reisman-institute-explore-tech-s-thorniest-questions <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Who owns your face? Scholars at U of T's Schwartz Reisman Institute explore tech's thorniest questions </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1361706536-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=m4I2sHdD 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1361706536-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Me4agTh3 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1361706536-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=I-KPbGew 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1361706536-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=m4I2sHdD" alt="a man pays for his subway fare using face recognition technology"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-03T09:30:46-04:00" title="Thursday, November 3, 2022 - 09:30" class="datetime">Thu, 11/03/2022 - 09:30</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">Who owns the data generated by facial recognition tools? Can AI help cities budget more fairly? These are the types of questions being tackled by experts at U of T's Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (photo by Weiquan Lin/Getty Images)</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/tina-adamopoulos" hreflang="en">Tina Adamopoulos</a></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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/schwartz-reisman-innovation-campus" hreflang="en">Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/schwartz-reisman-institute-technology-and-society" hreflang="en">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</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/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-law" hreflang="en">Faculty of Law</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px">There are no easy answers when it comes to protecting people’s rights in the digital domain.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Take, for example, your face. Clearly, it belongs to you. But that’s not necessarily the case when you use it to unlock your smartphone or post an image of it on social media – in both instances your likeness is transformed by a third party into a stream of data.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/UofT87932_Wendy-Wong-Schwartz-Reisman-Institute-lpr.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 357px;"><em>Wendy Wong</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Right now, we really don’t have a lot of agency&nbsp;over our data, even though it stems from really mundane activities,” says <b>Wendy H. Wong</b>, a professor of political science in the&nbsp;Ƶ’s Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and a faculty affiliate at the <a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/">Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society</a>.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“It is generated about you, but you don’t actually create that data yourself.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Civil Society, Wong is working to bridge the divide between rapid technological innovation and society’s capacity to develop rules and regulations to govern it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">She is exploring how challenges in governing data and artificial intelligence are forcing us to re-examine our perspective on human rights. Called “Human Rights in the Digital Era,” Wong’s project – one of the major research projects underway at the Institute – looks at how the proliferation of data has fundamentally changed what it means to be human, how we relate to one another, and what it means to have rights in the digital era.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/WendyWong.mp3" alt></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">An<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/"> Institutional Strategic Initiative</a> (ISI) that launched in 2019, the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s mission is to ask critical questions and generate deep knowledge about the increasingly important – and potentially fraught – relationship between technologies and societies by fostering research-based collaborations between computer scientists, social scientists and humanists. It’s supported by a<a href="/news/landmark-100-million-gift-university-toronto-gerald-schwartz-and-heather-reisman-will-power"> historic $100 million donation</a> to U of T from <b>Gerald Schwartz</b> and <b>Heather Reisman </b>– a gift<b> </b>that<b> </b>is also underpinning construction of Canada’s largest university-based innovation hub: the<a href="https://realestate.utoronto.ca/project/schwartz-reisman-innovation-centre/"> Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus</a>.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Toronto is home to some of the key innovations that have powered the explosion of AI over the last decade,” says <b>Gillian Hadfield</b>, the institute’s director and a professor in the Faculty of Law who is the Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society and was <a href="/news/two-u-t-professors-named-canada-cifar-ai-chairs">recently named a CIFAR AI Chair</a>. “This generates the capacity for expertise and collaborations for people interested in solving problems.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society can play a great role in helping grow the vibrancy of the community and the potential for Canada to grow such technology.”</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Who owns your face?</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In the case of facial recognition tools, Wong says the rapid growth and adoption of the technology by everyone from smartphone-makers to police departments is raising important questions about ownership and privacy, and how personal aspects of our lives – such as our faces – can be taken from us as data, without our knowledge.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/UofT87927_Gillian-Hadfield-Schwartz-Reisman-Institute-lpr.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 357px;"><em>Gillian Hadfield</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">For example, Canada’s privacy commissioner said in 2021 that the RCMP<a href="https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2021/nr-c_210610/"> had violated the <i>Privacy Act</i></a> by using the services of Clearview AI, a U.S.-based facial recognition company. In an earlier decision, it also found Clearview in violation of privacy laws after it collected three billion pictures of Canadians, without their consent, from websites for criminal justice purposes.</p> <p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px">Writing about the decision in the <i>Globe and Mail </i>last year, Wong noted that there is no definite answer as to who owns the data generated by our faces, making international human rights frameworks a vital touchstone in guiding the future of this space.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Can we ever properly consent to having our faces made into data? In the best of times, consent is a challenge to define,” Wong wrote. “In the age of datafication, it has become almost impossible to take someone’s ‘consent’ as meaningful.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">As technologies push against questions about human rights, there is still a lot to learn in understanding what it means to be human in the digital era.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Part of this includes challenging what we used to take as fact – like ownership of our faces – especially when it is impossible to opt-out of using anything digital, Wong says.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Human rights on social media – who makes them?</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Another thorny issue, says Wong, is how freedom of expression is being regulated by the<br> Big Tech companies that encourage users to scroll through countless hours of social media on their platforms.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Traditionally, human rights – including freedom of expression – govern relationships between states and people. As a result, Wong says existing human rights frameworks are insufficient to oversee tech giants and their platforms, which straddle both the private and public spheres.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Wong notes, however, that corporations such as Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, employ their own community standards and have made attempts to self-regulate.<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/tag/oversight-board/"> Meta’s Oversight Board</a>, for one, is an independent body that evaluates decisions made by the company to remove or keep problematic content and profiles on Instagram and Facebook.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><a href="https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/">The Global Network Initiative</a>, a non-governmental organization spearheaded by technology companies and academics, is another effort grappling with questions about how corporations should protect values like freedom of expression and privacy.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Wong says she plans to further explore the global impact of these and other bodies – both through her work at the institute and in her forthcoming book with MIT Press.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Empowering communities through algorithmic fairness</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">While technological advancement has created many new questions, it also promises to provide answers to many longstanding problems.&nbsp;</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img alt src="/sites/default/files/Nisarg.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 250px;"><em>Nisarg Shah</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Nisarg Shah</b>, an assistant professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, is designing new approaches for balloting, fairness considerations and allocation rules to explore how AI technologies can be used for participatory budgeting – a democratic process that empowers residents to control how public funds should be used in their communities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“When people talk about algorithmic fairness, they think about technology making decisions for people,” says Shah, who is<a href="https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/news/inaugural-sri-faculty-fellows-build-bridges-between-disciplines"> one of four U of T faculty</a> members, awarded with an inaugural Schwartz Reisman Fellowship.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Sometimes, algorithms make mistakes, and the question is whether they might impact some communities more than others.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">A participatory budget model starts with community consultations, followed by various rounds of discussing community proposals on how much of the public budget should be allocated to each project. Finally, residents vote for their choice, which is then aggregated into a final budget.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Shah designed approaches centered around identifying avenues to elicit people’s preferences and ensure a fair allocation of the budget with respect to their needs. This included participatory budget models based on happiness derived from a project or based on the cost of implementation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Consider a hypothetical example outlined in<a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~nisarg/papers/pb_chapter.pdf"> <i>Participatory Budgeting: Models and Approaches</i></a><i><u>.</u></i> 3,000 residents vote on allocating a $7 million budget to four projects:&nbsp;A and B (each cost $3 million)<i>,</i> C (cost of $2 million) and<i> </i>D (cost of $2 million)<i>. </i>Two thousand&nbsp;residents like only projects A and B, 500 like only C, and the remaining 500 like only D.<i> </i>In this example, projects A and B could be implemented, which would make 2,000 residents “very happy” but the rest “very unhappy.” Or, one of projects A and B could get the green light together with both projects C and D. This would make 2,000 residents “partially happy” and 1,000 residents “very happy.” What would be the fair choice?</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Toronto piloted participatory budgeting from 2015 to 2017 in Scarborough and North York. Overall,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2019/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-124370.pdf">the pilot study</a> found that residents wanted more input on infrastructure projects and more opportunities to consult city staff on various issues. However, it found participatory budgeting was also resource-intensive and could result in divisions in communities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">As Shah continues to develop fair approaches to participatory budgeting, he’ll also explore how proportional representation, which ensures each neighborhood gets an adequate amount of representation – be it monetary or political – commensurate with the people living there, can help curb another issue known as political gerrymandering – when boundaries of electoral districts are altered for political advantage, giving some communities more voting rights than others.</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Investing in the future</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">As researchers at the Schwartz Reisman Institute navigate the promise and pitfalls of existing technologies for society, Hadfield says SRI is simultaneously investing in initiatives that aim to influence the direction of future technological development.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In an effort to promote responsible, ethics-based AI technologies, SRI<a href="https://creativedestructionlab.com/blog/cdl-partners-with-schwartz-reisman-institute/"> </a><a href="https://creativedestructionlab.com/blog/cdl-partners-with-schwartz-reisman-institute/">partnered with the Creative Destruction Lab</a> (CDL) at the Rotman School of Management last summer to provide mentorship and support to startups in the incubator’s AI stream. This includes<a href="https://www.private-ai.com/"> </a><a href="https://www.private-ai.com/">Private AI</a>, which protects privacy by developing AI software that erases personal data from text, images and video, and<a href="https://armilla.ai/"> </a><a href="https://armilla.ai/">Armilla AI</a>, an AI governance platform enabling algorithmic accountability.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The Schwartz Reisman Institute also ran a one-day workshop with the Business Development Corporation of Canada (BDC), which provides business loans to small and medium Canadian enterprises, and hosted panels with government regulators, regulatory technology providers and SRI researchers to connect about establishing a fair, responsible Canadian AI industry.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With regulatory transformation a strategic goal at SRI – and a focus of Hadfield’s current research – SRI will partner with governments, civil society organizations and other institutions to offer new ideas about regulatory frameworks to guide digital transformation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>This article <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">is&nbsp;part of a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;about U of T's Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice –&nbsp;and the research community that's driving it.</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> Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:30:46 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 177951 at Tackling heart failure with a dose of technology: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.3  /news/tackling-heart-failure-dose-technology-groundbreakers-s2-ep3 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Tackling heart failure with a dose of technology: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.3&nbsp;</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-10-27T16:16:59-04:00" title="Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 16:16" class="datetime">Thu, 10/27/2022 - 16:16</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-youtube field--type-youtube field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="youtube-container"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ix29DFqeuN0?wmode=opaque" width="450" height="315" id="youtube-field-player--3" class="youtube-field-player" title="Embedded video for Tackling heart failure with a dose of technology: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.3&nbsp;" aria-label="Embedded video for Tackling heart failure with a dose of technology: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.3&nbsp;: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ix29DFqeuN0?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </figure> </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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institute-biomedical-engineering" hreflang="en">Institute of Biomedical Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ted-rogers-centre-heart-research" hreflang="en">Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-health-network" hreflang="en">University Health Network</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p class="x"><span style="background:white">Researchers at the Ƶ and its partner hospitals are on a mission to bring equitable health care to Canadians – and it’s all powered by technology.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white">In Ep. 3 of the <i>Groundbreakers</i> video series, host&nbsp;<b><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Ainka</span></b><b>&nbsp;Jess</b> explores how researchers with <a href="https://transformhf.ca/" target="_blank"><span style="border:1pt none windowtext; padding:0cm">Transform HF</span></a>, an <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">institutional strategic initiative</a> formed through a partnership between U of T and the <a href="/news/90-million-gift-ted-rogers-centre-heart-research-marks-new-era-cardiac-health">Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research</a>, are helping to save lives by getting critical heart failure tools in the hands of patients across the country, including Indigenous communities in the North.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white">“We know there are incredible inequities in care and there are many drivers of those inequities – things related to the digital divide, access to technology, access to broadband, digital health literacy and skin tone, which can impact the function of various wearables,” says Transform HF Co-Director<b> Heather Ross</b>, who is scientific lead at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, the head of cardiology at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network, and a professor of medicine in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white">“We have to elevate the care for everybody. It should not matter where you live in Canada. Everybody should have the right to access high quality care.”</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white">In the episode, Ross is joined by Transform HF researchers&nbsp;<b>Amika Shah</b>, a PhD candidate in health services research, and <b>Daniel Franklin</b>, an assistant professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white"><i>Groundbreakers</i> is a multimedia series that includes articles at U of T News and features research leaders involved with U of T’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives, whose work will transform lives.</span></p> <p class="x"><span style="background:white"><a href="https://youtu.be/ix29DFqeuN0">Watch S2 Ep.3 of Groundbreakers</a></span></p> <p>&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> Thu, 27 Oct 2022 20:16:59 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 177769 at Researchers shrink brain tumours with gold nanoparticles, develop ‘mini brains’ to study psychiatric disorders /news/researchers-shrink-brain-tumours-gold-nanoparticles-develop-mini-brains-study-psychiatric <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers shrink brain tumours with gold nanoparticles, develop ‘mini brains’ to study psychiatric disorders</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1075411486-crop_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=C-ftVNHK 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1075411486-crop_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=9NrGZeuQ 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1075411486-crop_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jyGN_-Jm 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1075411486-crop_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=C-ftVNHK" alt="a technician helps a woman into an MRI machine"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-10-18T10:03:07-04:00" title="Tuesday, October 18, 2022 - 10:03" class="datetime">Tue, 10/18/2022 - 10:03</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">(Photo by Aja Koska/Getty Images)</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/tina-adamopoulos" hreflang="en">Tina Adamopoulos</a></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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/prime" hreflang="en">PRiME</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/donnelly-centre-cellular-biomolecular-research" hreflang="en">Donnelly Centre for Cellular &amp; Biomolecular Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</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/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/leslie-dan-faculty-pharmacy" hreflang="en">Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine-design" hreflang="en">Medicine by Design</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px">Researchers at the Ƶ are inching closer to realizing a life-saving brain cancer treatment by using gold nanoparticles to make radiation therapy more effective and less toxic for patients.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In their battle against glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a rare, fast-growing cancer that begins in the brain, the multidisciplinary team has discovered that the nanoparticles can keep radiation tightly focused on the tumour, shrinking its size and preventing damage elsewhere in the body.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Only a handful of researchers around the world are focused on radiolabeled nanoparticle&nbsp;research for brain tumours.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Raymond-Reilly-square_0.jpg" alt><em>Raymond Reilly</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“There is a small group of scientists working on radiation nanomedicines globally – and an even smaller group studying the therapeutic use of radiolabeled gold nanoparticles,” says <b>Raymond Reilly,</b> a renowned specialist in radiopharmaceuticals and professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy who is supervising the team.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“To my knowledge, we're one of the few groups in the world that have studied local infusion of radiolabeled gold nanoparticles for treatment of brain tumours.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/RaymondReilly_2.mp3" alt></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Anchoring radioisotopes in the brain&nbsp;</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In animal studies, the use of gold nanoparticles in radiation resulted in tumours that were no longer detectable by MRI four weeks after the treatment. The researchers also found evidence of prolonged survival – and a potential cure – following the 150-day trial.&nbsp;</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Constantine-Georgiou-square.jpg" alt><em>Constantine Georgiou</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We use gold nanoparticles to hold the radiation, or radioisotope, where we inject it into the brain,” says <b>Constantine Georgiou</b>,<b> </b>a graduate student in the department of pharmaceutical studies who works with Reilly.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Without the gold nanoparticle, the radiation leaves the brain tumour, making it non-effective.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The radiation also effectively erased tumour cells without causing any apparent damage to the brain or other tissues in the body – travelling no more than two millimetres from the site of injection. In other words, there appears to be no toxicity associated with the treatment.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">To evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy, Georgiou used innovative imaging techniques such as single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, a type of nuclear medicine imaging that allows researchers to visualize where the gold nanoparticles are located in the brain, and bioluminescence and MRI imaging to track the growth of the tumour.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The project was first developed under <b>Noor Al-saden</b>, one of 10 trainees at U of T&nbsp;who took part in the inaugural 2019 <a href="https://www.prime.utoronto.ca/prime-fellowship-details">PRiME Fellowship Awards</a> – a program to propel high-risk, high-reward, multidisciplinary research in precision medicine.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prime.utoronto.ca/">PRiME</a> is an <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/#:~:text=The%20Institutional%20Strategic%20Initiatives%20portfolio,industry%2C%20community%20and%20philanthropic%20partners.">Institutional Strategic Initiative</a> (ISI) at U of T that connects scientists, engineers and other innovators across different disciplines to accelerate drug discovery, diagnostics and understanding of disease biology.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Preliminary results from Al-saden’s PRiME research and a seed grant from the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada helped Reilly’s group secure a $200,000 Canadian Cancer Society Innovation Grant.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The development of radiation nanomedicine requires a multidisciplinary approach.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">At U of T, the research would not have been possible without the expertise of world-renowned polymer chemist <b>Mitch Winnik</b>, a professor in the department of chemistry in Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. That’s because the radioisotope – in this case, Lutetium-177 – is attached to gold nanoparticles by a polymer synthesised by Winnik’s group, a substance made of large molecules with various metal-binding sites.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The team’s next research phase will take place in a new space at U of T: the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Made possible by a $1.3 million grant awarded to Reilly from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Research Fund, the facility was launched earlier this year to create radiopharmaceuticals for clinical trials.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Georgiou and Reilly are currently studying radiation nanomedicine combined with immunotherapy to provide a more durable tumour response to treat GBM. The group also plans to study the effectiveness of other radioisotopes attached to the gold nanoparticles, which may achieve even more precision in erasing cancer cells.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">A deeper understanding of energy metabolism in brain disorders by making ‘mini brains’</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Reilly and Georgiou’s research isn’t the only innovative, brain-focused project that’s being supported by PRiME.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/angeladuong-square_0.jpg" alt><em>Angela Duong</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Research by<b> Angela Duong</b>, a U of T alumna and a 2019 PRiME fellow, developed 2D and 3D brain models from patients to gain insights into the role that mitochondrial function plays in neuronal activity – specifically in patients with bipolar disorder.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Working alongside <b>Ana Cristina Andreazza</b> – a professor in the departments of pharmacology and toxicology and psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, with a cross appointment at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Duong built 3D <i>in vitro </i>cultures of brain cells, also known as cerebral organoids, to identify biological targets that can be used to guide the development of therapeutics. In doing so, Duong overcame longstanding hurdles in understanding the biology of patients with psychiatric disorders since researchers previously relied on two limited avenues for investigation: post-mortem brain samples, which are scarce, and brain imaging technologies which are expensive and may require radioactive exposure.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Duong describes her cerebral organoids as “mini brains” that retain patient genetic background, allowing researchers to study human-specific processes that might be related to the clinical diagnosis of the patients.&nbsp; She says this tool is useful for disease modelling compared to brain samples from animals which do not carry the complex human genes that cause psychiatric disorders.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“In the brain, 20 per cent of our body’s total energy budget is used to support neurotransmission. This is a very energy-demanding process that allows brain cells to communicate with each other, Duong says. “So, if there is metabolic dysfunction in the brain, the process of neurotransmission is also affected, which we think is related to the symptoms and mood changes that we commonly see in patients with psychiatric disorders.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“By developing 'mini brains' to function as disease models, we can learn what metabolic changes are going on in the brain of actual patients with brain diseases without invasive brain biopsies or studying the brains of mice or rats."</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">To do this, Duong collected blood samples from patients with and without bipolar disorder and isolated their white blood cells. The cells were then reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a stem cell that can be generated directly from a somatic cell, any cell of a living organism other than reproductive ones. Using these iPSCs, Duong later created 2D and 3D brain cells, or organoids.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Duong’s project was among the first to fully characterize the brain’s mitochondrial health, from white blood cells to iPSCs to cerebral organoids. That, in turn, offered validation about whether mitochondria stay healthy throughout the reprogramming and differentiation process. This study provides important groundwork for creating more sophisticated patient 2D and 3D brain cells for disease modelling and the study of mitochondrial dysfunction across a wide range of brain diseases.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The achievement required the multidisciplinary collaboration of three different U of T labs.&nbsp;</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Liliana-Attisano-photo-2-square_0.jpg" alt><em>Liliana Attisano</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In addition to Andreazza’s lab, the PRiME project brought in expertise from two professors at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine to work on the 3D engineered organoids: <b>Liliana Attisano</b>, a professor of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, and <b>Martin Beaulieu</b>, an associate professor in the department of pharmacology and toxicology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.&nbsp;</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Building self-developing brain cells</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Organoid production relies on the cell’s self-organizing properties to develop required cell types.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The goal of Attisano’s lab was to develop protocols to produce cerebral organoids that were all the same size and shape to decrease variability, making it easier for researchers to find the answers to their questions. To accomplish this, researchers added growth factors or inhibitors that moved the cells into a neural lineage. After that, the cells divided and developed for about a month – just as they would in a human brain. The lineage can also be modified to make organoids for other body parts, such as the liver.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Beaulieu’s lab, meanwhile, provided equipment and resources to characterize the electroactivity of the neurons within the organoids.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Duong’s technological model is now being used by Andreazza to further develop cerebral organoids to further investigate a range of psychiatric conditions.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Meanwhile, Attisano is making cerebral organoids available for researchers across Toronto with an organoid<a href="https://braincanada.ca/news/latest-platform-support-grant-to-make-advanced-brain-models-accessible-to-canadas-neuroscience-research-community/"> production platform called Applied Organoid Core (ApOC)</a>, funded by the Brain Canada Foundation’s 2019 Platform Support Grant, and U of T’s <a href="https://mbd.utoronto.ca/">Medicine by Design</a> strategic initiative. The ApOC is a $1,425,000 grant. Through this project, Attisano is collaborating with other researchers who want to use cerebral organoids to map human brain development and disorders such as epilepsy.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“When it comes down to it, brain disorders are simply a kind of alteration in molecular components that result in altered behaviour. It’s no different from a mutation that makes you susceptible to cancer. But we never had the capacity to study this,” Attisano says.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Cerebral organoids give us that potential.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>This article <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">is&nbsp;part of a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;about U of T's Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice –&nbsp;and the research community that's driving it.</em></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&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> Tue, 18 Oct 2022 14:03:07 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 177570 at Behind the scenes with the Black Research Network: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.2 /news/behind-scenes-black-research-network-u-t-groundbreakers-s2-ep2 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Behind the scenes with the Black Research Network: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.2</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>mattimar</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-10-12T12:06:30-04:00" title="Wednesday, October 12, 2022 - 12:06" class="datetime">Wed, 10/12/2022 - 12:06</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-youtube field--type-youtube field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="youtube-container"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B4GFfqYDlpA?wmode=opaque" width="450" height="315" id="youtube-field-player--2" class="youtube-field-player" title="Embedded video for Behind the scenes with the Black Research Network: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.2" aria-label="Embedded video for Behind the scenes with the Black Research Network: Groundbreakers S2 Ep.2: https://www.youtube.com/embed/B4GFfqYDlpA?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </figure> </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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/anti-black-racism" hreflang="en">Anti-Black Racism</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/black-research-network" hreflang="en">Black Research Network</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/new-college" hreflang="en">New College</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">U of T Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">U of T Scarborough</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/women-and-gender-studies" hreflang="en">Women and Gender Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">How is the Ƶ promoting Black research excellence and enhancing the research capacity of Black scholars across its tri-campus community?</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">Those are just some of the questions explored in season two, episode two of the <i>Groundbreakers </i>video series as host <b>Ainka Jess </b>goes behind the scenes with the founders of U of T’s <a href="https://brn.utoronto.ca/">Black Research Network</a>.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">“To push forward requires taking the risk and having enough people who are willing to listen and put resources behind the risk,” says <b>Rhonda McEwen</b>, president and vice-chancellor of Victoria University in the Ƶ. “And that’s what universities are good at, aren’t we? This is what we do. We find those cracks and those fissures and we take things forward.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">“So, here’s just another way we’re doing that.”</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">McEwen is joined in the episode by <b>Maydianne Andrade</b>, an evolutionary ecologist and <a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a> in U of T Scarborough’s department of biological sciences who is founder and co-chair of the Toronto Initiative for Diversity and Excellence, <b>Alissa Trotz</b>, a professor of Caribbean studies at New College and the director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute, and <b>Beth Coleman</b>, director of the Black Research Network and associate professor of data and cities at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="background:white">Together, the group discusses the origins of the Black Research Network, which Trotz traces to a long history of exclusion and resistance at the university, including a student group called the Black Liberation Collective that formed in 2015. They also discuss opportunities for collaboration and policy change – and their hopes for the future.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white"><i>Groundbreakers&nbsp;</i>is a multimedia series that&nbsp;<a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">includes articles at&nbsp;<i>U of T News</i></a>&nbsp;and features research leaders involved with U of T’s&nbsp;<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a>, whose work will transform lives.</span></p> <h3 style="text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 20px;"><span style="background:white"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GFfqYDlpA&amp;ab_channel=UniversityofToronto">Watch S2 Ep.2 of Groundbreakers</a></span></h3> <p>&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> Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:06:30 +0000 mattimar 177415 at From mapping stars to helping youth escape poverty, student researchers break new ground /news/mapping-stars-helping-youth-escape-poverty-student-researchers-break-new-ground <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">From mapping stars to helping youth escape poverty, student researchers break new ground</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1242184579-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JVmRH3q6 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-1242184579-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OnN75oa0 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-1242184579-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=f4as4Ho_ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-1242184579-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JVmRH3q6" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-10-04T16:26:54-04:00" title="Tuesday, October 4, 2022 - 16:26" class="datetime">Tue, 10/04/2022 - 16:26</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">(Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)</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/tina-adamopoulos" hreflang="en">Tina Adamopoulos</a></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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/black-research-network" hreflang="en">Black Research Network</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/data-sciences-institute" hreflang="en">Data Sciences Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/school-cities" hreflang="en">School of Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/astronomy-astrophysics" hreflang="en">Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</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-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Grace Yu</b> remembers marvelling at the night sky as a child. Today, that childhood memory lives on as she studies the stars that make up the Milky Way.</p> <div class="iamge-with-caption left"> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Grace-Yu.jpg" alt><em>Grace Yu</em></p> </div> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Working with<b> Ting Li </b>and<b> Joshua Speagle</b>, assistant professors in the Ƶ’s David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, Yu is working on a new project, titled “Mapping the Milky Way a Million Light Years<i>.</i>”<i> </i></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><i></i>The team will characterize and track blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars, which, because of their brightness, can be detected when they are located at the periphery of our own galaxy&nbsp;to measure the density profile of the Milky Way&nbsp;– especially&nbsp;at its periphery.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“The end goal is to detect BHB stars, all the way down to 300 kiloparsecs, roughly a million light-years away, and characterize their density to distance,” Yu says. “Then we will use these BHB to understand more about the Milky Way.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Yu is one of 36 undergraduate students from across Canada to be selected for the&nbsp;<a href="https://datasciences.utoronto.ca/dsi-welcomes-2022-suds-scholars/">2022 SUDS Scholars program</a>&nbsp;at U of T’s&nbsp;Data Science Institute’s (DSI). The program pairs students interested in a data science career with DSI researchers to conduct interdisciplinary, hands-on research. It is one of several opportunities that the DSI hosts to foster data science innovation and collaboration.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">At present, little is known about the galaxy beyond 100 kiloparsecs, a measure of distance in astronomy, where 1 kiloparsec equals 3.6 light-years, a unit of astronomical distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Although BHB stars are ideal tracers for mapping our own Milky Way, there is another type of star, the so-called “blue straggler” (BS) stars, which lie in a similar colour space as the BHB stars. But BS stars are generally closer to Earth and cannot travel as far as BHB stars do, making BHB stars ideal to study the periphery of the Milky Way. A goal of this research project is to develop a tool to separate the distant BHB stars from nearby BS stars.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Using publicly available data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) – one of the largest astronomical cameras that has surveyed the dark sky – the team found a clear indicator of separate patterns between BHB and BS stars&nbsp;thanks to the unprecedentedly high precision data from DES that measures the brightness and colours of the stars better than 0.5 per cent.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In particular, using a machine learning method called the support-vector machine, a supervised learning model associated with learning algorithms that analyze data for classification, Yu has made great progress in identifying clear, separable boundaries between the stars. Yu is also planning to continue this research under the supervision of Li and Speagle.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With first-hand experience blending statistics, machine learning and astronomy for research thanks to the DSI, Yu hopes to explore how computer science is shaping other fields in the future.</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Using poetry to elevate the voices of African, Caribbean and Black women with HIV</h4> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Yu’s work is just one of several student-led projects supported by U of T’s<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/%23:~:text=The%2520Institutional%2520Strategic%2520Initiatives%2520portfolio%2520streamlines%2520the%2520process%2520of%2520building,industry,%2520community%2520and%2520philanthropic%2520partners."> Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a> (ISI) portfolio, which facilitates tri-campus interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers at U of T and partner institutions.</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Lori_Chambers-crop.jpg" alt><em>Lori Chambers</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Lori Chambers</b>, a former post-doctoral researcher&nbsp;at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, is using poetry, prose and spoken word performance to offer safe spaces for women to share their experiences living with HIV.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Launched in 2018, the<a href="https://www.becauseshecares.com/"> Because She Cares</a> project amplifies the voices of African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) women with HIV&nbsp;who describe the challenges they encounter working for the Canadian AIDS service and allied organizations. The project aims to develop, promote and design approaches that honour community-based, knowledge-sharing methods – and to decolonize Western ideologies in academia.&nbsp;</p> <p>Chambers is one of nine researchers supported by the<a href="https://brn.utoronto.ca/"> Black Research Network</a> (BRN), an ISI that seeks&nbsp;to promote Black research excellence at the university through mentorship, collaboration, investment and community.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With $7,000 in seed funding through the BRN’s<a href="https://brn.utoronto.ca/opportunity/ignite-grant/"> IGNITE grant</a>, Chambers and five spoken word artists travelled to Quebec for the International AIDS Conference, one of the largest AIDS conferences in the world, to perform stories from the Because She Cares project.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/LoriChambers.mp3" alt></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>Listen to a segment of an interview with Lori Chambers.</em></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Chambers explains that while plays and spoken word performances are commonly used in west and south Africa for knowledge mobilization, it is an emerging space in Canada.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Using arts-based approaches like spoken word, which is grounded in Black performance, in a Canadian space is still very new,” Chambers says.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">"Storytelling is an approach that we all know, so why not bring it to the space of academia? We should develop ways of knowing that are concurrent in the communities we work with.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Last winter, Chambers launched Because She Cares' first spoken word film series. The collection of 12 short films outlined the challenges that African and Caribbean immigrant women who live with HIV face while working in Canadian AIDS service and allied organizations.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> <div class="media_embed" height="422px" width="750px"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BvKwZUTaROQ" title="YouTube video player" width="750px"></iframe></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">One of the films, <i>HIV Stays at Home, </i>explored the ethics around disclosing HIV status in the workplace, a prominent challenge for people who wish to leave the HIV sector. Another, <i>Living This Kind of Life,</i> navigates working poverty and its effect on family dynamics. Other films addressed setting boundaries between the professional and personal&nbsp;– something that can be especially difficult for women&nbsp;who have been hired to work in the HIV services space&nbsp;because of their lived experience with the condition. Chambers says that professional boundaries have the potential to separate HIV-positive health and social work professionals from their own support systems, often within the HIV community.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With interest from other AIDS organizations, Chambers hopes to share the films as an educational tool and develop strategic partnerships with AIDS organizations in Ontario and across Canada.</p> <h4 style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Would free, unlimited transit provide&nbsp;youth experiencing homelessness with more opportunities?</h4> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Emma-Blewett-crop.jpg" alt><em>Emma Blewett</em></p> </div> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><b>Noah Kelly</b>, a U of T graduate, and <b>Emma Blewett</b>, a third-year civil engineering student, are researching how free, unlimited transit access can improve the quality of life for Toronto&nbsp;youth who are experiencing homelessness.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><a href="https://civmin.utoronto.ca/tag/tap-for-youth/">TAP (Transit Access Project) for Youth</a> is a student-led transit equity research project that seeks to reduce barriers to transit access. It was founded by five undergraduate students as part of <a href="http://www.ewb.ca/en/"><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="text-decoration-line:underline">Engineers Without </span>Borders</a> (EWB) at U of T, the largest student chapter of the Canadian non-governmental organization that takes strategic action to tackle global poverty in local communities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Working with two Toronto-based homeless shelters and one transitional youth home, the team gave free PRESTO cards to 36 participants between the ages of 16 to 24 earlier this year.&nbsp;Each one came pre-loaded with a&nbsp;monthly pass. From there, the TAP team documented participants’ experiences with transit before and after receiving the card. This included interactions with transit authorities and riders, safety and social inclusion.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“Transit equity ensures the right to mobility,” says&nbsp;Kelly, co-founder of TAP. “Public transit access in Toronto is vital in exiting the cycle of homelessness because it enables youth to have job opportunities in the urban landscape, which would otherwise be limited to walkable areas.”&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With $2,000 support from the <a href="https://www.schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/small-grants-program">Small Grants Program</a> awarded by the <a href="https://www.schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/">School of Cities</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;an ISI which brings interdisciplinary urban-focused researchers, students, institutions and the public together to build equitable and sustainable cities&nbsp;– the group was able to hire a social worker to attend the interviews to inform youth of any programs or supports to help with their needs.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Guided by <a href="https://www.schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/steven-farber"><b>Steven Farber</b></a><b>,</b> an associate professor in the department of human geography at U of T Scarborough, and <b>Stephanie Begun</b>, an assistant professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, TAP is funded in partnership with Metrolinx, the City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Office and the Toronto Shelter Network, along with other stakeholders.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">With a final report set to be published early next year, TAP’s data aims to fill a gap in scholarship and inform City of Toronto and TTC policy frameworks on conversations surrounding transit equity.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">The project is a replication of a similar initiative that brought free transit to all people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton, Alta, in 2013. While transit discount programs do exist in Toronto, several hurdles make them insufficient, the group says.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">In Toronto, the <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/employment-social-support/support-for-people-in-financial-need/assistance-through-ontario-works/transit-discount/">Fair Pass Transit Discount Program</a> offers a 21 per cent discount on an adult monthly pass, which costs approximately $123 instead of the regular price of $156. To be eligible, applicants must be 20 years old or more and prove enrollment in Ontario Wo<span style="background:#e6e6e6">rks</span>,<span style="background:#e6e6e6"> &nbsp;the </span><span style="background:#e6e6e6">Ontario Disability Support Program, a Child Care Fee Subsidy (through Toronto Children’s Services) or the Rent-Geared-to-Income Subsidy</span>&nbsp;– programs that researchers say aren’t by themselves enough to help youth experiencing homelessness access job opportunities.&nbsp;</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">“We have to think about setting youth up for success after they enter a shelter or transitional home,” says Blewett, financial lead at TAP for Youth. “What keeps me going in this project is being a part of research that will help young people live their lives as they should be.”</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><em>This article <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">is&nbsp;part of a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;about U of T's Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice –&nbsp;and the research community that's driving it.</em></p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&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> Tue, 04 Oct 2022 20:26:54 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 177085 at Season 2 of Groundbreakers series: ‘Diverse research communities solving the world’s grand challenges’ /news/season-2-groundbreakers-series-diverse-research-communities-solving-world-s-grand-challenges <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Season 2 of Groundbreakers series: ‘Diverse research communities solving the world’s grand challenges’</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-09-27T12:18:56-04:00" title="Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - 12:18" class="datetime">Tue, 09/27/2022 - 12:18</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-youtube field--type-youtube field--label-hidden field__item"><figure class="youtube-container"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTNkyl-1iWY?wmode=opaque" width="450" height="315" id="youtube-field-player--4" class="youtube-field-player" title="Embedded video for Season 2 of Groundbreakers series: ‘Diverse research communities solving the world’s grand challenges’" aria-label="Embedded video for Season 2 of Groundbreakers series: ‘Diverse research communities solving the world’s grand challenges’: https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTNkyl-1iWY?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </figure> </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/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</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/climate-positive-energy" hreflang="en">Climate Positive Energy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers" hreflang="en">Groundbreakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/institutional-strategic-initiatives" hreflang="en">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/climate-change" hreflang="en">Climate Change</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/david-sinton" hreflang="en">David Sinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</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/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/school-environment" hreflang="en">School of the Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white">Self-driving vehicles. Renewable energy storage. Advanced materials and molecules. Experts at the Ƶ are leading the way in all three areas – and more&nbsp;– as they work to address one of the biggest and most complex challenges facing the planet: a changing climate.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white">Their creative and cutting-edge work&nbsp;is part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://cpe.utoronto.ca/">Climate Positive Energy</a> strategic initiative. It’s&nbsp;one of several&nbsp;cross-disciplinary collaborations at U of T&nbsp;that aim&nbsp;is to&nbsp;tackle the most pressing problems of our time – and is highlighted in the Season 2 premiere of the Groundbreakers video series, released Sept. 27.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white">“What excites me about the strategic initiatives are the people behind these large research networks that are bringing together diverse communities to solve the world’s grand challenges,”&nbsp;<b>Timothy Chan</b>, U of T’s associate vice-president and vice-provost strategic initiatives, says in the video.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white">The premiere episode<em>&nbsp;</em>offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse&nbsp;at&nbsp;how researchers are&nbsp;tackling climate change and renewable energy challenges&nbsp;from scientific, social, economic and policy perspectives. They include:&nbsp;<b>David Sinton</b>, director of the Climate Positive Energy strategic initiative and a professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering; <b>Celine Xiao</b>, a PhD candidate in the Sinton Lab and co-founder of <a href="/news/u-t-student-team-top-60-elon-musk-s-xprize-carbon-removal-competition">the E-Quester carbon capture team</a>; and <b>Kate Neville</b>, associate professor in the department of political science and School of the Environment in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:20px"><span style="background:white">Groundbreakers is <a href="/news/tags/groundbreakers">a multimedia series</a>&nbsp;that also includes articles on <em>U of T News</em>. Stay tuned for more content.</span></p> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTNkyl-1iWY&amp;ab_channel=UniversityofToronto"><span style="background:white">Watch the Season 2 premiere</span></a></h3> </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> Tue, 27 Sep 2022 16:18:56 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 176960 at