Bioinnovation

Support for HI³ and the four funded research programs through the CBRF and BRIF is part of a larger investment in Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. The strategy aims to grow a strong, competitive domestic life sciences sector with cutting-edge biomanufacturing capabilities and to improve the country’s ability to respond to future health challenges.

HI³ – a coalition of 87 academic, hospital, research networks, industry, government, not-for-profit and community partners – was one of five national hubs established in March 2023 with CBRF funding.

Together, the four awarded programs will provide critical health intelligence data to guide the co-development of health threat surveillance platforms and next-generation precision interventions by the hub’s academic and industry partners, while building a highly skilled workforce to support Canada’s growing biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.

“Congratulations to HI³ and the collaborative teams behind these CBRF-funded programs. These four programs leverage the tremendous expertise of the ��Ƶ's researchers and our partners in academia, hospitals, industry and other sectors to develop the talent, tools and data required to be at the forefront of emerging health threats,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“On behalf of the ��Ƶ and HI³, I thank the government of Canada for its investment in building a strong domestic life sciences sector ready to take on the health challenges of today and tomorrow.”

One of the CBRF-funded programs is the Biomanufacturing Hub Network (BioHubNet), an immersive talent development program based at U of T and led by University Professor Molly Shoichet along with Darius Rackus, an assistant professor of chemistry and biology at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Gilbert Walker, a professor of chemistry at U of T.

“With world-leading scientists and researchers established across Canadian leading research institutions, Canada is home to a competitive and robust biomanufacturing and life sciences sector. We made a promise to Canadians that we would rebuild the domestic sector,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry. “With this investment, our government is delivering on this promise by supporting the excellent innovations, collaborations and infrastructures necessary to rapidly respond to future public health threats and keep Canadians safe.”

The predicted supply of biomanufacturing workers is only enough to fill one-quarter of the positions that will be needed in the sector by 2029, according to a 2021 report from BioTalent Canada.

To address the shortage, BioHubNet will leverage its 26 industry and training partners – which include multinational and homegrown biotechnology companies, as well as five Ontario colleges and nearly $19 million in funding from CBRF – to develop a range of training programs and curricula that provide experiential, hands-on learning to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and others who are ready to transition to industry.

The program will also outfit entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to commercialize their lab-based innovations, further strengthening the translational pipeline. Over the next four years, BioHubNet will produce close to 1,000 highly skilled workers through micro-credential courses, industry internships, academic exchange placements and entrepreneurial training.

A central tenet underlying all BioHubNet’s offerings is a commitment to create more equitable and inclusive participation in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sectors through intentional recruitment and active support for trainees from under-represented groups.

“Canada’s future as a leader in bio-innovation depends on having highly qualified workers, yet the sector is predicted to face severe workforce shortages in the coming years,” says Shoichet, who is the Michael E Charles Professor in Chemical Engineering at U of T and scientific director of PRiME Next-Generation Precision Medicine, a U of T institutional strategic initiative based at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

“By expanding the pipeline of skilled research talent in Canada, BioHubNet will accelerate the translation of promising discoveries from bench to market and ensure that this country’s biomanufacturing sector continues to grow and attract further international investment.”

In addition to BioHubNet, three other research programs were also funded:

The Integrated Network for the Surveillance of Pathogens: Increasing Resilience and capacity in Canada’s pandemic response (INSPIRE) based at the University of Windsor. Co-led by Windsor professor Mike McKay and University of Guelph professor Lawrence Goodridge, the INSPIRE program leverages community-level wastewater surveillance data, infrastructure and expertise to monitor the arrival and spread of infectious threats. The program also received infrastructure funding from BRIF to implement technologies and processes across its network that will streamline wastewater surveillance efforts to be more rapid, agile and sensitive. Importantly, these infrastructure supports will expand wastewater monitoring capacity in northern Ontario and at the Windsor-Detroit border to strengthen supply chains.
The Prepare, React, Collect, Innovate, Share and Engage (PRECISE) Diagnostic Platform, based at Sinai Health and co-led by Jennie Johnstone and Anne-Claude Gingras – who are both faculty members in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine – will advance a comprehensive, streamlined approach for responding to emerging threats by driving the timely development of rapid diagnostic tools that will scale up testing capacity and reduce reliance on global supply chains.
The Pandemic Preparedness Engaging Primary Care and Emergency Departments (PREPARED) program, based at Unity Health Toronto and led by Andrew Pinto, who is a faculty member in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, aims to engage primary care clinics and emergency departments across the country to enhance disease monitoring, improve patient care and health system efficiency, accelerate the development of medical countermeasures and boost recruitment to clinical trials.

All four research programs reflect the hub’s extensive network of nearly 100 partners from academia, hospital, industry, public and other sectors. The programs leverage the collective resources and expertise of this network, including U of T’s position as a global leader in artificial intelligence, data, life sciences and engineering, and the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network’s strong track record of clinical impact and health-care innovation.

“Our goal at HI³ is to advance mission-driven, team-based science that will help Canada be more prepared, resilient and independent in the face of emerging health threats,” said Jen Gommerman, co-director of HI³ and a professor of immunology in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“As we support and grow these four research programs, we will continue to work closely with our hub partners and with our counterparts across the country to ensure that we have the capacity and resources needed to respond in a co-ordinated, effective and equitable manner.”

U of T home to new hub that will strengthen Canada’s pandemic preparedness and increase biomanufacturing capacity

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 15:42:11 +0000

U of T home to new hub that will strengthen Canada’s pandemic preparedness and increase biomanufacturing capacity

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/02/2023 - 10:42

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(photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

Betty Zou

Topic

Our Community

Bioinnovation

Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

Leah Cowen

Sinai Health

Sunnybrook Health Sciences

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

Health

Hospital for Sick Children

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

A new national hub focused on enhancing Canada’s ability to respond quickly, effectively and equitably to future pandemics has become a reality with $2 million in funding from the Canada Biomedical Research Fund.

Led and anchored by the ��Ƶ, the Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence and Innovation in Infectious Diseases (HI³) is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector coalition of more than 80 partners. It will provide a powerful network to support a robust domestic pipeline of life-saving vaccines and therapeutics targeting existing and emerging infectious threats.

Linking the innovation engine and resources of eight Ontario universities and six research hospitals with regional and national commercialization, biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical partners, the HI³ hub will enable the country to be more prepared, resilient and independent in facing future health challenges.

The hub is led by co-directors Jen Gommerman and Scott Gray-Owen, professors of immunology and molecular genetics, respectively, in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at U of T. Gray-Owen is also the academic director of the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) and the Toronto High Containment Facility.

“While it’s human nature to be reactive, we must strive to be proactive to prevent and limit the impact of future pandemics,” said Gommerman. “We need an approach that centres on co-operation, unity, a pooling of resources, a free and open sharing of data and a commitment to serve those most at risk – this is the Canadian way.”

Temerty Faculty of Medicine Professors Jen Gommerman and Scott Gray-Owen will co-lead the HI³hub (photos by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The HI³hub grew out of the lessons of the pandemic. The network will mobilize the resources of each partner in the collaboration, strengthening the country’s and Ontario’s biomanufacturing ecosystem and pandemic readiness.

Once fully operational, the hub will facilitate a rapid response network that will begin with identifying a new pathogen, developing diagnostics and treatments that can be manufactured domestically and working with public health authorities to engage the public and target at-risk populations where necessary.

The result? Faster, more equitable access to effective and tailored interventions, fewer people dying and suffering from long-term side effects of infection, and decreased social, economic and health system impacts.

“This investment from the federal government to establish the HI³ hub builds on the robust research and innovation ecosystem at U of T and on the strength of our partnerships across sectors,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “By bringing together an unprecedented number of partners from universities, hospitals, industry and other fields, the hub is poised to expand and invigorate the innovation-to-product pipeline and protect the health of all people living in Canada.”

Precision interventions, process innovation and health intelligence

As one of five newly created hubs established with support from the Canada Biomedical Research Fund, HI³ partners/teams will compete for $570 million in research and infrastructure federal funding. The hub will enable high-risk, high-reward collaborative research projects focused on three themes: precision interventions such as vaccines and therapeutics; process innovations that leverage the power of AI to make biomanufacturing processes more streamlined and easier to implement in areas of need; and health intelligence, which pulls data from multiple sources to determine how well interventions work and guide the effective and equitable delivery of pandemic countermeasures.

The hub links industry and academic partners, including colleges, to create training opportunities and programs that attract, develop and retain the highly skilled workforce needed to drive innovation and growth in Canada’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.

Anchoring the hub at U of T means the significant expertise and infrastructure in life sciences research, advanced manufacturing, entrepreneurship and clinical care in the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario can be harnessed to make the hub a success. The Ontario region represents 47 per cent of Canadian pharmaceutical research and development expenditures and the Ontario pharmaceutical sector generates $43 billion in revenue.

“To continue to protect Canadians and to build a resilient biomanufacturing ecosystem, our government is taking every action possible to be equipped with the best tools. We’re proud to foster the research needed to produce cutting-edge discoveries and products in our very own labs that will help us build a stronger, more robust life sciences sector that responds to the needs of Canadians for decades to come,” said François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry for Canada.

Funding for the HI³ is part of a larger investment in Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. The strategy aims to grow a strong, competitive domestic life sciences sector with cutting-edge biomanufacturing capabilities and to improve national pandemic preparedness. Through the strategy’s Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund, U of T received $35 million in 2022 to revitalize the Toronto High Containment Facility, which played a pivotal role in accelerating research breakthroughs that guided the COVID-19 pandemic response in Ontario and Canada.

Among the hub’s major partners are six research hospitals from the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network – Baycrest, the Hospital for Sick Children, Sinai Health, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Unity Health Toronto and University Health Network – and eight Ontario universities, including University of Guelph, Queen’s University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Waterloo, Western University, University of Windsor and York University.

In addition to its academic partners, the HI³ hub draws on the strengths of numerous major partners in industry and the public and not-for-profit sectors – adMare Bioinnovations, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, CoVaRR-Net, Cyclica, Cytiva, the National Research Council of Canada, Providence Therapeutics, Resilience, Sanofi, Sartorius and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan.

The hub also leverages U of T’s experience in and capacity to support large-scale, high-impact interdisciplinary research, most notably through its Institutional Strategic Initiatives (ISI) program. Several ISIs – Acceleration Consortium, Centre for Research & Applications in Fluidic Technologies, Data Sciences Institute, Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium, Institute for Pandemics and Medicine by Design – are lending their expertise and providing support to help HI³ achieve its goals.

Critical U of T containment lab needs renewal: Christine Allen in the Toronto Star

mattimar — Tue, 03 May 2022 15:47:56 +0000

Critical U of T containment lab needs renewal: Christine Allen in the Toronto Star

mattimar Tue, 05/03/2022 - 11:47

Cutline

(Photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

Topic

Breaking Research

Bioinnovation

COVID-19

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Research & Innovation

The ��Ƶ’s lab facility designed to contain highly infectious disease – known as a Combined Containment Level 3 (C-CL3) Unit – is in “serious need of a refresh,” writes Christine Allen, U of T’s associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives, in an op-ed published by the Toronto Star.

The 20-year-old lab was among the first facilities in Canada to enable researchers to work with SaRS-CoV-2 samples and has contributed significantly to understanding and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also been integral to research on tuberculosis and HIV, as well as viruses such as rabies, Zika and West Nile.

“As the only such lab in Canada connected to 14 hospitals, the requests for research are increasing without the necessary matching infrastructure to accommodate them, much less to prepare for the next global health crisis,” writes Allen, who is also a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

Funding would not only support talent, innovation and economic growth, but prepare Canada for “new and emerging health threats” on the horizon, Allen said.

Canada must invest in life sciences ecosystem to prepare for future health threats: Christine Allen in the Hill Times

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 18:01:23 +0000

Canada must invest in life sciences ecosystem to prepare for future health threats: Christine Allen in the Hill Times

geoff.vendeville Fri, 02/04/2022 - 13:01

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Christine Allen (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Our Community

Bioinnovation

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Research & Innovation

COVID-19 led Canada to invest in biomanufacturing and domestic vaccine development, but a concerted national bioinnovation strategy is needed to ensure the country's prosperity and health security, says Christine Allen.

Allen, the ��Ƶ's associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic Initiatives, and a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, wrote an op-ed in the Hill Times calling for sustained investment in the bioinnovation sector to protect against future health threats.

“New investments in our life sciences ecosystem will improve health care beyond the immediate needs of the pandemic,” she says. “Canada must catch up on preventative cancer screenings, deploy regenerative medicine to tackle the acute pressure on our health-care system from diseases like diabetes and heart failure, and grow the workforce across the health-care system.”

“As this crisis transitions toward its end,” she adds, “it is time to focus on moving from an urgent response to implementing a sustained strategy that brings all stakeholders to the table and strengthens Canada’s health security.”

Bioinnovation partnership: U of T Engineering and Ford Canada introduce new, sustainable automotive material

lanthierj — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 16:17:30 +0000

Bioinnovation partnership: U of T Engineering and Ford Canada introduce new, sustainable automotive material

lanthierj Fri, 01/07/2022 - 11:17

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“If we want to reach carbon neutrality, we have to find ways to have more energy-efficient processes that use fewer materials and fewer resources with enhanced functionality,“ says Professor Mohini Sain (Photo by ��Ƶ)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Breaking Research

Bioinnovation

Industry Partnerships

Collaboration

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

A collaboration between ��Ƶ researchers and Ford Canada, led by the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Professor Mohini Sain, has produced a new, sustainably-sourced, production-ready engine component for high-performance vehicles.

The Carbon Fibre-Composite 5.0L Engine Timing Cover reduces emissions by displacing fossil fuel-derived plastics with renewable alternatives that can be recycled and by decreasing vehicle weight, leading to improved fuel efficiency.

Five years in the making, the new part was developed through a partnership between Sain’s lab group and Ford Canada’s Powertrain Research and Development Centre (PERDC), led by Dr. Jimi Tjong, the technical lead at its Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ont., which is equipped with more than 20 design and process engineers.

The partnership was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence.

“My goal is to not only do research; I want to be involved in the process from research to commercialization,” says Sain, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. “Our research group starts with the fundamental research and then we translate it into practice, going from concept to production-ready products.

“We constantly consult with our industry experts to bring synergy in our design engineering to develop optimal cost/performance balance. Pricing is a key factor in driving our innovation.”

The director of U of T Engineering’s Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing, Sain is a leading researcher in advanced low-carbon materials and sustainable bio-manufacturing.

The Carbon Fibre-Composite 5.0L Engine Timing Cover introduces a new sustainable material into the automotive industry. (Photo: Dr. Jimi Tjong/Ford Canada)

He has a track record of working with industry partners to create low-carbon, carbon-neutral, or carbon-negative products and advanced manufacturing processes that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sain previously commercialized bio-composites designed to be used in the interior of Ford vehicles. But focusing on the structure and the powertrain elements have a greater potential impact because these parts are among the heaviest components of a vehicle.

Engine timing covers, which are typically made of metals like aluminum or fossil-fuel-derived plastic, protect the timing components inside a vehicle’s engine.

By contrast, the material that Sain and his team created is a novel, multi-functional composite that combines engineered carbon material from sustainable sources with recycled carbon fibre that has a tunable carbon structure and interfacial chemistry, and engineered polyamides.

Simply making a “greener” engine component is not enough to bring about a change in the industry, says Sain. The new material must perform as well or better than what it is replacing.

“One of the challenges for us was competing with metal in terms of strain, structure, crashworthiness, esthetics and long-term stability. And metal is also very heavy,” he says.

“We also wanted to build a circular carbon economy so that the material we make from sustainable sources can be recycled at the end of its life.”

Sain and his team spent years collaborating with Tjong and the researchers at Ford to perfect the mechanical characterization and composite rheology of the new component. They also collaborated on developing the processes by which it is made.

“Since it’s a new material and new design, we were involved with designing the mould and the manufacturing process,” Sain says. “At each stage of development, we had to work closely with the Ford team on specifications to get the product to the marketplace.”

The final design not only introduces a new sustainable material into the automotive industry, but it is also seven pounds lighter than previous models, while providing a sleek appearance and functionality critical for reducing emissions and increasing the performance advantage for racing vehicles.

Ford’s Carbon Fibre-Composite 5.0L Engine Timing Cover featured at the 2021 SEMA New Product Showcase in Las Vegas this past November and was recognized by its Global Media Awards, which are chosen by the automotive industry’s top publications.

Sain hopes that the new timing cover can serve as a proof-of-concept that will enable further expansion of low carbon composites in electric vehicles.

“The larger benefit of this new material and manufacturing process is its application in lightweight structural battery pack and fuel cell packs, with added functionality such as electromagnetic interference shielding,” he says.

“If we want to reach carbon neutrality, we have to find ways to have more energy-efficient processes that use fewer materials and fewer resources with enhanced functionality. There are tremendous opportunities for transformative change.”

Bioinnovation

Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence and Innovation in Infectious Diseases awarded $72 million

U of T home to new hub that will strengthen Canada’s pandemic preparedness and increase biomanufacturing capacity

Precision interventions, process innovation and health intelligence

Critical U of T containment lab needs renewal: Christine Allen in the Toronto Star

Read more in The Toronto Star

Canada must invest in life sciences ecosystem to prepare for future health threats: Christine Allen in the Hill Times

Read more in the Hill Times (subscription required)

Bioinnovation partnership: U of T Engineering and Ford Canada introduce new, sustainable automotive material

Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T