U of T’s Douglas Lee to Helm Effort to Transform Care for Heart Failure

U of T’s Douglas Lee to Helm Effort to Transform Care for Heart Failure

Dr. Douglas Lee, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and an internationally-known cardiologist and scientist, has been selected as first-ever Ted Rogers Chair in Heart Function Outcomes at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, a Toronto collaboration aiming to transform the care of children and adults with heart failure.

Professor Douglas Lee

Lee will seek new strategies to improve outcomes for heart failure patients, by exploring the impact of health policy, the health system, and individual patient factors.

“It’s an honour to hold such a position in an organization that can make such an impact in how heart failure care can be improved,” says Lee. “Enhancing our ability to predict cardiovascular outcomes will lead to better decision-making for these patients across the entire health system. That’s big, because this is a very costly disease.”

Lee is cardiovascular program lead at the Toronto General Research Institute and cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (both at University Health Network), and senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). In 2014, he won the Canadian Cardiovascular Society's Robert E. Beamish Award for research carrying the greatest potential impact. Five years earlier, he earned a Canadian Cardiovascular Society Young Investigator Award for outstanding achievements in clinical or basic science.

“We are excited to attract a clinician scientist of this calibre. After a lengthy international search, we discovered that the most accomplished and worthy candidate for this Chair was already a member of two of our partner institutions, UHN and the University of Toronto,” says Dr. Mansoor Husain, executive director of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. “Doug Lee has a diverse range of expertise and, through his cross-appointment at ICES, he’s uniquely positioned to succeed in this new and important role.”

Lee will use a unique cardiovascular database, advanced disease modelling, and expertise in systems biology to develop tightly-focused, high-value studies as well as health policy recommendations.

One million Canadians live with heart failure. The fastest-rising cardiovascular disease carries an average survival rate of just two years and costs the Canadian health-care system up to $3 billion a year. The condition is also closely linked to diabetes, cancer and obesity.

Dr. Douglas Lee, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and an internationally-known cardiologist and scientist, has been selected as first-ever Ted Rogers Chair in Heart Function Outcomes at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, a Toronto collaboration aiming to transform the care of children and adults with heart failure.

Professor Douglas Lee

Lee will seek new strategies to improve outcomes for heart failure patients, by exploring the impact of health policy, the health system, and individual patient factors.

“It’s an honour to hold such a position in an organization that can make such an impact in how heart failure care can be improved,” says Lee. “Enhancing our ability to predict cardiovascular outcomes will lead to better decision-making for these patients across the entire health system. That’s big, because this is a very costly disease.”

Lee is cardiovascular program lead at the Toronto General Research Institute and cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (both at University Health Network), and senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). In 2014, he won the Canadian Cardiovascular Society's Robert E. Beamish Award for research carrying the greatest potential impact. Five years earlier, he earned a Canadian Cardiovascular Society Young Investigator Award for outstanding achievements in clinical or basic science.

“We are excited to attract a clinician scientist of this calibre. After a lengthy international search, we discovered that the most accomplished and worthy candidate for this Chair was already a member of two of our partner institutions, UHN and the University of Toronto,” says Dr. Mansoor Husain, executive director of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. “Doug Lee has a diverse range of expertise and, through his cross-appointment at ICES, he’s uniquely positioned to succeed in this new and important role.”

Lee will use a unique cardiovascular database, advanced disease modelling, and expertise in systems biology to develop tightly-focused, high-value studies as well as health policy recommendations.

One million Canadians live with heart failure. The fastest-rising cardiovascular disease carries an average survival rate of just two years and costs the Canadian health-care system up to $3 billion a year. The condition is also closely linked to diabetes, cancer and obesity.

U of T’s Douglas Lee to Helm Effort to Transform Care for Heart Failure
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Scientists Map Molecular Interactions at Point of Conception

Scientists Map Molecular Interactions at Point of Conception

Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered the first interactions between the human sperm and egg — the initial steps in the creation of human life. The discovery lays a foundation to better understand fertilization and could lead to the development of non-hormonal contraceptives.

Sperm meets egg; illustration by Joy Qu

"We’ve provided the first atomic-level, 3D images of the molecular interplay between egg and sperm at the point of conception," says Jeffrey Lee, a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at U of T who holds the Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology. "Our models describe how the Izumo1 sperm and Juno egg proteins interact at the site of fusion. This provides a blueprint for the development of non-hormonal contraceptives."

The journal Nature published the findings online June 15, 2016, and it was the subject of a Globe and Mail article

Izumo1, named after a Japanese shrine dedicated to marriage, and Juno, named for the Roman goddess of marriage and conception, play key roles in fertility. However, scientists have known very little about the exact way sperm fuses to an egg — despite its central importance for reproductive medicine.

Studies of how these two proteins bind had been hindered by difficulties in producing stable proteins in the laboratory. Lee and his lab solved this problem by using insect cells to make the proteins. Then, they used X-ray crystallography to recreate the structure of the proteins in 3D.

The researchers used powerful, focused X-rays from the Canadian Light Source synchrotron in Saskatoon to diffract their human Izumo1-Juno protein crystals. Using advanced computational algorithms, they determined the precise 3D coordinates of every atom in the protein structures to provide an architectural blueprint — allowing them to see how the proteins interact.

The group found that Izumo1 consists of two domains attached by a hinge-like structure and that it adopts a boomerang shape on the sperm surface. "Probably the biggest surprise was that Izumo1 has an architecture that is completely different from other viral and cellular fusion proteins," says Halil Aydin, first author on the study and a doctoral student in Lee's lab.

The team showed that Izumo1 undergoes a conformational change and abandons its boomerang shape upon binding with Juno. Working with researchers at the University of California, San Diego, they also found that the bound Izumo1 is stabilized in a locked, upright position.

The interaction between Izumo1 and Juno, it turns out, is conserved in humans and primates but varies across mammalian species. "The specific human Izumo1 and Juno interaction may provide an additional barrier to cross-species fertilization," says Aydin.

The researchers also discovered the human Izumo1 and Juno bind together very tightly, contrary to what many researchers believed. After fertilization, the egg sheds Juno molecules from its surface. The tight binding of shed Juno may block or neutralize incoming sperm to prevent more than one sperm from fertilizing the egg.

More questions need answering about how the sperm and egg fuse, says Lee. In particular, what other proteins may be critical for the process. So far, an understanding of many cell fusion mechanisms have been based on how viruses fuse with cells.

"It will definitely be exciting work for us to elucidate the precise mechanism of sperm-egg fusion and to understand how various fusion processes in biology are similar or different," says Lee. "We've laid a strong foundation that we and others can build on. This is a pure basic science study that now provides guidance for other biologists and clinical investigators to open up new lines of inquiry."

Other co-authors on the study were Azmiri Sultana and Annoj Thavalingam (U of T), and Sheng Li (UCSD). The research was supported in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, an Ontario Early Researcher Award, the National Institutes of Health and the Canada Research Chairs program. 

 

 

Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered the first interactions between the human sperm and egg — the initial steps in the creation of human life. The discovery lays a foundation to better understand fertilization and could lead to the development of non-hormonal contraceptives.

Sperm meets egg; illustration by Joy Qu

"We’ve provided the first atomic-level, 3D images of the molecular interplay between egg and sperm at the point of conception," says Jeffrey Lee, a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at U of T who holds the Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology. "Our models describe how the Izumo1 sperm and Juno egg proteins interact at the site of fusion. This provides a blueprint for the development of non-hormonal contraceptives."

The journal Nature published the findings online June 15, 2016, and it was the subject of a Globe and Mail article

Izumo1, named after a Japanese shrine dedicated to marriage, and Juno, named for the Roman goddess of marriage and conception, play key roles in fertility. However, scientists have known very little about the exact way sperm fuses to an egg — despite its central importance for reproductive medicine.

Studies of how these two proteins bind had been hindered by difficulties in producing stable proteins in the laboratory. Lee and his lab solved this problem by using insect cells to make the proteins. Then, they used X-ray crystallography to recreate the structure of the proteins in 3D.

The researchers used powerful, focused X-rays from the Canadian Light Source synchrotron in Saskatoon to diffract their human Izumo1-Juno protein crystals. Using advanced computational algorithms, they determined the precise 3D coordinates of every atom in the protein structures to provide an architectural blueprint — allowing them to see how the proteins interact.

The group found that Izumo1 consists of two domains attached by a hinge-like structure and that it adopts a boomerang shape on the sperm surface. "Probably the biggest surprise was that Izumo1 has an architecture that is completely different from other viral and cellular fusion proteins," says Halil Aydin, first author on the study and a doctoral student in Lee's lab.

The team showed that Izumo1 undergoes a conformational change and abandons its boomerang shape upon binding with Juno. Working with researchers at the University of California, San Diego, they also found that the bound Izumo1 is stabilized in a locked, upright position.

The interaction between Izumo1 and Juno, it turns out, is conserved in humans and primates but varies across mammalian species. "The specific human Izumo1 and Juno interaction may provide an additional barrier to cross-species fertilization," says Aydin.

The researchers also discovered the human Izumo1 and Juno bind together very tightly, contrary to what many researchers believed. After fertilization, the egg sheds Juno molecules from its surface. The tight binding of shed Juno may block or neutralize incoming sperm to prevent more than one sperm from fertilizing the egg.

More questions need answering about how the sperm and egg fuse, says Lee. In particular, what other proteins may be critical for the process. So far, an understanding of many cell fusion mechanisms have been based on how viruses fuse with cells.

"It will definitely be exciting work for us to elucidate the precise mechanism of sperm-egg fusion and to understand how various fusion processes in biology are similar or different," says Lee. "We've laid a strong foundation that we and others can build on. This is a pure basic science study that now provides guidance for other biologists and clinical investigators to open up new lines of inquiry."

Other co-authors on the study were Azmiri Sultana and Annoj Thavalingam (U of T), and Sheng Li (UCSD). The research was supported in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, an Ontario Early Researcher Award, the National Institutes of Health and the Canada Research Chairs program. 

 

 

Scientists Map Molecular Interactions at Point of Conception
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Jim Oldfield and Heidi Singer

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Faculty of Medicine Celebrates Convocation 2016

Faculty of Medicine Celebrates Convocation 2016

Congratulations to the class of 1T6!

The warmer weather is here and U of T convocation season is about to begin! Faculty of Medicine students will be donning their robes, and taking over front campus, on May 31st and June 7th. You will be able to catch all our coverage here including student profiles, links to live streaming and our convocation social media feed. 

#UofTGrad16

Share your convocation moments by using the #UofTMed and #UofTGrad16 hashtags and check back here for more info as we gear up for the day!

instagram convocation

Congratulations to the class of 1T6!

The warmer weather is here and U of T convocation season is about to begin! Faculty of Medicine students will be donning their robes, and taking over front campus, on May 31st and June 7th. You will be able to catch all our coverage here including student profiles, links to live streaming and our convocation social media feed. 

#UofTGrad16

Share your convocation moments by using the #UofTMed and #UofTGrad16 hashtags and check back here for more info as we gear up for the day!

instagram convocation

Faculty of Medicine Celebrates Convocation 2016
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Faces of U of T Medicine: Lisa Boivin

Faces of U of T Medicine: Lisa Boivin

Lisa Boivin

Lisa Boivin is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation in the Northwest Territories. She is also a bioethics student and interdisciplinary artist who creates paintings, poetry and image-based stories to bridge gaps between bioethics and aspects of Indigenous culture. Boivin is the student editor of the Indigenous Healthcare section in Ars Medica, a journal of medicine, the arts and humanities. Her painting, Sharing Bioethics, was included in the The Body Electric digital art exhibit at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s International Conference on Residency Education last fall and is now on display in the Faculty of Medicine’s Enrolment Services office.

Name: Lisa Boivin

Program/Year: Bioethics Specialist in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Fifth Year

Role/Position: Interdisciplinary Artist

What inspired you to create your work, Sharing Bioethics?

Sharing Bioethics came about when my Mother asked me, “Lisa what do you do? How do I explain it?” My Mother knows what bioethics is and she understands aspects of my Dene culture, but she wasn’t sure how I marry the two academically. I told her I would paint her an image-based story so she could understand. The painting is overflowing with bioethical, medical, familial and Dene stories. My Mother is connected to all of them. In the painting I am sharing bioethics with a clinician; in real life I am sharing bioethics with my mother. In this way I honor my mother. Sharing Bioethics is an honor song for her.

What motivated you to become an artist?

I have always been artistically inclined, writing poetry, stories and taking photographs. Painting is something different. It developed out of necessity. As certain academic tasks became too difficult to respond to linguistically, I learned to paint. My first paintings, Residential School Series, started as an essay I could not write. Painting is a way of knowing, a connection to the ancestors and knowledges that are thousands of years old. I realize in the academic world my explanation sounds strange but it is the only way I can explain my ability to paint and translate knowledge. I am not a classically trained artist I have only been painting for 17 months.

What drew you to the field of bioethics?

Bioethics tells a range of beautiful and meaningful stories, and I fell in love with these narratives. There are stories that have to be exchanged within bioethics to make sure an action is right or good. I wanted to learn those stories and maybe add a few of my own to the academic discipline of bioethics.

How can art help to bridge gaps between bioethics and Indigenous wisdom and knowledge?

There are colonial boundaries in bioethics because the systems of communication are not universal. Bioethics relies heavily on academic and clinical approaches that employ linguistic and written methods to translate knowledge. Visual representation of the human experience and moral behavior is rarely utilized. However, answers to ethical questions don’t have to be housed in academic writing.

In Dene culture, there are certain ethical stories that cannot be confined in the structure of printed words. I illustrate these stories and situate the ethics in my paintings. These paintings dismantle the colonial boundaries in bioethics and bestow cultural teachings that lead to solutions.

What is you favorite thing about the Faculty of Medicine?

My favorite thing about the Faculty of Medicine isn’t a thing, but a person. Rochelle Allan is the Indigenous Peoples’ Program Coordinator at the Office of Indigenous Medical Education. She is largely responsible for my success as an artist and an image-based storyteller. She saw something in my art immediately and encouraged me to develop it further. Rochelle introduced me to several people, which resulted in a multitude of opportunities. I am extremely lucky to have met her.

Lisa Boivin

Lisa Boivin is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation in the Northwest Territories. She is also a bioethics student and interdisciplinary artist who creates paintings, poetry and image-based stories to bridge gaps between bioethics and aspects of Indigenous culture. Boivin is the student editor of the Indigenous Healthcare section in Ars Medica, a journal of medicine, the arts and humanities. Her painting, Sharing Bioethics, was included in the The Body Electric digital art exhibit at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s International Conference on Residency Education last fall and is now on display in the Faculty of Medicine’s Enrolment Services office.

Name: Lisa Boivin

Program/Year: Bioethics Specialist in the Faculty of Arts and Science, Fifth Year

Role/Position: Interdisciplinary Artist

What inspired you to create your work, Sharing Bioethics?

Sharing Bioethics came about when my Mother asked me, “Lisa what do you do? How do I explain it?” My Mother knows what bioethics is and she understands aspects of my Dene culture, but she wasn’t sure how I marry the two academically. I told her I would paint her an image-based story so she could understand. The painting is overflowing with bioethical, medical, familial and Dene stories. My Mother is connected to all of them. In the painting I am sharing bioethics with a clinician; in real life I am sharing bioethics with my mother. In this way I honor my mother. Sharing Bioethics is an honor song for her.

What motivated you to become an artist?

I have always been artistically inclined, writing poetry, stories and taking photographs. Painting is something different. It developed out of necessity. As certain academic tasks became too difficult to respond to linguistically, I learned to paint. My first paintings, Residential School Series, started as an essay I could not write. Painting is a way of knowing, a connection to the ancestors and knowledges that are thousands of years old. I realize in the academic world my explanation sounds strange but it is the only way I can explain my ability to paint and translate knowledge. I am not a classically trained artist I have only been painting for 17 months.

What drew you to the field of bioethics?

Bioethics tells a range of beautiful and meaningful stories, and I fell in love with these narratives. There are stories that have to be exchanged within bioethics to make sure an action is right or good. I wanted to learn those stories and maybe add a few of my own to the academic discipline of bioethics.

How can art help to bridge gaps between bioethics and Indigenous wisdom and knowledge?

There are colonial boundaries in bioethics because the systems of communication are not universal. Bioethics relies heavily on academic and clinical approaches that employ linguistic and written methods to translate knowledge. Visual representation of the human experience and moral behavior is rarely utilized. However, answers to ethical questions don’t have to be housed in academic writing.

In Dene culture, there are certain ethical stories that cannot be confined in the structure of printed words. I illustrate these stories and situate the ethics in my paintings. These paintings dismantle the colonial boundaries in bioethics and bestow cultural teachings that lead to solutions.

What is you favorite thing about the Faculty of Medicine?

My favorite thing about the Faculty of Medicine isn’t a thing, but a person. Rochelle Allan is the Indigenous Peoples’ Program Coordinator at the Office of Indigenous Medical Education. She is largely responsible for my success as an artist and an image-based storyteller. She saw something in my art immediately and encouraged me to develop it further. Rochelle introduced me to several people, which resulted in a multitude of opportunities. I am extremely lucky to have met her.

Faces of U of T Medicine: Lisa Boivin
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Common Diabetes Drug May Help Children With Brain Injuries

Common Diabetes Drug May Help Children With Brain Injuries

Parvati Dadwal, Professor Cindi Morshead, Neemat Mahmud, Michael Fatt and Ashkan Azimi
A drug commonly used for diabetes shows promise for treating childhood brain injury.

Researchers in Professor Cindi Morshead’s lab found that metformin can help activate stem cells to make repairs in the brain in a form of childhood brain injury similar to cerebral palsy.  

In the study, published in Stem Cell Reports, the team saw that Metformin, administered over a period of one week, triggered an expansion in the number of neurons and glial cells in the brains of young mice following injury. Neurons transmit nerve impulses, while glial cells support the central nervous system. The researchers observed the growth in the number of both just two weeks after the Metformin was provided.

“We saw a dramatic increase in the number of neurons and glial cells migrating to the parts of the brain that play a role in motor function including the striatum and the motor cortex,” says Parvati Dadwal, one of the paper’s co-lead authors.  “It was really encouraging to see that just one week of metformin treatment was able to produce a full functional recovery in the animals.”

Though researchers saw benefits in young mice, they didn’t see the same stem cell pool expansion in older animals. Dadwal, who conducted this research as part of her master’s degree in stem cell biology, says the environment in young mice is more plastic compared to adults , making them more responsive to the treatment.

More research into the drug’s effects on cognitive function is underway in Morshead’s lab. Further study is also needed to determine whether Metformin’s benefits extend into adulthood in the brain injury model.

“To me, what’s exciting about this research is that the duration of drug administration was short, the dose small, but the results were compelling,” says co-lead author Neemat Mahmud. “The injury model didn’t require chronic treatment and there was no risk for an overdose.”

The World Health Organization lists Metformin as an essential medicine for adults and children. The drug is proven to be safe and is already used to treat kids with some metabolic conditions. As well, it is an inexpensive drug, which makes it accessible to a wide range of people around the globe.

Because the drug is well studied, known to be safe and already approved for use in people, the team’s findings are already being tested in a clinical trial. A group of scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children is now working to determine whether Metformin will have similar benefits for children with acquired brain injuries.

Parvati Dadwal, Professor Cindi Morshead, Neemat Mahmud, Michael Fatt and Ashkan Azimi
A drug commonly used for diabetes shows promise for treating childhood brain injury.

Researchers in Professor Cindi Morshead’s lab found that metformin can help activate stem cells to make repairs in the brain in a form of childhood brain injury similar to cerebral palsy.  

In the study, published in Stem Cell Reports, the team saw that Metformin, administered over a period of one week, triggered an expansion in the number of neurons and glial cells in the brains of young mice following injury. Neurons transmit nerve impulses, while glial cells support the central nervous system. The researchers observed the growth in the number of both just two weeks after the Metformin was provided.

“We saw a dramatic increase in the number of neurons and glial cells migrating to the parts of the brain that play a role in motor function including the striatum and the motor cortex,” says Parvati Dadwal, one of the paper’s co-lead authors.  “It was really encouraging to see that just one week of metformin treatment was able to produce a full functional recovery in the animals.”

Though researchers saw benefits in young mice, they didn’t see the same stem cell pool expansion in older animals. Dadwal, who conducted this research as part of her master’s degree in stem cell biology, says the environment in young mice is more plastic compared to adults , making them more responsive to the treatment.

More research into the drug’s effects on cognitive function is underway in Morshead’s lab. Further study is also needed to determine whether Metformin’s benefits extend into adulthood in the brain injury model.

“To me, what’s exciting about this research is that the duration of drug administration was short, the dose small, but the results were compelling,” says co-lead author Neemat Mahmud. “The injury model didn’t require chronic treatment and there was no risk for an overdose.”

The World Health Organization lists Metformin as an essential medicine for adults and children. The drug is proven to be safe and is already used to treat kids with some metabolic conditions. As well, it is an inexpensive drug, which makes it accessible to a wide range of people around the globe.

Because the drug is well studied, known to be safe and already approved for use in people, the team’s findings are already being tested in a clinical trial. A group of scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children is now working to determine whether Metformin will have similar benefits for children with acquired brain injuries.

Common Diabetes Drug May Help Children With Brain Injuries
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Erin Howe

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Jim Hunter ALS Cycle for a Cure

Jim Hunter ALS Cycle for a Cure
Angus Glen Golf Club

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Jim Hunter ALS Cycle for a Cure
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10080 Kennedy Road
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Markham
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L6C 1N9

The Tanz CRND is partnering with ALS Canada and Sunnybrook Foundation for the third annual Jim Hunter Cycle for a Cure.  This fundraising event, which includes a 20km or 70km ride, is raising funds to support critical research that will bring us a step closer to a deeper understanding of ALS and identify new methods of treatments that will help individuals affected by this debilitating disease. 

For more information or to register as a participant, please visit the website at http://www.alscycleforacure.ca/

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Ideas to Impact

Ideas to Impact

H2i Commercialization Fellowship Pitch-off
It takes more than a great idea to launch a product. A new fellowship sponsored by the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) at the Faculty of Medicine is helping entrepreneurially minded students take their health-focused projects from ‘concept’ to ‘commercially viable’ prototype.

H2i is a health-centric business accelerator that’s part of a network of entrepreneurship programs at the University of Toronto. The Health Commercialization Awards support student creativity to improve health care and the ways it is delivered.

“Medicine has unique needs in the sense that we’re not just about commercialization,” says Joseph Ferenbok, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery who co-Directs H2i with Paul Santerre, a Professor with the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering. “We want to support ideas that can impact people’s health in the broadest sense. The projects should have benefits to society either by directly or indirectly saving health care costs, creating jobs, generating revenue into the economy, or creating value to the health care system to improve people’s health or improve the quality of people’s lives.”

More than 50 students applied for the fellowship and seven finalists were chosen to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. The students were mentored on how to prepare - a strong concept pitch — like avoiding jargon and using clear language.  Ideas ranged from a smart pouch for birth control pills to a pacemaker power pack that converts blood glucose into electrical energy.

Sharon GabisonSharon Gabison is one of three students awarded a $5000 fellowship. Gabison is a physiotherapist completing a PhD at the Institute of Medical Science. Her team’s project, the Pressure Ulcer Target, is an app that works with a ‘smart’ pressure mat helps people with a spinal cord injury (SCI) learn about — and avoid — pressure ulcers. The sores affect about 95 per cent of people with SCIs at some point in their lives. They develop because of prolonged pressure on the skin. The ulcers can become infected, require a person be hospitalized and — in the worst-case scenario — result in fatal complications. But people can prevent pressure ulcers by regularly changing position.

“Because of the sensory impairments caused by SCI, people may not feel a pressure ulcer developing,” says Gabison. “Many of these sores develop when people don’t expect them to — maybe they had to go on a long trip, or they had a crease in their pants, or they just forgot to do a weight shift and they got this pressure ulcer. Or maybe they didn’t even know it was so important.”

The app works with an existing device called a Sensimat that sits underneath a wheelchair cushion. Together, the technology teaches people how the sores develop, how long they take to heal, and how they can reduce their risk of getting a pressure ulcer. The technology also gives users reminders to shift their weight. Gabison says the Pressure Ulcer Target is the first app designed for patients and was developed with the physical limitations experienced by many people with SCI.

The fellowship will help Gabison and her team gather more data to determine the app’s utility. She also hopes to partner with SCI research associations.

“If we show this helps people with spinal cord injury, maybe it could help people with other conditions where people are immobile and confined to a wheelchair. It could also be given to caregivers for people who may not have the cognitive capacity to move themselves. Perhaps it could be translated into a bed system,” says Gabison.

The other inaugural fellowship winners are Mark Aquilino, who developed a low-cost 3D bioprinter, and Rob Pilipos, who has found a way to promote neurorepair via electrical stimulation.

H2i also plans to hold another event called Hacking Health Care, which will allow students from around campus to work on innovative solutions to improve health care delivery.  Winners of that challenge will receive fellowships to help build prototypes and test their ideas. 

H2i Commercialization Fellowship Pitch-off
It takes more than a great idea to launch a product. A new fellowship sponsored by the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) at the Faculty of Medicine is helping entrepreneurially minded students take their health-focused projects from ‘concept’ to ‘commercially viable’ prototype.

H2i is a health-centric business accelerator that’s part of a network of entrepreneurship programs at the University of Toronto. The Health Commercialization Awards support student creativity to improve health care and the ways it is delivered.

“Medicine has unique needs in the sense that we’re not just about commercialization,” says Joseph Ferenbok, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery who co-Directs H2i with Paul Santerre, a Professor with the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering. “We want to support ideas that can impact people’s health in the broadest sense. The projects should have benefits to society either by directly or indirectly saving health care costs, creating jobs, generating revenue into the economy, or creating value to the health care system to improve people’s health or improve the quality of people’s lives.”

More than 50 students applied for the fellowship and seven finalists were chosen to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. The students were mentored on how to prepare - a strong concept pitch — like avoiding jargon and using clear language.  Ideas ranged from a smart pouch for birth control pills to a pacemaker power pack that converts blood glucose into electrical energy.

Sharon GabisonSharon Gabison is one of three students awarded a $5000 fellowship. Gabison is a physiotherapist completing a PhD at the Institute of Medical Science. Her team’s project, the Pressure Ulcer Target, is an app that works with a ‘smart’ pressure mat helps people with a spinal cord injury (SCI) learn about — and avoid — pressure ulcers. The sores affect about 95 per cent of people with SCIs at some point in their lives. They develop because of prolonged pressure on the skin. The ulcers can become infected, require a person be hospitalized and — in the worst-case scenario — result in fatal complications. But people can prevent pressure ulcers by regularly changing position.

“Because of the sensory impairments caused by SCI, people may not feel a pressure ulcer developing,” says Gabison. “Many of these sores develop when people don’t expect them to — maybe they had to go on a long trip, or they had a crease in their pants, or they just forgot to do a weight shift and they got this pressure ulcer. Or maybe they didn’t even know it was so important.”

The app works with an existing device called a Sensimat that sits underneath a wheelchair cushion. Together, the technology teaches people how the sores develop, how long they take to heal, and how they can reduce their risk of getting a pressure ulcer. The technology also gives users reminders to shift their weight. Gabison says the Pressure Ulcer Target is the first app designed for patients and was developed with the physical limitations experienced by many people with SCI.

The fellowship will help Gabison and her team gather more data to determine the app’s utility. She also hopes to partner with SCI research associations.

“If we show this helps people with spinal cord injury, maybe it could help people with other conditions where people are immobile and confined to a wheelchair. It could also be given to caregivers for people who may not have the cognitive capacity to move themselves. Perhaps it could be translated into a bed system,” says Gabison.

The other inaugural fellowship winners are Mark Aquilino, who developed a low-cost 3D bioprinter, and Rob Pilipos, who has found a way to promote neurorepair via electrical stimulation.

H2i also plans to hold another event called Hacking Health Care, which will allow students from around campus to work on innovative solutions to improve health care delivery.  Winners of that challenge will receive fellowships to help build prototypes and test their ideas. 

Ideas to Impact
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Remembering Jack Laidlaw

Remembering Jack Laidlaw

Dr. Jack Laidlaw
On Saturday June 6, Institute of Medical Science (IMS) co-founder Dr. Jack Laidlaw passed away at the age of 94. Jack was a bright and lasting presence in the IMS, often attending the annual IMS Scientific Day and presenting the Jack Laidlaw Manuscript Prize named in his honour. 

A practicing Endocrinologist, Dr. Laidlaw was an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology. He earned a Masters (Toronto, 1947) and PhD (London, 1950) in Biochemistry and conducted endocrine research at Harvard University.  As a leader in the field he helped to create the Clinical Investigation Unit at Toronto General Hospital in 1956 and became the founder of its Division of Endocrinology.  This pioneering work made Dr. Laidlaw a force in the Faculty of Medicine. He went on to be appointed to the Order of Canada in 2003. 

Dr. Laidlaw was an innovator whose dissatisfaction with the training of clinician investigators in the mid-1960s led to a partnership with Dr. Ernest McCulloch, a researcher in the Division of Biological Research at the Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital.  Both felt that there was a need for a new graduate program that would adequately train clinician investigators with a more flexible and interdisciplinary approach to research than was possible in traditional basic science departments. 

As a result, The Institute of Medical Science was established as a graduate unit of the School of Graduate Studies in 1967.  This bold initiative was met with skepticism but despite this grew and thrived. Dr. Laidlaw served as Director from 1967 to 1975.  In the early years, he worked hard to communicate the vision of the IMS to senior clinicians and Chairs with the goal of expanding the faculty and student base.  As Dr. McCulloch recalled “those were interesting, strenuous days, because we were devising policies and procedures; doing everything from scratch.”

In 2014, Dr. Laidlaw was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, part of the Dean’s Alumni Awards.  In the video profile prepared by the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Laidlaw describes the founding of the Institute of Medical Science as his “most important academic achievement.”   

He further clarifies that this could not have been done without the team around him. In his own words:

“I love working in teams. I love working with people of disparate backgrounds who are interested in the same battle and they pull together from different points of view.  And trying to get them to pull together is a great task.”

The battle for a diverse and collaborative graduate unit that trains clinician-investigators was certainly won.  The Institute of Medical Science now boasts over 600 faculty and 500 students from diverse backgrounds, and spans the entire hospital network.  This is in no small part due to Dr. Jack Laidlaw.  Jack will be remembered as a sweet and kind man whose commitment and vision led to the creation of an Institute that continues to make room for scientific innovation and clinical investigation in the 21st century.    

  • Jack Laidlaw was the Chair in Patient-Centred Health Care, McMaster University
  • Founding Director, University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science
  • Advisor to World Health Organization, MRC and Cancer Care Ontario

Dr. Jack Laidlaw
On Saturday June 6, Institute of Medical Science (IMS) co-founder Dr. Jack Laidlaw passed away at the age of 94. Jack was a bright and lasting presence in the IMS, often attending the annual IMS Scientific Day and presenting the Jack Laidlaw Manuscript Prize named in his honour. 

A practicing Endocrinologist, Dr. Laidlaw was an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology. He earned a Masters (Toronto, 1947) and PhD (London, 1950) in Biochemistry and conducted endocrine research at Harvard University.  As a leader in the field he helped to create the Clinical Investigation Unit at Toronto General Hospital in 1956 and became the founder of its Division of Endocrinology.  This pioneering work made Dr. Laidlaw a force in the Faculty of Medicine. He went on to be appointed to the Order of Canada in 2003. 

Dr. Laidlaw was an innovator whose dissatisfaction with the training of clinician investigators in the mid-1960s led to a partnership with Dr. Ernest McCulloch, a researcher in the Division of Biological Research at the Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital.  Both felt that there was a need for a new graduate program that would adequately train clinician investigators with a more flexible and interdisciplinary approach to research than was possible in traditional basic science departments. 

As a result, The Institute of Medical Science was established as a graduate unit of the School of Graduate Studies in 1967.  This bold initiative was met with skepticism but despite this grew and thrived. Dr. Laidlaw served as Director from 1967 to 1975.  In the early years, he worked hard to communicate the vision of the IMS to senior clinicians and Chairs with the goal of expanding the faculty and student base.  As Dr. McCulloch recalled “those were interesting, strenuous days, because we were devising policies and procedures; doing everything from scratch.”

In 2014, Dr. Laidlaw was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, part of the Dean’s Alumni Awards.  In the video profile prepared by the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Laidlaw describes the founding of the Institute of Medical Science as his “most important academic achievement.”   

He further clarifies that this could not have been done without the team around him. In his own words:

“I love working in teams. I love working with people of disparate backgrounds who are interested in the same battle and they pull together from different points of view.  And trying to get them to pull together is a great task.”

The battle for a diverse and collaborative graduate unit that trains clinician-investigators was certainly won.  The Institute of Medical Science now boasts over 600 faculty and 500 students from diverse backgrounds, and spans the entire hospital network.  This is in no small part due to Dr. Jack Laidlaw.  Jack will be remembered as a sweet and kind man whose commitment and vision led to the creation of an Institute that continues to make room for scientific innovation and clinical investigation in the 21st century.    

  • Jack Laidlaw was the Chair in Patient-Centred Health Care, McMaster University
  • Founding Director, University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science
  • Advisor to World Health Organization, MRC and Cancer Care Ontario
Remembering Jack Laidlaw
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New Map Uncovers the Traffic of Life in a Cell

New Map Uncovers the Traffic of Life in a Cell

Yeast cells
Toronto scientists have recorded, in unprecedented detail, the locations of all proteins in a cell. This new protein map allows scientists to look much more closely into what happens in a cell when disease strikes, and will also help find better treatments.

Led by Professors Brenda Andrews, Charles Boone, and Jason Moffat from the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre, the team built a state-of-the-art automated pipeline to monitor where proteins sit in the cell and to see how they move in response to genetic or environmental perturbations.

The study is published in today’s issue of Cell, a leading journal in the field.

The detailed database of protein locations will be made available, also this month, through G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, the official journal of the Genetics Society of America, so that anyone can look up location and movement of their protein(s) of interest.

As cells do their jobs, such as making, maintaining and repairing our bodies, they continuously move proteins around. But scientists understand very little about how this traffic occurs inside our cells. This is about to change as the new map, which charts protein movement and abundance, becomes available. Much as the shipping or airline routes give insights into the state of world economy, so this new protein map will help scientists understand better what happens in cells when they are healthy and what goes wrong in a disease.

Proteins are products of genes and they are responsible for all the workings of the cell.

 “A lot of the regulation that happens within cells, which is critical for the basic functioning of the human body, influences where individual proteins are localized and how they move around. It is very important to understand how this regulation happens if we are going to be able to understand why cells are healthy and why they are sometimes diseased,” says Brenda Andrews, who is also a professor in U of T’s Department of Molecular Genetics.

To visualize and count 3000 of the roughly 6000 proteins in the cell, researchers collected data for mind-boggling 20 million cells. For more than a decade, the scientists worked closely together with robotic engineers, who built machines to handle the cells, and software writers who designed artificial intelligence-based algorithms to process the vast amount of data.

“The reason we need to do it on a large scale is because there simply are so many proteins,” says Andrews, who uses baker’s yeast as a model to understand human cell biology.

Yeast cells work in very similar ways to human cells but have fewer proteins, around a quarter the number that exist in more complex human cells. This relative simplicity has allowed researchers like Andrews and Boone to use yeast to make many fundamental insights into how both yeast and human cells work.

Their team not only charted protein movement and abundance in normal cells, but they also looked at what happen when cells carry a mutation, which could lead to a genetic disease, for example, or when they are exposed to different drugs.

“We’ve developed methods that allow scientists to examine all of proteins in the cell and how they change in response to any kind of perturbation,” says Andrews.

Next, the researchers will use this powerful pipeline to investigate how proteins move in human cells, such as cancer cells, to understand better the origin of the disease, but also to search for new treatments.

“We want to understand how all proteins are moving, at a systems level, in cancer cells upon, say, a treatment with a drug or genetic perturbation, so that we can identify vulnerabilities in cancer cells, in terms of protein localization and abundance, and start thinking about how to best target those changes,” says Moffat, also a professor in U of T’s Department of Molecular Genetics.

Yeast cells
Toronto scientists have recorded, in unprecedented detail, the locations of all proteins in a cell. This new protein map allows scientists to look much more closely into what happens in a cell when disease strikes, and will also help find better treatments.

Led by Professors Brenda Andrews, Charles Boone, and Jason Moffat from the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre, the team built a state-of-the-art automated pipeline to monitor where proteins sit in the cell and to see how they move in response to genetic or environmental perturbations.

The study is published in today’s issue of Cell, a leading journal in the field.

The detailed database of protein locations will be made available, also this month, through G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, the official journal of the Genetics Society of America, so that anyone can look up location and movement of their protein(s) of interest.

As cells do their jobs, such as making, maintaining and repairing our bodies, they continuously move proteins around. But scientists understand very little about how this traffic occurs inside our cells. This is about to change as the new map, which charts protein movement and abundance, becomes available. Much as the shipping or airline routes give insights into the state of world economy, so this new protein map will help scientists understand better what happens in cells when they are healthy and what goes wrong in a disease.

Proteins are products of genes and they are responsible for all the workings of the cell.

 “A lot of the regulation that happens within cells, which is critical for the basic functioning of the human body, influences where individual proteins are localized and how they move around. It is very important to understand how this regulation happens if we are going to be able to understand why cells are healthy and why they are sometimes diseased,” says Brenda Andrews, who is also a professor in U of T’s Department of Molecular Genetics.

To visualize and count 3000 of the roughly 6000 proteins in the cell, researchers collected data for mind-boggling 20 million cells. For more than a decade, the scientists worked closely together with robotic engineers, who built machines to handle the cells, and software writers who designed artificial intelligence-based algorithms to process the vast amount of data.

“The reason we need to do it on a large scale is because there simply are so many proteins,” says Andrews, who uses baker’s yeast as a model to understand human cell biology.

Yeast cells work in very similar ways to human cells but have fewer proteins, around a quarter the number that exist in more complex human cells. This relative simplicity has allowed researchers like Andrews and Boone to use yeast to make many fundamental insights into how both yeast and human cells work.

Their team not only charted protein movement and abundance in normal cells, but they also looked at what happen when cells carry a mutation, which could lead to a genetic disease, for example, or when they are exposed to different drugs.

“We’ve developed methods that allow scientists to examine all of proteins in the cell and how they change in response to any kind of perturbation,” says Andrews.

Next, the researchers will use this powerful pipeline to investigate how proteins move in human cells, such as cancer cells, to understand better the origin of the disease, but also to search for new treatments.

“We want to understand how all proteins are moving, at a systems level, in cancer cells upon, say, a treatment with a drug or genetic perturbation, so that we can identify vulnerabilities in cancer cells, in terms of protein localization and abundance, and start thinking about how to best target those changes,” says Moffat, also a professor in U of T’s Department of Molecular Genetics.

New Map Uncovers the Traffic of Life in a Cell
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Faces of U of T Medicine: Moira de Valence

Faces of U of T Medicine: Moira de Valence

Moira de Valence
Moira de Valence understands the relationship between food security and good health. The fourth year medical student saw the connection in action when she took part in the Weston Health Professions Project, which builds health in Toronto’s Weston neighbourhood by engaging health professions students, grassroots community agencies and other stakeholders in community-based research and program development. She spoke to us about the project and how it helped prepare her to specialize in family medicine.

Name:  Moira de Valence

Program/year:  Medicine, Fourth Year

Role/position: Volunteer, Weston Health Professions Project

How did you become involved in the Weston Health Professions Project?

I’ve been interested in food security since I was an undergrad. Food security is the idea that all people deserve access to adequate healthy, culturally appropriate food coming from a sustainable food system. So when you work on food security, you’re not just helping people meet their nutritional needs, you’re also helping them find social supports and self-efficacy and you’re helping build strength in the community. Food has been one of the most important things to people throughout history. It has incredible cultural, social and economic significance. In the broader sense, we will only truly have food security when we have a more fair and equitable society.

Tell me about your experience.

I became involved in the Weston Health Professions Project though a course called Determinants of Community Health. My supervisor, Professor Joyce Nyhof-Young, wanted to connect the research skills and resources of academic institutions like U of T with the local Weston organizations that are already doing such great work to promote health and know what goals are important to the community.

I did research that helped the Weston-King Neighbourhood Centre expand its food program to an additional site. Models of food assistance have really changed over the last 40 years and the centre wanted to interview program participants to find out what their needs were so the new program could serve them better.

What was most exciting about the Weston Health Professions Project?

It was amazing to have people share their stories with me. Doing qualitative interviews was a really powerful and intimate experience. I was honoured that people were so willing to open up about struggles that they’d faced like poverty, addiction, abuse or other difficult experiences. That experience has showed me there is an incredible amount doctors can learn from patients throughout our careers. I hope I can maintain the perspective that learning in the doctor-patient relationship is a two-way street.

How has this experience influenced your long-term plans?

I’m looking forward to starting my residency in family medicine. Change can be slow, so something powerful about that field is the ability to have relationships with your patients over a long period of time. As well, family medicine gives you a broad view of what goes into wellness. The perspective I’ve gotten from the Weston Health Professions Project is that your medical knowledge as a doctor doesn't necessarily translate into anything meaningful for your patients unless you can also deal with these things like the social determinants of health that are so immediate and powerful in their lives. It's important to consider the patient's situation as a whole when you are working with them to improve their health. 

What’s your favourite thing about the Faculty of Medicine?

The diverse opportunities in Toronto are unparalleled. You can work with any patient population; you can work in anything from the most community-based area to the most academic, cutting-edge research. Even though the Faculty is so big and its offerings are so broad, anywhere you go— to any of the teaching sites — there is energy and a pride about being at U of T and a commitment to values we share. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend four years here.

Moira de Valence
Moira de Valence understands the relationship between food security and good health. The fourth year medical student saw the connection in action when she took part in the Weston Health Professions Project, which builds health in Toronto’s Weston neighbourhood by engaging health professions students, grassroots community agencies and other stakeholders in community-based research and program development. She spoke to us about the project and how it helped prepare her to specialize in family medicine.

Name:  Moira de Valence

Program/year:  Medicine, Fourth Year

Role/position: Volunteer, Weston Health Professions Project

How did you become involved in the Weston Health Professions Project?

I’ve been interested in food security since I was an undergrad. Food security is the idea that all people deserve access to adequate healthy, culturally appropriate food coming from a sustainable food system. So when you work on food security, you’re not just helping people meet their nutritional needs, you’re also helping them find social supports and self-efficacy and you’re helping build strength in the community. Food has been one of the most important things to people throughout history. It has incredible cultural, social and economic significance. In the broader sense, we will only truly have food security when we have a more fair and equitable society.

Tell me about your experience.

I became involved in the Weston Health Professions Project though a course called Determinants of Community Health. My supervisor, Professor Joyce Nyhof-Young, wanted to connect the research skills and resources of academic institutions like U of T with the local Weston organizations that are already doing such great work to promote health and know what goals are important to the community.

I did research that helped the Weston-King Neighbourhood Centre expand its food program to an additional site. Models of food assistance have really changed over the last 40 years and the centre wanted to interview program participants to find out what their needs were so the new program could serve them better.

What was most exciting about the Weston Health Professions Project?

It was amazing to have people share their stories with me. Doing qualitative interviews was a really powerful and intimate experience. I was honoured that people were so willing to open up about struggles that they’d faced like poverty, addiction, abuse or other difficult experiences. That experience has showed me there is an incredible amount doctors can learn from patients throughout our careers. I hope I can maintain the perspective that learning in the doctor-patient relationship is a two-way street.

How has this experience influenced your long-term plans?

I’m looking forward to starting my residency in family medicine. Change can be slow, so something powerful about that field is the ability to have relationships with your patients over a long period of time. As well, family medicine gives you a broad view of what goes into wellness. The perspective I’ve gotten from the Weston Health Professions Project is that your medical knowledge as a doctor doesn't necessarily translate into anything meaningful for your patients unless you can also deal with these things like the social determinants of health that are so immediate and powerful in their lives. It's important to consider the patient's situation as a whole when you are working with them to improve their health. 

What’s your favourite thing about the Faculty of Medicine?

The diverse opportunities in Toronto are unparalleled. You can work with any patient population; you can work in anything from the most community-based area to the most academic, cutting-edge research. Even though the Faculty is so big and its offerings are so broad, anywhere you go— to any of the teaching sites — there is energy and a pride about being at U of T and a commitment to values we share. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend four years here.

Faces of U of T Medicine: Moira de Valence
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