Preventing a brain aneurysm from bleeding is an important minimally invasive procedure. It involves specialized training to develop skills in manipulating a tiny tube from the groin artery into the brain. This is performed using highly specialized imaging/X-ray equipment. Once the tube is guided into the brain aneurysm, small coils are positioned within the aneurysm to prevent it from bleeding. The goal of this internship is to investigate the efficacy of this technique in treating one of the most common types of brain aneurysms located at the posterior communicating artery.

Susceptible individuals for inflammatory diseases could be targeted for either preventative measures or care if we could identify them by obtaining their genetic code. However, to date, there is no effective method of discovering which of the more than 5 million genetic variants are important in determining disease susceptibility. A common approach is to test every genetic variation, in every patient, for its correlation with some disease (called Whole Genome Association orWGA), but this is extremely expensive and slow.

After a ligament injury to the knee, clinicians must decide on an optimal treatment for their patient. In most cases, they prescribe either conservative therapies (physiotherapy with or without orthotics) or surgery (which allows doctors to use two different grafts). The Centre du genou Emovi proposes a biomechanical assessment to better understand the functional status of the knee and to determine more accurately the appropriate treatment option.

The internship project will work to deliver a weight loss protein that will combat obesity. The intern will coat DNA for the protein with a natural substance that can be delivered orally or through surgery. If successful, the team expects to see the presence of this weight loss protein in the blood of the specimens. Moreover, the levels should increase after meals and this should encourage less eating and weight loss. enGene, a biotech company specializing in DNA delivery to the gut, will provide the training necessary for this project.

Frantic Films, headquartered in Winnipeg, MB, has developed a reputation for creating innovative, custom built R&D solutions. The intern’s research project will straddle both the worlds of microbiology and physical simulation in order to create a dynamic, physically-based model of the cytoskeleton within a cell.

NeuroRx is a Montreal, QC-based company which provides professional management of MRI-related study activities and delivers precise MRI outcome measurements that are performed in a regulatory compliant environment. This internship research project will involve image processing to quantify local volume changes in serial MR images of the brain based on deformation field analysis using techniques that are relatively independent of pathological changes in image intensity.