Interstitial cystitis is an inflammatory disease of the urinary bladder and is recognized as a serious medical condition associated with a profoundly negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Currently, there are no widely acknowledged causes of this disorder and no effective treatments available. Panag is a Halifax based drug company which focuses on development of novel therapeutic treatments which can be used to alleviate both pain and inflammation associated with IC. The goal of our research is to provide IC patients with symptom and pain relief, as well as to improve outcome.

Bones undergo a renewal process by replenishing calcium mineral through a cellular process known as remodeling. Usually, it happens in a balanced manner, but in many bone diseases, the remodeling process is increased with regional bone metabolism. Bisphosphonate (BP) drugs selectivity and strongly bind to bone mineral and become incorporated at active sites of bone turnover in an increased amount.

University of British Columbia and Amgen British Columbia (ABC) will collaborate to develop a safe and efficient lipid-based vaccine delivery system that can be used in laboratory animals to enhance the production of specific antibodies against difficult targets. These antibodies can be further screened and characterized for treating various diseases in humans.

Neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety, represent prevalent and disabling medical conditions affecting society. Despite the urgent need for novel pharmacotherapeutics to treat these conditions, there are few new drugs in development by the pharmaceutical industry. Cannabis has been used by humans for thousands of years to self-medicate a range of different neuropsychiatric symptoms, although few studies have addressed this issue in a scientific manner.

Iron-overload disorders, such as hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) and beta-thalassemia, develops when the body absorbs excessive iron over years. They are quite common with a prevalence of 1/200 in population of northern-European ancestry and 1/500 worldwide respectively. Without treatment, iron-overload can lead to diabetes, heart disease or cirrhosis. Main treatment for HH is phlebotomy and patients need frequent visits in clinic.

Chronic inflammation is the common denominator for various diseases, including atherosclerosis, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), obesity, type-2 diabetes, liver diseases and even cancers. In most cases, this inflammation is the result of massive pro-inflammatory macrophage infiltration in tissues, due to their aberrant signalling and dysfunction, in presence of fat accumulation. The CD36 scavenger receptor has been shown to be key player in inflammation, with its TLR2 co-receptor.

NATURE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
Patients who suffer from addiction to opioids often experience depression. Furthermore, data concerning the use of effective medication to treat depression in patients addicted to opioids is insufficient. Desvenlafaxine is an antidepressant that has been approved in Canada to treat depression within the general population.

A new film coating that can respond appropriately to different pH conditions of the stomach and small intestine (GI tract) was successfully prepared by combining pH-responsive nanoparticles with ethylcellulose polymer. However, the performance of the composite membrane has not been optimized for controlling drug release in the GI tract. Therefore, improvements are to be made through experimental design, such as central composite design, to find the appropriate composition of the nanoparticles to achieve the best overall combination of coating properties.