The scientists who fight the world’s deadliest diseases work hard to keep Ebola and other biohazards isolated from the environment. But because their labs are expensive to build and operate, they’re spread out in cities across the globe, and it can be easy for the experts to become isolated from each other.

Diagnosed with a congenital heart defect (CHD) at age nine, Mitacs researcher Angelica Blais knows what it’s like to feel like you have to sit on the sidelines.

More than 600,000 Canadians live with heart failure, and a further 50,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. But what if there was a way to test for heart failure before the disease has become advanced?

Digital book sales in Canada account for just under 20 percent of the billion dollar market, and close to half of readers say they’ve read at least one e-publication in the last year. For Toronto-based Rakuten Kobo Inc., an e-book retailer that sells to 190 countries worldwide, staying ahead of the game in the digital market is top of mind.

A Hamilton-based start-up, InnovoGENE, is developing new technology that tests bacteria in recreational waters faster than existing methods.

Their collaborative approach to developing the design also helps the community to define their own needs and determine what public health looks like to them.

A self-driving wheelchair is cruising the halls of University of Toronto this summer. The autonomous wheelchair, a joint project between U of T, Université de Sherbrooke, and Cyberworks Robotics, is being tested by 20-year-old Xinyi Li, an undergraduate student at Zhejiang University who’s in Canada for 12-weeks as a Mitacs Globalink intern.

Alexia’s project will help determine whether links exist between local pollen counts, a mother’s allergies (or lack of them), and biomarkers of children’s potential allergies in umbilical cord blood.