Medical leeching can be traced back to the beginning of civilization. Ancient Egyptians, Indians, and Greek physicians used leeching as a treatment for a variety of diseases. In the past few decades, comprehensive studies have investigated the therapeutic applications of leech products and especially leech saliva. Recent studies completed by our lab have determined a therapeutic potential of a leech saliva extract component (BPS-001), with demonstrated strong anticancer properties.

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.

Medicago, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has the potential to rapidly develop a vaccine in response to a newly sequenced influenza strain, allowing for large-scale vaccination of the population very early during a pandemic. The company would like to know how many doses of vaccine is required and what distribution strategies should be used to maximize population-wide benefits of vaccination in the event of an influenza pandemic.

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.

Drug-induced dyskinesia is a debilitating side effect induced by anti-parkinsonian and antipsychotic drugs. Frequency can reach 80% in Parkinson’ disease and around 50% in schizophrenia patients treated with typical antipsychotics. Treatments for dyskinesia currently available have a very limited impact and generate important side effects. We have identified a new pharmacological target that may offer a new perspective in the treatment of these conditions. The target is composed of two nuclear receptors involved in the modulation of gene expression.

Getting a new drug from the laboratory into the market is a lengthy and costly process which takes on average 12 years and over US$350 million to accomplish. It is composed of roughly 3 phases: (1) pre-clinical research, (2) clinical studies, and (3) the new drug application review. In this work, we propose an artificial intelligence system which will shorten the time it takes for pharmaceutical companies to identify novel drugs (compounds) for a given target (usually a protein or a protein complex).

There has been an increased use of freeze-drying in the pharmaceutical industry over the past few decades. This step converts a liquid product into a solid one without compromising its integrity, thus prolonging its shelf life. The monitoring and optimization of this process is commonly done by trial-and-error, leading to product quality control issues. Therefore, the implementation of new monitoring tools in this process could allow a better understanding and control.

This project will refine an existent technology developed by us for freeze-drying biological and medical solutions to produce powders. Freeze-dried bio-medical powders are used in pharmaceuticals as well as for food. The technology we will refine in this project is called atmospheric spray freeze drying (ASFD) and has the potential to be faster and more economical than current methods and to work for a wider variety of substances than allowed for by current methods. In this project, we will refine the monitoring and control components of the ADFD technology.

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) is a common form of leukemia that affects approximately 3 people per 100,000 individuals, and is the most common form of cancer in children and adolescents. Current therapies are effective in children, however, treatment success in infants, adolescents, and adults needs improvement. Indeed, there is a need for new chemotherapeutic drugs and drug formulations that can improve survival rates in susceptible age groups, reduce relapse rates, and improve outcomes in relapsed patients.

Pulmonary arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a severe disease that affects both the pulmonary vasculature and the heart with no curative options. The apelinergic system which can be defined by the cell surface receptor APJ, mostly expressed in the heart and vessels, and its endogenous ligands Apelin and ELABELA appear as a promising therapeutic pathway in the context of cardiovascular dysfunction.