A seizure is a medical emergency. 1 in 10 people will be hit by at least one seizure in their lifetime. 1 in 26 people continue to be hit by seizures recurrently: this is epilepsy. When medications do not work, surgery is needed to cut out seizing brain tissue. Unfortunately, many people cannot presently benefit from epilepsy surgery. Our research will harness the power of dream sleep (rapid eye movement or REM sleep) to help locate where the seizures are coming from. Empowered with this information, we can help guide the surgeon on where to perform life-changing epilepsy surgery.

Drugs that block muscarinic receptors are able to enhance nerve repair in various diseases of the peripheral nervous system. In collaboration with WinSanTor Inc based in San Diego, USA, the laboratory of Dr. Paul Fernyhough at University of Manitoba now plans to develop novel peptide antagonists that also block the muscarinic receptor. These peptides will provide new intellectual property and permit testing of efficacy to prevent disease in animal models of neuropathy.

Contamination of beef by Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major problem affecting the North American Beef Industry. Environmental cross-contamination, among other contamination sources, has been shown to play an essential role in meat adulteration.

Sense of limb position will be defected or deteriorated as a result of injuries to the nervous system or aging. This project will address the design principles and application of a wearable sensory assistive device with the goals of improving the sense of limb position in elder adults or individuals with stroke. A prototype of the device will be designed and its effects on brain activity and movement performance will be explored on healthy adults.

With increased levels of series compensation of transmission lines (Which is the most economical solution for bulk power transmission over long distances) and with more power electronic controllers such as HVDC, FACTS and converter based distributed generation in the power network, Sub Synchronous Interaction (SSI) problems arise. It is necessary to identify different types of SSI that could occur in the power network through proper means and to prevent such at the design stage or to take counter measures if required.

In this project a driving simulator in virtual reality will be designed and developed, in which a user can drive a virtual vehicle in a country road with incoming cars and traffic lights and possibly some animals crossing the road. The users will learn the path to reach a destination through the trial and then they are supposed to drive the virtual vehicle in the same pathway and by doing so, strengthen their spatial navigation skills. The game will be played by a physical steering wheel and two pedals for acceleration and brake like a real car.

In the MRI-guided stereotactic surgery, a robotic system is applied to assist the efficient workflow, process accuracy and safety. An important issue in the robot system is that the MRI closed-hole design limits its dimensional requirements and flexibility. In this project, a conceptual design will be proposed to reduce the robot size and increase its flexibility. The proposed design will be better used in conjunction with MRI scanners for the brain stereotactic surgery. Cubresa Inc. dedicates to the development of brain PET and intraoperative nuclear magnetic technology.

The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) has created aTask Force on Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action and Graduate Education (Reconciliation Task Force). This Reconciliation Task Force will examine the implications for graduate education in relation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) Calls to Action, to reflect on the role of graduate education in promoting reconciliation between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples in Canada, and to conduct a systematic review of reconciliation graduate educational practices from across the country.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) panels are gaining popularity thanks to the high-throughput capability of sequencing technology and low cost per sample. In this study, we aim to validate the performance of a NGS panel for detection of a rare genetic sterol disorder, and to assess the utility of a prediction model to identify a combination of single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with lowering effect of plant sterols in lowdensity lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations in individuals with a rare sterol disorder.

Cell migration assays (CMA) are fundamental cellular functional tests that are routinely performed in many areas of cell research such as tissue development, wound healing, cancer metastasis and immune response. We have developed a prototype microfluidic all-on-chip CMA that allows rapid immune cell migration assay tested directly from one drop of whole blood. This chip is also useful to test other non-immune cell types and offers significant advantages over the existing CMA such as easy-operation, initial cell position control, and on-chip cell separation.