This project will investigate improvements to models for automatically generating physician notes from transcripts of conversations between physicians and patients. The model will capture important medical information such as symptoms, treatments, and medications, and automatically formulate a free-text note that mimics the style of the physician’s manually entered notes. The model will use context and time information to ensure that the documentation is accurate and complete.

This project is a collaborative relationship between the Combustion Research Laboratory (CRL) at the University of Toronto and Birla Carbon. Birla Carbon is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of high quality carbon black additives globally. Carbon black has usage potential across an array of diverse application segments including rubber products, black pigment, UV protection and conductivity in plastics.

Enhancing tissue homeostasis and immune tolerance mechanisms is pivotal for the development of new therapeutic approaches for transplantation and autoimmunity. This proposal is focused on harnessing newly discovered types of lymphocytes that regulates immune responses in cell-based immunotherapies. We are developing methods to isolate and expand these newly identified regulatory lymphocytes and are assessing their ability to prevent immune-mediated tissue damage. The goal of these studies being to use these cells in immune-based therapies for transplantation.

High resolution 3D microscopy is a rapidly growing area of biomedical research, which has high potential to replace traditional 2D histology used for the analysis of tissue biopsies of cancer and other diseases. However, currently there is a limited availability of contrast agents that can label organs, biological tissues, and cells in a live animal and are compatible with these techniques. Mitacs fellows will work to develop a commercial line of labeling probes which are fully compatible with the 3D microscopy.

As a result of increasing obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common chronic liver disease. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the pathogenic form of NAFLD and can progress to cirrhosis and need for liver transplantation. There is currently no Health Canada-approved therapy for the treatment of NASH. The intestinal microbiome has been shown to contribute to the development of NASH.

Chitin is an abundant resource in the form of shell waste from food industry in Canada and the world. BOCO Bio-Nanotechnologies has currently the infrastructure in place for scalable extraction of chitin nanowhiskers (CNWs) from crab shells. CNWs are the crystalline form of chitin molecules, possessing high strength, stiffness and aspect ratio, making them an ideal candidate for polymer reinforcement. A significant market opportunity for BOCO is to incorporate CNWs in epoxy to develop epoxy nanocomposites with tremendous mechanical properties.

The efficient optimization of aircraft flight plans is the main focus of flitePLAN. This problem devolves in a 1st iteration of determining a flight plan that minimizes the cost of the flight. That done, a 2nd iteration of the innovation attempts to optimize simultaneous major area traffic flows using the same business logic. The main problem in the 1st iteration is in developing a mathematical approach which allows a precise numerical calculation of the costs of arcs and using an optimization algorithm that efficiently minimizes the total cost.

The demand for elements such as nickel, cobalt, zinc and silver in various applications has increased significantly. Innovation to recover these elements now plays a major role in metallurgical processes as established technologies have challenges in treating available ores while meeting the increasingly stricter environmental regulations. Additionally, secondary sources have become a valuable resource that requires further research.

Land surface temperature can tell us a lot about the health of ecosystems, forests and trees. Generally, the healthier, greener and more diverse a forest is, the colder it is, as plants use solar energy to grow, rather than releasing it as heat. This project focuses on using images of temperature measurements from satellites, space station and drones to monitor the health and development of conservation and restoration areas and find patches where the plants are stressed, and therefore hotter, due to disease, drought, pests or any other issue.

The Phytoremediation Pilot Project is a collaborative effort between Aya Kitchens and Landscape Architect Pete North to create a buffer system that will stabilize soil contamination left by historic industrial activity at 1551 Catepillar Rd., Mississauga. The site borders the Little Etobicoke Creek, a tributary to the Etobicoke Creek and designated a Significant Natural Area, and prior to the installation of the Phytoremediation Pilot Project groundwater had been transporting contaminants from the soil to the creek.