Projets novateurs réalisés

Conserved epitope locations and entry mechanisms in SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and their applications to viral evolution and novel vaccine design

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people throughout the world, the inherent possibility of SARS- CoV-2 to mutate and evolve into further novel variants and strains of which considerable dangers and public health risks apply remains prevalent. As the world has already witnessed, these new variants carry the potential to be both more infectious and better biologically equipped to evade our current antibody and vaccine therapies. To combat this threat, this project seeks to develop, implement, and evaluate therapeutics that are effective against possible future emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Within the scope of this research, we will use a safe and modified virus (containing CoV-2 Spike proteins) to both predict future variants and develop therapeutics that are robust and difficult for the virus to evade. We propose two strategies, one that involves using a decoy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells, and another that involves characterizing a region of the Spike protein that could be developed in the future as a vaccine that is effective against a wide variety of variants. ProMIS Neurosciences will play an integral role in supporting the development of these therapeutics and has interest in pursuing possible “universal” vaccine candidates in the future.

Circular Chemical Production from Biomass and Waste

The project is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of ethylene production in Alberta. Ethylene is an important building block for the chemical industry to produce plastics, consumer goods, solvents, and paints. Ethylene is predominantly produced by steam cracking, releasing up to 2.7 kg CO2 eq./ kg of polyethylene produced. In Alberta, the production of ethylene and derivatives results in more than 4.5 million tonnes CO2 eq. / year; this is equivalent to more than 33% of non-energy sector CO2 emissions in Alberta. This project focuses on an advanced recycling process of waste plastic to ethylene (P2P). This will be achieved by using the Enerkem Gasification Technology Platform that allows all such waste (like waste plastic, and municipal solid waste with a significant amount of single-use-plastic as well as biomass that may include agricultural waste and forestry waste) to convert into syngas.

Consolidation et développement du centre d’artistes Le Lobe

Le Lobe est un organisme à but non lucratif spécialisé dans la production et la diffusion d’œuvre d’art et d’évènements. En effet l’organisme reçoit en moyenne une cinquantaine d’artistes à créer et présenter leur travail dans le cadre de plusieurs activités accessibles gratuitement au grand public, et ce, tout au long de l’année.
Avec en moyenne deux à 5 événements par mois, le Lobe reçoit des centaines de personnes à participer aux activités créées par l’équipe, en collaboration avec plusieurs autres organismes comme l’École de Skate et de Snowboard du Saguenay, Le Lieu (Québec) et Artch (Montréal), La galerie de l’UQAM, et la Rencontre internationale d’Art performance.
Nos activités permettent une portée importante aux artistes au niveau régional, provincial et national. Nous accueillons également des artistes de l’internationale et travaillons davantage sur ce pan de nos activités.
Effectivement, sous souhaitons travailler sur une plus grande offre d’événement en plus d’augmenter le nombre de partenariats à différent niveau et travaille sur un programme d’échange d’artistes à l’internationale (France, Japon).

Student Equity Analyst Project

Qube Investment Management Inc. (QIM) is a registered portfolio management firm (Alberta & British Columbia), offering a combination of value and ethical investment methodologies. QIM has a mission to make investments matter.

One of the ways we’ve set ourselves apart in the Edmonton investment landscape is by running our own equity research program. Rather than relying on paid research or passive investment products Qube’s research culminates into two discretionary portfolios, Kaleo Full and Kaleo A.

We utilize students to provide equity research under the perview of our Senior Portfolio Manager and an Associate Portfolio Manager. Students are esstentail by providing Qube with enough labour to cost effectively cover the 250-300 companies each year in our research universe. In addition to equity research, students work with portfolio managers to complete projects which help Qube improve our research program and ultimately our portfolio management for clients. Our drive for improving performance allows Qube to compete with the mass-market investment products.

NYX Media Scaling Up for Canada and USA Channel Launch

NYX Media Corporation is a privately held startup content distribution company specializing in the horror genre. We are launching a Free Ad Supported Streaming TV Channels (FAST) globally starting with the United Kingdom (UK), then Canada and USA by May 2023. We acquire the content rights by territory to program our channel with a very unique curation strategy. We will also do some original programming by launching a horror hosting program and horror industry entertainment news program. Our channel has been live in the UK since October 1, 2022 on various platforms and we want to ensure the Canada and USA launches take learnings from that experience so we can improve speed to launch in new markets.

Launching in Canada and USA is on a larger scale then our UK launch. Our first challenge is content and broadcast management. This will require us to have effective and efficient proceses in place to handle the intake of over 300 different pieces of content, scheduling that volume of content and populating our content management system. It will also escalate our requirement to seek more automative solutions to programming our graphics, electronic program guide, and content promos. Our second challenge is visual communications and web design/development. This would include tasks like video editing, graphic design and creation and maintenance of customer website. This industry is changing quickly, and we have to be a fast and nimble organization to take advantage of the opportunities in the global marketplace as they arise.

Surveillance permanente de l’état des machines travaillant à basse vitesse

Concevoir, développer et implémenter un système de surveillance On-line (permanent) dédié à la surveillance du comportement dynamique des machines basses vitesses. Une première phase sera allouée à l’étude de faisabilité, l’état de l’art, le choix de
l’architecture (matériel et logiciel), et l’implémentation des protocoles de communication, c’est la mise en place de la chaine d’acquisition. Une deuxième phase consistera à étudier, évaluer et mettre en place les outils de diagnostic nécessaires à la surveillance des machines basses vitesses, reliant l’état des équipements surveillés à des seuils d’alarmes.

Stratégie d’implantation de la conception modulaire et du calcul de la complexité de produit dans une entreprise manufacturière

Avec la mondialisation des marchés et la forte compétition de l’industrie, les entreprises doivent se démarquer par des produits plus personnalisés tout en maintenant des prix abordables. L’utilisation des concepts de la production de masse personnalisée amène plus de complexité pour l’entreprise étant donné le nombre de pièces de plus en plus élevé. La recherche vise, par une méthodologie de recherche-action, à développer une stratégie de mise en place de la conception de produit modulaire, de la gestion de la complexité de leurs produits et de l’intégration de ces concepts dans les logiciels nécessaire à la gestion des processus de création de produit. La stratégie développée permettra de réaliser la gestion des interfaces entre les modules, de développer et mettre en application des outils dédiés à la gestion de la complexité dans le but de réduire les coûts globaux de l’entreprise tout en augmentant la gamme de produits.

Synthesis of Degradable CO2-Based Polymers for Water Treatment

Carbon dioxide is produced from the combustion of fossil fuels and as a by-product of many chemical processes. The increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has now been decisively linked to global climate change. The use CO2 as a carbon-building block has attracted much attention due to its low cost, ease availability, and its potential to substitute fossil fuel-based feedstocks, in addition to the clear positive environmental effect of removing it from the atmosphere. In this project, we plan to make capture CO2 and polymerize it with epoxides and other derivatives to produce functionalized polycarbonates. The synthesis of more diverse CO2-based copolymers is an important and challenging research and development topic, with clear positive economic and environmental applications. The functionalization of this class of polymers can further leverage the application of CO2 as a feedstock for a wider range of applications.

L’expérience vécue des personnes trans et non binaires hospitalisées dans le système de santé québécois

Cette enquete a pour but d’explorer le vecu de personnes trans et non binaires qui ont ete hospitalisees dans le systeme de sante quebecois. Les personnes trans sont trop souvent les oubliees de l’acronyme
LGBTQ+ en raison de la specificite de leur situation par rapport aux autres membres de la diversite sexuelle et de genre. Par ailleurs, les deficits de soin et de sante de cette population commencent a etre documentes. Ainsi nous souhaitons etudier les contraintes specifiques rencontrees par des personnes trans lorsqu’iels sont hospitalisees dans le systeme de sante quebecois. Nous souhaitons documenter l’etat actuel du vecu des personnes trans hospitalisees dans le systeme de sante quebecois, les experiences vecues comme des pratiques d’inclusion ou d’exclusion, et par la meme occasion entamer une reflexion sur les actions possibles favorisant l’inclusion et le bien-etre de la communaute trans tout en proposant des pistes d’actions pour ameliorer les soins offerts aupres de cette population.

First Through the Door: Building the Cubresa BrainPET Early Innovator Funnel

Cubresa is building the BrainPET, the world’s first commercial brain-dedicated positron emission tomography (PET) insert for a magnetic resonance imager (MRI). The BrainPET will give doctors and scientists a powerful tool to visualize the human brain with near-unparalleled resolution and sensitivity, providing a clear picture of the interconnectedness of structure/function in this complex organ. This is key to understanding the dynamics of neurological disease and in turn, developing effective treatments for conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s and brain cancer to psychiatric illnesses like depression.

We will engage 1 intern over 4 months to help build the highest level of Cubresa’s sales funnel of BrainPET ‘early innovator’ clients. In helping to outline a framework for high-level lead hunting, identifying key facilities/decision makers, and assisting the Product Management team in connecting with and managing early leads, they will play an important role in reaching as many prospective client leads as possible in an efficient manner. This is critical for Cubresa to capture the coveted innovator market and launch the BrainPET successfully into the research and clinical neuroimaging spaces. When married with the work being done by the Product Management, Marketing and Commercialization teams, the outcome of this project will serve to help Cubresa generate early research sales, wider interest, and to hit the ground running upon official clinical launch of the BrainPET.

Automatic Blind Spot Detection Systemfor an Urban Vehicle

Amidst various causes of car accidents, those which result due to unseen vehicles or objects play an important role. Automatic Blind spot detection system is, therefore, one of the solutions which can improve the safety feature of a vehicle. Moovee Innovations, Inc., our partner company, is developing a light-weight vehicle designed to travel at urban speeds, under the name project Insecta. It needs an automatic blind spot detection system as part of their Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that is capable of warning the driver of hazardous road situations. The proposed research project will develop such a system and integrate it within ADAS.

Oxygenation for muscle stem cell growth and differentiation

The project’s partner, MyPalate Inc., produces real meat without raising whole animals and
facilitates a new era of protein consumption.. Using a parallel, gas-controlled bioreactor
system, the project aims to understand how process parameters influence oxygenation status
during muscle cell proliferation and differentiation. Specifically, we aim to investigate how the
dissolved oxygen, impeller agitation speed, gas flow rates, and gas composition can be tuned
to optimize cultured pork production in stirred-tank bioreactors.