Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is common in 10% of adults and is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, there is a 3-fold increase in OSA prevalence in fluid retaining patients such as those with heart failure. Evolving evidence suggests that fluid accumulation in the neck could narrow the upper airway (UA), increase its collapsibility, and contribute to OSA worsening.

When people become critically ill, such as during severe infection, their lungs often fail – this is termed "Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" (ARDS). ARDS is common, and often fatal. There is no drug therapy for ARDS and new therapies are urgently required. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) from bone marrow offer significant hope for ARDS, and early research findings are promising.

PrecisionHawk is a company leading the development and application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the mapping, resource management and service industries, particularly in precise, high-density mapping and monitoring of valuable assets and resources. Typically, due to their weight and size, UAVs are used as simple data gathering tools where data is post-processed on high-power hardware. Such practices often conceal issues with coverage and quality, and limits applications of repeat mapping and faster turnaround that are critical to the value this technology provides.

Highly targeted therapies can be devised to treat a variety of cancers, specifically acting on the mutated genes causing tumor growth. One challenge with such techniques is delivering the therapy to the interior of the cancer cell, when enzymes in the blood can actively break down the therapeutic molecules or when delivery to healthy cells can cause toxicity. Nanoparticle carrier molecules can solve this problem by containing the payload and delivering it directly to the cancer cell.

Unprecedented advances have been made in Radiation Therapy during the past two decades. High precision treatment plan is generated using sophisticated optimization methods, and treatment is delivered with complex intensity modulation techniques. Due to the complexity, the burden of Quality Assurance (QA) for modern radiotherapy has also increased dramatically.

The GeneSight (GS) Psychotropic Test (AssureRx Health, Inc.) measures individual variations in drug-related genes and recommends optimal drug choices for individual patients. A clinical study will be conducted to validate novel gene markers of antipsychotic-induced weight gain for use in an enhanced version of GS. Sarah Groleau will be responsible for genotyping DNA from 600 schizophrenia patients to evaluate which of the significant gene variants (UofT/CAMH) predict the most troubling side effect of antipsychotic medications: weight gain and metabolic syndrome.