Treatment of metastatic breast cancer is often unsuccessful and lead to 5000 deaths in Canada each year. Therefore, there is an unmet need for new drugs for prevention and/or treatment of metastatic disease. Ezrin is a protein marker commonly over-expressed in metastatic breast cancer. Preclinical studies show that blocking ezrin can significantly reduce metastasis in […]

Over the past three decades the time it takes for clinical laboratories to diagnose an infection has decreased from two weeks for culture to 3 hours for DNA testing following the introduction of large, automated bench top equipment. Despite this tremendous improvement, three hours is still too slow to allow rapid and accurate diagnosis of […]

Current cancer therapies rely on toxic chemotherapeutic agents that lack the potency and selectivity of protein-based therapy. Consequently, new technologies to systematically target cancer signaling pathways at the protein level are urgently needed. Dr. Zhang has developed a platform that consistently and successfully produces quick and cost-effective protein-based therapies that are both highly-binding and specific […]

The polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a multi-factorial heterogeneous syndrome with complex pathologies, affects up to 10% of women of reproductive age and accounts for 75% of anovulatory infertility. PCOS is associated with follicle growth arrest at the early antral stage, chronic anovulation, minimal granulosa cell proliferation, hyperthecosis with hyperandrogenemia, and insulin resistance. The proposed research […]

The agricultural sector is currently facing a conundrum, whereas the needs to produce more (food, fiber, bioenergy) are ever increasing, the land and resources needed to produce them are diminishing. Furthermore, consumers and legislators pressure for environmentally friendly products are increasing accordingly, the development of sustainable alternatives such as the use of plant growth-promoting rhyzobacteria […]

The Canadian Food Guide has recommended an increase in fresh produce in the daily diet. Although the nutritional benefits of fresh produce are well established there are continuing food safety issues, high wastage and water consumption. To enhance safety and shelf-life it is common practice to pass produce through a post-harvest wash using chlorine as […]

The Marquardt Group at the University of Windsor intends to better understand the stability and degradation of Catalent’s vitamin A soft gel supplement, including the effect of various antioxidants on the degradation. Catalent is one of the largest suppliers of Vitamin A palmitate capsules to Nutrition International (previously Micronutrient Initiative), which is an organization aimed […]

Endocannabinoids are compounds produced by the human body that bind to and activate cannabinoid receptors. There are two major endocannabinoids: anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). Both play a role in regulating the firing of brain cells in the nervous system and attenuating immune system responses. As such, the endocannabinoid system is implicated in several clinically […]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contribute to a global warming trend associated with climate change. Methane is a potent GHG with a global warming potential 25 times that of Carbon Dioxide over a 100-year period. Gas migration /Surface casing vent flows from subsurface to surface is a well-known issue; however, characterizing the source zone(s) for stray […]

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a debilitating disease resulting from the loss of skeletal muscles mainly in the face, shoulder blades and upper arms. FSHD results from expression of the protein DUX4 which causes skeletal muscle cell death and therefore loss of muscles. This project aims to immortalize isolated skeletal muscle cells from patients with […]

Despite the improvements in cancer diagnostic and treatment, cancer is still a leading cause of death in Canada with 30% of all deaths. Some cancers, like pancreatic cancer (PC), still have poor survival rates due to the lack of early diagnosis and good prognostics markers. The Atlantic Cancer Research Institute (ACRI) has developed a proprietary […]

There has been a growing interest in the application of nanotechnology for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Nanoparticles possess unique physical and chemical properties due to their small size. In addition, their surface coating can be easily tailored for a particular EOR application. The proposed research will develop surfactant-coated nanoparticles as an additive. These nanoparticles will […]