The appearance of multidrug resistance of pathogens poses challenges for researchers and industrial communities to develop more efficacious antimicrobial treatments1. Blue-O Technology Incorporation (Blue-O Tech) has developed a novel formulation of medicine that accelerates the wound healing process, while having an excellent antimicrobial strength over a broad spectrum of pathogens. Skin is the first physical […]

This project intends to test the antimicrobial potential of a GRAS status, natural product extracts. Using different varieties of our natural product we will test our own extraction procedure (currently not in use industrially) against different types of bacteria and fungi to see if they can be used as an antimicrobial treatment. This antimicrobial treatment […]

Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumor in children. It is treated with a combination of surgical resection, chemotherapy and radiation. Radiation to a child’s brain can have harmful side effects that may have implications in later development. We intend to use molecular gene expression to validate our findings from BC Children’s Hospital regarding low […]

Dementia affects our memory, thinking, emotions and ability to perform everyday tasks and the prevalence of dementia is increasing in the Ottawa region with over 24 000 living with dementia. Recently, the DSORC launched a new website called www.dementia613.ca – the region’s most trusted dementia-friendly resource directory. The site currently serves only between 4-5,000 of […]

We would like to determine whether a modified version of LSD (TD-0148A), which does not induce hallucinations, has antidepressant effects that can be applied to patients with depressive disorders. We will investigate whether TD-0148A can change the physical structure of neurons, as other antidepressants do. Furthermore, we will use an animal model to determine whether […]

Mental illnesses, particularly depression, is one of the leading causes of global disease burden. In addition to reducing the quality of life of patients and their relatives, it costs billions of dollars annually to the Canadian economy. Unfortunately, current antidepressant drugs are barely satisfactory and have numerous side-effects. The goal of this project is to […]

There is a huge human and financial cost to delirium, which is defined as a fluctuating state of confusion and agitation experienced by up to 80% of critical care patients. Delirium is associated with increased risk of death and worsened outcomes like lasting changes in cognition. Our team has partnered with BC tech company MindfulGarden […]

Current testing for SARS-CoV-2 focuses on detection of the pathogen via isolated nucleic acids, routinely from nasopharyngeal swabs. To our knowledge, no approved clinical SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests using nasopharyngeal swabs incorporate measurements of host responses at the time of diagnosis. Monitoring host responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection is important, as stratification of COVID-19 patients based on […]

The Measday lab at the University of British Columbia Wine Research Centre has been collaborating with Okanagan Crush Pad (OCP) winery since 2013 to isolate native yeast strains present in OCP vineyards and winery. OCP is an organic winery and routinely carries out natural grape juice fermentations where no commercial wine strains are inoculated into […]

Determining methods to improve nutrient utilization in pigs is critical to improving the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of pork production in Canada. The objective of this project is to examine the use of an alternative source of dietary nitrogen and its impact on amino acid requirements and utilization in growing pigs. In disseminating results […]

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes dementia. Effective therapies to slow or reverse progression of AD have yet to be realized clinically, owed largely to the lack of accurate diagnosis achievable by current methods. The need for early, definitive diagnosis of AD during life is imperative for disease management, and relies heavily […]

Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a protein known to be involved in a wide array of cancers. Although there are currently 4 approved HDAC inhibitors to date, these drugs lack the selectivity to only target HDAC6, given its high structural similarities with 10 other HDAC proteins, resulting in severe side-effects in patients such as nausea, […]