Patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) require hemodialysis (HD) to clear their blood from metabolic waste products. While generally considered mildly invasive, research shows that HD can induce severe side effects, often affecting microvascular blood flow in tissue. We successfully developed a small animal model that allows us to successfully dialyze laboratory rats (approx. 250 […]

Neuroprostheses interfacing with brain and spinal tissue are in rapid development and are being applied to clinical treatment of paralysis after spinal cord injury stroke and other neurological disorders. We have developed a versatile intelligent neuroprosthetic agent, a Gaussian Process (GP)-based Bayesian Optimization (BO) approach. We have further laid the theoretical groundwork to cover larger […]

Presently we do not know the extent to which different types of therapies can assist those who are in the chronic phase of stroke recovery. Technologically innovative rehabilitation devices are now becoming available to clinicians, and often employ video game-like scenarios to motivate the patient to move. However, there is a lack of evidence documenting […]

Des emballages thermoformés constitués de pâtes cellulosiques prennent leur envol. Ce projet entend incorporer une biomasse microalgale dans une pâte cellulosique pour fabriquer un contenant écologique. Dans une perspective d’économie circulaire, cette biomasse microalgale serait produite dans un mélange d’eaux usées du parc industriel où se situe l’entreprise qui utiliserait le contenant en question.

Canada’s boreal forests are dynamic landscapes whose forest structure and biodiversity are altered by both natural and anthropogenic disturbance. Timber harvest is one of the dominant anthropogenic disturbances in these forests. We need to better understand how the biodiversity within these forests recovers after harvest. In this study we develop biodiversity recovery curves for harvested […]

Skeletal muscle is a dynamic tissue that undergoes many regeneration processes during our lifetime. Loss of skeletal muscle is known as muscle atrophy or sarcopenia and is directly related with quality of life and life expectancy. There are very few diagnostic tools to identify muscle atrophy and the ones available are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, […]

La croissance démographique, les problèmes environnementaux, les agents pathogènes et de nombreux autres défis empêchent l’Homme d’être autosuffisant vis-à-vis des ressources naturelles, en particulier des plantes et des produits naturels. Tous ces problèmes énumérés s’ajoutent au faible rendement de production des produits naturels des plantes, ce qui augmente la nécessité de trouver des alternatives. Notre […]

In southern Canada, wolverines share their natural habitat with humans. Forestry, for example, alters local ecosystems and leaves behind road networks that give access to people, also including recreationalists. Finally, many valley bottoms contain human infrastructure. This research project examines if wolverine numbers are impacted more by human or natural factors, determines if population connectivity […]

Since yeast probiotics and their cell wall components (CWC) are being used to treat enteric inflammatory diseases in different species including humans, they may be useful for preventing Johne’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of ruminants caused by Mycobacterium avium spp. paratuberculosis (MAP). Considerable variation in the efficacy of different yeast probiotics and their […]

Antibiotic therapy has been the primary approach for strep throat. Although various antibiotics, including penicillin, are effective, bacteriologic, and clinical treatment failures have been reported. Patients are more concerned about soothing the pain during the infection, and green/natural drug therapy with less or no adverse side effects are becoming popular. From preliminary studies and literature, […]

To date, there is a growing attention to the use of plant-food bioactives in disease prevention. Anthocyanin, a colorful plant pigment extracted from purple and blue color fruits and vegetables has been investigated broadly for its cancer preventive and immunity boosting properties. However, anthocyanin degrade during the conventional food processing conditions such as exposure to […]

There is a pressing need to apply genomics-based tools for rapidly evaluating the impact of industrial and municipal waste management practices and climate change. In order to do this, information about the genome from relevant North American species is needed, yet acquiring these complex genome sequences had been cost and resource prohibitive until recently. Working […]