Brain cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in children. Current treatment options are chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, which either prolongs the child’s life for only two years or leaves them with negative side effects such as slowed development. Thus, there is a pressing need for new therapeutics. One of the focuses of our lab […]

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancers and is the second most common cancer in children only behind leukemia. Conventional therapy consists primarily of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and while these approaches have slightly improved the length of patient survival, there remains no cure for this disease. With the emerging […]

In the absence of a clear set of recommendations from doctors for the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) such as fetal alcohol, cerebral palsy, and autism spectrum disorders, many parents and children affected by NDDs turn to unproven diet- and exercise-based treatments. While some research suggests that such interventions can boost brain functioning, very few […]

The appearance of multidrug resistance of pathogens is challenging the researcher and industrial communities to develop more efficacious antimicrobial treatments. Blue-O Technology Incorporation (Blue-O Tech) has developed a novel formulation of medicine that accelerates the wound healing, while having an excellent antimicrobial strength over a broad spectrum of pathogens. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the cytotoxic effects, […]

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of joint disease affecting over 80% of the human population above 75 years old and burdening health organizations worldwide. Osteoarthritis is characterized by progressive joint degeneration resulting in chronic pain and loss of joint function. Currently there is no cure for osteoarthritis; available treatments are only symptomatic targeting pain […]

Decision-making frameworks for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) have become a major topic in developed nations in recent years. Indeed, the quest for more rational and transparent HTA decision led many jurisdictions to investigate the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) as an alternative decision-making framework. In Canada, the development of a MCDA framework for HTA […]

In recent years, the interest given to disease biomarkers has boomed. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are exploring ways to use biomarkers to speed up the drug development process, as well as to rapidly assess  diseases state, staging, progression and response to therapy. Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) Mass Spectrometry (MS) has been shown to be well […]

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a chemical found naturally in the brain that plays a key role in the mammalian stress response. CRF is also known to be involved in anxiety and mood disorders, as well as in various aspects of drug dependence, including long-term relapse to drug use. The teneurin C-terminal associated peptides (TCAP) comprise […]

Recently, a new whole-body PET/MRI scanner was developed and installed at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in London, Ontario and remains the only installation in Canada. Two major challenges concerning PET imaging include the need for correcting for loss of photons, called attenuation, due to interactions with patient tissues and the impact of respiratory induced organ/tumour motion […]

31 pairs of spinal nerves, containing both sensory and motor nerve fibers, serves two important functions: pathway for sensory, motor impulses and are essential for spinal reflexes. Damage of spinal nerves has been one of the major concerns in diagnosis, treatment and spinal intervention. This project proposes to promptly and accurately extract neurological structures from […]

The Sorensen laboratory-based Childhood Cancer Research Program is specifically focused on elucidating the genetic and biological determinants of the metastatic process in childhood cancer. Metastatic disease remains the single most dominant driver of adverse outcome in most childhood cancers, particularly in childhood sarcomas. There are two basic strategies in the program for studying metastatic disease […]

Since the mid 1970s, medical personnel have used the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) as an important tool to rate and describe levels of consciousness. This scale is rudimentary and subjective, often resulting in misdiagnoses in cases where people lack the capacity to communicate. In some unfortunate situations, severe neurological damage can render people unable to […]