The heart beats 3-4 billion times in a person’s lifetime, making it the only part of the body that continues to work – without a break – for one’s entire existence! It is a specialized region within the heart (the sinoatrial node) that initiates each heartbeat. However, in some people the sinoatrial node malfunctions, requiring […]

The partner organization is designing novel dispensing equipment for liquid products to be used by quick-service restaurants. A food safety concern related to the R&D of this equipment is the potential health hazards associated with the formation of bacterial biofilms within the dispensing system. Biofilms are complex bacterial communities that grow on surfaces contacting liquids. […]

The production of chicken requires a large amount of protein, and producers currently use antibiotics to help keep chickens healthy. However, there is a leading trend to reduce the amount of antibiotics used today, and with the growing population there is a need to find alternative protein sources. Insects, like crickets, could be a solution […]

Immunovaccine Inc. is developing cancer vaccines using the company’s DepoVaxTM vaccine technology. DepoVax is a patented formulation that displays excellent tumor control and provides a long lasting and specific effect. The way by which this vaccine exerts its effect is unclear but the translational team at Immunovaccine is determined to discover its mechanism of action […]

Interstitial cystitis is an inflammatory disease of the urinary bladder and is recognized as a serious medical condition associated with a profoundly negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Currently, there are no widely acknowledged causes of this disorder and no effective treatments available. Panag is a Halifax based drug company which focuses on development […]

The plan is to research the physiology and behaviour of Ixodes scapularis, and Dermacentor variabilis ticks with and without the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium, Rickettsia bacterium, Francisella bacterium, and Bartonella bacterium to answer the overarching question: Are tick-borne bacteria that are pathogenic to humans also harmful to the tick vectors in Nova Scotia? Cold […]

Point Source Digital In-line Holography has been developed by Kreuzer, Jericho and collaborators over the past fifteen years into an efficient and versatile microscopy that produces 3-D images at the submicron level and can track the motion of objects like algae, bacteria, bubbles and sand grains ocean and freshwater environments in real time, hence the […]

The manipulation of light has been a key driving factor in human progress since the beginning of our species. Each industrial advance in the world has successively become more and more dependent on the manipulation of light and concomitant advances in our understanding of related phenomena: advances and discoveries in electricity, electromagnetic technology, wireless communications, […]

Salmon populations in BC have declined substantially since the 1990’s. A US/Canada Coded Wire Tag (CWT) fishery monitoring program was implemented in the 1980s to help managers understand the status of salmon populations and to make informed management decisions. Currently, the submission rate of heads by the recreational and First Nations Food, Social, and Ceremonial […]

Research into brain diseases has until recently focused on neurons, but in the last several decades, blood vessels have taken a new spotlight. When blood vessels are damaged, substances can leak from the blood into the brain. Such leak can affect memory and mental health, but surprisingly, its impact on psychiatric disorders has yet to […]

The aim of this pilot project is to develop a shoreline map to define coastal areas with different likelihood of accumulating beach litter. This will be done by collecting information at selected locations and, using readily available digital georeferenced information of the coastline, developing a model that allows the prediction of the accumulation likelihood along […]

Each day several email messages containing respiratory care topics, issues, and latest treatments are exchanged within the Respiratory Therapy community. Effective exploration and visualization of informal knowledge in these email threads and combining them with the scientific articles published in the Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy (CJRT) has the potential to inform future respiratory care […]