Endoscopic Laser Raman Spectroscopy for Colorectal Cancer Detection in IBD Patients

Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD) affects over 200,000 Canadians. Individuals with IBD have significantly greater risk of developing colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, the screening for colorectal cancer that is currently provided to the general population is inadequate for this group. White light colonoscopy is currently the gold standard but is challenging, as lesions are sometimes difficult to […]

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Targeting granzyme B with a novel inhibitor for the treatment of radiodermatitis

Radiodermatitis is a group of skin reactions that occur as a result of radiation therapy. It is a significant health challenge as approximately 70% of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy and approximately 95% of them experience radiodermatitis. Patients with radiodermatitis experience redness, itchiness, pain, scaling, and weeping or crusted wounds. Importantly, radiodermatitis can impede […]

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Is Obstructive Sleep Apnea a Novel Risk Factor for Cancer?

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is an important disease characterized by recurrent blockages of the upper airway during sleep leading to breathing cessations (up to 100 times per hour); OSA is common and is widely under-diagnosed. OSA might cause cancer or lead to cancer progression, potentially mediated through low oxygen levels; however, evidence for this association […]

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Technology Innovations to Improve Patient Outcomes After Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in severe paralysis, for which there are no effective treatments. Advanced technologies, however, can play an important role in assisting in the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of SCI patients who suffer many impairments beyond the loss of voluntary muscle control. In this proposal, we will develop and apply innovative technologies […]

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Real-time food analysis using deep learning for Diabetes Self -Monitoring

Our proposed research is to create an algorithm capable of pre-evaluating diabetes patients’ meals before they consume them with the snap of a picture. We are attempting to accomplish this goal by employing AI, machine learning as well as computer vision for real-time analysis. Our goal is to analyse a users meal to return an […]

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Vital Sign Monitoring for Overdose Detection and Emergency Notification

This research looks to develop a wearable device that is capable of monitoring users’ vital signs to detect an opioid overdose and send an emergency notification to emergency services for intervention. The vital sign monitoring will be carried out by a pulse oximeter, and will focus on the blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, […]

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Digital interventions to improve social connectedness and mental wellbeing of vulnerable older adults during COVID-19 and beyond

This project aims to 1) identify and understand the unique social and psychological burdens that vulnerable older adults face during the pandemic, 2) explore and identify successful and unsuccessful digital interventions that has been done at the West End Seniors Network (WESN) to help raise social connectedness, and 3) develop strategies and design future interventions […]

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AI-based Platform for Population-level Social Isolation Detection and Prediction

Social isolation is a serious public health issue which has many negative effects on quality of life and well-being of individuals. This research project aims to develop and test a Minimally Viable technology platform (MVP) to tackle population-level social isolation. This platform is designed to collect and analyze surveys from the users and detect socially […]

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Developing a machine learning-based diagnostic strategy to detect early onset of double negative prostate cancer by integrating SEMA3C-associated genomic variations and blood biopsies

The main goal of this research project is to study if a protein named SEMA3C can be a biomarker for early detection of an aggressive and lethal form of prostate cancer, named Double Negative Prostate Cancer (DNPC). To test if SEMA3C is a contributing factor in the progression of DNPC, we will compare SEMA3C level […]

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At the intersection of a global pandemic and social justice movement: Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement on the development of passion for a cause, mental health and well-being of Black young adults in Canada.

The historic events of the spring of 2020 – the collision of the worst public health crisis in a century and the largest Black civil rights movement in half a century – offer a unique opportunity to examine how the frustrations and hopes of Black young adults were affected. We sought to understand the potentially […]

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Piece of Mind: arts-based knowledge translation of Parkinson’s disease research and lived experience

academic sphere, and limit interactions with the stakeholder community. This project promotes meaningful collaboration for the co-construction of knowledge around Parkinson’s disease (PD), using the performing arts as an interactive tool for knowledge translation. Piece of Mind brings together researchers, performing artists, and persons affected by PD to create a performance piece based on scientific […]

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