Navigation of magnetotactic bacteria through a microfluidic vascular network

Conventional drug delivery methods, including oral ingestion and injection, distribute the drug to the entire body, reducing the amount of the drug delivered to the target tissue or organ and increasing side effects. Targeted drug delivery, in which the drug is transported directly to the target tissue or organ, can be used to minimize these […]

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Design of porous hydrogels for biomedical applications

Biocompatible hydrogels have been used for a long time in biomedical applications (e.g. microcarriers for adherent cell growth; drug delivery vehicles). For these applications, controlled pore size and pore interconnectivity are important parameters. The project aims at better characterizing several physicochemical strategies for pore generation. Then, as second objective, the influence of pore size upon […]

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Non-invasive automated assessment of tonic attention (vigilance) of commercial airline pilots during simulated flights

With the goal of increasing the safety of civilian air flight, the detection of a decrease in pilot attention is becoming an important need in civilian aeronautics. Multiple models used for the detection of hypovigilant states have been developed over the years in experimental conditions, but barriers still exist limiting current use. First, some of […]

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Development of a Comprehensive HIV Management System

While at the University of Bath, the project that I will be working on focuses on the development of an all-in-one electrochemical Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) management system. The goal of this project is to develop a device that is capable of actively counting Helper T cells in the human body. Since HIV infects and […]

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Quantification and Improvement of Juvenile American Eel Passage Through Fishways and Wetland Water Control Infrastructure.

The American Eel is a species of significant ecological, social and commercial value and a species of conservation concern in part due to reduced habitat connectivity to both freshwater habitat as juveniles, commonly known as glass eels or elvers. During the proposed research period the intern will work to quantify passage of elvers through existing […]

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Impact of Wind Energy Turbines on Bat and Bird Mortality

In this MITACS-funded project, a postdoctoral researcher will work with partners at Trent University and Bird Studies Canada to expand our understanding of how wind turbines affect birds and bats. We will leverage an extremely detailed database on wind-wildlife interactions that is managed by Bird Canada. Using these data, we will investigate whether bat and […]

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Enhancement of Wearable Textiles by Living Biofilms

“Smart” clothing that responds to the wearer offers compelling advantages over today’s inert clothing. By integrating living cells into the textiles that make up our clothing, we can endow them with these “smart” properties. This includes a shirt that begins to smell like flowers when soaked in sweat, pants that “self-heal” after an accidental tear, […]

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Describing the electronic structure of reactive copper(II) arylnitroso complexes

The efficiency of many chemical reactions is improved by addition of metal-based catalysts to the solution, however, the best of these catalysts are often based on some of the scarcest elements on the periodic table. The high costs of obtaining these elements makes catalysts based on ore Earth-abundant elements, but these base metals often do […]

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The role of Peyer’s patches in mycotoxicity

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites from mold that commonly contaminate cereal and livestock feed crops around the world. The consumption of mycotoxins contributes to substantial economic losses to the livestock industry due to reduced productivity and health. There are over 500 different classes of mycotoxins, many of which have unknown mechanisms of action (MOA). Adding mycotoxin […]

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Utilizing an evaluation of a community initiative to inform lessons for collaborative partnership and service delivery: All In for Youth Case Study

This project aims to provide much needed evidence to community organizations who want to use evaluation findings to better understand how to work with and support vulnerable children and their families in schools. The All in for Youth initiative and its collaborative partners offer integrated, wraparound supports to improve academic outcomes and resiliency of vulnerable […]

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Implementing biological control of introduced Phragmites australis in Ontario

Introduced Phragmites australis (common reed) is considered one of the most invasive plants in North America. European genotypes spread widely and can form dense stands with undesirable ecological impacts. Conventional management approaches have proved largely ineffective, leaving classical biocontrol (i.e., introducing herbivores of the plant from its native range) as the most promising alternative. The […]

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Seizure induction by single-cell control of neural circuits

The impact of seizures on the life of an epilepsy patient is significant. How they start, propagate and terminate remains unknown. Our hypothesis is that seizures develop in the brain when populations of neurons lose their ability to efficiently parse incoming inputs, known as decorrelation. When these neurons are not able to sufficiently decorrelate incoming […]

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