Leukemia, lymphoma and other forms of blood cancers are still largely diagnosed every year in Canada. These diseases constitute the second leading cause of cancer related death in young adults and the sixth in adult. The five-year survival rates still range between 42% and 85%. Currently, the main treatment is a stem cell transplantation which […]

A current area of focus at SMT Americas is to develop injection-moulding methods for medical lab-on-chip (LOC) devices, particularly to transport and process blood and plasma while eliminating conduits clogging and reducing sample loss. This project will evaluate the effect of flow conditions on viscosity of samples, and the adequacy of conduit structures achieved with […]

This project involves designing a portable device for measuring concentrations of certain metabolites in a person’s blood or urine. This is an easy-to-use device that connects to a smartphone to display a final result based on measurements of multiple components to generate a specific health diagnosis. Different tests can be run on the same device. […]

High resolution 3D microscopy in combination with tissue clearing techniques such as CLARITY, iDISCO, CUBIC is a rapidly growing area of biomedical research. It also has high potential to replace traditional 2D histology to become a method of choice for the analysis of tissue biopsy samples used in diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. However, […]

Heart failure is a prevalent disease affecting 250,000 people in North America alone. This disease can be treated by the transplant of a donor organ, but insufficient donor organs have led to the development of mechanical circulatory support which now provide a reliable alternate treatment option for patients. Unfortunately, many patients that could be helped […]

Aspect Biosystems is developing a novel microfluidic 3D bioprinting technology that has the potential to fundamentally change the way many diseases are treated through the creation of functional human tissue. The technology manages highly complex fluid handling operations and requires sophisticated control systems to deliver reliable and repeatable results. This project is focused on developing […]

Developing technology capable of onsite medical diagnostics is crucial for health-care delivery in clinical and emergency settings. To perform on-site diagnostics, health-care practitioners need compact, inexpensive, and user-friendly equipment. Alentic Microscience has developed a system that uses small volumes of blood for cell counting and serum tests, occurring at the site of blood extraction. This […]

Most ultrasound scans require time-consuming manual scanning of transducer arrays to obtain 2D images of the body. 3D images can be acquired by so-called matrix probes but these are large and bulky, and typically offer inferior image quality. Such probes do not exist in high-frequencies important for pre-clinical applications and to date no wearable 2D […]

CT (Computed Tomography) scans are widely used medical images used to diagnose disease such as cancer. CT Scanners pass x-rays through the body in order to generate cross-sectional images. Unfortunately pro-longed exposure to radiation (via x-rays) can damage the body, and thus one aims to minimize the x-ray dose they receive. However, modern CT scanners […]

Atherosclerosis is a disease characterized by chronic inflammation and LDL deposition in the lumen of the arteries. This process can result in stenosis or thrombosis. More than 33% of Canadian deaths in 2011 were due to cardiovascular events (major chronic diseases surveillance online). Canadians lose an average of 4.5 years of life expectancy due to […]

The goal of this project is to develop a faster and more accurate way to detect ventricular tachycardia using an algorithm to analyze the signal results from Paced Electrogram Fractionation Analysis (PEFA); ideally real time through use of a basket catheter. St Jude Medical, our research partner, creates medical hardware specifically geared towards detecting and […]

The purpose of this research is to develop improved diagnostic and treatment tools for prostate cancer in humans through the use of a canine (dog) model and a synchrotron-based x-ray source for imaging and therapy at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). Novel techniques in synchrotron x-ray imaging, specifically in-line phase contrast CT (PC-CT), will be […]