Innovative Projects Realized

THYKIOM : Thykamine anti-inflammatory and antioxidant mechanisms

The inflammation triggered by oxidative stress is the cause of many diseases, including atherosclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer disease and cancer. Although numerous molecules evaluated as antioxidants have exhibited therapeutic potential in preclinical studies, clinical trial results have been mixed. A greater understanding of the mechanisms through which antioxidants act and where and when they are effective will provide a rational approach that leads to greater pharmacological success.

The Devonian health group (http://groupedevonian.com) is a late stage botanical pharmaceutical corporation with novel approaches to target unmet medical needs. Devonian’s strategy is to develop botanical drugs and novel pharmaceutical products from plant materials according to the Food Drugs Administration (FDA) set of regulatory guidelines to favor a more efficient drug development pathway. Among Devonian’s products, ThykamineTM is an active lead drug candidate with excellent safety and efficacy profiles towards inflammation. The molecular targets of Thykamine are currently unknown. Uncovering its mechanism of action would unravel Thykamine’s full potential, leading to its usage as treatment for several inflammatory-related diseases.

The project aims to identify the molecular targets of Thykamine specifically related to antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties to broaden its field of applications.

OLabERATE: OLab Education Research Analytics Toolset Expansion

Virtual scenarios, which are similar to choose-your-own-adventure stories, in online format, are a powerful way to assess how well a young professional can make decisions and solve problems. This is different from most learning software that tests how well they remember factoids and tidbits. OLab is a tool for playing and creating virtual scenarios. It tracks everything that the learner does: what they do, how long they take to decide etc. Teachers can write strong stories but the process has been time consuming and frustrating. This research will allow OLab to make it easier for teachers to write good stories that test the thinking of young professionals. They make writing more efficient by giving them access to building blocks that can be shared. They make it easier for teachers to see which students really use the cases and how to improve them. Additionally, it has been difficult to study the complex processes of decision-making. This project plans to make the analysis of the more complex aspects of such problem-solving easier to do. Better infographics and displays of this complex data will make it easier to understand.

Data-driven food recommendations for reducing physiological dysregulation

Personalized nutrition and dietary recommendation products claiming to improve health are moving faster than the underlying science. Existing tools for communicating healthy foods are available, but they are designed for public (not individual) health, can not incorporate diet history, and can not adapt to the user’s preferred health outcomes. We propose to implement and fine-tune our previously developed system for creating personalized food recommendations to increase health using cross-sectional dietary recall and blood biomarker data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The partner organization and the academic institution will provide ease-of-access to and previous experience with these data, and the intern will be performing the analyses. The partner organization will benefit by being able to include these data driven food recommendations on their health platform.

Product Innovation Marketing Specialist

Enginuity’s Product Innovation division assists and partners with entrepreneurs and organizations launching new products to bring ideas to market. Atlantic Canada has a strong network of Funders, Crown Corporations, Federal agencies, NGO’s and associations; collectively the ‘Innovation Ecosystem’. Enginuity’s Product Innovation Program seeks to strengthen the connection between startups, academia, and technical expertise to drive innovation by solving technologically challenging problems. Understanding the role, suitability, and ‘playbook’ of the ecosystem for individual start-ups is key to driving innovation in Atlantic Canada. By amplifying interactions between these key actors, Enginuity is fostering innovation by supporting the four stages of the innovation life cycle: ideation, project selection, product development, and commercialization. The project will enable Enginuity to identify and pursue new opportunities for marketing innovation to enhance the partner organization’s visibility throughout and beyond Canada. This will be done by identifying and establishing long-term relationships with ecosystem partners, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs, creating new opportunities for fostering innovation, and connecting stakeholders to essential resources, all while building upon internal experience to ensure a higher chance of success. Not only will this project seek to expand the company’s scope it will aim to secure Enginuity’s position as Atlantic Canada’s Engine for Innovation, but also to lay the groundwork for expansion to the rest of the continent.

Deep Reinforcement Learning in the Search for New Antibacterials

Discovery and development of new antibiotics is becoming increasingly challenging, and in fact declining in the private sector because antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are constantly evolving. One way to increase the antibiotic discovery rate is by taking advantage of the strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based deep learning models to find new antibiotics that kill bacteria, as well as being stable and non-toxic to humans. We postulate that growth inhibition of Escherichia coli, and a wide spectrum of pathogens can be achieved with the identification of AI-derived compounds. To examine this, we will use cross-pillar methods to: (1) Discover new antibacterial compounds and test for growth inhibition in E. coli and drug-resistant pathogens, as well as (2) Identify essential bacterial gene targets and combinations of synergistic growth-inhibiting AI-derived molecules. Together, the AI driven approach will uncover new compounds with broad-spectrum activity against pathogens, and reveal their essential target pathways for drug development and/or multi-target therapies.

Marketing Internship at OPA Technologies Introducing new sustainable ways of project management through a Clean AI Technology solution

This BSI project would consist of working alongside OPA Technologies, a Canadian based clean technology company that offer a sustsainable innovative solution to help cities better plan, coordinate and communicate road closures and traffic detours. As the Canadian company is looking to become more sustainable and expand it market share, I will be working with them to put into place a marketing strategy that will help them with their expansion into the North American Industry and stay up to date with trend such as the sustainability one. this will benefit the company as it will help with their growth and will help them rebrand themselves as a green solution that offers many sustainability benefits.

Delphi – Drone Pilot UX

Delphi Technology has a goal of allowing for the safe piloting of up to five drones in BVLOS applications in order to increase the efficiency of transportation and logistics for clients. Additionally, the UI needs to be expanded in order to accommodate multiple drones, and to provide a simulated 3D environment for better training and control.

Critical minerals in the Antigonish Highlands, Nova Scotia

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) recently developed a list of critical minerals that includes 31 minerals (chemical elements) deemed critical for Canada’s transition to greener energy. Critical elements are commodities that are geopolitically controlled, in low supply, or difficult to separate from other elements. Secure supplies of critical elements are essential for renewable energy and clean technology applications (e.g., batteries, permanent magnets, solar panels, and wind turbines). Of the 31 critical elements listed by Natural Resources Canada, magmatic rock-forming processes can concentrate many of them (e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti, Zn, rare earth elements or REE). Plutonic rocks in the West Barneys River area, Nova Scotia have high REE concentrations. Despite this recognition, the metal source(s) have not been the focus of an academic research. The objectives are to investigate the mineralogy, age, origin, and economic potential of the plutonic rocks to develop a genetic model for REE formation.

Improvement of PECOD sensor manufacturing process to increase sensor slides’ lifetime and reliability

Mantech of Guelph and Nano and Micro Systems Lab at University of Waterloo have forged a valuable partnership to develop versatile water sensors to monitor drinking water quality and detect contamination level in waste waters of local and national sewerage networks. This project has trained many highly qualified personnel for Canadian health and high tech industries, and developed ground breaking nano-bio technologies that have made Canada and Mantech ahead of its world competitors.

Investigating Cannflavins A and B as Inhibitors of TrkB Signaling for Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme

Glioblastoma is the most common type of adult brain cancer. Glioblastoma tumors are very aggressive because these cells can rapidly invade deep into healthy tissue, which makes them particularly difficult to attack with current treatment options including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Therefore, better pharmaceutical strategies to neutralize glioblastoma cells without damaging surrounding healthy cells is critically needed needed.
Cells communicate with one another using biochemical signaling pathways, through which they exchange information that stimulate cellular changes like proliferation and migration. This project focuses on a growth factor receptor called TrkB that promotes the activity of signals important for cell survival, proliferation, and migration. Importantly, defect in the activity of TrkB has been connected with glioblastoma, and blocking this signal is considered a possible solution to limit these cancer cells. While screening for new modulators of TrkB in neurons, we found that cannflavins—a class of non-cannabinoid molecules that accumulates specifically in the cannabis plant—could prevent TrkB activation. The objective of this Mitacs Accelerate application by the Lalonde lab and Canurta is to complete a systematic preclinical characterization of cannflavins as candidate therapeutic agents against GBM cells.

Optimisation de la rentabilité économique des échangeurs de chaleur géothermiques

En 2011, les professeurs Bernier, Kummert, Marcotte et Pasquier de l’École Polytechnique de Montréal ont entrepris le développement d’un logiciel de simulation en géothermie (GHE_Sim). Ce logiciel utilise une approche spectrale afin d’accélérer le calcul de la superposition temporelle et une technique novatrice pour tenir compte adéquatement de l’interaction thermique entre les puits d’un même champ géothermique. L’objectif général de ce stage est valider les résultats du couplage du logiciel GHE_Sim avec un nouvel algorithme d’optimisation et de collecter des bases de données financières de l’ensembles des équipements qui seront nécessaire au fonctionnement de l’algorithme d’optimisation. Ce nouveau logiciel se basera sur des données financières afin d’optimiser les systèmes géothermiques. Ce stage en entreprise permettra de mieux définir les paramètres financiers des systèmes géothermiques fournissant ainsi aux utilisateurs du logiciel d’optimsation des coûts reflétant les coûts actuels du marché. Géo-Énergie inc. souhaite utiliser à moyen terme l’outil développé par le stagiaire afin d’améliorer la qualité des services offerts à ses clients. La participation de Géo-Énergie inc. à ce projet permettra à cette dernière d’enrichir le développement d’un outil de calcul novateur.

Otolith microchemistry-based identification of migration life history variation in Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Salish Sea.

The proposed work aims to use the chemical composition of otoliths (ear bones) to differentiate adult migratory and resident Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in the Canadian Salish Sea. The ability to tell the difference between residents and migrants will allow us to investigate what controls resident summer herring abundance in the Strait of Georgia and to measure and manage the impacts of fisheries on resident herring. Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) diet data from 2017-2020 suggests resident herring are a very important food source and that their abundance may influence growth and survival of Chinook Salmon and their predators, southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), whose population is currently in decline. The benefit to the partner organization is a broader understanding of how resident herring dynamics may influence the salmon survival in the Salish Sea.