Innovative Projects Realized

Efficacy and mechanism of action of CB1R inverse agonists for enhancing insulin secretion and for preventing metabolic stress and cytokine-induced ?-cell death in human islets

Inversago and the Prentki Laboratory at CR-CHUM will collaborate to evaluate new generation Cannabinoid-1 receptor (CB1) blockers for the treatment and/or prevention of type-1 and type-2 diabetes. Previous generations of CB1 blockers have shown their promise in treating several features of the metabolic syndrome, including obesity, type-2 diabetes and liver diseases. However, they were plagued with important psychiatric adverse effects which eventually caused the termination of all development and commercial efforts. Inversago’s drug candidates have shown high potency towards the same target (CB1 receptors) but are not providing brain exposure, and therefore should not provoke psychiatric side effects.
Recent research in the field of Type-1 diabetes has suggested that CB1 receptors located in pancreatic beta cells could be linked to improved insulin production and secretion, as well as beta-cell proliferation. As such, it is of interest to evaluate Inversago’s candidates in the research laboratory of the diabetes world expert Prof. Marc Prentki to evaluate their potential to treat type-1 diabetes.

Improving Craft Brewing through Optimization of Yeast Function

Beer has been brewed since the dawn of civilization and is composed of only 4 simple ingredients: hops, water, toasted barley (called malt) and yeast. Yeast are the factories that convert chemicals in the starting materials to ethanol and flavors. Not all yeast are the same; over the millennia selection of specific yeast strains for specific brewing purposes has force the yeast to ‘evolve’ changing their genetic composition. For example, yeast used to make ales have a different genetic composition to those used to make lagers. But how does this change in genetic composition lead to such vastly different beers? The aim of this project is to use new technologies in both genetic analyses and chemical classification to identify how the genes in specific yeast strains are able to generate different beers. Our aim is to further ‘train’ yeast to better use their genetic material and make them more efficient at producing specific chemicals/flavors. Brewers make the selection of the appropriate malt and yeast based on previous experience; however, this can lead to problems when trying new brews, using new materials, or troubleshooting.

Autonomous navigation of a mobile platform in construction sites using a-priori map information to collect 3D point cloud data

In recent years, the construction industry has adopted a new management methodology called Building Information Modeling (BIM), which integrates a large amount of information from different steps in the construction process in order to guide planning and decision making. An essential part in this process is the acquisition of data directly from the construction sites and its integration into the BIM. Current methods, however, are still manual, which is time consuming, tedious and error-prone. In this context, the use of mobile robots in the construction site can automate the data collection, speeding it up and freeing human workforce to be focused on more critical tasks. This project aims at developing a navigation system that can drive a mobile robot in a construction site, creating a map of it and avoiding obstacles. This solution will help the partner organization by generating more data for the construction management, helping to reduce costs and increase productivity.

Using Communications Theory to Enhance Indigenous Employee Recruitment and Retention on Vancouver Island

Charla Huber wants to identify how employers can better support Indigenous employees. Many companies have identified they want to increase the number of Indigenous employees, but little success has been found. Charla will receive guidance from Indigenous Elders and leaders across British Columbia to understand the differences in how Indigenous people communicate and how their cultural values impact their role as an employee. Once identified, Charla will look at standard workplace systems and organizational design such as job interviews and find ways to tweak them to be more welcoming and supportive of Indigenous and non-Indigenous employees. This research will demonstrate to employers how common practices are filtering out good employees rather than filtering them in.

Making cannabinoids in microalgae factories

Algae-C is a company specialized in algal biomass production. It enables on-site production of algae for a wide variety of sectors (aquaculture, nutraceutical, cosmetic and biofuel). To date, many fuels, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products are extracted from plants. These valuable plant natural products (PNPs) are often produced in low quantities in plants and extraction methods can be long and expensive. Thus, there is much interest in metabolic engineering for developing microbial platforms to produce specific PNPs. Microalgae are well-known systems for plant biology and metabolic engineering and are interesting and suitable hosts for the reconstitution of complex plant pathways. Algae-C wishes to translate metabolic engineering research into industrial processes. This project aims to optimized microalgae platforms for the production of valuable PNPs. This project focuses on PNPs produced by cannabis, i.e. cannabinoids. These ventures are motivated by consumer demand for products that are environmentally friendly, less expensive, and possess properties similar or superior with those generated by PNPs.

Spirits Market Entry

The intern will conduct market research, analysis, and ascertain feasibility of the North American Spirits and Craft Spirits market. Additionally, the intern will be tasked to create a profile for an ideal prospect, alongside compiling prospects, and developing a marketing/sales strategy beyond traditional methods to enter into the Spirits Market. The intern will work closely with the Marketing Coordinator and Marketing Manager to create content and execute a launch plan. This project will aid the organization to meet their revenue targets to offset loss of revenue as a result of COVID-19. Finding new markets that the organization can serve that are within their capabilities will ultimately help mitigate the risks associated with the expected loss in revenue.

Record Keeping on Canadian Cow-Calf Operations

This project will work to better understand record keeping adoption on Canadian farms and ranches. Farmers and ranchers use production and financial records for a number of reasons: to identify trends in production and areas for improvement; to measure financial performance at the whole-farm, business unit (animals, land, profit and cost centres) and individual animal level; and to certify that production practices meet third-party standards.
The purpose of this project is to determine the factors associated with greater rates of adoption of record keeping for these uses and the economic returns gained from using records to make decisions. These findings directly benefit BCRC’s internal record keeping project looking at developing record keeping modules and guidelines for novice, intermediate and advanced producers.

Validating Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Breast Cancer Detection

While mammograms remain the best available technology for early detection of breast cancer, there are a high number of false positive mammograms and biopsies, leading to increased costs to the medical system on follow-up procedures and increased patient anxiety. This project evaluates the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems for breast cancer detection using about 100,000 digital mammograms from the BC Cancer Breast Screening Program. We plan to compare the predictions of the system to those made by breast screening radiologists in routine clinical practice and then compare and contrast the performance of the AI systems to that of individual radiologists. We believe this work will pave the way in using AI models to aid breast cancer detection in routine clinical care.

Computational performance enhancement of hand-held spectrometer

The intern will enhance the functionality of a hand-held gamma spectrometer produced by Environmental Instrument Canada (EIC). In order to improve the performance of the spectrometer, the control board will be switched to a higher spec microcontroller, and the firmware source code will be re-written from interpreted Javascript to C code. New functionality, including energy calibration, background subtraction, peak identification, isotope identification and enhanced spectrum display on local LCD, will be implemented to the extent that the microcontrollers’ resources allow. EIC will use the developed circuit boards, firmware, and enhanced functionality in their spectrometer product lines. These improvements in speed and functionality will expand the potential market for product and improve customer satisfaction. The new SoC and firmware base will also have applications in future product lines.

Understanding Performance of the Swale in Phosphorus Removal from Lagoon Effluent

Rural Municipality of St. François Xavier developed a strategy to lower total phosphorus level below legal water discharge limits when over-limit phosphorus values are measured at the discharge pipe of the lagoon. This strategy consists of a trickled discharge of lagoon treated water and a swale system. Swales are widely applied to manage surface runoffs from urban areas and reduce phosphorus and other pollutants in the runoffs before they reach to the receiving water bodies. While it is a quite effective method in the management of surface runoffs, it did not work for the phosphorus removal from the lagoon treated water. The aim of this project is to find out the cause/s for the swale system failure and accordingly develop a nutrient reduction strategy by improving the current strategy

Forecasting prices of mobile plans in Canada

In order to assess the current state of competition in the Canadian mobile telecommunications industry, we propose different models to estimate and to predict the evolution of plans offered by wireless service providers in Quebec and in Ontario. The models are estimated using data collected by Planhub which frequently updates and compares the prices and characteristics (e.g., voice, text and data allowances) of plans offered by providers. Three models combining structural econometrics and statistical learning methods are proposed. The models are compared on the basis of their ability to predict changes in plans’ prices and characteristics and to identify potential outliers in the dataset.

Impacts des bureaux de projets (PMO) dans la transformation des organisations publiques dans les pays en voie de développement : cas de la Zambie et de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC)

Dans les pays en voie de développement, le budget national repose sur des projets financés par des bailleurs de fonds internationaux. Une saine gestion de projets est donc une condition essentielle au succès des stratégies de développement national. Actuellement, la gestion de projets se fait en silo, malgré l’existence de la déclaration de Paris : « la communauté internationale s’est entendue sur les principes d’harmonisation des méthodologies, d’appropriation par les pays, d’alignement sur les procédures nationales et, plus généralement, la gestion axée sur les résultats ».

Le but du projet est de comprendre le niveau de maturité des bureaux de projets (PMO) et de déterminer les caractéristiques nécessaires contribuant à une meilleure performance des projets. À l’issue de ce projet, l’organisme partenaire aura à sa disposition un outil diagnostic de son PMO et une plateforme numérique lui permettant de cibler ses interventions d’appui auprès des gouvernements des pays en développement.