Innovative Projects Realized

An antioxidant formulation to prevent DNA damage

Exposure to diagnostic imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) scan has been reported as a potential cause of DNA damage leading to cancer in patients as well as health care professionals. Coramed wishes to develop a unique antioxidant formula to avoid the above risk. With the aim of incorporating natural antioxidants present in apple in the formula, Coramed needs urgently to establish evidence of apple flavonoids’ efficacy in prevention of DNA double-strand break caused by carcinogenic factors. The specific objectives of the project are to assess whether the addition of apple flavonoids (AF4) and quercetin to the Coramed antioxidant formulation (AOX1) could contribute to the protection against DNA damage. The intern (a postdoctoral fellow) will examine carcinogen-induced DNA damage using a cell model system to assess test compounds. The expected result will become useful for the Coramed to optimize the antioxidant formula including apple flavonoids and/or quercetin and then to obtain required approvals for commercialization.

Product Development Research

Level Ground is currently investing in product development of organic fruits and nuts. They are seeking to engage a MITACS intern who can supplement their product development with research support. Using the concept of value co-creation (VCC), the intern will engage potential consumers in a manner which will provide insight into the nutrition bar market. Using VCC, the intern will explore the attitudes, needs and wants of the market to understand preferences in the composition of a new energy bar. The intern will be given significant opportunities to provide input into present and future product offerings, and will be key to implementation of our VCC strategy.

BIM-Driven Spatial Planning and Permitting Efficiencies for Municipalities

Recent technological advances in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, including the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and automated data capturing tools, have enabled the AEC industry to commence its digital journey in the era of big data. Over the last decade, electronic permitting (e-permitting) practices have been introduced in many municipal jurisdictions around the world, aimed at replacing the traditional and inefficient paper-based practices. The main objective of this research is to address the future demands of municipalities through integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on e-permitting platforms to facilitate permitting review processes, accommodate the need for spatial planning of construction projects, and improve the management of municipal assets. TO BE CONT’D

Understanding Relationships between the BC Forest industry and Indigenous entities in BC

The for the health and well being of the BC forest industry and First Nations communities in BC, it is important to know how these two groups are interacting with each other. The goal of this research is to better understand what kind of relationships forestry companies and First Nations communities have. This research would use a survey that was given to members of the largest representative group of the forest industry in BC. By using all of the answers to the survey and combining that with some interviews of important people that work with forestry and First Nations, it would give us a good idea of what’s going on in forestry and how First Nations are getting involved.

Scalar social learning in community-campus engagement

The proposed Mitacs research will strengthen trust-building, communication and learning among community-campus engagement (CCE) practitioners and stakeholders by examining how communities of practice and social learning form at varied scales within the context of CCE work in Canada. Community-campus engagement occurs when members of academic institutions and communities come together within community-based research, learning, and other initiatives to build social infrastructure and influence healthy and just societies. As convenor of a local-scale social learning pilot and key contributor to an emerging pan-Canadian CCE community of practice known as Community Campus Engage Canada (CCEC), organizational partner Station 20 West will gain new opportunities to strengthen ties with other non-profits at local, regional and national scales, and have a substantial voice in the development of communication platforms and best practices to bolster community-driven CCE efforts across the country.

Feasibility Assessment of Fly Ash Recovery Approaches

Fly ash, a power station by-product, is currently stored in an ash lagoon. The chemical components of fly ash include heavy metals and radioactive elements that may be released to the environment through biogeochemical processes, threatening the surrounding environment, food chain, and human health. Leakage risks to the aquifer may also exist, impacting groundwater safety and farming activities. Even if the ash lagoon were capped, there will still be persistent environmental liability. Thus, it is necessary to identify a desired solution for managing the industrial partner’s fly ash problem. This research proposes to establish the geotechnical characteristics of the site and to provide a framework for the evaluation and comparison of extraction methods for the recovery of fly ash and rare earth elements from the ash lagoon. TO BE CONT’D

Bioprinting composite hydrogels to accelerate tissue regeneration in scarred vocal folds

The high frequency of vocal fold vibrations, especially in singers and voice professionals may aberrantly change the biomechanical properties of the vocal folds, leading to voice disorders. The slow rate of wound healing due to the limited cell migration is the main problem with current methods of vocal fold treatment. The goal of this project is to investigate the possibility of using bioprinting technology to study cell migration in injectable hydrogels in order to accelerate the wound healing process in human vocal folds. This proposed research project involves various fields of study, including engineering, acoustics, medicine, chemistry, biology, and physics. The multidisciplinarity nature of this project necessitates the expertise of researchers from other fields. More specifically, doing short-term research at a pioneer lab in bioprinting technology, which is equipped with high-resolution bioprinters, will remarkably help me to conduct several cell migration tests using bioprinted patterns. With this aim, Prof. Yu Shrike Zhang, who is the principal investigator of the Laboratory of Engineered Living Systems at Harvard Medical School, accepted to host me for this research project. The outcome of this work will be helpful for my PhD thesis and the results will be culminated in a conference paper.

Development of Carbon Nanotube based Impdance Sensor

The goal of this project is to design a Carbon Nanotube thin film-based sensor for the detection of heart failure biomarkers. The student will participate in the sensor fabrication group. He will learn Micro-fabrication related techniques and knowledge; such as Carbon Nanotube thin film synthesis using Chemical Vapor Deposition, Microfluidic channel fabrication and gold film deposition with e-beam evaporator. The student is expected to provide support in developing current design and optimizing the fabrication procedure.

Valuable Books: Fifteenth-Century Books of Hours as Evidence of Social, Sentimental, and Artistic Value

This project examines medieval commonplace prayer books, known as Books of Hours, and their uses in fifteenth-century England. Art historical scholarship on the topic has tended to focus on the most sumptuous examples of the genre and their material value in the use of costly materials such as gold leaf and rare pigments, or their aesthetic value in terms of technical virtuosity and innovative illuminations. Adding to this, I will examine more accessible, affordable examples made for prospective buyers in the proto-mass production market. I propose that the common types of texts and images that make up these books, as well as various owners’ marks such as annotations, doodles, additions of small paintings or tokens, and records of family births and deaths, are indications of different types of value: social value, as carriers of shared interests in religiosity and participation in the community; and sentimental value, as a site for collecting and accumulating family history and memories of the community.

Development of spinal associative stimulation using motor point stimulation

Studies have shown that delivering combination of two stimulation can improve muscle responses and related nerve function in spinal cord injury patients and able-bodied people. Typically, a painless magnetic stimulation through the scalp over the brain, and electrical stimulation to the knee over a peripheral nerve (a nerve that sends signals to muscles and receives sensory information to and from the brain) is used in this technique. However, the peripheral nerves we can stimulate are technically limited, which means that rehabilitation techniques utilizing this method are limited. We aim to develop a new method using muscle and lumbar stimulation instead of peripheral nerve and brain stimulation. The purpose of the present study is to examine if paring muscle and lumbar stimulation can alter the neural and motor function in able-bodied people. This study will help the development of effective rehabilitation techniques for spinal cord injury in the future.

PHA (bioplastics) production from organic waste

I will be joining the ongoing project led by TU Delft in partnership with Paques BV and Orgaworld to develop a sustainable technology for the production of bioplastic in the form of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) from organic waste at the Lelystad Innovation Centre (L.I.C.) located next to the dry anaerobic digestion facility (Biocel) in Lelystad. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of PHA production from organic waste using microbial enrichment cultures. This involves the continuous improvement of the individual sub-processes such as PHAs microbes selection and PHA accumulation capacity as well as the overall process in terms of maximizing process stability and productivity while minimizing/eliminating unwanted side processes.

Bidirectional Real-time Control of An Upper-limb Prosthetic Hand

The human hand is a sensation-rich body part, and the loss of hand significantly influences the quality of life. Prosthetics are designed as artificial limbs to replace or substitute the missing part. For providing a natural and intuitive perception of grasp or pressure, a bidirectional prosthetic hand should be able to detect action intentions and sending feedback to the central nervous system at the same time.

To achieve this real-time control, our project will investigate in decoding the movement of fingers from Electromyograph (EMG) signals. By tracking the neuromuscular signals corresponding to various hand movements, a generic muscular-skeletal model could be developed by analyzing, visualizing and decoding from EEG and EMG. Also, different sensory feedback experiments of hand encoding will be conducted.

This project aims to analyze the biological signals of hand movements, and generate a neural interface for prosthetic hands. The main outcomes of this project will be to improve the efficiency and quality of hand prosthetics and support future near-natural hand replacement.