research and innovation : In The News

Sick Kids' geneticist Stephen W. Scherer named as potential Nobel Prize winner

Science Watch Wednesday, October 01, 2014

Stephen W. Scherer, senior scientist and director, Centre for Applied Genomics at the Hospital for Sick Children, and professor and director at the McLaughlin Centre, University of Toronto, has been named by Science Watch as a potential winner of a Nobel Prize for his ground-breaking research into human genomes.

Named alongside Charles Lee, professor and scientific director at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT, and Michael H. Wigler, Professor and head, Mammalian Cell Genetics Section, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, the three are touted for their work specifically on genomic variation and disease.

Scherer and Lee worked together, while Wigler worked independently.

"In 2004, shortly after publication of the human genome, Scherer and Lee showed that the human genome contained what they described as 'large-scale variation,'" an essay on Science Watch says. "Both groups had found that there are large areas of the genome where long stretches, often encompassing several adjacent genes, are either duplicated or deleted."

The differences between these genomes are called copy number variants (CNVs).

"Scherer and Wigler have both shown an association between CNVs and autism spectrum diseases, and CNVs have also been identified in schizophrenia, systemic lupus erythematosus, some cancers, and even reduced susceptibility to HIV infection. The severity of diseases such as lupus and muscular dystrophy has been linked to differences in the number of copies of the DNA sequences in question."

Their work exploring multiple copies of genomes and what this means for an organism—whether these duplications are harmful or if they can evolve to new kinds of functionality—questions our understanding of genomes entirely.

"Quite apart from their role in disease and evolution, copy number variants raise another fundamental question. If so much of the genome may differ between two individuals, much of it with no obvious consequences, what does it mean even to refer to the “normal” genome?"

Read the full story here.
Original Source: Science Watch

Toronto named Intelligent Community of the Year

Network World Wednesday, June 11, 2014

After months of deliberations, Toronto has been selected as the Intelligent Community of the Year at the Intelligent Community Forum, held in New York last week.

This comes after years of "knocking on the door," as Network World put it, for many years now. Toronto ranked in the top seven in 2005, 2013, and 2014. The annual title celebrates cities that use smart IT infrastructure to grow communities, create jobs, and contribute to economic growth, among other things.

"Toronto was selected because it performed impressively against a set of diverse criteria and focused its academic, creative and private sectors, as well as its City Council leadership on the work and continued success of the entire community. In our view, Toronto offers a glimpse of how to flourish in the new economy and of how to adjust to the changes of the digital era," said ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla in a press release.

Zacharilla also apparently called Toronto "New York City with manners."

Really, it was the efforts of Waterfront Toronto that solidified this year's crown. The organization has been pushing to make Toronto's contributions in this realm known. Waterfront Toronto's forthcoming "innovation district" will "provide 12,000 new residences with 100 Mpbs broadband to individual homes, and 10 Gbps networking to businesses…with the goal of providing design and media companies in Toronto with the highest transmission rates in the world," Network World reports.

"This is a significant win for Toronto; one that recognizes the great efforts made in the city to work together on using information technology to create jobs, attract investment and make us more competitive," said Toronto Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly in the press release. "The work of Waterfront Toronto to collaborate with government, businesses, and the education and research community is helping establish Toronto's waterfront as an example of how to use future-ready information and communication infrastructure to attract jobs and residents."

Read the full story here.
Original Source: Network World

Tech MBA entrepreneurs thrive in Toronto

BusinessBecause Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Rotman School of Management's Creative Destruction Lab has received praise from a publication dedicated to trends in the business school world because of its "scores of start-ups, mostly tech-based, [that] have been accelerate this year."

Among them: Bionym, a wearable technology company that has grown to 27 employees and raised $1.4 million in funding since entering the lab.

"These are not hobby start-ups," Karl Martin, who co-founded Bionym in 2011, says BusinessBecause. "People come here to help turn your company into a billion dollar company…The mentality is unique and I can tell you it's been hugely instrumental to the kind of success and growth we have achieved."

The Creative Destruction Lab provides free working space and access to fellows "whom are established, successful entrepreneurs," the article says, with the intention of increasing "the probability of venture success." The program has additional opportunities for current, final-year MBA students to help "identify and solve business problems faced by the start-up."

The core of the program is what's called "the G7," a group of entrepreneurs and investors that act as mentors. Five of the initial seven invested $1 million in Bionym's seed round funding. In its first year alone, the Creative Destruction Lab "produced eight successful ventures and generated over $65M in equity value," the article reports. These donations are key to making the lab a reality.

"The lab pulls together people with significant successes; exits in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars. There is not better teacher than somebody that can lead by example," Martin says.

Fifteen new ventures have been accepted into the lab this year, several are alumni from Rotman's MBA program. A range of industries has been accepted.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: BusinessBecause

York U team among finalists for $1M global social enterprise prize

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Six business students from York University’s Schulich School of Business are among six teams from four countries competing for the Hult Prize global case challenge for social enterprise startups, valued at $1 million (US). This is the second year in a row a Canadian team has advanced to the finals, The Globe and Mail reports.

The prize "challenges business students to devise affordable solutions to global problems, put its spotlight this year on the issue of non-communicable chronic diseases in urban slums," the article reports. "For example, according to Hult prize organizers, an estimated 74 million slum-dwellers suffer from diabetes that goes mostly untreated and, as a result, leads to early mortality."

The Schulich students pitched the idea of REACH Diagnostics "to develop a patent-pending detection test for diabetes that can be produced on an ordinary printer for two cents," according to a press release from Schulich.

For placing first regionally, the team won a two-month stay at the Hult Prize Accelerator in Boston, which incubates social entrepreneurship startups, as well as a one-year membership in the Clinton Global Initiative, which was established by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2005.

The York students will compete against two teams from the United States and one each from France, India and Spain.

McGill students took home the prize last year for "a project that promotes cricket farming as a low-cost source of nutrition in poor countries," the Globe and Mail reports.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: The Globe and Mail

Two Toronto companies among finalists at SXSW Accelerator wearable tech competition

livescience Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Two Toronto companies were announced among the finalists in the 2014 SXSW Accelerator pitch competition's wearable technologies category this past weekend.

South by Southwest, an annual music festival and technology conference that takes place in Austin, Texas, saw 500 web-based companies apply for a chance to showcase their products to at Startup Village in several different categories.

Up first was Bionym, a company that launched its debut product the Nymi in September of last year. Nymi is a wearable identification wristband device that authenticates users through their heartbeat.

"Identity is hard," the presenter is reported as saying in an article that appeared on livescience, but "what if you could make identity easy?"

Later, Kiwi Wearable Technologies took the stage to present their "Kiwi Move," a tracking device that "the company says will contain motion sensors, temperature and air pressure sensors, a microphone, and Wi-FI and Bluetooth capabilities," the article says.

Although the top award did not go to one of these startups (Silicon Valley startup Skully Helmets won for its augmented reality motorcycle helmet), having two Toronto companies in the wearable tech sphere make it into the finals further solidifies our leading place in this field internationally.

Read the full article here.

Original Source: livescience

UoT student develops new Malaria vaccine

The Varsity Wednesday, January 22, 2014

A first year University of Toronto student has developed a potentially cost effective vaccine for the treatment of malaria in developing countries that is made from mustard oil.

Jessie MacAlpine, a first year life sciences student, recently sat down with the university's student paper the Varsity to discuss her research, which was "extraordinarily successful at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where she won Best of Category for Medicine and Health Sciences," the paper reports. This is just one accomplishment of many. She also recently placed first in the International Cooperation Prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists where she was a Canadian ambassador.

"I am currently working on in vivo studies to confirm the drug's efficacy within a mammal model. If this experiment returns results as promising as the in vitro studies, the hope will be to conduct clinical trials before establishing potential distribution channels," she told the Varsity. "The drug itself is very inexpensive – the necessary dose costs approximately a millionth of a cent – resulting in the major inhibitor to treatment being distribution. Potentially partnering with organizations such as the World Health Organization or Malaria No More could allow the inexpensive drug to reach those who are most affected by the disease. As well, because mustard oil is readily available in many malaria-endemic regions, these organizations could potentially run awareness campaigns to ensure the public is informed of the oil’s antimalarial properties."

MacAlpine has also chosen to patent her compound for multiple reasons, most notable to ensure the research and drug stays under her name in an effort to prevent a larger pharmaceutical company from claiming the idea—something she says could prevent the compound from reaching those who need it most. She also says it will make it easier for her to approach investors and potential laboratories once it's time to facilitate clinical trials.

Malaria kills more than one million people each year, especially in developing nations, the Varsity reports. MacAlpine hopes to soon locate a lab to facilitate a clinical trial and has her eyes set on an observational study in India, where mustard oil is used for cooking.

"Despite my research focusing on the efficacy of the raw oil, it is possible that there is still a degree of antimalarial efficacy observed with consumption of the cooked compound. An observational study would hopefully allow a trend such as this to be determined. Finally, if all stages of drug testing return positive results, I will have to partner with a global health organization to organize awareness and distribution channels," she says.

MacAlpine will be speaking more about her research at the upcoming TEDxUofT conference on March 1, 2014.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: The Varsity

UoT-developed image search algorithm can determine relationships

Wired Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Facebook already has the capability to predict tags, but now a new algorithm developed by a team at the University of Toronto could give it the ability to determine relationships between people.

The technology is called relational social image search and it works by using the frequency of tags within photos combined with how they appear in proximity to others in photos to determine relationships. Parham Arabi, a professor in electrical and computer engineering, developed and patented the system. Wired explains in more detail how it works.

"If you are tagged in Facebook or Flickr pictures with your mother and are close together, and you are also tagged in separate pictures with your father, the algorithm can determine that there is a relationship between those two and assess how strong that relationship may be. Imagine another set of photos where you feature with both your parents, but only your mother is tagged. If you search for your father in the batch of photos, these untagged images will also be returned because of the high likelihood that he features in the pictures."

Arabi has been working on this technology since 2005, but previously he was focused on technology that understood images based on content recognition. He switched it up to develop the current algorithm.

"Instead, we decided to focus on a very basic tag information that is often available but almost always ignored, which is the location of tags in images. By running the location of tags in images through our mathematical model, we obtain a relativity graph which helps us both understand social relationships and also to search images better," he told Wired.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: Wired

Toronto again named one of the world's smartest communities

IT Business Wednesday, November 06, 2013

For the second year in a row, the Intelligent Communities Forum (ICF) has named Toronto as one of the world's 21 smartest communities. ICF looks at communities around the world and grades them based on how broadband infrastructure and IT builds economies and improves the lives of local citizens.

The list will be whittled down to seven finalists to be announced in January. The winner will be announced on June 6, 2014 at a ceremony in New York City.

Toronto secured a spot in the top seven last year, but it was Taichung, Taiwan that came out on top.

"One of the major reasons for Toronto’s claim to the title is because of Waterfront Toronto, which has launched several intelligent community programs," said an article that ran on itbusiness.ca. The article cites Waterfront's various accomplishments including building a cloud-based community platform that allows businesses and residents access to data "they can use it to make decisions about daily commutes, residents' health, energy, and water use."

In addition to Waterfront Toronto, the City of Toronto also named digital programs such as Kids@Computers and Connected For Success, as well as the Centre for Social Innovation and the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University in its application.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: IT Business

How did Toronto area schools measure in Macleans' 2014 university rankings?

Macleans Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Macleans has released its annual university rankings pitting the country's schools against each other and ranking them based on an intense methodology that places 49 of Canada's universities in three categories: comprehensive universities, primary undergraduate universities, and medical doctoral universities.

Universities are ranked on six broad areas based on performance indicators: students and classes (20 per cent), faculty (20 per cent), resources (12 per cent), student support (13 per cent), library (15 per cent), and reputation (20 per cent). These indicators are broken down into 13 performance measures for primary undergraduate and comprehensive universities, and 14 for medical doctoral universities.

The University of Toronto ranked third in the country for medical doctoral universities, maintaining its position last year. Macleans says the school used to "dominate" the charts, but this year's results suggest capital is shifting. McGill was ranked the number one spot in this category, followed by the University of British Columbia.

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, located in Oshawa, ranked 13th place in the primary undergraduate category, which focuses on schools that provide predominantly undergraduate education. The institution was up two spots from last year.

As for the comprehensive category, which measures programs based on the amount of research activity as well as a wide range of both undergraduate and graduate level programs, including professional degrees. Ryerson places 10th in the country, up to places from 12th last year.

Full results and descriptions can be read in the official Macleans guide, currently on newsstands.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Macleans

Toronto-based social stock exchange contains a "global first"

The Guardian Wednesday, October 30, 2013

In September, Canada became on of the first countries internationally to launch a Social Stock Exchange, a program that originated in the UK to connect socially driven business with investors.

The UK has taken note. In an article profiling Canada's Social Venture Connexion (SVK)—which is lead by Toronto's MARS Centre for Impact Investing—the Guardian points out that although the Stock Exchange programs are similar, there are some key differences. Unlike the UK's Social Stock Exchange and Asia's Impact Investment Exchange, neither are actually social stock exchange programs. Canada's is considered a "global first" though we're hesitant to admit it.

Describing the work of the UK's Social Stock Exchange, [MaRS' Adam] Spence explains that rather than directly connecting social ventures with investors they are an information website that focuses on assessing the social impact of these currently listed companies.

SVX, on the other hand, is a social stock exchange, says Spence. He said: "SVX is registered as a restricted dealer with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), not unlike other capital markets players like financial advisors, financial institutions, broker-dealers, and exchanges or marketplaces.

"This is not to say that the work of the SVX is better than what is going on in London or Singapore, as they are doing great work. But they are all different."

Read the full story here.

Original Source: The Guardian

Comparing Toronto to Detroit and Chicago

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

When Detroit filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, it forced many cities to reevaluate the economics of their regions. The Martin Prosperity Institute has compiled the first of many reports to come comparing Detroit, Toronto and Chicago.

The institute is "the world's leading think-tank on sub national factors—location, place and city regions—in global economic prosperity." It operates out of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The reports will look at a variety of attributes. The first explored household incomes across the cities and was released last Friday ahead of the Toronto-Detroit symposium, an event that looked at Detroit and Toronto as Drivers for Healthy Cities.

The report analyzes the three cities in terms of areas where household income falls below the national average (red) and areas where it is above the national average (green).

Here is a key finding from the report:

"From first glance, it is clear that fewer tracts within the Toronto metro have an average household income lower than the national average, especially when compared to Detroit and Chicago. Despite this though, there is once again a reoccurring trend, in which most of the tracts with average household incomes below the national average are found within the city itself. Outside of the City of Toronto there are almost no tracts shaded red. As in Chicago, many of the tracts with below average household incomes are in the inner suburbs, and take up a large amount of space geographically. The red tracts in Toronto make up for 36% of the total land in the city. This is a significant amount of the city, but not as large as in Chicago and nowhere near the same amount as in Detroit. As this map presents, the Toronto metro and City of Toronto are generally better off than the rest of Canada, and although income inequality in Toronto has been discussed to great lengths, this map displays that in relation to the national average, Toronto performs much better than other large cities."

We will continue to report on key findings from forthcoming insights.

Read the full report here.

Original source: Martin Prosperity Institute

Highlights from TEDxToronto

BlogTO Wednesday, October 02, 2013

The fifth annual TEDxToronto conference took place October 26 at the Royal Conservatory of Music. It's one of the largest independently organized TEDx events in the world and, according to a highlight report that ran in BlogTO, approximately 1,000 hand-chosen delegates attended.

Among the highlights listed, a flash mob ukulele performance by the Ukulele Gangsters, which took place at the beginning of the conference.

Highlights that would be of particular interest to Yonge Street readers included Darrell Bricker, the former Director of Research for the Prime Ministers office. "Bricker has always tried to use numbers to tell the story behind the scenes. He spoke at length about the manner in which power is shifting from the 416 to the 905, which is redefining both our city and the GTA as a whole," BlogTO wrote. "Another key subject he discussed was the shrinking Canadian birth rate, which is going to make it extremely tough to support the aging population."

Also, Joel MacCharles, who has "been helping to foster the farmer's market movement in Toronto. By teaching people the benefits of preserving food and eating locally, Joel has altered kitchens around Toronto with some of his 1,700 articles on food-related topics," the article says.

Also Steve Mann, considered the "father of wearable computers" for his Google Glass-like inventions dating back to the 1970s. "Mann is a believer in wearing personal cameras to ensure his own safety in what he calls sousveillance," BlogTO summarizes. "Mann combined his discussion on safety with the shooting of Sammy Yatim, stating that videos taken by people outside the streetcar were a strong factor leading to the officer being charged. He also believes everyone should be able to record their entire life, because if buildings and businesses are allowed to record us at all times, why aren't we allowed to record them in return?"

Not mentioned in the highlight reel was Gabrielle Scrimshaw's talk about how now, more than ever, is the time to pay attention to Aboriginal issues as more than half the Aboriginal population is under 25 and gearing up to enter the workforce. Background on Scrimshaw and her work can be found in this feature Yonge Street ran in Decemebr of last year.

The talks will be made available in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the introductory video explaining Toronto's history is a must watch.

Read the full story here.

Source: BlogTO

Apply to speak at Toronto's first TEDxWomen event

TEDxDistilleryDistrictWomen Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Speaker applications are now open for women interested in channeling "the bootstrap spirit of Silicon Valley to celebrate invention in all its forms." The event is the first of its kind, designed to "provide a platform or women to share ideas, inspired new modes of understanding and be a catalyst of change," the website says.

The conference will focus not just on technology and objects, but "also solutions to poverty; approaches to peacemaking; expressions of art, and, at times, our own lives." More then 150 independently organized TEDx events will take place simultaneously exploring the theme of "Invented Here."

"The result: A truly global conversation—from San Francisco to São Paulo to Toronto's Distillery District—celebrating inventors and designers; thinkers and makers; local problem-solvers and global leaders."

The event will be held on December 5th, 2013 and the deadline to apply to be a speakers is October 15th, 2013.

For more information, click here.

Source: TEDxDistilleryDistrictWomen

5 reasons Toronto is inching towards becoming 'Silicon Valley North'

Global News Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Toronto is on its way to earning a new nickname "Silicon Valley North," according to an article that ran in Global News. The article names numerous reasons. We've compiled the top five.

Acquisitions

This year alone, the article notes, Google "scooped up" University of Toronto startup DNN research, while Apple acquired data services startup Locationary.

Regional ties

The city's ties with the surrounding Waterloo and Markham ("known for its slogan 'Canada's high-tech capital'") regions positions it as a central hub of entrepreneurial culture.

Engineers

“If you think about Facebook, Google, all of the big Valley companies – most of them were started out of the universities. It’s the talent from the engineering schools that fuelled the tech scene in Silicon Valley,” says Payman Nilforoush, CEO of earned advertising platform inPowered, in the article.

The article points out that major tech companies have noticed the talent coming out of schools such as the University of Toronto and University of Waterloo, noting that companies such as Google and Facebook have "made an effort to attract some of those graduates."

Cost

Nilforoush notes that, "In his experience, relative to Silicon Valley, the cost of running a business in Toronto in most cases is nearly half."

Mentorship

"According to the Bank of Montreal, almost half of Canadian post-secondary students surveyed — 46 per cent — said they see themselves starting a business after graduation," the article reports. It states grads are relieved to find out they don't have to travel to Silicon Valley to receive the mentorship they desire due to a number of "boot camp" style programs stemming from Ontario universities.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Global News.

University of Toronto ranked "just as great" as American universities

Policy MIC Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Last week, the University of Toronto was named among the top 20 universities in the world. This week, the school has turned up on another list, this time placing seventh in the top 15 colleges that are "just as great" as American schools, according to Policy MIC.

Here's what the article said:

The University of Toronto is a public research university founded in 1827 by royal charter. Originally known as King's College, it took on its present name when it declared itself a secular institution in 1850. It is notable for the discovery of insulin and birthplace of stem cell research, and its physics department built the first practical electron microscope in 1938. The university's library system is the fourth largest in North America and holds over 10 million bound volumes. It is also home to the first Canadian collegiate fraternity, Zeta Psi.

Read the full list here.

Original Source: Policy MIC