University research improves quality of life
Basic research has led to some of the most commercially successful and life-saving discoveries of the past century, including the laser, vaccines and drugs, and the development of radio and television. Through creativity, tenacity and passion, Canada’s researchers are tackling and solving big challenges such as climate change, food security, life-threatening diseases and artificial intelligence.
Learn more about Canadian university research that’s improving lives at home and around the world.
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Using green roofs to protect cities from flooding
Using green roofs to protect cities from flooding
In recent years, cities across Canada and North America have fallen victim to severe and devastating weather events linked to global temperature increases. Flooding, in particular – caused by extreme storms, hurricanes and excessive amounts of rainfall – has left cities in ruins, families without homes, and experts looking for solutions.
One of these solutions is green roofs. A recent study conducted by civil engineer Jenny Hill at the University of Toronto’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Lab found that green roofs – composed of living vegetation that can be applied to virtually any building rooftop – are able to capture an average of 70% of rainfall water over a given period of time and release the rain water back into the atmosphere.
This offers a new and innovative method of storm weather management, as cities’ underground stormwater systems will have less rainfall to deal with and will be at a lower risk of reaching capacity and flooding onto city streets. With extreme storms and weather becoming more frequent, Hill and her team of co-researchers are finding solutions to protect cities, communities, and Canadians across the country from devastating flooding.
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Developing energy-efficient computer memory
Developing energy-efficient computer memory
A University of Victoria chemist has developed a breakthrough material that will make computers and smartphones faster, more durable and more energy-efficient.
The new material allows computer chips to exist at a molecular level, with a technology known as light-induced magnetoresistive random-access memory (LI-RAM). Developed by materials chemist Natia Frank, the invention is part of an international effort to reduce the power consumption and heat produced by modern computer processors. Known as the “power wall,” the problem of heat and electrical consumption is creating an environmental concern and limiting the development of faster computers.
Information communication technologies are now using about 10 per cent of the world’s total electricity. Meanwhile, discarded personal information and communications technology alone accounted for three million tonnes of hazardous e-waste world-wide in 2014.
Compared to the current standard, LI-RAM uses 10 per cent less power, creates almost no heat and has higher durability—all while processing information faster. Frank is now working with international electronics manufacturers to optimize and commercialize the technology, which could find its way to consumers in the next 10 years.
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Ensuring clean drinking water in rural areas
Ensuring clean drinking water in rural areas
E.coli, a common bacterium that can lead to food poisoning, is a big concern in rural communities. Typically, a test for the bacterium involves shipping a sample to a laboratory out-of-town and waiting to receive the results, which can take several days. This heightens the risk of both people and animals consuming contaminated water.
Drawing on their PhD research into clean water testing and treatment at the University of Alberta, two researchers have launched a start-up that promises to revolutionize tests for the presence of E.coli in drinking water.
Roshan Water Solutions, run by Dr. Mojir Shaibani and Dr. Amirreza Sohrabi, was launched in 2017 and aims to produce a prototype that can test for E.coli on-site and provide accurate results within an hour. Not only does the small, accessible handheld sensor eliminate the risk of human error, it also provides a more cost-effective and timely solution for people living in rural communities.
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Tackling affordable student housing in Toronto
Tackling affordable student housing in Toronto
University of Toronto student Syed Imam spends almost three hours every day travelling back and forth from his home in Mississauga to the downtown campus, where he studies civil engineering.
Imam is not alone. The search for affordable student housing in Greater Toronto pushes many postsecondary students into the suburbs, where they face long daily commutes. Apart from the time lost and transport costs, the commutes mean students can’t take advantage of all their university has to offer.
To develop innovative policy on student housing, OCAD University, Ryerson, York and the University of Toronto have teamed up to find solutions through the joint research project, StudentDwellTO. The initiative brings together almost 100 faculty and students who, among other goals, will create interactive maps to develop affordable housing strategies, and an interactive website that highlights community arts programming.
The initiative is a follow-up to StudentMoveTO, a survey of student travel behaviour that showed how lack of affordable housing led to longer daily commutes, lower levels of activity on campus, and even hidden homelessness.
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Dance can provide long-term benefits to people living with Parkinson’s
Dance can provide long-term benefits to people living with Parkinson’s
A collaborative research program has shown, for the first time, that a 12-week dance program can lead to long-term improvements for people living with Parkinson’s Disease.
Led by Dr. Joseph DeSouza at York University’s Centre for Vision Research, the study was interdisciplinary, involving researchers from biology, psychology and neuroscience. Together with Canada’s National Ballet School, the research team looked at the benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s over a 12-week period. Results showed immediate as well as long-term improvements for both balance and gait.
About 70,000 Canadians live with Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease that can impair balance and coordination and lead to rigid muscles. This is the first time dance has been shown to improve motor skills for people living with this disease, and offers people living with this disease an alternative to traditional therapies.
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Tobacco plants helping to fight cancer
Tobacco plants helping to fight cancer
While smoking tobacco may be notorious for causing cancer, innovative research from the University of Guelph has revealed that the tobacco plant may be able to help fight the disease.
Researchers at Guelph University are modifying tobacco plants to produce similar versions of antibodies for treating diseases such as cancer and for detecting and monitoring bacteria in food products or the environment.
Chris Hall, professor emeritus at Guelph’s School of Environmental Sciences, has developed a technology that can create the plant-produced antibody, and has licensed it to PlantForm, a Guelph firm. In typical drug production, large fermentation chambers are used to grow bacteria or yeast, which then produce antibodies or vaccines. But PlantForm relies on genetic engineering, inserting genes into tobacco plants to make the antibody.
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The “Canadian vaccine” fights Ebola
The “Canadian vaccine” fights Ebola
Researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory developed both a vaccine to prevent the devastating Ebola virus and a drug to treat those already infected.
Led by Dr. Gary Kobinger, now director of the Centre de recherche en infectiologie at Laval University, the team developed the VSV-EBOV vaccine – known internationally as the “Canadian vaccine”– and the ZMapp treatment.
The ZMapp treatment was so effective in preventing the spread of Ebola that clinical trials were fast-tracked, allowing distribution to start without delay, possibly saving thousands of lives.
As well, the mobile laboratories his team developed greatly simplified and accelerated diagnostic testing, a crucial tool in combating Ebola.
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Using big data to battle traffic
Using big data to battle traffic
Commuters in more than 50 countries can thank three University of Waterloo engineering graduates for making their commute smoother.
After spending a summer counting cars at the side of the road as students, they vowed there had to be a less-labour intensive and more accurate way to collect data on traffic.
In 2005, they formed Miovision, a company that uses video technology for traffic collection, helping city planners and engineers gain insights on traffic networks and infrastructure. Miovision manufactures and exports hardware and software to customers around the world.
Named by as one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, Miovision has 115 employees with offices in Canada and Germany.
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Using technology to breed healthier livestock
Using technology to breed healthier livestock
Dr. Bonnie Mallard, an immunogeneticist at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, has developed High Immune Response (HIR) technology that manages livestock health through genetic identification.
The patented technology is licensed by a Canadian company called Semex Alliance, which markets the enhanced bovine semen under the trade name Immunity+.
Mallard calls her process of discovery “from the barn to the bench.” She began thinking about breeding animals for disease resistance in 1978 as an undergraduate studying animal science at the University of Guelph, where she learned that the immune system, which dictates response to infectious disease and cancers, is under genetic control.
Semex, Canada’s largest livestock breeding company, has generated more than $60 million in the first three years of sales of Immunity+ semen, which is available in 120 countries.
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Digital tools to preserve Indigenous languages
Digital tools to preserve Indigenous languages
When Marie-Odile Junker arrived in Canada from France in 1985, she was surprised to find a lack of opportunities to learn Indigenous languages. After completing a PhD in French, the Carleton University linguist changed gears and began studying Indigenous languages. Now a leading expert in the field, she creates digital tools to help preserve and revitalize these languages.
In 2005 she launched what would become the Algonquian Linguistic Atlas, which today groups together 52 communities of Indigenous speakers through their languages and dialects.
This has led to the development of a common digital infrastructure for a dozen online dictionaries of Algonquian languages, created in partnership with communities, Indigenous organizations and colleagues in Canada and the United States.
The goal is to create open-access data banks, open-source software and integrated tools such as dictionaries, grammar sheets, spelling guides, lessons, exercises, banks of oral stories, texts and a terminology forum.
User statistics show their popularity: in 2016, more than 99,000 words were consulted in the Innu dictionary. The dictionary app was downloaded more than 4,600 times since launched in 2013, and an East Cree conversation app has been downloaded 3,150 times.
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Studying the brain leads to advances in artificial intelligence
Studying the brain leads to advances in artificial intelligence
When Canadian Geoffrey Hinton was an undergrad student at Cambridge University, he wanted to understand how the human brain works. But he was frustrated because no field of study offered the answers he sought. So he started to build his own computer models to mimic the brain.
At the time, most researchers rejected his approach to AI. But Hinton, now one of the world’s leading computer scientists, and his team kept at it.
Hinton is now an emeritus distinguished professor in computer science at the University of Toronto, vice-president engineering fellow at Google, and the architect of an approach to artificial intelligence (AI) that will radically alter the role computers play in our lives.
In 2013, Google acquired Hinton’s neural networks start-up, DNNresearch. He was recently named to the 2016 Wired 100 list of global influencers.
His learning machines have proven immensely practical. They make self-driving cars safer, effortlessly translate between languages and will increasingly take on manual and cognitive tasks for us, at work and home. Their ability to discover patterns in vast data sets is also helping us advance genomic medicine and develop new treatments for disease.
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Nature-inspired tools to combat counterfeiting
Nature-inspired tools to combat counterfeiting
While studying the iridescence of the Morpho butterfly, Simon Fraser University professor Dr. Bozena Kaminska and applied science graduate student Clint Landrock made a discovery with huge implications for the world of anti-counterfeit technology.
With help from SFU’s 4D LABS, Landrock developed a technique to mimic the nanostructures—microscopic holes that trap wavelengths of light and produce an array of colours—in the Morpho butterfly’s wing, creating hard-to-forge hologram-like images. This anti-counterfeit technology is now used on banknotes, legal documents, concert tickets, stock certificates, visas, passports and pharmaceuticals.
In 2014, Landrock sold Nanotech Security Corp, the company he co-founded with SFU’s Prof. Kaminska, to a company that is now winning contracts around the world worth tens of millions of dollars.
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A global leader in stem cell research
A global leader in stem cell research
Canada’s rise as an international powerhouse in stem cell research began with a series of breakthroughs in the 1960s by biophysicist James Till and cellular biologist Ernest McCulloch at the University of Toronto.
These pioneers proved the existence of stem cells while doing research into bone marrow cells in mice. They discovered the special properties of stem cells – an ability to renew themselves and repair and replace tissue in the body, and to be transplantable.
Stem cells have revolutionized cancer treatment, laid the foundations for regenerative medicine and fuelled the emergence of a biomedical industry in Canada and around the world.
Their foundational research also inspired a generation of world-class scientists who have helped make Canada a global leader in regenerative medicine.