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Three U of T researchers, including two engineering professors, received more than $5 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for projects on regenerative medicine and nanomedicine.

Representatives from the Government of Canada, CIHR and CSA were on campus March 16 to make the announcement.

“CIHR is delighted to partner with the Canadian Space Agency to support research aimed at developing technologies and approaches to improve patient outcome,” said Professor Jane Aubin of molecular genetics and medical biophysics, scientific director of CIHR’s Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis.

“By working together, CIHR and the CSA are supporting scientific research and innovations that have applications for health care on earth and in space and provide real benefits for Canadians,” said Gilles Leclerc, director general of Space Exploration at CSA.

Nanomedicine delivers medical technologies that function at the molecular level to diagnose and treat disease while regenerative medicine stimulates the renewal of bodily tissues and organs.

The following U of T researchers received a total of $5,487,662 in funding:

• Professor Shana Kelley of biochemistry and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and her team are using nanotextured microstructures to develop a diagnostic device that detects low levels of prostate cancer cells circulating in blood. This could lead to routine screening for prostate cancer, helping to diagnose the disease earlier and to distinguish aggressive forms of the disease from non-aggressive.

• University Professor Michael Sefton (ChemE, IBBME) is leading a team working on providing blood supply to regenerated organs and tissues — so far, the lack of an adequate blood supply has been a barrier in the survival of replacement tissues and organs created using regenerative medicine.

• Professor Gang Zheng (IBBME) is leading a group working on bridging the gap between the fabrication of nanoparticles for pre-clinical research and creating agents suitable for human trials. They are focusing on nanotechnology-enabled image-guided interventions for lung cancer and vascular lesion diseases.

“We congratulate the talented researchers who are leading these projects and believe their work on integrating new technologies into health research holds the potential to dramatically change the way we treat and diagnose disease,” said Professor Peter Lewis, U of T’s Associate Vice-President, Research.

Read the full article at U of T’s website.

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