Designing cleaner, safer ways to cook in South India
How do you design an inexpensive stove that’s better than open fires or rudimentary appliances, and then convince people halfway across the world to use it? That’s what a multidisciplinary team of students and professors from across the University of Toronto – including U of T Engineering – went to South India to discover. “According […]
Suffering from knee pain? Biological joint replacements move a step closer with 3D printed templates
Knee pain – it’s familiar to runners, skiers, and almost anyone over a certain age. Yet doctors often urge patients to postpone knee replacement surgery as long as possible because the artificial joint may not last long. Now, a collaborative research project that began at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering […]
U of T engineers use “Sperm Olympics” to help couples get pregnant faster
In vitro fertility treatments can be intensely emotional and medically invasive, not to mention expensive. But technical developments from a research group at the University of Toronto may soon be able to shorten the journey to pregnancy – and that potential has piqued interest from international investors. The research group, QSperm, is looking to turn […]
Stiffness: a new piece of the breast cancer puzzle
A new study has linked the stiffness of breast tissue to the progression of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. Published in Nature Medicine this month, the study may help clinicians differentiate between aggressive forms of the disease, which tend to have a poor prognosis, and less deadly forms. University of Toronto Assistant Professor […]
Health grants advance research in dental disease and cancer therapy
From gum disease to new cancer therapy, health concerns that affect millions are at the heart of two new Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRPs) involving Professors Warren Chan (IBBME) and Eli Sone (IBBME, MSE). Making recovery from gum disease “stick” Assistant Professor Sone and his collaborators, Associate Professor Bernhard Ganss and Professor Chris McCulloch, are […]
Can epileptic seizures be predicted and prevented?
Every day, 42 Canadians learn they have epilepsy. This chronic disorder touches 50 million people worldwide, and in the past, it’s even affected geniuses like Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven and Vincent Van Gogh. For Epilepsy Awareness Month, U of T’s Erin Vollick sat down with a leading neurological researcher at the University of Toronto, Professor Berj […]
CGEN: Leaving no child hungry in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Whether it refers to the environment, a start-up business or somebody’s wallet, the term sustainability has become a buzzword of the 21st century. But in areas like Dhaka, Bangladesh – where a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line and half of children are malnourished – if parents cannot feed their families, economic […]
A tale of two guts: Joint study discovers digestion mechanisms
You may have heard of a pacemaker for improving function of a human heart, but have you ever considered one for bowel functions? In a study published this week in Nature Communications, a group of researchers have uncovered a previously unknown process in the human digestive system. This discovery could lead to successful ‘pacemaker’ treatments […]
3D Microgels “On-demand” Offer New Potential for Cell Research, the Future of Personalized Medicine
Stars, diamonds, circles. Rather than your average bowl of Lucky Charms, these are three-dimensional cell cultures that can be generated by a new digital microfluidics platform from researchers at U of T’s Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME). Published this week in Nature Communications, the tool can be used to study cells in cost-efficient, […]
