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January/february 2014 volume 18, number 1
R&D News ......................... 1 Pharma Notes.................... 5 Appointments .................... 6 New Products .................. 15 Calendar .......................... 17 App Reviews..................... 18
new energy harvesting technology set to reduce number of oPen-heart surgeries
Professor Armaghan Salehian.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new technology that could dramatically reduce the number of open-heart surgeries for people with pacemakers.
Professor Armaghan Salehian’s research group has developed wideband hybrid energy harvesters that use different types of smart materials to convert ambient vibrations into electricity. Used in pacemakers, the technology could mean that batteries last longer and patients will have to endure fewer open-heart surgeries.
“If a two-year-old child has to go through open heart surgery every seven or eight years that could translate into approximately ten surgeries in his or her life span to implant new pacemakers,” said professor Salehian of Waterloo’s Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. “The number may be reduced noticeably by harvesting energy through vibrations and human motion to prolong the battery life.”
Salehian’s team, which includes graduate and undergraduate mechanical and mechatronics engineering students, completed a prototype for the new hybrid technology in August that has also shown potential for various wireless sensing applications.
There is strong demand for more energy-efficiency units in today’s technology thanks to the increased use of electronic devices ranging from mobile phones and wireless sensors to medical implants. Selfsustained systems that can harvest different forms of ambient energy have the potential to lower costs and the need for regular battery replacements in devices such as pacemakers.
While other researchers have undertaken similar work, the majority have developed devices designed for narrower ranges of vibration frequencies. For example, if an individual is moving at a certain pace, the device produces power but as soon as the rate of motion is changed or the frequencies are slightly different, the amount of power reduces significantly.
Salehian is currently working to establish industrial partnerships with companies in North America.
news
Quantum genetix acQuires genserve laboratories™
Quantum Genetix Canada Inc. has acquired the Saskatchewan Research Council’s (SRC) GenServe Laboratories™, a laboratory known for the application of advanced DNA technologies on livestock.
Located in Saskatoon, SK at the Innovation Place research park, Quantum Genetix applies genetic information and livestock management to the beef industry, providing customers with genetic technology in order to improve animal production and value. Their core products include Q-sort, Q-link and a suite of performance enhancing SNP’S.
As part the deal, Quantum Genetix will acquire the GenServe name, along with the livestock portion of its services. Quantum Genetix says it will continue operating GenServe with minimal changes to its daily operations. SRC will retain the crop portion of GenServe’s testing suite and will continue to provide these services to the agriculture industry.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
To see this story online
visit http://www.laboratoryfocus.ca/?p=2087
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breakthrough ircm research shows imPortance of the dna architecture in controlling gene activity
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Institut De Recherche Clinique De Montreal (IRCM)
A study conducted by Dr. Marie Kmita and her team at the Institut De Recherche Clinique De Montéal (IRCM), in collaboration with Dr. Josée Dostie at McGill University, has shown the importance of the chromatin architecture in controlling the activity of genes, especially those required for proper embryonic development. The discovery, recently published in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics, could have a significant impact on the diagnosis of genetic diseases.
Each cell in the body contains a person’s genetic information in the form of DNA molecules, wrapped around structures called nucleosomes. Together, the DNA and nucleosomes form the chromatin, which is the main component of chromosomes.
“Our work shows that the regulation of the activity of genes controlling embryonic development is linked to the three-dimensional organization of the chromatin,” explains Dr. Kmita, director of the Genetics and Development research unit at the IRCM. “In fact, this chromatin architecture, which varies according to the cell type, generates specific contacts between sequences of regulatory DNA and the genes they regulate.”
To date, studying the causes of genetic diseases is mainly achieved through DNA sequencing and the analysis of gene sequences. However, the cause of such diseases could just as well be an anomaly in the DNA sequences that control the genes.
The IRCM researchers’ scientific breakthrough could have an impact on a large number of genetic diseases, including those associated with the Hox genes studied by Dr. Kmita, such as synpolydactyly (a congenital malformation characterized by the fusion of digits and the production of additional digits) and the hand-footgenital syndrome (a genetic disease characterized by limb malformations and urogenital defects).
To see this story online visit
http://www.laboratoryfocus. ca/?p=2089
Funding announced For next generation prostate cancer research
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announces it will match funding from BRI Biopharmaceutical Research Inc (BRI) for a total of $750,000 over a three year industry partnered collaborative research grant. This money will enable ongoing research collaborations between Dr. Yuzhuo Wang’s laboratories at the BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC), and BRI to develop new state-of-the-art experimental cancer models.
These models, which closely resemble patients’ malignancies, will help researchers discover and develop anti-cancer drugs that improve the treatment options for cancer patients. Dr. Wang and his team at the BC Cancer Agency and VPC are recognized internationally for their pioneering work in the field of prostate cancer modeling, and are responsible for creating a novel method for establishing transplantable xenograft models. This same method will be applied to establish a new panel of patientderived cancer models.
“This type of patient-derived xenograft model will provide a realBenchside researchers at the Vancouver Prostate Centre.
istic and practical approach for testing the effectiveness of new anti-cancer drug therapies,” said Dr. David Kwok, president and CEO at BRI.
Dr. Wang’s work on patient-derived xenograft models was recently published in Cancer Research. His research standardizes a bank of transplantable patient-derived prostate tumor xenograft models that, for the first time, capture the diverse biological and molecular heterogeneity of primary prostate cancer.
u of t Professor charles boone wins 2014 edward novitski Prize
The Genetics Society of America has awarded the 2014 Edward Novitski Prize to University of Toronto professor Charles Boone.
The Novitski Prize is one of five awards the Genetics Society of America grants yearly. It is named after a pioneering American geneticist and the award recognizes exceptional ingenuity in genetics research.
Boone and his colleagues invented a method to discover and map gene interactions among the thousands of genes that make up an organism’s genome. Their technology, synthetic genetic array (SGA) analysis, allows researchers to test the potential for genes to work together as pairs. The technology is automated, which means it can test millions of possible gene combinations to generate a survey of genome-wide genetic interactions.
Boone developed SGA technology in yeast — a single-celled organism with a quarter as many genes as humans. Yeast offers an excellent
news
continued from page 3
model for understanding the general principles underlying human genetics and disease. Researchers have since adapted SGA-like approaches for other systems, including human cells, and are using them to explore therapies for cancer and many other diseases.
To see this story online visit
http://www.laboratoryfocus. ca/?p=2094
Feds to invest in business-led research networks
Four Canadian research networks are receiving $49.7 million in funding from the federal government, through a competition for the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program.
The research networks were awarded the funding to address industry R&D challenges related to ultra-deep mining, green aviation, personalized cancer treatment and sustainable electronics manufacturing.
“The Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence program enhances private sector innovation by blending academic expertise with the private
From left to right: Samantha Espley, Janet Walden, Douglas Morrison, The Honourable Greg Rickford, Irene Sterian, Sylvain Cofsky, Loretta Renard and Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk sector’s drive to solve real-world challenges,” commented Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology, who made the funding announcement in Sudbury.
The networks who will be receiving the funding are: • Ultra Deep Mining Network (UDMN) – Sudbury – $15 million • Business-Led Network of Centres of
Excellence in Precision Therapeutics (PreThera Research) – Quebec City – $15 million • Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN) – Montreal – $12 million • Refined Manufacturing Acceleration
Process (ReMAP) – Toronto – $7.7 million
This latest round of funding is the second competition for new networks since the program began in 2007. The funding was leveraged by other sources, as partners pay at least half of each network’s eligible direct research costs.
For a more in-depth backgrounder about the program and the funded research networks, see http://www. nce-rce.gc.ca/Media-Medias/newscommuniques/News-Communique_ eng.asp?ID=139.
To see this story online visit
http://www.laboratoryfocus. ca/?p=2096
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For more information or to apply go to www.cheminst.ca/cct stem cell institute’s recruit looks for genetic roots of brain disease
The promise of discovering potential treatments for catastrophic diseases like autism and schizophrenia is being explored by Karun Singh at McMaster University’s Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCC-RI).
A neuroscientist and the institute’s newest recruit, his pioneering research is concentrating on uncovering underlying genetic defects inside the brains of people with these, and other neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s.
These are significant conditions as autism impacts one in 88 Canadian children, schizophrenia, a serious brain and mind disorder, affects 300,000 Canadians, and more than 500,000 Canadians suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.
Autism — and most psychiatric disorders — have a genetic component, and his research will search for clues by studying specific genetic mutations associated with these diseases, said Singh,assistant professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences.
“Starting there, we will eventually try to model it in a derived brain (neural) cell. This will allow us to probe what is wrong and how that mutation gives rise to a defective brain cell,” Singh explained.
Once he has uncovered what is abnormal, he plans to work to discover drugs that correct the defect.
Singh’s research is a comfortable blend with investigations already underway in the institute, said Mick Bhatia, director of the SCC-RI. “Karun was an ideal recruit and fit for SCC-RI and sits in the pocket of where we strategically plan to go towards discovering new drugs for brain disorders that include Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.”
Singh grew up in Hamilton and received his first science degree at McMaster. Most recently, he was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; where he investigated how psychiatric disease risk genes affect brain development and neural circuit formation.
