University of Toronto Mississauga

A new e-book written as part of U of T's Scholars in Residence program shows how video games can be studied and critiqued the same way as classic literature

As digital gaming has become an integral part of today's pop culture, the study of video games has become more commonplace at universities around the world through courses and a growing number of specialized degrees (such as a new minor program at U of T Mississauga) But amid the increased interest in learning about the various aspects of video games, resources to help professors teach the subject are lagging behind.

“Video games studies is a very multidisciplinary field. It doesn’t have the same depth of focus or publication history as a single scholarly trajectory,” says Sonja Nikkila, assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of English at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

“For someone already working in a different discipline and wanting to [add] video games to their own teaching, there aren't a lot of textbooks and syllabi out there.”

Sonja Nikkila (supplied photo)

Nikkila, who teaches the course “Video Games: Exploring the Virtual Narrative,” says it makes sense to study video games like pieces of literature – many games also have rich characters, settings, plots and messages. Unlike static texts, however, there are different endings, side quests and optional plot points that make students’ play-throughs a completely different experience.

Some landmark games can’t be assigned as homework, either – they may take dozens of hours to finish or need to be played on expensive systems.

Yet Nikkila isn’t deterred. “I wanted to create a resource to show lots of ways you can approach games critically – and how even if you haven’t finished a game or got a different ending than somebody else, that experience is still critically valuable,” she says.

Nikkila recently teamed up with a group of students for one of six U of T Scarborough projects funded by the Jackman Scholars-in-Residence program, which gives students across U of T paid four-week research opportunities. Her team's quest was to create something to help students and teachers apply narrative theory – a classic approach to studying literature – to video games.

They came up with an e-book titled Critical Inventory of Video Game Analysis, which offers a series of frameworks that each make sense on their own but also link to one another, allowing readers to choose their own adventure.

Some cover core game elements such as plot and setting, while others delve into Marxism, disability studies and other areas of literary analysis. The frameworks include an overview of each topic’s relationship to video games, a case for the unique insights games can offer, essay prompts and lists of related topics and links.

They also include a section called "demonstrations of literary criticism," or DLC – a play on the ubiquitous acronym in the gaming world for downloadable content. In the e-book, DLCs are a series of sample essays looking critically at games, such as one by student Brennen Penney on the eco-feminist messaging in the Star Wars game The Force Unleashed, alongside other pieces by students Luna Chen, Jesse June-Jack, Lucas McGee and Toey Saralamba.

The DLCs are one of several clever nods to video-game lingo throughout, including the title ("inventory" is a standard video-game term). Another section titled "Lore" covers the context behind games that can help inform an analysis, from their creators to cultural impact. The introduction is followed by a section called “Introduction Redux” – redux is a term for a remastered game, but in the book it signifies space saved for the new introduction the nascent resource will eventually have.

Nikkila plans to use the e-book in her video games course and to regularly update the DLC section with additions from students. She’s hoping to publish the resource within the next year and make it publicly accessible for students to read and also contribute.

In August, the students who participated in creating the resource will present at a conference held in collaboration with the University of Waterloo’s Digital Pedagogy Institute, discussing how they produced the e-book and how it can be used to analyze video games.

“We want to think of this as a library of resources and perspectives that will constantly grow and evolve,” Nikkila says. “It might even be a document that preserves a little bit of how scholarship moves across [several] years.”

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Jackman Scholars-in-Residence

In search of other worlds: Astronomer explores how planets form and evolve

siddiq22 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:16:57 +0000

In search of other worlds: Astronomer explores how planets form and evolve

siddiq22 Thu, 07/20/2023 - 15:16

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(photo by rbkomar/Getty Images)

Dan Falk

Topic

Our Community

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Planets

Research & Innovation

Solar System

University of Toronto Mississauga

Subheadline

Assistant Professor Marta Bryan is studying the properties of exoplanets to better understand how our planet and species fit into the larger universe

It wasn’t that long ago that astronomers only knew of eight planets (nine before Pluto’s demotion back in 2006) – those here in our own solar system. Now we know of nearly 10,000 planets orbiting stars beyond our sun – known as exoplanets – and that flood of new worlds has ushered in something of a golden age for planetary scientists.

For astronomers like Marta Bryan, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga and in the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, it means there’s no better time to be studying these distant worlds.

“This is such a dynamic field,” says Bryan, who joined U of T in January after four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Studying the properties of exoplanets provides “a unique opportunity to put ourselves and our world in the broadest of contexts – how does our solar system, our planet and our species fit into our universe?”

Bryan, who specializes in the study of planetary formation and evolution, was recently awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award from the American Astronomical Society for her work on exoplanets.

As the tally of exoplanets began to grow, astronomers noticed how diverse planetary systems appear to be, with planets varying widely in size, composition and surface temperature. Some orbit very close to their host stars, while others follow orbits comparable to the Earth’s, or to the giant outer planets in our solar system.

“We’ve found thousands of exoplanets, with a huge diversity of properties,” Bryan says. “For me, one of the driving goals in the field is to understand where that diversity comes from. What does the process of planet formation and evolution look like?”

Marta Bryan uses a range of observational techniques to detect and characterize gas giant planets outside our solar system to explore how planetary systems form and evolve (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

While much research on exoplanets has focused on the search for Earth-like worlds, Bryan is interested in gas giant planets, analogous to Jupiter and Saturn in our own solar system. That’s because their sheer heft means they play an important role in determining how smaller planets in the same system evolve.

As Bryan puts it, gas giant planets “dominate the dynamics” of whatever system they’re in. Which means that learning about gas giants can, in fact, help us understand something about Earth-like planets – worlds whose evolution may have been affected by the presence of these much more massive bodies.

As a result, Bryan says, “gas giant planets are an obvious place to start if we want to understand the physics of planet formation.”

The gas giant planets in our own solar system are thought to have played a crucial role over the past five billion years. Jupiter, for example, is believed to have migrated inward before reversing direction and ending up in its current position. Jupiter’s foray into the inner part of the solar system is thought to have stunted the growth of the inner planets, particularly Mars, by scattering some of the gas and dust that might otherwise have been gravitationally pulled toward the red planet.

“We think that Jupiter and Saturn played a dominant role in the early history of our solar system, helping to shape the formation and evolution of our terrestrial planets,” Bryan says. “As a result, we want to understand in the broader extrasolar context what role gas-giant analogs to Jupiter and Saturn have played in shaping the lives of terrestrial worlds.”

The future looks bright – data from the James Webb Space Telescope is already pouring in. Bryan is especially excited about large, ground-based telescopes with mirrors up to 30 metres across, which are currently being planned. These next-generation telescopes may even reveal “biosignatures” on other worlds – signs of life that can be inferred from the composition of a planet’s atmosphere.

And if astronomers do end up finding conclusive evidence of life beyond our own planet, such a discovery “would definitely be transformational,” Bryan says.

New research underscores need to protect 'oasis of the Arctic'

siddiq22 — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 13:59:46 +0000

New research underscores need to protect 'oasis of the Arctic'

siddiq22 Fri, 07/07/2023 - 09:59

Cutline

A beached iceberg on the Nares Strait, which is surrounded by the oldest and thickest sea ice in the world (photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Topic

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Kent Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at U of T Mississauga, collaborated with scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada to study the North Water polynya

A new study by scientist Kent Moore shows that the unique marine ecosystem supporting a web of diverse natural life in the frozen Arctic is managing to sustain itself against the impacts of climate change – so far.

His findings, in partnership with researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada, were recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Kent Moore (supplied image)

A professor of atmospheric physics in the department of chemical and physical sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Moore is studying an 85-000-square-foot expanse known as a polynya – the name for a year-round open-water area surrounded by sea ice.

Located in north Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland, it creates a relatively warmer microclimate with melted freshwater, which triggers an abundant bloom of phytoplankton each spring.

The site attracts diverse species of fish, birds, walruses, narwhals, whales, seals and polar bears who come to feed, mate and rest. For several millennia, the polynya has also been a source of traditional food for local Indigenous peoples.

Scientists refer to this site as the North Water (NOW) polynya, while it is known among some Inuit in Canada and Greenland as Pikialasorsuaq. Whatever name is used, Moore wants to underscore its ecological importance.

“The Arctic is mostly like a desert – it's difficult for a lot of wildlife to survive," Moore said. “But the North Water is quite amazing, because it’s the most biologically productive ecosystem in the region … You can think of it as an oasis in the Arctic."

The Nares Strait region, including northern Baffin Bay (NBB); Smith Bay (SB); Inglefield Fjord (IF); Smith Sound (SS); Kane Basin (KB); Humboldt Glacier (HG); Kennedy Channel (KC); Hall Basin (HB): Robeson Channel (RC); and Lincoln Sea (LS). Blue lines show the approximate location of the North Water polynya. (Map: Scientific Reports)

The NOW is below the Nares Strait, a waterway separating northwest Greenland from Ellesmere Island, surrounded by the oldest and thickest sea ice in the world.

Each winter, ice arches up to 100 kilometres in length from along the northern and southern ends of the strait. They stabilize the ice for seven or eight months, preventing any breaking ice floes from traveling down into the NOW.

To understand how the warming Earth is affecting the region, Moore collaborated with two scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada to study the ice arches. Their 2021 study found that thinning ice is causing these arches to collapse earlier each year.

“There’s been a lot of work suggesting that without the arches, the NOW will dramatically change,” Moore said. “That change would mean a reduction in productivity, fewer species in the region and just a general decline in the richness of the ecosystem.”

Recently, Moore partnered again with the same scientists to examine satellite data showing patterns of ice arch formation and disintegration each winter since 2007. They also developed weather prediction models to estimate how, in the absence of ice arches, winds will blow ice downstream into the NOW.

They found that when arches do not form, the presence of sea ice tends to be about 10 per cent higher than usual. However, despite variations in ice arch activity, biological productivity in the NOW has held steady.

Moore said this may be because the region’s strong winds push the ice into – and then out of – the polynya, leaving them no time to disturb the ecosystem.

“It’s kind of a good news story that the polynya appears to be more stable than people thought,” Moore said. “We can breathe a bit easier about the NOW for the next few years.”

But as climate change intensifies, the NOW could be at risk. As a critical habitat for so many diverse species, and a key contributor to the food security of nearby Indigenous communities, it needs to continue to be monitored, Moore noted.

“The underlying issue is that we’re still warming the planet up. And there are many other stresses on the environment and the animals in that region,” he said.

“If you go to a scenario where we lose all the ice in the Arctic, then the NOW won’t be there anymore.”

Experts say $200-million grant awarded to U of T will drive ‘big science’ via the Acceleration Consortium

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 20:19:03 +0000

Experts say $200-million grant awarded to U of T will drive ‘big science’ via the Acceleration Consortium

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/28/2023 - 16:19

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A researcher removes a vial of pre-dispensed reagent from an automated solid dispensing robot (photo by James Morley © The Matter Lab / Acceleration Consortium, University of Toronto)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Our Community

Acceleration Consortium

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

Leah Cowen

self-driving labs

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Chemistry

Computer Science

Creative Destruction Lab

Faculty of Arts & Science

History

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

University Health Network

University of Toronto Mississauga

Vector Institute

Women and Gender Studies

The $200-million Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) grant awarded to the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium will help build a world-leading centre for accelerated materials discovery and innovation.

The funding will support the consortium’s work on “self-driving labs” that realize the game-changing potential of AI by combining it with robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials and molecules in a fraction of the usual time and cost – from life-saving medications and biodegradable plastics to low-carbon cement and renewable energy.

With equity, diversity and inclusion guiding project implementation and research design, the Acceleration Consortium – a U of T institutional strategic initiative – will use the funding to commercialize ethically designed technologies and materials to benefit society and train today’s scientists with the skills they need to advance the emerging field of accelerated materials discovery. It will also examine critical issues regarding the application of the technology, including from environmental and Indigenous perspectives.

“We realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way,” says Acceleration Consortium Director Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

In particular, the funding will help the consortium rapidly create high-quality datasets to better train AI models and help validate the model’s predictions in real time.

Leaders and researchers from U of T and Acceleration Consortium spoke with U of T News about the impact the CFREF funding – the largest federal research grant ever awarded to a Canadian university – will have on the consortium’s game-changing work and unique model of cross-sector collaboration.

Leah Cowen

U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives

Materials and molecules are central to solving many of the world's pressing challenges, such as climate change, plastics, pollution and cancer. But it typically takes a very long time to develop new materials with new properties that can address those big problems.

By contrast, Acceleration Consortium’s approach combines AI, robotics and advanced computing to radically reduce the time and cost of bringing materials to market. Their autonomous labs predict, synthesize and test materials for key characteristics and can repeat and refine the process, which dramatically accelerates the timeline.

This transformative capability has the potential to affect so many different parts of our lives and our planet. So, the consortium’s focus on equity, diversity and inclusion in program delivery and research design, as well as its emphasis on environmental and Indigenous perspectives, is crucial. The CFREF grant allows us to do big science – through an interdisciplinary team-based approach with an incredible scope and potential for impact – in a way that’s critical for Canada to remain competitive on the international stage.

Melanie Woodin

Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science; professor, department of cell and systems biology

The Acceleration Consortium is already having an impact. Its second annual Accelerate Conference this summer will showcase the latest methods, applications and research in accelerated materials and molecular discovery. But this funding will enable even greater breakthroughs. It will have a transformative impact on our researchers' ability to develop the cost-effective, high-performance, sustainable materials that are needed to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik

Director, Acceleration Consortium; professor, departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science; Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry; CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Our goal is to accelerate science – that’s where our name comes from. To do that, we realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way. We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery – and this grant will help us to take that even further.

We are already emerging leaders in the world of research excellence and we have a plan to keep building on that excellence. We’ve also shown that we’re integrated with communities – including working closely with Indigenous communities – and have innovative plans to teach this technology to future generations.

Acceleration Consortium Researchers

Cheryl Arrowsmith

Senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network; professor of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine; director of the Toronto node of the Structural Genomics Consortium

The CFREF funds will advance our self-driving lab (SDL) to tackle the early stages of drug discovery by taking an initial compound and developing it into a more drug-like molecule that modulates a protein of interest in a disease. This is a design-make-test cycle that is currently done in a very iterative, slow manner. The Acceleration Consortium approach can speed the process up to try to get to the biologically active reagent much more quickly.

It has broad implications in a whole number of areas. Our SDL will complement another self-driving lab that is making engineered tissues that mimic human tissue or a disease state like a tumour – allowing one to test drugs or early-stage compounds in disease-relevant assays.

The self-driving lab concept condenses the time it takes to get to the answer you need – and does so more efficiently.

Avi Goldfarb

Professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management and Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare; chief data scientist at Creative Destruction Lab

This grant will allow us the freedom to invest in long-term planning for more – and more ambitious – projects. You learn more when you talk to people who have expertise that's different from your own. And the consortium has been an opportunity for me to learn from a different set of people with different knowledge than I’m typically exposed to as an economist in the business school.

It allows us to work with people to make new kinds of connections – and, hopefully over the course of the grant, develop entirely new, exciting ideas.

Michelle Murphy

Professor in the department of history and the Women and Gender Studies Institute in the Faculty of Arts & Science; co-director of the Indigenous-led Environmental Data Justice Lab at the Technoscience Research Unit; Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice

No one person has all the skills to address the sustainability of new substances – we truly need much greater collaboration and a willingness to really think across difference. Insisting on Indigenous collaboration in defining sustainable substances is what marks the innovation of this work.

This is a moment of the emergence of a new branch of chemistry – and, at the same time, its industrial application has been implicated in major environmental problems we’re facing. Part of what is appealing about this project is that it’s putting questions of sustainability and environmental justice as one of its crucial dimensions – and the decision to invest in Indigenous science and technology studies as part of science at U of T is vital.

Florian Shkurti

Assistant professor in the department of mathematical and computational sciences, U of T Mississauga; UTM Robotics faculty adviser; director of the Robot Vision and Learning Lab; and Vector Institute faculty affiliate

What is unique about the AC is that over the last five years it has built a tightly knit and vibrant community that includes academic and industry researchers, as well as a global team of active and supportive partners in government, industry and entrepreneurial circles. Despite the seemingly disparate areas of expertise, they all work towards a common goal: to accelerate the science of advanced materials discovery in order to benefit society and our planet at large.

Together with my collaborators, Professors Alán Aspuru-Guzik and Animesh Garg, we are working on enabling general-purpose robots to perform as well as chemists in a typical chemistry lab. Having additional funding from the CFREF will help us to pursue more research efforts in enabling robots to visually perceive and autonomously manipulate granular materials, powders, liquids and transparent objects, which traditionally have been extremely challenging. It opens up so many opportunities for robots to be helpful in chemistry labs and work alongside human chemists to augment their capabilities.

Ilya Yakavets

Bioengineering post-doctoral researcher in the Kumacheva Group

The CFREF grant is a game-changer for researchers like me at the Acceleration Consortium.

It's not just about the funding, but also about the opportunities it creates. Collaborating with the consortium has been incredibly valuable for my research project – working to create a microchip that can simulate the growth of cancer cells and test different drug combinations to see which are the most effective, using artificial intelligence.

I'm fortunate to be collaborating with Alán Aspuru-Guzik and the Acceleration Consortium to accelerate the translation of promising multidrug anticancer therapies from the laboratory to clinics. It has been an excellent opportunity to learn from and work with a team of experts who share a common goal.

Laura Matz

Chief science and technology officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Breakthroughs in AI-driven experimentation will revolutionize the process of discovering new molecules and materials for health care, life sciences and electronics. We see the Acceleration Consortium as uniquely positioned to bring the ecosystem together to drive cutting-edge

advancement in the field of accelerated materials and drug discovery through self-driving labs.

Because of this, we have become a founding member of the Acceleration Consortium. Through this collaboration, we look forward to developing and defining best practices in the area of AI algorithms and automation for materials and molecule discovery.

With files from Erin Warner

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:33:40 +0000

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 Thu, 04/27/2023 - 15:33

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Geoff Dancy, an associate professor of political science at U of T Mississauga, used Google Trends to research where in the world people are most interested in human rights (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

University of Toronto Mississauga

When Geoff Dancy wanted to research where people are most interested in human rights, he fully expected it would come from countries in the Global North – such as Canada and the United States.

But when Dancy – an associate professor in the University of Toronto Mississauga's department of political science – and his colleague delved deeper into the topic, they discovered the total opposite was true: it is those in the Global South, who regularly face suffering and violence at the hands of their governments, who consistently search online for information about human rights.

“Our expectations were completely flipped on their head,” Dancy says. “It goes against this academic narrative that exists right now that human rights aren’t from – and don’t resonate in – the Global South. We found the exact opposite of that.”

Dancy, along with his colleague Christopher Fariss, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of political science, detail their findings in a new paper published in The American Political Science Review.

As part of their research, Dancy and Fariss used the Google Trends analytics tool, which collects aggregated data on what people are searching for on Google. They examined Google searches from between 2015 and 2019 for the term “human rights,” looking at data from 109 countries and across five languages.

As they analyzed the data, they discovered that interest in human rights was more pronounced in the Global South – for example, in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Ugandan activists gathered for a Pride rally in 2015 to mark a temporary loosening of anti-LGBTQ+ laws – in recent years, the government has passed stringent legislation against being openly gay (photo by Isaac Kasamani /AFP via Getty Images)

Dancy and Fariss found that the top three countries that searched for “human rights” the most in English were Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. In the Spanish-language group, the most searches came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

“The biggest correlation of searching for human rights is political violence," Darcy says. "If you live in a place where the government is attacking its citizens, then you see more searches for human rights."

He points to Uganda, whose government has passed stringent anti-LGBTQ+ laws that subject people to lifetime imprisonment – and more recently, the death penalty – for being openly gay.

“People are searching for human rights because they want to fight back against that,” Dancy says.

In Global North countries, the researchers discovered a different pattern. The United States, which did not make the top 12 searchers, scored high for one week in the summer of 2018 when there was extensive media coverage of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Dancy notes that 2021 falls outside of the study’s time period, he has since discovered a similar pattern in Canada. In September 2021, Google searches for human rights spiked in Canada – which coincides with major news events at the time, such as the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as vaccine mandates.

“In the Global North, they get very brief and ‘faddish’ interest in human rights and then it goes away,” Dancy says. “But in the Global South, people are constantly searching for human rights. There aren’t spikes and troughs, just steady searches.”

He adds that the research challenges scholars who claim that many people today are less attuned to concepts around human rights.

“There are a number of scholars who argue that human rights isn’t getting the job done – it isn’t going far enough to make change, and so people will lose interest in human rights as a global movement,” Dancy says.

“But people in the Global South very much want human rights . . . and find them to be a useful tool still. In some ways, this [research] is a reclamation of the importance of the human-rights movement around the world.”

The research received support from the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Social Science Korea Human Rights Forum, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

‘All are welcome’: U of T Mississauga to host inaugural All-Nations Powwow

siddiq22 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:55:07 +0000

‘All are welcome’: U of T Mississauga to host inaugural All-Nations Powwow

siddiq22 Wed, 03/22/2023 - 10:55

Cutline

(photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Truth and Reconciliation

University of Toronto Mississauga

The University of Toronto Mississauga will hold its first All-Nations Powwow on March 25. The event is co-hosted by U of T Mississauga's Indigenous Centre and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN).

“This powwow is such an exciting opportunity to celebrate the beauty, joy, and vitality of Indigenous cultures,” said Alexandra Gillespie, vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga. “It also marks another step in realizing University of Toronto Mississauga's central commitment to reciprocity, as we work to build true friendships with Indigenous nations and answer the Calls to Action for Truth and Reconciliation.

“Sincere thanks to the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for the privilege of co-hosting this event with them."

“We want to say chi miigwech for taking time out of your life to attend the event, learning about Mississaugas of the Credit/Mississauga Nation history, language and culture – and for University of Toronto Mississauga making space for us to be here on our territory to celebrate through a powwow,” said Veronica King-Jamieson, a MCFN councillor. “This provides an opportunity to build on relationships within our communities across Ontario.”

Doors will open at 11 a.m. and events will run from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Recreation, Athletic & Wellness Centre.

The schedule features a full day of traditional singing and dancing, including a grand entry ceremony at noon as well as intertribal, spot and exhibition dances.

At 2 p.m., dancers will compete in the Tia Lyn Copenace Jingle Dress Dance Special. Jingle dresses – also known as prayer dresses – are believed to bring healing through the shape and sound of their jingles.

When U of T Mississauga's Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII-UTM) first opened last year, director Tee Duke cited hosting a powwow – an idea that Duke and her team had considered since 2020 but had to put on hold during pandemic restrictions – to be a priority.

“A powwow is a huge social gathering, so it was important to wait to ensure we could all be together again – in person and safely,” Duke said.

In addition to performances, the powwow will include tables featuring Indigenous-owned businesses, with products ranging from apparel and artwork to jewelry and food. There will also be booths on site sharing information about Indigenous community groups and U of T services.

The powwow is part of the campus’s ongoing commitment to meet the recommendations in Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin, the final report of U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee.

Pre-registration is highly recommended, but not required. For more information, visit the All-Nations Powwow site, which features details on powwow protocols and etiquette.

Attendees wishing to join in during the intertribal dance are invited to learn basic steps from Deanne Hupfield, the powwow’s head adult dancer.

Although the powwow is a celebration of Indigenous community, history, ceremony and culture, the event is open to the wider community, Duke noted.

“All are welcome to attend,” she said. “Powwows are for everyone to take in opportunities to build friendship with one another."

U of T researchers' lab-grown muscles used to study Duchenne muscular dystrophy, develop treatments

lanthierj — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 19:39:11 +0000

U of T researchers' lab-grown muscles used to study Duchenne muscular dystrophy, develop treatments

lanthierj Mon, 10/25/2021 - 15:39

Cutline

U of T researchers Penney Gilbert and Bryan Stewart obtained cells from people living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to grow miniature muscles that are being used to develop new treatments for the genetic disorder (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Paul Fraumeni

Topic

Our Community

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Insulin 100

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Biology

Research & Innovation

University of Toronto Mississauga

Inside a Petri dish in a lab at the University of Toronto is a muscle – made from scratch using human stem cells – that has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

To study the biological properties of DMD, a degenerative muscle disorder that mainly affects males, U of T researchers obtained cell lines from people living with the condition and used them to create miniature muscles in a dish. Now, they’re helping other researchers and industry partners develop and test new treatments that may help the boys and young men who are afflicted with DMD.

The research team is led by Bryan Stewart, professor of biology at U of T Mississauga, and Penney Gilbert, associate professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and at U of T’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research. Stewart specializes in the physiology of neurons and muscles. Gilbert, a cell biologist, specializes in restoring skeletal muscle (the muscles attached to bone) by using stem cells. They decided to collaborate after meeting at a research leadership workshop organized by University Professor Molly Shoichet about six years ago.

“We learned we were both studying skeletal muscle,” says Gilbert. “Bryan’s lab was using fruit flies to understand the muscle-nerve connection, which enables the brain to tell, for example, our arm to move.

“My lab was creating human tissue to make models of the muscle-nerve connection. Together, we realized our unique tools and methods could enable us to look at DMD in a different way from, literally, any group in the world.”

DMD is caused by a gene mutation that prevents the body from producing dystrophin, the protein that enables muscles to function. It is a rare condition – occurring in one out of 3,500 to 5,000 male children worldwide – but it is devastating. Starting around age five, DMD progressively damages and weakens the muscles, including the heart. Most children with DMD will have to use a wheelchair. And most will die before they reach 30.

Gilbert says the biomedical innovation of creating muscle “means that for the first time ever it is actually possible to study DMD and the nerve-muscle connection outside of the body.

“This gives us the opportunity to revisit observations that had been made decades ago that seemed to suggest that the muscle-nerve connection in DMD might be impaired,” she says. “Now, we will see if this can be observed in our model. And if we do see it, could we try to use that as a starting point to find molecules that might improve the muscle-nerve connection?”

The team is working to make its 3D muscle models more representative of what is actually found in humans. They are especially paying attention to the variation in muscle structure and function that can exist in people who have DMD. Gilbert and Stewart note the expertise brought to the work by post-doctoral researchers Christine Nguyen and Majid Ebrahimi.

Stewart emphasizes that while the team is not directly creating drugs or therapies, their work will be an important foundational system for other researchers to use in developing pharmaceutical treatments or for testing the gene therapy experiments that will soon move to clinical trials.

Michael Rudnicki, a noted Canadian stem cell expert, agrees.

“The DMD pre-clinical assays being developed by Gilbert and Stewart are a critical facet of the translational pipeline, making it possible to test current and future therapeutics in the context of human cells,” says Rudnicki, senior scientist and director of the regenerative medicine program and Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

“There is a wealth of great work being done on DMD around the world,” says Stewart. “Penney and I knew when we met at that workshop that there could be a lot of power in merging our two groups.

“I think we are at a point where we can help to launch a new surge in testing and discovery that will begin to benefit the people and families living with DMD.”

A century after the discovery of insulin, U of T and its hospital and industry partners have built a culture of discovery, innovation and collaboration that has transformed health care and continues to have a ripple effect worldwide. This article is part of a series featuring researchers working on medical and health innovations for the future.

Canadians with disabilities, chronic health conditions hit hard by COVID-19: U of T study

lanthierj — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 18:47:58 +0000

Canadians with disabilities, chronic health conditions hit hard by COVID-19: U of T study

lanthierj Thu, 04/22/2021 - 14:47

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(Photo by Marcus Aurelius/Pexels)

Topic

Breaking Research

Coronavirus

Insulin 100

Research & Innovation

University of Toronto Mississauga

The University of Toronto Mississauga's David Pettinicchio knows that the COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on the mental and financial health of many Canadians.

But three months into the pandemic last year – before the federal government announced financial support for one of the groups hardest hit by the public health crisis – the assistant professor of sociology worried that people with disabilities and chronic health conditions were being left out of the picture – and paying an even bigger price for it than others.

So, he and University of Alberta sociologist Michelle Maroto set out to prove it.

They launched a national online survey of 1,027 Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions last June, to find out how COVID-19 was affecting their employment, financial security and mental health. Fifty respondents also participated in in-depth, one-on-one follow-up interviews.

Their findings were recently published in the Disability and Health Journal and in a series of opinion editorials in the Toronto Star.

“What we found was very troubling,” Pettinicchio says. “We saw that the pandemic was having a disproportionate impact on a group that was already socially, politically and culturally marginalized and experiencing a constellation of issues.”

Almost half of the respondents said that COVID-19 was affecting their ability to pay down debt, make rent and utility payments and purchase groceries. Although nearly half of those surveyed held a full- or part-time job, more than 40 per cent worried that they might lose it within the next month.

“This is a group already earning less and more likely to be in retail and service jobs impacted by the pandemic,” Pettinicchio explains. What’s more, many people with disabilities and chronic health conditions are unemployed, under-employed or unable to work, which meant that they were ineligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

While the federal government did offer a one-time $600 emergency benefit for Canadians with disabilities, that money wasn’t available until the fall – after the survey.

Pettinicchio and Maroto also observed a direct link between financial uncertainty and mental health, with more than one-third of the survey participants reporting increased levels of anxiety and stress. Mental distress was most pronounced among those with severe disabilities and health issues and those who reported that COVID-19 negatively affected their finances.

The hit to the pocketbook was further compounded by feelings of isolation. Pettinicchio explains: “Care workers weren’t visiting, they couldn’t see their doctor face to face, many were cut off from their community services and they were isolated from family.”

On top of that, many respondents worried about getting COVID-19 while working in jobs that put them at greater risk.

“The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities,” Pettinicchio concludes. The researchers fear that if nothing is done, those already disadvantaged will continue to be left behind. “All of this won’t get resolved once the pandemic is under control. It will pose long-term problems.”

In an opinion piece published in the Toronto Star in March, he called on the Canadian government to do more “to ensure that government policy responses to the pandemic are inclusive of the voices of individuals most negatively impacted by this health crisis.”

Pettinicchio also hopes his research – and the follow-up study he and Maroto are planning for this summer – will give Canadians pause when they wax nostalgic about the pre-pandemic world.

“That world was never fair or equal for all. Why shouldn’t we use this shock to our system as a way of thinking about doing something about economic, social and health inequalities? Why not make this an opportunity to take meaningful action?” he asks.

The study was funded in part by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant and an Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award Grant.

Wearing period costumes, U of T's Madeleine Mant brings history to life for undergraduate students

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:53:47 +0000

Wearing period costumes, U of T's Madeleine Mant brings history to life for undergraduate students

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 12/10/2019 - 14:53

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U of T anthropologist Madeleine Mant dresses as a plague doctor, complete with a bird-like leather mask, for her class on the 17th-century bubonic plague (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

University of Toronto Mississauga

Anthropologist Madeleine Mant takes the concept of school dress codes to an entirely new level. Over the past semester, the University of Toronto Mississauga lecturer has shown up at class wearing vintage woolen capes, Victorian dresses and even black, bird-like leather plague mask.

Mant, who previously taught at U of T Mississauga in 2016, has returned to campus to teach three courses, including anthropology of infectious diseases, where she dons a new costume each week to spur discussion on health issues like the bubonic plague, tuberculosis, influenza, polio and HIV/AIDS.

“I want students to be interested in the topic, and the costumes make it easier to pull in a visual memory of what we talked about,” she says.

The courses are part of Anthropology of Health, a growing specialty within U of T Mississauga’s anthropology department that investigates how human biology relates to cultural and physical environments. Launched in 2015, the program prepares undergraduate students for careers in health research and gives future health scientists a solid grounding in anthropological techniques.

A self-described “theatre kid” who has performed in numerous plays, Mant says “wearing a costume makes students more willing to talk in class because no one looks sillier than me” (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

“Very few universities have specialist programs within anthropology dedicated to the study of human health,” says Tracey Galloway, an assistant professor of anthropology at U of T Mississauga who studies health care and nutrition in the North.

“Anthropologists are uniquely trained to understand biology as the outcome of a wide range of influences – from epigenetics to environment to historical and socioeconomic factors – and to build that understanding through engagement with communities. We are quite excited to be able to offer these courses here, and we see them as the foundation for exciting opportunities for our students.”

A self-confessed “theatre kid,” Mant has always had a flair for the dramatic. During her graduate studies, she blew off steam with theatrical roles in Rent, Sweeney Todd and as Ms. Scarlet in Clue. Her resume also includes work as a historic interpreter at Fort Edmonton Park, a heritage park in Edmonton, Alta. where she has portrayed early settlers and a 1920s-era flapper.

“Every summer was spent playing dress-up and interpreting the lives of people who lived in the past,” Mant says. “The lesson I learned as an interpreter is that if you can engage with someone on a personal level, they will come away with a deeper understanding and context."

Now she uses that training in the classroom. For her lesson on the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, Mant dresses as a war nurse, wearing authentic nursing uniform pieces that include a First World War uniform belt and a woolen cape.

For her lesson on the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, Mant wears authentic nursing uniform pieces from the period, including a belt that formed part of a First World War uniform (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

“Millions of people died in the outbreak. That’s too big a number to fathom … but when I tell the story of one particular person, such as a war nurse, who experienced this disease, it brings the lesson home in a tangible way,” she says. “The 1918 war nurse was really important. We have the names of these women and know how many of them went overseas, and how many died overseas. It's a chance to really focus on a single individual who was selflessly going to help this cause.”

Mant’s other classroom costumes are a combination of theatrical, vintage and new pieces. For her lesson on tuberculosis, she wears dresses from her role in Sweeney Todd, and adds a leather mask for the class on the 17th-century bubonic plague. Playing the part of a mother considering polio vaccinations for her child, Mant wears her grandmother’s 1950s wedding suit.

“It’s important for students to be able to look at some of these items and see that they hold a lot of history,” she says. “I find wearing a costume makes students more willing to talk in class because no one looks sillier than me.”

Trained as a bioarchaeologist and paleopathologist, Mant’s research seeks to understand health issues of marginalized people in the past, such as Victorian London’s working poor and 19th-century seafarers landing in Newfoundland ports.

“I look at human bones, with an eye on how disease is reflected in human remains,” she says. As a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, Mant is currently delving into the historic health records of Her Majesty's Penitentiary, a Victorian-era prison still in operation in St. John’s, N.L. Her work will be on display at an upcoming exhibit about the prison hosted at The Rooms, Newfoundland and Labroador's cultural museum in St. John's.

Mant’s colleague Galloway lauds the lecturer for her theatrical approach in the classroom.

“You can’t help but be drawn into the story she is telling up there at the front of the room, through colour and sound and movement. Then, almost before you know it, you’ve learned some essential approach or idea that helps you understand the whole, and you’ve learned it in a way that you will remember all your life,” Galloway says.

“It’s not a stunt. It’s a purposeful strategy, carefully crafted and integrated into a comprehensive approach that supports student learning. Her performance creates a bridge between students and the knowledge that can change their lives.”

Free textbook for students: U of T Mississauga gets its first open access digital resource

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:19:31 +0000

Free textbook for students: U of T Mississauga gets its first open access digital resource

noreen.rasbach Wed, 01/23/2019 - 12:19

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"Before I post a lecture, I edit the book to integrate parts of the chapters into my lectures, and parts of my lectures into the textbook,” says Sanja Hinić-Frlog, an assistant professor at U of T Mississauga (photo courtesy of Sanja Hinić-Frlog)

Topic

Undergraduate Students

University of Toronto Mississauga

Biology students at University of Toronto Mississauga are using a new resource this semester at a price point that every student can afford.

U of T Mississauga’s first-ever open access digital textbook, Introductory Animal Physiology, launched in January as the primary text for 480 undergraduate students enrolled in the second-year biology course. Custom-tailored to the course, the textbook is available to students free of charge.

Sanja Hinić-Frlog, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of biology, led the creation of the textbook. She says she was frustrated with traditional textbooks that were expensive, outdated and didn’t meet the specific needs of her students or her course structure.

With a provincial grant, Hinić-Frlog worked with staff from the University of Toronto Mississauga Library and U of T’s Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation to create a nine-chapter textbook that is built around Hinić-Frlog’s biology course and includes review questions and learning objectives as well, as links to external podcast and video resources.

“It fits exactly what I want to do in every lecture,” Hinić-Frlog says. “This is a living document and can change as we are using it. Before I post a lecture, I edit the book to integrate parts of the chapters into my lectures, and parts of my lectures into the textbook.”

The textbook uses material from peer-reviewed open access journals and publishers, says project collaborator and science liaison librarian Jessica Hanley, who helped to source content and manage licensing agreements. “The materials are scientifically sound and from reputable resources,” she says.

“It was a big project,” says Hinić-Frlog, “but we had a lot of support, so it wasn’t as overwhelming as writing a textbook from scratch. The content was already there – it was a matter of putting it together.”

A $15,000 provincial grant provided support to hire three students to source and create images for the textbook, and to adapt the content to the Pressbooks platform, which makes the content accessible to users on a variety of Apple and Android devices, as well as desktop computer and printable PDF files.

Introductory Animal Physiology is among 21 higher education projects funded through eCampusOntario’s Open Textbook Intiative by the Ontario government. The project launched in 2017 to promote the adoption, adaptation and creation of open textbooks to help eliminate or significantly lower the cost of course materials for learners and help educators to adapt materials to suit the needs of learners and programs. A similar initiative in British Columbia is estimated to have saved students nearly $4-million in textbook costs since 2012.

Two other U of T texts also received funding, including $40,000 for an open access text about Indigenous Peoples and natural resources, and $14,430 to support an open access text about neuroscience.

Hinić-Frlog says that students from U of T Mississauga's Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program have been enlisted to create new digital images and figures for the open access textbook. “We’re very pleased to collaborate with graduate students who will be creating content with their expertise in science and art,” she says. The team also hopes to collect student feedback for future improvements.