Faculty of Medicine

Researchers at the University of Toronto have mapped the genes that allow cancer cells to avoid being killed by the immune system – a finding that paves the way for the development of immunotherapies that could be effective for large patient populations and across different tumour types.

“Over the last decade, different forms of immunotherapy have emerged as really potent cancer treatments, but the reality is that they only generate durable responses in a fraction of patients and not for all tumour types,” says Jason Moffat, a professor of molecular genetics at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research who led the work.

The study, published in Nature, also revealed the need for new therapy to take into account the genetic composition of tumours because of mutations in the cancer cells that can potentially make the disease worse in response to treatment, often referred to as “cancer resistance mutations.”

“It’s very important to understand at the molecular level how cancer develops resistance to immunotherapies in order to make them more broadly available,” says Moffat, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomics of Cancer. “Advances in systematic genetic approaches have let us key in on genes and molecular pathways that are commonly involved in resistance to therapy.”

In immunotherapy, a patient’s own immune cells, known as T killer cells, are engineered to find and destroy cancer. But treatment resistance has precluded its use in most patients, especially those with solid tumours.

“It’s an ongoing battle between the immune system and cancer, where the immune system is trying to find and kill the cancer whereas the cancer’s job is to evade that killing,” says Keith Lawson, a co-lead author who is completing a PhD in Moffat’s lab as part of his medical training in the surgeon-scientist program at U of T’s Faculty of Medicine.

Tumour heterogeneity – genetic variation in tumour cells within and across individuals that can impact therapy response – further complicates treatment.

“It’s important to not just find genes that can regulate immune evasion in one model of cancer, but what you really want are to find those genes that you can manipulate in cancer cells across many models because those are going to make the best therapeutic targets,” Lawson says.

The team, including collaborators from Agios Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass., looked for genes that regulate immune evasion across six genetically diverse tumor models derived from breast, colon, kidney and skin cancer. The cancer cells were placed in a dish alongside the T cells engineered to kill them, where the ensuing onslaught served as a baseline. The researchers next deployed the gene editing tool CRISPR to switch off one-by-one every gene in the cancer cells and measured the resulting deviations from the killing baseline.

They identified 182 “core cancer intrinsic immune evasion genes” whose deletion makes the cancer cells either more sensitive or more resistant to T cell attack. Among the resisters were all the genes known to develop mutations in patients who stopped responding to immunotherapy, giving the researchers confidence that their approach worked.

Many of the discovered genes had no previous links to immune evasion.

“That was really exciting to see, because it means that our dataset was very rich in new biological information,” Lawson says.

Genes involved in autophagy, a process when cells ramp up recycling their components to mitigate damage following stress, came up as key for immune evasion. This raises the possibility that cancer’s susceptibility to immunotherapy could be boosted by targeting its autophagy genes.

But as the researchers delved deeper, they found that deleting certain autophagy genes in pairs rendered the cells resistant to T cell killing. That means that if a tumour already harbours a mutation in one autophagy gene, a treatment that combines immunotherapy with a drug targeting another autophagy gene could make the disease worse in that patient.

“We found this complete inversion of gene dependency,” says Moffat. “We did not anticipate this at all. What it shows us is that genetic context – what mutations are present – very much dictates whether the introduction of the second mutation will cause no effect, resistance or sensitivity to therapy.”

As more research explores combinatorial effects of mutations across different types of cancer cells, it should become possible to predict from a tumour’s DNA what type of therapy will be most effective.

The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Agios Pharmaceuticals.

Working with Apple, U of T researchers to test smartwatch’s ability to help prevent heart failure

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 18:19:42 +0000

Working with Apple, U of T researchers to test smartwatch’s ability to help prevent heart failure

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 09/18/2020 - 14:19

Cutline

U of T researchers based at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research will test whether the new Apple Watch Series 6 and its blood oxygen sensor can collect data to help manage heart failure (photo by James D. Morgan via Getty Images)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Medicine

Hospital for Sick Children

Research & Innovation

Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

University Health Network

The University of Toronto’s Heather Ross, one of Canada’s top cardiologists, is seeking to miniaturize life-saving medical equipment so that it fits easily into a patient’s pocket – or around their wrist.

She and a team of other U of T Faculty of Medicine researchers – based at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and University Health Network (UHN) – will work with tech giant Apple this fall to test whether the new Apple Watch Series 6 and its blood oxygen sensor can collect data to help manage heart failure.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity,” Professor Ross says. “We know that U of T is a top global university and we know that UHN is number four in the world as per Newsweek, so to have Apple also recognize that is a tremendous honour – and I feel an enormous responsibility to make sure the study is done right.”

Ross will be joined in the project by fellow U of T researchers Yas Moayedi, of the department of medicine, and Chris McIntosh, of the department of medical biophysics. The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research is a partnership between U of T, UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children.

In a clip posted to Twitter after the Apple product launch – retweeted by Apple CEO Tim Cook to his over 12 million followers – Ross, wearing a white lab coat and scrubs, gestures to a room full of heart-monitoring equipment and says the goal is to condense all of it into a device the size of a smartwatch.

About 600,000 Canadians are living with heart failure, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, but Ross puts the number closer to one million. One-in-five people over the age of 40 will experience heart failure, she adds.

“This is a global problem with a very significant impact on a patient’s quality of life and their survival,” Ross says, noting the average life expectancy after diagnosis is just 2.1 years.

We’re taking cardiac healthcare into the future.

Dr. Heather Ross talks about @trogersresearch & @UHN research collaboration with @Apple, which looks at shifting some traditional, in-hospital monitoring practices for heart failure patients to a wearable device - Apple Watch. pic.twitter.com/G8uQ5Hmd3Q
— Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (@PMunkCardiacCtr) September 15, 2020

When Ross describes the symptoms of heart failure, she draws on experience beyond her medical training and interaction with patients. In 2006, while hiking Antarctica’s highest mountain to raise money for heart failure research, she suffered pulmonary edema – a life-threatening build-up of fluid in the lungs that many people with heart failure experience.

One of her former heart transplant patients helped saved her life.

“There is nothing that equates to experiencing what your patients go through,” says Ross.

She says wearable technology, like the sensors in the new Apple Watch, could allow doctors to keep closer watch on patients’ health beyond the narrow window when they see each other in the clinic.

“It’s really blind luck if the day that the patient is coming to see you in clinic is the day they feel unwell,” Ross says. “In fact, most of what happens to patients happens in between their episodes of care – and, if that’s the case, then to a certain degree we’re doing everything backwards.”

Sumbul Ahmad Desai, vice-president Apple Health, speaks during a live Apple event this week where the Apple Watch Series 6 was unveiled.

Apple’s watch isn’t the only tool being used to improve patient care between visits to the doctor’s office.

At UHN, cardiologists already have years of experience monitoring and managing patients’ health outside the hospital using a self-management app called Medly that connects them with doctors. It allows patients to keep track of their weight, blood pressure and heart rate and pushes personalized care instructions to the user. The system also alerts the patient’s care team when there is a problem.

In a recent paper, Ross and fellow UHN and U of T researchers share results suggesting a 50 per cent drop in heart failure-related hospitalizations and 24 per cent decrease in the number of all-cause hospitalizations in the first six months after program enrollment.

“Medly is changing the landscape of heart failure and it’s still looking at relatively common and easy-to-measure and monitor items,” she says. “The real question is: will having more sophisticated sensors change what we do?

“That’s what we have to find out.”

'We knew what was coming': U of T pharmacist on working in the ICU during COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:52:40 +0000

'We knew what was coming': U of T pharmacist on working in the ICU during COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 09/18/2020 - 09:52

Cutline

Lisa Burry, an assistant professor at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, says there were significant drug requirements for COVID-19 patients who were put on ventilators for an extended period (photo courtesy of Faculty of Medicine)

Topic

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Mount Sinai Hospital

Sunnybrook Hospital

Health-care professionals working in the intensive care unit (ICU) are familiar with unpredictable and stressful situations, and complex patient loads. But a highly contagious viral pandemic and global shortages of critically important drugs created new challenges, even for seasoned professionals.

Lisa Burry, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, is an experienced ICU pharmacist at Mount Sinai Hospital. Burry worked in the ICU during the SARS outbreak in 2003, giving her and her colleagues a sense of what was to come as COVID-19 intensified.

“Some of the fear and anxiety that we dealt with through SARS probably helped us cope better with COVID-19. We had some insight as to the potential impact,” she says. “However, we were also fearful because we knew what was coming.”

That included familiarity with the discomfort associated with wearing personal protective equipment all day long, the stress of being exposed to highly contagious patients for full shifts and demanding case loads. It also meant preparing for a surge of ICU patients and potential drug shortages.

As a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Fundamental Disaster Management Working Group and the American College of Chest Physicians’ Task Force for Mass Critical Care and Disaster Management Steering Committee, Burry had important insight and access to resources, which she says was key to helping the ICU prepare for COVID-19.

The hospital prepared for the height of the pandemic when ICU capacity threatened to be overwhelmed by creating temporary ICUs in areas of the hospital that were no longer being used such as post-op recovery rooms.

Burry’s research expertise – sedation and delirium in the ICU – put her in high demand to lead and support various research projects. Current practice for many conditions recommends that patients on ventilators receive pain medication to be calm and comfortable, but as alert and interactive as possible. However, this wasn’t possible with patients with COVID-19 who were put on ventilators, as they needed to be deeply sedated.

“Patients with COVID-19 in the ICU were ventilated for very long periods of time and had huge drug requirements for pain, agitation and delirium just to make their ventilation safe,” Burry says.

Hospitals across the country all experienced the same scenario and tried to access the same sedatives, causing supplies to run low. Now, on top of dealing with high numbers of patients and complex cases, pharmacists were facing shortages of criticial drugs.

“In the beginning, those of us in critical care were trying to solve these problems in isolation and not recognizing that another site was dealing with the same thing,” says Burry. “That led to a group of us working together to deal with the issue on a provincial level and ultimately led to research to test new strategies to manage it.”

Challenges in patient care leads to new clinical trials

At a time when Burry’s clinical work was busier than ever, research opportunities were also growing rapidly. She worked closely with multi-disciplinary teams to develop research proposals to study potential solutions to the drug shortages they were facing in the ICU – two of which were successful. As a co-investigator, Burry brings a valuable pharmacy perspective to research examining alternatives to traditionally used intravenous sedatives for patients on ventilators.

One trial, led by Angela Jerath and Brian Cuthbertson from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, as well as Claudio Martin and Marat Slessarev from London Health Sciences Centre, will compare inhaled gases typically used in the operating room to intravenous sedatives for COVID-19 patients on ventilators. Inhaled sedatives are not used outside of operating rooms in North America, but are cheap, widely available and reduce lung inflammation and improve oxygen levels.

“We know the way in which we sedate people, the drug we select, how we do it and how long we do it can all impact how long they spend with us and their overall recovery,” says Burry.

The trial is receiving more than $2 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) COVID-19 Rapid Response Competition.

“While the trial may be COVID-centric, it addresses issues we can apply far beyond this pandemic. This is valuable work because it has the ability to improve patient care, but also deal with drug shortages and issues without compromising patient care,” says Burry.

The second clinical trial, funded through a McMaster Medicine Associates Innovation Grant, is led by Alison Fox-Robichaud at Hamilton Health Sciences and James Downar at the Ottawa Hospital. It is examining whether adding the old beta-blocker propranolol to standard sedation regimens reduces the amount of primary sedative required, another approach to decrease the consumption of essential sedatives.

As Burry reflects on the challenges of the last several months, she says she is proud of the work that she has done serving both her patients and her profession through participating in the new research projects and the professional working groups.

“Access to drugs is an important part of disaster management and I’m proud to have contributed to guidelines and protocols that have helped in this pandemic,” she says. “I’ve been given some good opportunities to be part of championing work that we’ve published about supply shortages.

“Despite all the challenges of COVID, I’ve made new connections, built new research networks and learned to do things more quickly and efficiently. The research we are doing may improve treatment for COVID-19 and should lead to shorter ICU stays and improved outcomes. Some positive things have come out of the last few months.”

Why are some COVID-19 debates so polarizing? U of T health expert breaks down the issues

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 15:27:36 +0000

Why are some COVID-19 debates so polarizing? U of T health expert breaks down the issues

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/17/2020 - 11:27

Cutline

Isaac Bogoch, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine, warns some COVID-19 debates are increasingly being fuelled by pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and the spread of misinformation about scientific studies (photo courtesy of Isaac Bogoch)

Topic

University Health Network

Given what we know – and don’t know – about COVID-19, there are several issues that continue to sharply divide the public and scientific community.

These include the efficacy of masks in controlling the pandemic, how COVID-19 actually spreads and the need to reopen the economy against calls for an indefinite lockdown. Among public health experts urging for more nuance in these debates is Isaac Bogoch, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto who specializes in epidemiology and infectious diseases.

While there are legitimate disagreements on how evolving information about the pandemic should be interpreted and addressed, Bogoch warns some debates are increasingly being fuelled by pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and the spread of misinformation about scientific studies.

At risk, he says, is our ability to make informed decisions.

Bogoch recently spoke to U of T News about some of the most polarizing issues relating to the pandemic and why it’s important to understand what’s behind the debates.

Why is nuance important in a pandemic?

If we ignore the nuance, we risk polarizing and even politicizing many of these issues, and that’s not helpful at all. What’s happening is supporters for either side of these topics are cherry-picking information to suit their preconceptions. Having an informed general public is certainly the best path forward, but ignoring the nuance and just stubbornly sticking to one side of the argument or the other can do more harm than good. It can detract from the ultimate goal, which is figuring out how we can best control COVID-19 in our communities.

Why are some arguing that health measures meant to protect the public are damaging the economy?

This one is troubling and I think it derives from this notion that public health and the economy are two independent and opposing forces, which they aren’t. This pandemic is both a public health and economic crisis, and the idea that the economy could function uninterrupted while a significant portion of workers are sick is naïve at best.

At the same time, we can’t ignore the significant negative health effects of having people unemployed, underemployed or living in poverty as a result of a partially functioning economy. The process of gradually and carefully reopening can be done in a safe manner, but it’s not a one-size fits all proposition.

Another debate surrounds the issues of droplet versus airborne transmission of COVID-19. Why is this one so contentious?

It’s been a big deal and it seems some people have really dug their heels in one way or the other. Before COVID-19, scientists were debating the role these play in transmitting influenza, so we’ve been discussing droplet versus airborne for what seems like an eternity. I think the big difference now is that the entire world is watching.

Like anything else, it’s ridiculous to have polarizing claims either way. We know that most of this infection is likely transmitted through droplets, but, like anything else, there’s a spectrum. It’s not like you have a droplet silo or an aerosol silo – there’s very few infections that will be perfectly siloed. Instead there’s a spectrum and certainly this one is on the droplet end of the spectrum. That doesn’t mean 100 per cent of the transmission is through droplet. It’s conceivable that there are cases of airborne transmission and that can’t be ignored altogether.

One debate that keeps surfacing is masks for all versus no masking at all. Why is this one such a big deal?

We know that if you put something over your mouth and nose while someone is ill this will greatly reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to other people. At an individual level, we know masks are very effective. There’s no rational scientific debate about that. But what happens is that people make a jump from the individual level to population level data, which you can’t do. Some vastly overstate the benefits of wearing masks. It turns out, while masks do have benefit at a population level, the effect is actually smaller than what many people believe.

The truth is we aren’t going to “mask” our way out of this pandemic. What I mean is that it’s going to require dozens of measures to keep people safe, including implementing a global vaccine program. That’s why I think some people were not as keen to have mandatory mask rules, because, at a larger population level, the effect isn’t as big as it is at an individual level. I’m not in that camp. I think they play an important role, but it’s just one of many measures we need.

From hip-hop to healthy soil: 56 U of T researchers receive Connaught New Researcher Award

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:03:29 +0000

From hip-hop to healthy soil: 56 U of T researchers receive Connaught New Researcher Award

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/17/2020 - 09:03

Cutline

Lauren Cramer, one of 56 Connaught New Researcher Award recipients at U of T, is using architecture to theorize about hip-hop and the points of articulation between the aesthetics of Blackness and visual culture (photo courtesy of Lauren Cramer)

Paul Fraumeni

Topic

Our Community

Cell and Systems Biology

Anthropolgy

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Biology

Cinema Studies

Connaught Fund

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Drama

Earth Sciences

Economics

Electrical & Computer Engineering

English

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Music

Geography and Planning

History

Humanities

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Management

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Philosophy

Political Science

Psychology

Rotman School of Management

When you think of hip-hop, what comes to mind?

For many, it might be music. But Lauren McLeod Cramer is quick to point out that music is only one part of hip-hop’s broad culture – a culture that touches on everything from the way we speak, to the clothes we wear, to matters of race and identity.

The assistant professor at U of T’s Cinema Studies Institute will be exploring hip-hop’s global influence even further in a new research project called “A Black Joint: Hip-Hop and the Architecture of Blackness,” where she will use architecture to theorize about hip-hop and the points of articulation between the aesthetics of Blackness and visual culture.

“This project is about hip-hop and space,” says Cramer, who joined U of T in 2019 after earning her doctorate in communications from Georgia State University. “I realized that when I was talking with students about race and critical race theory, and about Blackness, it was clearer to them when I put it in spatial terms.”

“It is easier to understand visually or in 3D. I think of Blackness not as a characteristic of the body but as a way of seeing or experiencing space – from buildings to neighbourhoods.”

Cramer is one of 56 winners of the Connaught New Researcher Award, which recognizes assistant professors within the first five years of a tenure-stream academic appointment (see full list below). The awards, part of U of T’s commitment to fostering excellence in research and innovation, are designed to help recipients establish a strong research program and increase their competitiveness for external funding.

This year’s recipients, who will share $1 million in funding, represent the broad spectrum of research undertaken at U of T in the humanities, life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences and engineering.

“Lauren McLeod Cramer’s research reflects the broad range of scholarship at the University of Toronto and the Connaught New Researcher Award plays a key role in supporting such important and emerging areas of study,” says Ted Sargent, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“I want to extend my congratulations to Professor Cramer and all of the other award winners this year. I’m personally looking forward to seeing where this exceptional group of investigators takes their work in the years to come.”

As for Cramer, she says that “hip-hop visual culture has grown to include a staggering number of objects: music videos, films, photography, digital art, painting and even architecture.”

She says her project will explore the spatial nature of hip-hop through a wide range of objects from different cultural spaces and times, including: the choreography of Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video, the subterranean architecture of “the sunken place” in Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out, Charles Gaines’s fine art photography and architect David Adjaye’s noted public buildings, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture (part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.).

Cramer says that once we are past the pandemic and can travel more easily, the Connaught award will enable her to see that architecture first-hand.

“I was incredibly excited after I was told I had won one of the awards,” she says. “I believe that hip-hop allows Blackness to travel through space. Thanks to this funding, I can now map that space.”

In response to the protests against anti-Black racism surrounding the most recent incidents of police brutality – including the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake – Cramer says it’s necessary to approach issues “at the appropriate scale” if you want to have a serious conversations about anti-Blackness.

“Racial difference is made and enforced through space: urban planning, environmental action, transportation and the built environment,” she says. “So, it is helpful to think about anti-Blackness in the spaces that we occupy, including pop culture.

“That means looking at architectural design, both real – like Adjaye’s work – and imagined, such as in in hip-hop music videos, as a way to understand how race is formed. What is particularly interesting to me is how hip-hop visual culture’s experimental aesthetics might also show us how Blackness can deform space.”

The funding for the Connaught New Researcher Award comes from U of T’s Connaught Fund, which was founded in 1972 when the university sold the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories for $29 million. This year, the Connaught New Researchers program has awarded funding to 14 researchers in humanities, nine in life sciences, eight in physical sciences and engineering, and 25 in social sciences.

Here is the full list of winners of the 2020 Connaught New Researcher Award:

Humanities

Mark Campbell, department of arts, culture and media, U of T Scarborough

Urvashi Chakravarty, department of English, U of T Scarborough

Lauren McLeod Cramer, Cinema Studies Institute, Faculty of Arts & Science

Anup Grewal, department of historical and cultural studies, U of T Scarborough

Ellen Lockhart, Faculty of Music

Christian Pfeiffer, department of philosophy, U of T Scarborough

Adrien Rannaud, department of language studies, U of T Mississauga

Anjuli Raza Kolb, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Laura Risk, department of arts, culture and media, U of T Scarborough

Victor Rivas, department of Spanish and Portuguese, Faculty of Arts & Science

Timothy Sayle, department of history, Faculty of Arts & Science

Avery Slater, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Anna Thomas, department of English and drama, U of T Mississauga

Elizabeth Wijaya, department of visual studies, U of T Mississauga

Life Sciences – Social

Amaya Perez-Brumer, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Nicholas Spence, department of sociology, U of T Scarborough

Life Sciences – Molecular

Scott MacIvor, department of biological sciences, U of T Scarborough

Adam Martin, department of physical and environmental sciences, U of T Scarborough

Heather McFarlane, department of cell and systems biology, Faculty of Arts & Science

Glenn Mott, department of biological sciences, U of T Scarborough

Derek Ng, department of biology, U of T Mississauga

Nicole Novroski, department of anthropology, U of T Mississauga

Scott Yuzwa, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, Faculty of Medicine

Physical Sciences

Merve Bodur, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Xu Chu, department of Earth sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Gwendolyn Eadie, David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics, Faculty of Arts & Science

Dan Gregory, department of Earth sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Nicolas Papernot, Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Silvana Pesenti, department of statistical sciences, Faculty of Arts & Science

Ting-Kam Leonard Wong, department of computer and mathematical sciences, U of T Scarborough

Masayuki Yano, U of T Institute for Aerospace Studies, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Social Sciences

Elizabeth Acorn, department of political science, U of T Scarborough

Andrea Allen, department of anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Science

Martha Balaguera Cuervo, department of political science, U of T Mississauga

Michael William Best, department of psychology, U of T Scarborough

Waqas Butt, department of anthropology, U of T Scarborough

Laurent Cavenaile, department of management, U of T Scarborough

Nicole Charles, department of historical studies, U of T Mississauga

Akash Chattopadhyay, department of management, U of T Mississauga

Alexandre Corhay, Rotman School of Management

Negin Dahya, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, U of T Mississauga

Michelle Daigle, department of geography and planning, Faculty of Arts & Science

Claudia Milena Diaz Rios, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Greg Distelhorst, Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, Faculty of Arts & Science

Jim Goldman, department of economics, U of T Mississauga

Cassandra Hartblay, department of anthropology, U of T Scarborough

Christopher Higgins, department of human geography, U of T Scarborough

Janelle Joseph, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Arlo Kempf, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Fikile Nxumalo, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Rachel Ruttan, Rotman School of Management

Jason Spicer, department of geography and planning, Faculty of Arts & Science

Anton Tsoy, department of economics, Faculty of Arts & Science

Mark Wade, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Jue Wang, department of geography, geomatics and environment, U of T Mississauga

Jennifer Wemigwans, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

U of T-led partnership to accelerate search for new sustainable energy and smartphone materials

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 15:37:53 +0000

U of T-led partnership to accelerate search for new sustainable energy and smartphone materials

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 09/15/2020 - 11:37

Cutline

U of T PhD candidate Ziliang Li holds a next generation light-emitting material in the Sargent Lab at the University of Toronto (photo courtesy of Ziliang Li)

Matthew Tierney

Tyler Irving

Topic

Global Lens

Artificial Intelligence

Chemical Engineering

Chemistry

Computer Science

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Research & Innovation

Ted Sargent

A new research consortium – featuring industry, academia and government – will use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate design of the next generation of high-performance materials, with applications ranging from renewable energy to consumer electronics.

“Materials discovery has always started with what we find in nature,” says University Professor Ted Sargent of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the principal investigator of the new consortium. “We combine and adapt found materials for properties like strength, elasticity and electrical conductivity.

“But what if AI can help us flip this process on its head? Could we start from the properties we’re seeking and work backwards?”

This is the paradigm-shifting goal of the Alliance for AI-Accelerated Materials Discovery (A3MD), which brings together world-leading researchers from U of T, McMaster University and the National Research Council of Canada, as well as industrial partners LG and Total.

Together, the team aims to discover advanced materials to convert atmospheric CO2 into usable energy and to enhance the performance of consumer products such as bright and vivid displays.

The A3MD co-investigators include:

Alán Aspuru-Guzik of U of T’s departments of chemistry and computer Science in the Faculty of Arts & Science
Cathy Chin of U of T’s department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Drew Higgins of McMaster University’s department of chemical engineering
David Sinton of U of T’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Isaac Tamblyn of the National Research Council of Canada
Alex Voznyy of U of T Scarborough’s department of physical and environmental sciences

This multidisciplinary team will develop new strategies to address one of the key challenges in the discovery and synthesis of new materials: the immense size of the search space.

“The Materials Project, which aims to provide a computational library of known materials, currently predicts properties for over 700,000 of them,” says Aspuru-Guzik. “But those materials can be combined in myriad ways. There are simply too many possible permutations to try them all.”

Historically, the discovery of functional material has involved informed trial and error – and many trial tests. Moreover, the design of the experiments was subject to human bias: Researchers tend to focus on combinations of elements that their own experience suggest would be interesting.

In 2017, Aspuru-Guzik and Sargent, along with several other collaborators, issued a call to action in the journal Nature, arguing that emerging tools from the field of machine learning could play a key role in speeding up the search for new high-performance materials.

Properly trained algorithms can sort through vast libraries of simulated materials and recognize promising combinations in a fraction of the time, pointing researchers in fruitful directions.

Ultimately, the materials need to be synthesized and tested in the lab. And here, too, AI can help: When combined with advanced robotics, it enables the use of high-throughput screening (HTS).

“With HTS, you can fabricate and test many different materials in parallel, rather than one at a time,” says Sinton. “Robotic devices take care of the repetitive lab work, doing it more quickly and repeatably. HTS is most powerful when guided using AI – each new iteration is informed by the analysis of the one that came before.”

The combination of AI and robotics provides rich opportunities for synergy that benefits all players.

“When looking for practical solutions on such a scale, it’s vital for researchers to cultivate partnerships with industry and other research institutions,” says Professor Deepa Kundur, who is chair of Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering.

“A3MD is an excellent example of an initiative that actively engages perspectives to keep the focus on solutions that will make a tangible difference.”

In the first year, A3MD will put in place the needed infrastructure – including precision robotics – for high-throughput experimentation. The consortium will also convene several machine learning and data science bootcamps, training a new generation of experts, and will also organize a speaker series with leading researchers in the relevant fields. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows will drive key aspects of the research and professional development strategy for the alliance.

In its second year, A3MD will expand further, adding industry and academic partners who bring additional expertise and offer new avenues to commercialize the novel technologies that will be developed.

“Partnerships are the backbone of innovation,” says Professor Alex Mihailidis, U of T’s associate vice-president of international partnerships. “They find better solutions faster because they bring disparate groups together. A3MD is a great example of U of T’s spirit of collaboration and desire to work alongside such talented and invested partners.”

U of T and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 16:07:44 +0000

U of T and AMD launch supercomputing program dedicated to big-data health research

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 09/14/2020 - 12:07

Cutline

(photo courtesy of SciNet)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Coronavirus

Industry Partnerships

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

The University of Toronto is teaming up with processor giant AMD to launch a supercomputing platform that will power the university’s health research – including on global threats such as COVID-19.

The initiative, dubbed SciNet4Health, will allow researchers and clinician scientists at U of T and its partner hospitals to access and analyze massive databases of patient health information – in a secure way that protects patients’ privacy – using technologies such as machine learning.

SciNet4Health is made possible by AMD’s donation of one petaflop of dedicated processing power, capable of a quadrillion calculations per second. It promises to lead to advancements in vaccine development, drug discovery, genomics research and mathematical modelling.

“The new resources that we are receiving from AMD are going to allow us to set up the computing infrastructure that our health researchers need, especially right now during the time of COVID-19 when many of our faculty are working towards various solutions and positive outcomes for the pandemic,” said Alex Mihailidis, U of T’s associate vice-president, international partnerships.

“Until today, U of T did not have a dedicated computing infrastructure for health researchers that can support patient data, so this is going to have a significant impact on our research.”

SciNet4Health will operate out of the facilities of SciNet, the U of T-based supercomputing consortium and home to Canada’s most powerful research supercomputer: Niagara. The program will allow SciNet, which has enabled advancements fields ranging from astrophysics to climate science, bring its capacity for cutting-edge data science to health research.

Daniel Gruner, chief technology officer at SciNet, said high-performance computing allows for complex calculations that regular computers simply can’t manage.

“If you’re thinking of using AI and machine learning to try and make sense of huge and diverse data, you need these big computers because it can’t be done on a small machine – it requires a lot of math, a lot of computation, so you need computers that are specially geared towards that,” he said.

“The resources we’re receiving from AMD happen to be very heavy on GPUs [graphic processing units] that can run deep learning calculations a lot faster than a regular CPU can.”

The donation by AMD, based in Santa Clara, Calif., consists of 20 “compute nodes” – individual computers that comprise a high-performance computing cluster – each with eight GPUs.

“That’s a whole lot of power,” Gruner said.

It’s also power that will be completely in-house. Until now, U of T health researchers in need of supercomputing worked through partner initiatives such as HPC4Health, a high-performance computing network established by UHN and the Hospital for Sick Children. SciNet4Health drew on HPC4Health’s experience using patient data to establish its procedures and protocols. The two organizations plan to work together to meet the needs of the health sciences research community in and around Toronto.

“This is helping catalyse our ability to do more private health information research inside the university,” said Gruner.

For his part, Mihailidis says the machine learning and deep learning capabilities that will be provided by SciNet4Health will enable researchers to work with patient data to a degree that wasn’t previously possible due to security and privacy considerations. A professor in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Faculty of Medicine, Mihailidis cited his research on aging and geriatrics as just one example of the kind of work that stands to benefit.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work around collecting data about what older people are doing in their homes and communities, and using machine learning, deep learning and other predictive analytics to determine changes in their health,” he said.

“The problem we’ve had to date is that because we haven’t had secure servers that have allowed us to securely use patient data, we’ve had to scrub the data to the point where the personal attributes are being removed – and because of that, our predictive models on their health aren’t as accurate as they could be if we were able to include the patient health data itself.

“Having this type of resource at the university will allow us to take that type of research to the next level.”

U of T is among a small group of universities to receive the supercomputing systems from AMD. Others include Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

“AMD is proud to be working with leading global research institutions to bring the power of high-performance computing technology to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic,” said Mark Papermaster, AMD’s executive vice-president and chief technology officer.

“These donations of AMD EPYC and Radeon Instinct processors will help researchers not only deepen their understanding of COVID-19, but also help improve our ability to respond to future potential threats to global health.”

Learn more about industry partnerships at U of T

Building resilience, juggling responsibilities: Meet four pharmacy students headed back to school this fall

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:50:23 +0000

Building resilience, juggling responsibilities: Meet four pharmacy students headed back to school this fall

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 09/11/2020 - 09:50

Cutline

Clockwise from top left: Jody Mugford, Hanie Yousefi, Eliza McColl and Michael Saikali.

Topic

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

As the new academic year begins, the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy spoke with students studying in its undergraduate (PharmD), graduate (PharmSci) and PharmD for Pharmacists programs.

In a year unlike any other, the faculty wanted to know: How are students planning to approach online learning, connect with their ‘Pharmacy phamily,’ and balance career, school, caretaking, and other responsibilities?

Meet four U of T pharmacy students who are overcoming challenges, building resilience and cultivating a memorable U of T experience:

Eliza McColl

PharmSci PhD candidate

What does back to school look like for you this fall?

My PhD is research-based and I’ve been working in the lab since mid-June after the COVID-19 shutdown, so back-to-school this fall doesn’t look much different from what I’ve been doing for the past few months.

There are some changes regarding how many people can be in the lab at once due to COVID-19, but other than that I will continue to complete my thesis research in the lab as usual. I will also be a TA, as I was in previous years, but the undergraduate pharmacy course I am supporting is online.

What are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about getting back to being a TA. I really enjoy the opportunity to interact with students in the PharmD program, gain teaching experience, and learn new material from the courses as I TA them, as I haven’t taken them before (they are reserved for PharmD students).

Why did you choose to study here?

The best part about being a grad student at LDFP (Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy) is that the department is relatively small. U of T is a huge school and I am used to smaller communities – I grew up in a small town in rural southwestern Ontario, and I completed my undergraduate degree at Trent University.

Making the change to U of T was intimidating due to its size, but the fact that the department of pharmaceutical sciences is relatively small helped me adjust and find more of a community within the university as a whole.

Despite its smaller size, our department has incredible resources for research, which is why I chose to study here. The equipment and expertise housed within our faculty is unparalleled which makes it a fantastic place to conduct research.

Is there anything that surprised you about the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy?

The thing that surprised me about LDFP after I started as a grad student here is the breadth of research being conducted in the faculty. Some people (myself included) tend to have a very narrow view of what “pharmaceutical sciences” encompasses, but LDFP really opened my eyes to how diverse this field is.

We have labs doing more typical pharmaceutical research such as drug discovery and clinical research, but we also have other labs conducting research in areas such as medical diagnostics, physiology, cell signaling, global health and bioethics. I wasn’t expecting to be exposed to so many different areas of research as a student.

What are your career plans and goals?

After graduating from my PhD, my career plan is to secure a post-doctoral fellowship to complete my training before seeking a position as a university professor with my own research lab. Ideally, this would allow me to pursue my passion for maternal-fetal health research.

Michael Saikali

PharmSci PhD candidate and PRiME fellow

What does back to school look like for you this fall?

Normally, my back to school is full of all the typical things like preparing for my classes, preparing to TA, buying new stationary that I will lose in a few days and preparing a calendar that I will obsessively use for maybe five weeks before I give up on it. Throw in meeting the new class of pharmacy students and the new grad students, undergrads and work-study students joining our lab – that is pretty much my fall.

This fall will obviously be different. I am entering the final stages of my degree, I have finished my course work and, of course, COVID-19. On the school side, I find myself relieved to not have to take any more courses, but thinking hard about how to be an effective TA online while preparing for a semester to remember.

What are you most excited about?

This year, I am most excited about a new project that I have started thanks to a PRiME fellowship I was awarded.

PRiME is a U of T-wide initiative that aims to bring together researchers from two different fields both working on precision medicine. My project aims to uncover new ligands for nuclear receptors involved in the gut-brain axis. To do this, I will be using a mass spectrometry-based assay that I developed in the Cummins Lab to identify where, when and how much of each nuclear receptor is present along the gut-brain axis.

I use that information to guide where and when to look for potential endogenous ligands using a new ligand identification approach developed by the Krause Lab in the Faculty of Medicine. This project will hopefully result in identifying new molecules that can serve as a basis for new therapeutics targeting nuclear receptors.

How do you plan on tackling the challenges associated with online learning?

Interestingly, I am finding myself on the other end of this challenge having finished my own coursework.

My favourite part of the fall is leading the PHM144 (Pharmacokinetics) workshops. I like the small class feel and being able to talk to the students. Not being able to meet the students in person this fall is disappointing, but I will still try to be as engaging online as I aim to be in person.

My biggest piece of advice for students this year is to use the resources that are available to you – for example TAs, forums, tutorials – and don’t let those lectures pile up!

Why did you choose to study here?

I started at the LDFP as an undergraduate student in the pharmaceutical chemistry specialist program. It was after joining the Cummins Lab to do my undergraduate thesis project when I realized that I was not done with this place and wanted more.

The graduate students were so welcoming and I saw a positive culture where the students all seemed to know each other and interact. I was learning a lot from the seminar series and I enjoyed how varied the topics were.

Is there anything that surprised you?

My biggest surprise was the amount of student-driven initiatives at this faculty. We have some super dedicated students here.

The Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Student Association and the Graduate Research in Progress (GRIP) committee provide much-needed graduate extra-curricular activities and events.

It truly is amazing that on top of all the academics, pharmacy students still make time to build up the LDFP community. This is something I found unique to LDFP, as it is made so much easier with the help of our donors and the Shaping Student Life and Learning fund.

Jody Mugford

PharmD for Pharmacists program

What does back to school look like for you this fall?

I am expecting this fall to be quite busy, both in my personal and academic life.

I have two young daughters – one is seven years old and the other will be four years old this month. My youngest is very medically complex and requires a lot of care, which can make my days unpredictable.

To adjust my academic schedule due to a medical emergency we went through with her last year, I am taking one extra course this semester than previously planned. I also have recently resumed full-time work after an extended leave to take care of my daughter, so I'm adjusting to another type of busy.

I'm looking forward to the courses this fall, and I will definitely not be bored.

What are you most excited about?

I love learning. I love the sense of accomplishment that comes from successfully completing a challenge and being empowered with new skills to further my career and professional goals. I have already seen so much benefit from this program in my professional life. My skills in caring for my patients have grown substantially and I love knowing that I am having a positive impact on their health. It is extremely rewarding.

I'm also very excited to connect with my classmates again. Even though we are separated by distance, I have made great friends through this program. We cheer each other on and motivate each other to keep going. They're an amazing group to learn with.

How do you plan on tackling the challenges associated with online learning?

My days are constantly evolving. One day my children could go to bed early, giving me hours to work on assignments and the next day, a stomach flu could hit or I could end up in the hospital with my youngest daughter, leaving no time to do any classwork. I have learned to never procrastinate. I try to have the bulk of my assignments done early because I never know what the next day will bring. I also try to not rely on weekends to catch up because, with small children, it rarely happens.

I plan out weekly goals and, to the best of my ability, try to schedule in free days to spend with my family and a buffer if projects take longer than expected. My husband and I share household responsibilities, but he generously carries extra load when school gets busy. I graciously accept babysitting and meal help from my in-laws and friends and, if we're being honest, I have been known to fly my mother in on occasion to help me get through finals.

I haven't found the transition to online learning to be challenging, per se, except when my laptop died during the pandemic and nobody was open to fix it. I finished my undergrad in 2006, where very little learning was online, and wasn't sure how online learning would look, but the transition was quite easy.

I love the flexibility that online learning offers. You can start a lecture and pause it if you get pulled away and come back later. You can re-listen to lectures when reviewing material. I particularly love when courses will release large portions of their content all at once, allowing me to get ahead and giving me flexibility for unexpected illnesses or events.

Most professors are very responsive to questions by email or discussion board and they'll also arrange one-on-one phone or Blackboard chats. I have found them to be readily available and easy to access.

The biggest lesson I have learned is to not hesitate to reach out. It helps so much when you develop relationships with your professors and can see that they really are in your corner, wanting you to succeed.

Why did you choose to study here?

I chose to do my PharmD program with U of T for a number of reasons. I wanted to do my second degree at a different university than my first so I could experience another school's methods. U of T's reputation as one of the top pharmacy schools in the world speaks for itself. Its call for excellence and passion to raise standards of health in this country are evident and completing my PharmD from such a well-respected institution means a lot to me.

The program is also very flexible and can be tailored to my interests, which is important as a working professional with previous clinical experience. The program is challenging and motivating, and I am extremely proud of myself for what I have accomplished so far. I love being a part of this school. I respect the high expectations it has of its students, the support I receive and its belief that anyone, including me, who applies themselves can achieve their dreams.

Is there anything that surprised you about the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy?

U of T is much bigger than previous schools I have attended. I expected to be an unknown face amongst a crowd of students and for the relationships with faculty and professors to be distanced and challenging. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have felt so supported by the faculty and my professors. I have received so much understanding and willingness to help however possible, considering our unique circumstances with my daughter. I have nothing but the highest praise for how supported I have been in meeting my goals.

What are your career plans and goals?

We currently live in a remote area of Canada that offers amazing professional opportunities in a unique environment. For as long as I am here, I want to use my new skills to advance my practice to meet my community needs.

In the future, if we leave the area, I would like to continue to practise in a hospital environment and this degree will assist in making that possible. I love hospital pharmacy and have long-term goals of becoming more specialized in a particular field of interest.

I have discovered a love for practice in infectious diseases and family practice. I also have strong interest in pediatrics and critical care and would love to grow more in those areas. To add to it, I have been told by one of my professors that I have a knack for organizational focuses like policy and procedure development. I am very open to furthering my education to assist in achieving these goals if it was feasible with my work and family life.

The PharmD for Pharmacists experience has been extremely challenging, but immensely rewarding. I feel like it is key to opening doors of opportunity in my career and I truly look forward to where this will take me.

Hanie Yousefi

Third-year PharmSci PhD student

What does back to school look like for you this fall?

With so many activities going online, back to school this year will be a totally different experience for me and I am looking forward to experience this as a new chapter in my life. I have started yoga and mindfulness practices over the past few months and I am going to continue supporting my body and mind during this new school year.

What are you most excited about?

I have been working on a Sars-CoV-2 diagnostics project since the recent pandemic. I am now very passionate about continuing my efforts on developing the final product and offering solutions to our society for attacking the current challenge.

How do you plan on tackling the challenges associated with online learning?

I am taking advantage of so many online platforms as the world is constantly shifting in the same direction. Initiatives such as online lab books, online classrooms and virtual meetings have created a strong infrastructure that made the transformation easier for me.

Moreover, online learning opens many doors to a larger variety of options for learning, which makes the whole process exciting.

Why did you choose to study here?

I decided to join LDFP for its diverse and excellent research environment, as well as its access to a large variety of instruments and interdisciplinary collaborations.

As a chemical engineer by training, the best part of being a pharmaceutical sciences grad student at LDFP are the opportunities to perform multidisciplinary research. Taking advantage of my engineering background, I can propose solutions that contribute to people’s daily lives.

Is there anything that surprised you about LDFP after you started your graduate journey in the Faculty?

The close relationship between students and faculty members as mentors at LDFP surprised me. I have noticed that our mentors proactively take responsibilities to guide students in their journeys as a community, which inspires me to take similar leadership roles for our junior fellows.

What are your future career plans and goals?

By holding different roles in our faculty – such as my PhD research, teaching assistantship and being a member of our graduate association – I am preparing to be a professor and continue my research efforts to advance rapid and effective diagnostics.

This is an area that we’re increasingly seeing as needed in our connected society, and I enjoy leading groups of young fellows to enable them to find success in their scientific and personal lives.

Meet more Pharmacy students

Get to know U of T: Virtual orientation events beam university community into students’ homes

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 21:47:41 +0000

Get to know U of T: Virtual orientation events beam university community into students’ homes

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/02/2020 - 17:47

Cutline

John Peri (left) and Gabriel Sher (right) of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering prepare nearly 800 orientation packages that will be delivered across the country and as far away as Japan, Brazil and Italy (photo by Dana Kokoska)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Undergraduate Students

Orientation typically takes place once new University of Toronto students arrive on campus. This year, however, U of T will be coming to them.

With many undergraduates set to take courses remotely this fall, staff and student leaders at the university have organized a host of creative virtual orientation events designed to introduce incoming students to the school and its communities – and make their first few weeks as fun and memorable as possible.

Among this year’s highlights: An online concert headlined by Brampton singer, rapper and song-writer Roy Woods, virtual “club crawls,” inspiring remarks from America’s most high-profile infectious disease expert and orientation kits mailed out to households around the world.

Here’s a small sample of events to kick off the semester across the three campuses:

St. George

At the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, students who are participating in orientation can expect a package in the mail containing a first-year starter kit, including a hard hat, sew-on patches, copies of the engineering campus newspapers and purple face paint.

The seemingly random collection of items is all part of the faculty’s storied undergraduate traditions, which aim to build bonds for life.

Gabriel Sher, orientation chair of U of T’s Engineering Society, says nearly 800 orientation packages will be delivered across the country and as far away as Japan, Brazil and Italy.

Students have also been invited to take a 360-degree video tour of the downtown Toronto campus alongside a small group of their peers, with an upper-year student as their tour guide.

“We’ve narrowed our focus to be an exercise in friend-making, and that’s really critical this year,” Sher says.

Students in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who are participating in orientation can expect a package containing a first-year starter kit, including a hard hat, sew-on patches, copies of the engineering campus newspapers and purple face paint (photo by Dana Kokoska)

For those keen on experiencing a party-like atmosphere – albeit virtually – the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), which represents students on the St. George campus, is hosting a video concert called U-Nite featuring singer Alina Baraz and Brampton-born rapper Roy Woods. The event will be hosted on MS Live, an audiovisual broadcasting tool, and is being supported U of T’s division of campus events and the classroom technology support group – one of more than 30 orientation events they’re helping to stage.

“Student orientation co-ordinators have an important and unique task,” says Arielle Berube, manager, campus events. “They deserve a lot of recognition for navigating uncharted territory.”

The UTSU also plans to host a series of virtual “club crawls,” where students can become acquainted with different campus groups during sessions reminiscent of speed dating that take place in Zoom break-out rooms.

View this post on Instagram

U NITE LIVE welcomes students to the University of Toronto. Hosted on September 11th 2020 at 6pm, U NITE is an online livestream event dedicated to welcome students to UofT. Stay tuned for our artist line up and special guests ⠀ ⠀ Link in Bio to Sign up! ⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ .⠀⠀ #UNITE #UTSUORIENTATION #JOLLYGOODFUN #ORIENTATION #UOFTBACKTOSCHOOL #utsu #UFEST2020 #uoft #toronto #uoftstudentlife #universityoftoronto #uoftsu #UNiteLive

A post shared by U of T Students' Union (UTSU) (@uoftsu) on Aug 20, 2020 at 9:20am PDT

At New College, one of U of T’s seven colleges, orientation leaders will support incoming students not just for the first couple of weeks of the term – but throughout their entire first year.The mentor-like program is meant to address a dilemma that many new students face after orientation is over – one that orientation co-ordinator Laura Gallo describes as: “I survived the first week of classes, but what do I do now?”

The college’s all-digital orientation schedule also includes a video games night, trivia night, student-life edition of Family Feud and an event focusing on mental health that was organized with Health & Wellness.

“More than ever, people are feeling isolated right now,” says Emily Yu, another New College orientation co-ordinator. “So, we wanted to promote a discussion about mental health and techniques to lower stress to make sure students are making time for themselves and are able to relax.”

View this post on Instagram

HI NEW COLLEGE! Announcing the final schedule for Orientation 2020! Get hyped for NEW1X‼️ Check out our other posts for details and descriptions of events.

A post shared by New College Orientation (@ncorientation) on Aug 30, 2020 at 12:21pm PDT

Incoming students in the Faculty of Medicine have already received a greeting from one of the most prominent names in their field: Dr. Anthony Fauci.

In a video posted on social media, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the U.S. coronavirus task force urged students to stay well, look out for each other and view the pandemic as a rare learning opportunity revealing insights at the “intersection of medical science, public health and human behaviour.”

“Now more than ever, we need your energy, your talent, your character and your resolve – qualities I’m confident you have in abundance,” he said.

"Now, more than ever, we need your energy, your talent, your character, and your resolve. Qualities I am confident you have in abundance," says Dr. Anthony Fauci to the @UofTMDprogram Class of 2T4. #UofT

: @UofTMedicine pic.twitter.com/8axBPia7iY
— University of Toronto (@UofT) August 25, 2020

U of T Mississauga

At U of T Mississauga, the students’ union organized an outer space-themed orientation to go with a calendar of events hosted in cyberspace.

The festivities began this week with a “journey across the cosmos” – otherwise known as a virtual campus tour. Students can also show off their skills at an online UTM Got Talent event, take part in virtual scavenger hunts and get to know the many different student clubs and societies.

Meanwhile,” O-week” will officially kick off Sept. 7 with a live Welcome Day – reimagined for an online space – during which new students can meet upper-year mentors and listen to a message from Alexandra Gillespie, vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga.

“We thought that by opening the week with a live event, students can know that they’re in a Zoom webinar of their own peers,” says Janina Malapitan, orientation team lead at U of T Mississauga.

On Sept. 8, students can join an academic orientation where they can have one-on-one conversations with their future professors and advisers. The following day, there’s an opportunity to learn about everything the campus has to offer through a virtual resource fair. Students can also familiarize themselves with the U of T Mississauga Career Centre, U of T Mississauga Students Union, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre and more by hopping from one “booth” – or Zoom break-out room – to another.

U of T Scarborough

In Scarborough, incoming first-year students will also set off on a new adventure among the stars.

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) has adopted a Starship Launching theme for this year’s orientation.

Michael Sobowale, frosh co-ordinator, says one of the highlights will be an online clubs fair – a presentation of two-minute videos about the variety of student groups on campus.

“I want people to have the notion that, although U of T might be challenging, it’s also fun,” Sobowale says. “We want to make it easier for first year students to recognize that there’s also a social aspect to U of T and that we have a community.”

Orientation co-ordinators have put a lot of thought into the program to overcome the challenge of hosting online activities for the first time, adds Sobowale.

“Even though people are staying home, we can bring the community to them.”

In parallel with the SCSU events, U of T Scarborough is hosting an LGBTQ-focused orientation, an event for international students, an athletics open house and welcome day on Sept. 8.

View this post on Instagram

SCSU FROSH 2020 is FREE FOR ALL first years Meet our lovely FROSH TEAM. Sign up link in bio

A post shared by @ scsuorientation on Aug 19, 2020 at 12:18pm PDT

Students can join the sessions online and can play icebreaker games through the Kahoot! platform.

“I hope (new) students will feel connected to the campus and that they know we care and we’re trying to meet them where they’re at – like literally, in their homes,” says Nadia Rosemond, assistant dean, student affairs and student life at U of T Scarborough. “Even though we might not physically be on campus, the same services are open to them to utilize.

“We’re working hard behind the scenes to make sure they receive all the support they need to succeed.”

U of T-led international research reveals common foundation for six psychiatric disorders

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 22:24:07 +0000

U of T-led international research reveals common foundation for six psychiatric disorders

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 08/31/2020 - 18:24

Cutline

Tomas Paus, a professor in the department of psychiatry, used international databases to study more than 12,000 patients and found that genes that affect cortical thickness may play a role in six major psychiatric disorders (photo courtesy of Tomas Paus)

Ben Gane

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

New work by a University of Toronto researcher shows that genes that affect cortical thickness may play a role in the development of six major psychiatric disorders.

A paper by Tomas Paus, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine’s department of psychiatry, used international databases to study more than 12,000 patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia.

Paus says the research paper published in JAMA Psychiatry is an important step towards understanding the origins and development of these disorders, and may help with the development of new methods to treat and prevent them.

“Previous studies have shown commonalities in brain structure of people with these disorders, particularly cortical thickness,” says Paus, who is the senior lead author on the paper and also a professor in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “But no one has brought together data and modelling from all six of these disorders before.”

Cortical thickness is a measurement describing the density of the outer layer of the brain, called the cortex. The cortex plays an important role in consciousness.

Prior studies have shown that the cortex tends to be thinner than average in people with the disorders, according to Paus.

In his research, Paus and graduate student Yash Patel used a technique called virtual histology.

Invented by Paus’s lab, the method uses gene expression to estimate the number of cells in different regions of the brain. Some genes act as markers, indicating the presence of a certain type of cell. If a region of the brain has more expression of these markers, it will have more of the matching type of cell.

Using virtual histology, the team was able to profile gene expression across 34 regions of the brain. They found that the difference in cortical thickness between patients corresponded to the difference in the number of pyramidal cells in the brain (indexed through gene expression).

Pyramidal cells are vital agents of communication within the brain, involved in processing information from the senses, controlling movement, generating emotions and making decisions, says Paus.

He adds that the number of pyramidal cells that develop in an individual is influenced by prenatal and postnatal processes, which take place before and after birth.

“The commonalties we’ve identified across these six disorders tell us that we need to look for common factors shaping the brain both before and after birth,” says Paus. “The presence of postnatal factors suggests that psychosocial influences may also be involved. It tells us that brain structure is not fixed and can be changed through experience.”

The research was made possible by the ENIGMA Consortium, an international network of researchers from around the world. The paper has 299 co-authors from more than 20 countries.

The consortium allowed Paus and his team to access datasets encompassing all six of the disorders they wished to study.

“This type of international collaboration is very powerful,” says Paus.

“Not only does it allow us to pool data and perform research at a scale that would have previously been impossible, it also provides an ideal environment to train students, giving them an opportunity to learn from teachers who are highly diverse and come from all over the world.”

Patel, the paper’s first author, highlights the educational benefits offered by working with an international research network.

“Usually with research, you read a lot of papers and study the methods used by previous researchers that way,” says Patel, who is a fourth-year graduate student at U of T’s Institute of Medical Sciences. “But through the consortium, we had access to the minds behind the papers.”

“I hope that others reading these papers will find inspiration in what we’ve discovered,” says Paus. “We’re building a foundational understanding of these disorders that could open paths to treatment and prevention.”

Individual cohorts within this research project have been funded by multiple national agencies. The ENIGMA Consortium is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, while Patel is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.