Dan Haves

Common ingredient in household products could be contributing to antibiotic resistance: U of T researchers

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 14:54:21 +0000

Common ingredient in household products could be contributing to antibiotic resistance: U of T researchers

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/18/2022 - 10:54

Cutline

Holly Barrett, a PhD candidate in the department of chemistry, led a study that found that triclosan, found in many common household products, is the predominant antibiotic in Ontario's sewage sludge (photo by Dan Haves)

Dan Haves

Topic

Breaking Research

Chemistry

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

A recent study by researchers at the University of Toronto has identified a chemical found in several consumer products that could be a potential cause of the rise of antibiotic resistance In Canada.

The study, by Assistant Professor Hui Peng’s research group in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science, was able to show that triclosan – a chemical often included in household items like hand soaps, toothpastes, and cleaning products to fight off bacteria – is the predominant antibiotic in Ontario sewage sludge.

The findings were published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

“Since there are so many different antibiotics in the sewage sludge, we were surprised to find that the majority of antibacterial activity of the sludge could be directly linked to triclosan alone,” says Holly Barrett, a PhD candidate in the Peng group and lead author on the study.

The research was performed by investigating sewage sludge from Ontario’s sewage treatment plants (STPs). As the study notes, STPs are a breeding ground for antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the diverse set of antibiotics that are found there. That’s because after we rinse our household products down the drain, the antibiotic ingredients in those products are transported to STPs where they accumulate.

Among thousands of co-occurring chemicals in the sludge, triclosan was found to be the predominant antibacterial compound impacting E. coli.

Chemicals such as triclosan enter sewage treatment plants after being rinsed down our drains. There, they can interact with bacteria and cause the development of antibiotic resistance.

Barrett notes in the study that antibiotic resistance is a growing concern. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria – also commonly known as “superbugs” – are strains of bacteria that are not killed by antibiotics. They are produced when continuous exposure to antibiotics causes bacteria to evolve over several generations to survive antibiotic effects. These bacteria can be very dangerous to humans, especially those with impaired immune systems. Between 2014 and 2016, there were 700,000 deaths around the world attributed to antibiotic resistance.

In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned triclosan from being used in antibacterial liquid soaps, and then a year later from being used in topical antiseptics found in health-care settings. Currently, there are limited regulations on triclosan in Canada, and Health Canada deems triclosan as safe for use in a variety of consumer products at specified levels.

“I think our results demonstrate that there is an urgent need for regulatory agencies in Canada to re-evaluate the use of triclosan,” says Barrett.

“It’s still used in thousands of different household and cosmetic products in Canada, as well as in health-care settings. While there are a few regulations in place to restrict the maximum amount of triclosan allowed in consumer products, even very low levels of this chemical may cause antibiotic resistant bacteria to form over time.

“More action needs to be taken.”

U of T experts work with U.S. startup to turn trains into giant carbon-capturing machines

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 16:46:26 +0000

U of T experts work with U.S. startup to turn trains into giant carbon-capturing machines

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 07/20/2022 - 12:46

Cutline

CO2Rail is partnering with U of T researchers to explore the feasibility of adding direct air, carbon capture technology to freight and passenger trains (rendering courtesy of C02Rail)

Dan Haves

Topic

Our Community

Chemistry

Faculty of Arts & Science

Sustainability

What if rail systems around the world could be harnessed to help mitigate climate change and clean our air of carbon dioxide? It’s a question the founders of a U.S.-based startup, CO2Rail, have been pondering for a number of years.

Now, CO2Rail is partnering with University of Toronto researchers to explore the feasibility of adding direct air, carbon capture technology to freight and passenger trains.

Direct air capture (DAC) is a technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air with special machines and compresses it for other uses or permanent storage. The process, however, can be energy and land intensive and often very expensive.

That's why a team of researchers from Canada, the U.S., England and Germany aim to design DAC technology that uses less energy and less land at a viable cost. The multi-disciplinary team includes University Professor Geoffrey Ozin, in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science; Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science; and Jeffrey MacIntosh, a professor in the Faculty of Law. (Ozin and Aspuru-Guzik also hold appointments to U of T’s Acceleration Consortium, which brings academia, government and industry together to tackle AI-driven materials discovery.)

In the journal Joule, the researchers recently shared their plan to place DAC equipment within special rail cars on existing trains to take advantage of the global rail network. They were able to demonstrate that rail-based direct air carbon capture could be a near carbon-neutral system capable of harvesting 2.9 gigatonnes of C02 by 2050.

A rendering of a C02Rail car shows the C02-heavy air going in, the C02 being separated and collected and C02-free air being discharged from the rear (rendering courtesy of C02Rail)

DAC rail cars work by using large intakes that extend up into the slipstream of the moving train to move ambient air into the large CO2 collection chamber and eliminate the need for energy-intensive fan systems that stationary DAC operations require. The air then moves through a chemical process that separates the carbon dioxide from the air, and the CO2-free air then travels out of the back of the car and returns to the atmosphere.

After enough has been captured, the chamber is closed and the harvested CO2 is collected, concentrated and stored in a liquid reservoir, either to be used as feedstock or to be delivered to nearby geological sequestration sites.

Each of these processes is powered by on-board generated, sustainable energy sources that require no external energy input or off-duty charging cycles.

When a train pumps the brakes, its energy braking system converts the entire train’s forward momentum into electrical energy. Currently, this energy is dissipated in the form of heat and discharged out of the top of the locomotive whenever it brakes.

Eric Bachman of CO2Rail say that energy could be captured, stored and put to use. “For many decades, this enormous amount of sustainable energy has been completely wasted,” he says. “On average, each complete braking maneuver generates enough energy to power 20 average homes for an entire day, so it is not a trivial amount of energy.”

Besides energy, there are also land issues that surround widespread DAC deployment. Stationary DAC operations often require large areas of land for equipment and to build renewable sources of energy to power these operations. What's more, obtaining permits, conducting surveys and meeting zoning requirements takes both time and money.

It can also be tricky to obtain permits to build largescale operations in or near a community.

“It’s a huge problem because most everybody wants to fix the climate crisis, but few are happy to have it done in their proverbial ‘backyard’,” says Ozin, a recipient of the Albert Einstein Medal for outstanding scientific work related to the German-born physicist.

“Rail DAC does not require special zoning, surveys or building permits and would be transient and generally unseen by the public,” he adds.

Ozin has spent the better part of the last two decades researching how to harness sunlight to turn CO2 into a chemical feedstock for a wide range of commodity products and fuels, a process known as carbon capture and utilization.

He believes that rail-based direct air capture becomes an even more attractive climate solution because much of the required infrastructure is already in place and ready to be used.

The potential impact of this technology could be even greater if rail grows in popularity as a more sustainable alternative to airplanes. Earlier this month, European transport organizations said they are committed to tripling high-speed rail use by 2050 to curb C02-heavy air travel.

The team says that, in the near term, each direct air capture car will harvest over 6,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air per year – and much more as the technology develops. In Joule, the authors were also able to demonstrate how this technology could scale down to less than $50 USD per tonne.

“It makes the technology not only commercially feasible but commercially attractive,” Bachman says.

“These kinds of numbers are unheard of in direct air capture,” says Ozin. “At these price points and with its capabilities, Rail DAC is likely to soon become the first megatonne-scale, first gigatonne-scale, and overall largest provider of direct air capture services in the world.”

The next step for CO2Rail is to complete the first prototype and to test it in real-world environments. Ozin believes the first direct air carbon capture railcar will be in production by early next year.

U of T's John Polanyi recognized for anti-nuclear weapons activism, upholding human rights

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:53:12 +0000

U of T's John Polanyi recognized for anti-nuclear weapons activism, upholding human rights

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 10/19/2021 - 10:53

Cutline

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Dan Haves

Topic

Our Community

Chemistry

Faculty of Arts & Science

John Polanyi

University Professor Emeritus and Nobel laureate John Polanyi has been awarded the 2022 Andrei Sakharov Prize by the American Physical Society – a notable honour for Polanyi given his nuclear early anti-proliferation efforts were connected with those of Sakharov himself.

The award is named after Andrei Sakharov – a nuclear physicist, Nobel laureate and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights – and recognizes outstanding leadership and achievements of scientists in upholding human rights.

In Polanyi’s case, he is being recognized for seven decades of tireless activism for a nuclear-weapons-free world, for upholding human rights and freedom of speech globally, for public education on the essential role of science in society, and for a visionary approach to bringing about a hopeful, peaceful future.

He remains humble about his work.

“My qualifications for this marvelous prize are slim,” said Polanyi. “I have done a scientist's normal work as a citizen.”

Polanyi, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, has spent the greater part of a century voicing his strong belief that scientists have a responsibility to involve themselves in the defence of human rights.

In 1960, Polanyi became the founding chairman of the Canadian Pugwash group, whose mission is to offer scientific insight and reason to the catastrophic threat posed to humanity by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. It’s a position he held until 1978, the year he chaired an international symposium on the dangers of nuclear war. And Polanyi currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

In 1998 he said, “If the arts – and here I include science – depend so crucially on a proper respect for human rights, those who dare to call themselves artists have an over-riding obligation to defend those rights. Have they done so? They have, but never sufficiently.”

Polanyi reflected on Sakharov and how their efforts intertwined.

“Half a century ago Sakharov, having been the leader of H-bomb research in the U.S.S.R., risked his life in opposing the further development of the most horrible weapons in history. They were the first instruments designed exclusively for genocide, for the mass killing of civilians,” Polanyi said. “I wrote to colleagues across Canada. We then petitioned the Soviet leaders to listen to Sakharov's warnings, rather than persecute him.”

“When later Sakharov and I later met, he told me that such protests ultimately saved him. He was clear-thinking and very brave. He lives on as an inspiration to all who speak out for humanity, and for the role of freedom of thought if we are to have a future.”

Polanyi is the first researcher from a Canadian institution to be recognized with the honour.

“I would like to congratulate our esteemed colleague and Nobel laureate, John Polanyi, on receiving this award,” said Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Not only has he dedicated his career to scientific research in chemistry, he has also been a tireless defender of human rights and a strong advocate for a nuclear-weapons free world. He is an incredibly worthy recipient of this prize.”

“This award is a wonderful recognition of the contributions of Professor Polanyi in protecting human rights and fighting nuclear weapons proliferation,” said Rob Batey, professor and chair of the department of chemistry.

“Suffering repression, Sakharov was probably the most well-known Soviet dissident, and his case was a cause célèbre until his release in the mid-1980s. The APS prize given in his name serves as a reminder of the role that scientists can play in advancing and advocating on issues of broader societal importance.”

To speed discoveries, U of T lab launches free library of virtual, AI-calculated organic compounds

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 06 May 2021 03:49:48 +0000

To speed discoveries, U of T lab launches free library of virtual, AI-calculated organic compounds

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 05/05/2021 - 23:49

Cutline

The lab of U of T's Alán Aspuru-Guzik, in collaboration with partners in academia and industry, has launched an open-access library of about 300,000 virtual, machine-learning calculated organic compounds (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Dan Haves

Topic

Global Lens

Insulin 100

Artificial Intelligence

Chemistry

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Research & Innovation

Vector Institute

Alán Aspuru-Guzik’s research group at the University of Toronto has launched an open-access tool that promises to accelerate the discovery of new chemical reactions that underpin the development of everything from smartphones to life-saving drugs.

The free tool, called Kraken, is a library of virtual, machine-learning calculated organic compounds – roughly 300,000 of them, with 190 descriptors each.

It was created through a collaboration between Aspuru-Guzik’s Matter Lab, the Sigman Research Group at the University of Utah, Technische Universität Berlin, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis at the University of Notre Dame, IBM Research and AstraZeneca

“The world has no time for science as usual,” says Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in U of T’s departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Neither for science done in a silo.

“This is a collaborative effort to accelerate catalysis science that involves a very exciting team from academia and industry."

When developing a transition-metal catalyzed chemical reaction, a chemist must find a suitable combination of metal and ligand. Despite the innovations in computer-optimized ligand design led by the Sigman group, ligands would typically be identified by trial and error in the lab. With Kraken, however, chemists will eventually have a vast data-rich collection at their fingertips, reducing the number of trials necessary to achieve optimal results.

“It takes a long time, a lot of money, and a whole lot of human resources to discover, develop and understand new catalysts and chemical reactions.” says co-lead author and Banting Postdoctoral Fellow Gabriel dos Passos Gomes. “These are some of the tools that allow molecular scientists to precisely develop materials and drugs, from the plastics in your smartphone to the probes that allowed for humanity to achieve the COVID-19 vaccines at an unforeseen pace.

“This work shows how machine learning can change the field.”

Well, we unleashed the Kraken! A @Sigman_Lab - #matterlab @UofT @chemuoft @UofTCompSci @acceleration_c @VectorInst collaboration long in the making made the @ChemRxiv server: https://t.co/FJVOzKaItZ Led by @tobiasgensch @gabepgomes and many others! 1/4 pic.twitter.com/JpnPL934y6
— Alan Aspuru-Guzik (@A_Aspuru_Guzik) April 29, 2021

The Kraken library features organophosphorus ligands, what Tobias Gensch – one of the co-lead authors of this work – described as “some of the most prevalent ligands in homogeneous catalysis.”

“We worked extremely hard to make this not only open and available to the community, but as convenient and easy to use as we possibly could,” says Gomes, who worked with computer science graduate student Théophile Gaudin in the development of the web application. “With that in mind, we created a web app where users can search for ligands and their properties in a straightforward manner.”

While 330,000 compounds will be available at launch, the team plans to create a much larger library of more than 190 million ligands. In comparison, similar libraries have been limited to compounds in the hundreds – with far fewer properties.

“This is very exciting as it shows the potential of AI for scientific research,” says Aspuru-Guzik. “In this context, the University of Toronto has launched a global initiative called the Acceleration Consortium which hopes to bring academia, government, and industry together to tackle AI-driven materials discovery.

“It is exciting to have Professor Matthew Sigman on board with the consortium and seeing results of this collaborative work come to fruition.”

In January 2022, Gomes will take on a new role as assistant professor in the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where he aims to pioneer research on the design of catalysts and reaction discovery.

Kraken can be freely accessed online and the preprint describing how the dataset was elaborated and how the tool can be used for reaction optimization can be accessed at ChemRxiv.

These U of T researchers use tiny microrobots to 'scoop up,' transport and deliver cell material

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 18:37:23 +0000

These U of T researchers use tiny microrobots to 'scoop up,' transport and deliver cell material

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 07/08/2019 - 14:37

Cutline

Post-doctoral researcher Shuailong Zhang and Professor Aaron Wheeler have designed microrobots – depicted on the screens behind them – that can be used in conjunction with optoelectronic tweezers to manipulate cell material (photo by Dan Haves)

Dan Haves

Topic

Breaking Research

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Chemistry

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Medicine

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Research & Innovation

Researchers from the University of Toronto have demonstrated a novel and non-invasive way to manipulate cells through microrobotics.

One method of cell manipulation – moving small particles from one place to another – is through optoelectronic tweezers (OET), which use light patterns to directly interact with the object of interest. But there are limitations to the force that can be applied and speed in which the cellular material can be manipulated.

Enter microrobotics. A team led by U of T post-doctoral researcher Shuailong Zhang and Professor Aaron Wheeler have designed microrobots (working at the sub-millimetre scale) that can be operated by OET for cell manipulation.

“The ability of these light-driven microrobots to perform non-invasive and accurate control, isolation and analysis of cells in complex biological environment make them a very powerful tool,” says Zhang.

An array of “cogwheel-shaped” optoelectronic microrobots (photo courtesy of Shuailong Zhang)

Instead of using light to directly interact with the cells, the light is used to steer cogwheel-shaped microrobots that can “scoop up” cell material, transport it and then deliver it. This manipulation can be done at greater speeds while causing less damage to the material compared to traditional OET methods.

The researchers detailed their work in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Traditional techniques that are used to manipulate single cells while evaluating them by microscopy are slow and tedious, requiring a lot of expertise to carry out,” says Wheeler, a professor in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science who has cross-appointments at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

“These microrobots are inexpensive and very simple to use, and they have a wide range of applications in the life sciences and beyond.”

In addition to cell analysis, the microrobots can also be used in cell sorting (for clonal expansion), RNA sequencing and cell-cell fusion (commonly used in the production of antibodies).

Cindi Morshead, a professor at IBBME and in the department of surgery, is a co-author of the study. In Morshead's lab at the Donnelly Centre, her research in regenerative medicine works with neural stem cells that reside in the brain and spinal cord.

“Neural stem cells are responsive to a multitude of cues and environmental stimuli in their niche, and these change with injury, so teasing out the signals, and cell responses, is a huge challenge when we are trying to harness the potential of stem cells for neural repair,” says Morshead.

“These microrobots allow for the exquisite control of the cells and their micro-environment – tools that we will need to learn how best to activate the stem cells.”

The research received support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

U of T team awarded major funding for greenhouse gas project

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 08 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000

U of T team awarded major funding for greenhouse gas project

noreen.rasbach Tue, 05/08/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

Professor Geoffrey Ozin and his team are working to mitigate climate change by transforming waste products into valuable commodities and industrial feedstocks (photo by Camilla Pucholt)

Topic

Research & Innovation

Researcher Geoff Ozin and the Solar Fuels Team at the University of Toronto have been awarded close to $1 million from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF) to translate their greenhouse gas research to scale.

Reza Moridi, Ontario’s minister of research, innovation and science, made the announcement last week at the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery conference.

Ozin and his team are working to mitigate climate change by transforming waste products into valuable commodities and industrial feedstocks. He calls this technology G2F, or Greenhouse Gases to Fuels.

“Hydrocarbons from fossil fuels remain major feedstocks in the manufacture of a variety of crucial chemicals, polymers, pharmaceuticals and materials, and therefore cannot be replaced easily,” says Ozin, a professor in U of T’s department of chemistry.

"In this project, we propose a technology capable of recycling CO₂, either from the atmosphere or from concentrated industrial sources, into value-added chemicals and fuels.”

Ontario’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund will help researchers, entrepreneurs and companies create and bring to market innovative, low-carbon technologies.

Moridi says that LCIF initiatives like Ozin’s, “will help us fight climate change while preparing industries to thrive in a competitive, low-carbon economy.”

Ozin says he is excited to begin work on the Greenhouse Gases to Fuels project. “Working with the Low Carbon Innovation Fund, we intend to demonstrate that our G2F technology is an effective approach to making Ontario both environmentally sustainable and economically successful,” he says.

U of T wins third prestigious Canada 150 Chair

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 04:00:00 +0000

U of T wins third prestigious Canada 150 Chair

noreen.rasbach Thu, 03/29/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

“Canada has a very long history of supporting quantum information science and quantum computing, and Toronto is the centre of the kind of science I want to be a part of," said Alán Aspuru-Guzik (photo by Doug Levy)

Dan Haves

Topic

Global Lens

Artificial Intelligence

Canada 150

Canada Research Chairs

Chemistry

CIFAR

Global

Research & Innovation

Vector Institute

Subheadline

Alán Aspuru-Guzik is an expert in quantum computing and chemistry

A leading researcher in theoretical and computational chemistry is joining the University of Toronto as one of the Canada 150 Research Chairs announced today by the federal government.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a tenured professor at Harvard University, will arrive at U of T this summer. An expert in machine learning, quantum computing and chemistry, he is jointly appointed to the departments of chemistry and computer science as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical & Quantum Chemistry.

“It’s an exciting time to come to this country,” Aspuru-Guzik said. “Canada has a very long history of supporting quantum information science and quantum computing, and Toronto is the centre of the kind of science I want to be a part of.

“Combined with the recent government support for artificial intelligence and increased federal support for basic research, Canada is a very attractive destination for scientists.”

The Canada 150 Research Chair program is a $117-million investment by the federal government to enhance this country’s reputation as a global centre for science, research and innovation, and to attract the world’s leading scholars and researchers.

Aspuru-Guzik is joining two other previously announced chairs at U of T in this federal program: Donna Rose Addis, the Canada 150 Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging, and Miguel Ramalho-Santos, the Canada 150 Research Chair in Developmental Epigenetics.

See his lab at U of T

He recently co-authored a perspective that lays out his vision for the field. Aspuru-Guzik and his group will be continuing their pioneering research on quantum computing for chemistry, machine learning and other near-term applications of quantum computers.

“When you look at things like climate change, antibiotic resistant bacteria or water pollution, we do not have time in the 21^st century to make incremental improvements in the field of chemistry,” he said.

“So one of the things that I want to see is ‘self-driving’ chemical laboratories. With machine learning, we can use the data from one experiment to tell us what our next experiment should be. We can make scientific decisions much more quickly.”

In addition to quantum computing and machine learning, Aspuru-Guzik is particularly interested in the generation and storage of energy. He is looking for ways to store energy with inexpensive and renewable solar cells and batteries that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

He recently co-led an international workshop for the sixth innovation challenge of Mission Innovation, a collaboration of 22 countries and the European Union that focuses on doubling the participating countries’ clean energy research budget over five years.

“We are assembling an international coalition of researchers that will build together the chemical and materials laboratories of the future,” Aspuru-Guzik said.

“We intend to fundamentally accelerate the rate of materials discovery by putting together automated platforms with integrated synthesis, characterization and simulation capabilities.”

Aspuru-Guzik said he believes he has found the perfect home in Toronto, where he will be collaborating with technology and science leaders. Already a senior fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), he will also be a faculty member of the Vector Institute.

He comes to Toronto with additional support from a Google Focused Award that will allow him to continue developing near-term quantum algorithms.

Hartmut Neven, Google's engineering director, congratulated Aspuru-Guzik and U of T, saying, “Alán has pioneered the field of quantum computing chemistry. Google's Quantum AI Lab is excited to strengthen our long-term collaboration with Alán by providing a Focused Award, which will fund graduate student research into quantum simulation, algorithms, and applications.” Google pledged $1-million in funding over the next three years.

Daily planning app from U of T entrepreneur helps children with behavioural and learning challenges

ullahnor — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 20:19:48 +0000

Daily planning app from U of T entrepreneur helps children with behavioural and learning challenges

ullahnor Tue, 03/21/2017 - 16:19

Cutline

Pierre Séguin (left) and his son, Leo (right), show off Brili, a daily planning app for kids

Dan Haves

Author legacy

Dan Haves

Topic

Breaking Research

Medicine

Children

Faculty of Information

App

Behaviour

Learning

For children with behavioural and learning challenges, getting ready for the day can be a struggle. Waking up, getting dressed, eating breakfast and heading out the door on time is never a guarantee.

Pierre Séguin, whose son faced some of these challenges, knew all too well how difficult it could be for kids to organize their day, even with the help of their parents and caregivers. His solution?

He took some of the features of project management software he was using every day at work in the tech industry and used them to create Brili, a mobile-based daily planner that makes a game out of routine tasks. Brili is part of the Faculty of Medicine's Health Innovation Hub and the Faculty of Information's Semaphore Research Cluster. Séguin is an expert-in-residence with Semaphore.

Learn more about Entrepreneurship@UofT Week March 27-31

He spoke with U of T's Dan Haves about how Brili works and the future of this software.

Where did you get the idea for Brili?

My son had various behavioral challenges when he was very young and daily routines were awful for our family. We spoke to many experts as we tried to help him. They advised us to give our son structure and consistency, and use lists, pictures and timers to help him remember steps in the routine.

I was a software product manager working with teams that used big LCD dashboard screens to show a project’s status and keep multimillion-dollar technology jobs on track. So I thought, ‘Why can’t we create something like this for kids?’ Daily routines are just little projects that happen every day, and our son needed a dashboard of his own. That realization unleashed a flurry of ideas to gamify routines.

What are some of the challenges that Brili helps children overcome?

Brili is especially helpful to kids who have trouble with executive function (EF). EF is the role our brain plays in impulse control, keeping us focused, aware of time passing, remembering what we’re supposed to be doing and other functions many people take for granted. ADHD, autism and other learning challenges directly impact EF.

Brili gives kids gentle and consistent prompts to start regular routines like getting ready for school or bedtime, and helps them stay on task with audible reminders and visual cues.

For example, parents can program Brili to give their kids reminders to do things like get dressed or brush their teeth during the morning routine before school. The app also factors in the time available to complete each item on the list. The prompts can also help parents check in with their kids to ensure they get help when they need it.

What’s next for Brili?

We’re building new features into Brili that will make it helpful in a classroom environment so kids can benefit from the program at school.

We started Brili to give every child and parent access to fun, stress-free daily routines so families can just enjoy being families. As mobile technology becomes more accessible, it’s exciting to see our goal become reality. Next, we want to help people of all ages in more contexts to manage and use their time better.

U of T joins international ALS project

ullahnor — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:05:02 +0000

U of T joins international ALS project

ullahnor Thu, 01/19/2017 - 11:05

Cutline

The project will map the DNA profiles of 15,000 people with ALS and create a global database of genetic information on the disease (photo by MV Maverick via Flickr)

Dan Haves

Author legacy

Dan Haves

Topic

Ekaterina Rogaeva, a professor of neurology at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, is joining an international team of researchers trying to determine why some people develop ALS.

Known as Project MinE, the team helped discover the gene linked to ALS. It includes researchers in 17 nations, and now thanks to support from the ALS Society of Canada (ALS Canada), Canadian researchers have joined the team.

“About half of ALS heritability remains to be explained,” says Rogaeva (pictured left), who is also a researcher at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

In an effort to accelerate the search for a cure, Project MinE plans to map the DNA profiles of 15,000 people with ALS along with a control group of 7,500 people and create a global database of genetic information on the disease. With this new data, the hope is that researchers around the world can better target ALS by understanding the genetic mutations that lead to disease.

“Only together can we obtain sufficient power to analyze DNA samples from several thousand cases and controls so the ongoing whole genome sequencing of each MinE sample is critical,” say Rogaeva.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative disease that gradually paralyzes the body. Most people who are diagnosed with ALS die within two to five years of diagnosis as there is currently no effective treatment or cure. One thousand Canadians are diagnosed with ALS each year.

Project MinE will receive both the financial support of the ALS Canada and the scientific support of some of Canada’s leading ALS researchers. This is the first cross-Canada collaboration on ALS research and is one of the six projects funded by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

ALS Canada and its research team hope to contribute up to 1,000 DNA profiles to the MinE Project. They are currently seeking federal funding, which would also allow the stored DNA profiles of Canadians with ALS to be added to the database.

“Having such a large sample set could improve understanding of the disease in order to provide the best medical advice to ALS carriers,” Rogaeva notes.

How to survive the holidays: advice from U of T experts

ullahnor — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 22:29:32 +0000

How to survive the holidays: advice from U of T experts

ullahnor Sun, 12/18/2016 - 17:29

Dan Haves

Author legacy

Dan Haves

Topic

While the holiday season can be an exciting time to reconnect with friends and family, it can also cause stress and make healthy eating difficult.

U of T Faculty of Medicine's Mel Borins, associate professor in the department of family and community medicine, and John Sievenpiper, an associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences, have some tips on how to enjoy the holiday season in a happy and healthy way.

Beat the Stress

1. Make time
The holidays can be hectic. Book something each day that is fun and preserve the time no matter what.

2. Look for the positive
Connect with positive people who are uplifting to be with. Phone them, Skype with them, or better yet, see them in person!

3. Ha, Ha, Ha!
Laugh for no reason. If you’re finding the holiday stress is overwhelming, just laugh. Physiologically your body will not know the difference.

4. Meditate
Take 20 minutes each day to sit quietly, get into a relaxed state and do a body scan and internal brain scan to find out where your head is at.

5. Exercise
Amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays it can be easy to miss out on exercise. Go for a winter stroll.

Keep Healthy Habits

1. Pace yourself
Tell yourself sweets are everywhere, and if you want more than a couple of cookies, or a brownie or a piece of pie, there’s always tomorrow.

2. Plan ahead
If you’re going to a holiday party, eat a healthy balanced meal before you arrive so that you don’t arrive hungry, and you can limit yourself to just one treat.

3. Cut the starch
Often people consume more refined starches like bread, potatoes and rice to fill themselves up. Put less of these on your plate, and take more vegetables – an easy way to achieve portion control.

4. Flip the script
Stop thinking about all the food you can’t eat and start thinking about the whole foods you can eat and enjoy.

5. Make trade-offs
Delicious treats are an important part of the holidays, and you should savour every bite. But make trade-offs. Would you rather invest your discretionary calories in a really nice dessert and skip the alcohol?

We hope these tips help you enjoy this holiday season while maintaining a healthy body and mind.

Dr. Borins is a family physician and associate professor in the department of family and community medicine and author of the book A Doctor’s Guide to Alternative Medicine: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why. Dr. Sievenpiper is an associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences, a staff physician and a scientist in Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital. Read more tips from Dr. Sievenpiper on healthy eating during the holidays.

Dan Haves

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