Our Faculty & Staff

Nursing graduate finds guidance, support – and her calling – through mentorship program

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 13:26:31 +0000

Nursing graduate finds guidance, support – and her calling – through mentorship program

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 08/22/2022 - 09:26

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Farah Khan, an adjunct lecturer and alumna of the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing (left), mentored Anika Andal as part of the Alumni-Graduate Student Mentorship Program (photos courtesy of Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing)

Rebecca Biason

Topic

Our Community

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Mentorship

Anika Andal wasn't sure what her next step should be after graduating from the University of Toronto with a master of nursing degree.

Farah Khan, an adjunct professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and Andal's mentor, had an idea: she suggested Andal follow her passion for education by becoming a nurse educator, who provides clinical education for point-of-care staff. The job description can include translating research, disseminating practice changes or teaching new clinical procedures.

Andal wasn't sure she was qualified since nurse educators often have years of experience, but Khan explained that Trillium Health Partners – a hospital system in Mississauga and western Toronto – was looking for innovative young leaders.

“That really shifted my perspective on what possibilities were available to me,” Andal says. “It was fantastic how Farah not only pointed me in the direction of the right door, but she opened it for me.”

Andal says Khan's mentorship was nothing short of life-changing. “The immediate investment in my personal growth really stood out to me,” she says. “Farah’s willingness to be supportive and believe in me in ways I had not considered, was so rewarding.”

Khan, an alumna of U of T nursing and director of quality, risk and patient safety at Trillium Health Partners, says she relied on her own mentors and professional network throughout her academic and professional career.

“Knowing the impact mentorship had on my own life made me leap at the opportunity to be a mentor for Bloomberg Nursing and give back to the faculty, because it is not a unilateral relationship, there is also a unique chance to learn from your mentees,” she says.

The Alumni-Graduate Student Mentorship Program launched late last year as a means of connecting graduate students with nursing leaders in a variety of fields across the health-care spectrum. With many graduate programs taking place mostly online during the pandemic, the faculty was eager to create opportunities like the mentorship program that engage students and foster a sense of community.

In its first year, the program paired 18 mentors and mentees. Following the initial success of the program, the pairings for the 2022-23 academic year are expected to grow to more than 50.

Khan and Andal say a highlight of their mentor-mentee relationship was to forge a connection as women of colour in nursing. Andal says it was extremely valuable to learn about the lived experience of a woman of colour in a leadership role in the field.

“Being matched with Farah was a real testament to the mentorship program making space for these important relationships and reflection on being a person of colour in leadership and in nursing,” says Andal. “It was something I needed and has helped me immensely as I progress in my career.”

Khan agrees. “Since our mentorship journey began, I’ve made a more formal attempt at better understanding concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion as it pertains to nursing, health care and leadership,” she says. “I want to better inform my ability to mentor others and seek out mentorship in this area for myself, too.”

Throughout the mentorship program, Andal was not only able to pursue new career paths, but she also received advice to navigate tricky situations at work.

Still early in her career, Andal says there are times when she feels imposter syndrome, leading herself to question herself and her abilities. In these and other challenging moments, she's often turned to Khan for guidance and support.

“What is unique about my relationship with Farah,” says Andal, “is that she can help me personally identify when she sees that something is not benefitting my personal growth. I had a challenging situation and wasn’t sure how to manage it in a leadership context. It was Farah who said ‘You can’t always please everyone. You need to focus on your work and yourself and that is what will help those around you.’”

Andal says she's grateful for the career opportunities she obtained through the master's program and Khan's mentorship. She notes that the way in which the nursing profession is structured does not always allow for nurses to be able to continue their clinical roles while exploring alternatives, like research or leadership. It is something she hopes will change to allow more innovation in nursing as more nurses pursue education to bring about change in the health system.

Khan, too, sees the importance of nurses pursuing leadership opportunities in the context of the changing health-care landscape, and notes the significance of the continued presence of the Alumni-Graduate Mentorship Program.

“With the evolution of the pandemic, the nursing profession has dynamically changed. Now more than ever, nurses aspiring to advance their professional leadership skills need access to a diverse cadre of nurse leaders through mentorship,” Khan says. “But those of us in leadership can also benefit from learning from our mentees too.”

Study shows urban Indigenous Peoples experienced lower vaccination rates: Global News

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:45:14 +0000

Study shows urban Indigenous Peoples experienced lower vaccination rates: Global News

geoff.vendeville Wed, 08/03/2022 - 12:45

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Janet Smylie, Michael Anderson and Suzanne Stewart at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Indigenous Peoples run by Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health last year (photo by Rick Mado (photo by Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

Breaking Research

COVID-19

Unity Health

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Indigenous

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

University Health Network

The vaccination rate among Indigenous Peoples in Toronto and London, Ont. is lower than that of the general population, Global News reported based on a study by researchers at the University of Toronto, Unity Health and University Health Network.

“Indigenous people were one of the three very first priority groups for access to vaccine in Ontario, along with health-care workers and people that were living in long-term care homes, but despite that prioritization, we’re actually still seeing significant gaps,” Janet Smylie, a professor at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a researcher scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital who was one of the study’s authors, told Global.

One of Canada's first Métis doctors, Smylie volunteered and performed at a vaccine pow wow hosted at U of T's Varsity Stadium last summer, and participated in other vaccine-related outreach activities focused on Indigenous communities.

Jaris Swidrovich, a pharmacist from Yellow Quill First Nation and an assistant professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, who was not involved in the study, told Global that a history of experimentation and experiences of racist health care contribute to Indigenous Peoples’ low vaccination rates.“There’s certainly a number of very valid reasons why Indigenous Peoples may choose to either delay or to not receive an immunization,” he said.

Read the story at Global News

After fleeing Syria, Aiman Ali finds a new home as co-ordinator of a U of T dentistry lab

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 19:15:52 +0000

After fleeing Syria, Aiman Ali finds a new home as co-ordinator of a U of T dentistry lab

geoff.vendeville Thu, 07/21/2022 - 15:15

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After fleeing the Syrian war, Aiman Ali came to Canada where he found a job that matches his qualifications at the Faculty of Dentistry (photo by Jeff Comber)

Aiman Ali and his family fled war in Syria six years ago and came to Canada in hopes of a better life. But the move to a new a country wasn't easy, especially at first.

“I came here on a Visiting Scholar Visa for six months – our transition to Canada was extremely arduous and we faced many financial difficulties at the beginning,” Ali says. “We were living cheque to cheque and it wasn’t easy to make ends meet.”

Despite having two advanced degrees in dentistry from universities in Syria and Spain – a doctor of dental surgery and PhD in oral cancer – Ali initially struggled to find a job that matched his qualifications. But earlier this year he became the manager and lab co-ordinator for the Histopathology Research Unit at the Faculty of Dentistry.

Histopathology refers to the branch of pathology dealing with tissue changes characteristic of disease. The lab uses both human and animal samples for precise experiments to determine the role of specific proteins in cells and their role in the progression of cancer and other diseases.

As manager, Ali is responsible for everything that goes on in the lab, including experiments, ordering materials and chemicals and training students and researchers to use the equipment.

Ali programming one of the automated machines in the Histopathology Research Unit (Jeff Comber)

The job put Ali and his family on firmer financial footing, and it's a good fit with his credentials, he says.

Ali took it upon himself when he arrived to modernize the lab with newer equipment so that it could provide more services, including the ability to perform immunostains experiments and full soft- and hard-tissues services for anything related to histopathology and immunohistochemistry.

“Now researchers are sending us work from Sinai and MARS because we can do it all in house,” he says. “Having the ability to deal with dental implants, mineralized tissue in the teeth, [and] bone and jaw puts us at an advantage as it’s difficult for a lot of other labs to complete.”

Ali says he's enthusiastic about using the lab's new machinery to help researchers in Canada and beyond. He says the new equipment has made the lab more efficient by automating certain procedures, thereby saving time and improving accuracy.

“Our lab is an example of the way forward in histopathology,” he says. “I’m excited to see what the future holds for this type of research.”

U of T program connects high school students with Indigenous land-based knowledge systems and STEM fields

geoff.vendeville — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:56:55 +0000

U of T program connects high school students with Indigenous land-based knowledge systems and STEM fields

geoff.vendeville Tue, 07/19/2022 - 11:56

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Darlee Gerrard and Ethan Boyer co-lead the Indigenous Design & Engineering Academy, an initiative for Indigenous youth offered through U of T's Engineering Outreach Office (photo by Safa Jinje)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Indigenous

Outreach

As part of a University of Toronto enrichment program geared toward Indigenous youth, 18-year-old Mya Simpson was invited to design a STEM activity for youth that could be used at future camps or outreach events.

She and her partner designed an exercise that teaches individuals to loom bead keychains, using different colours to represent the different layers of the Earth. “I loved the experience because of how relevant it was to me as an Ojibwe youth,” Simpson says.

“We had the opportunity to hear from so many Knowledge Keepers and STEM professionals, and we talked a lot about how we, as Indigenous people, are scientists – and have been scientists for long before colonization tried to tell us otherwise.”

The Indigenous Design & Engineering Academy – IDEA, for short – is hosted by the Engineering Outreach Office in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. It offers land-based learning to inspire Indigenous secondary students to pursue an engineering education and career. Returning for its second year, the program reinforces the ways scientific knowledge is ingrained in Indigenous cultures and traditions.

“The motivation behind the creation of IDEA was similar to many of our other Engineering Outreach programs,” says Darlee Gerrard, who co-leads IDEA with Ethan Boyer, a master's student at Trent University. “We want to engage audiences that find themselves underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields, especially engineering.”

“We are aware of and recognize that Indigenous knowledge and perspectives – as well as the people and communities – are often left out of these conversations and left out of this content,” says Boyer. “We want to engage youth participants in a way that prioritizes their knowledge, traditions and experiences.”

IDEA provides a suite of programming for Indigenous students of all ages. Its first offering is Leader-in-Training (LIT), a program for secondary school students, which will be held in two sessions this summer, one earlier this July and another the first week of August. This year, IDEA is introducing a new program called Horizons for students in Grades 3 to 6. Registration opens this month.

Mya Simpson’s sketch of the Earth’s layers, left, is seen next to the cardboard loom she and her partner created for the beading project (photo by Mya Simpson)

LIT is an Indigenous-led experience for Indigenous students that focuses on the connection between traditional Land-based knowledge systems and STEM through workshops, presentations and hands-on activities that prepare participants for future leadership opportunities working with children and youth.

“I am a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and for a long time, I’ve wanted my identity to be part of the programs that I have been coordinating,” says Gerrard, who received her PhD in the spring in Engineering Education, a collaborative specialization offered jointly by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and U of T Engineering.

“I have a very deep personal connection to the content and our participants.”

More than 20 students participated in the first iteration of LIT, which was held virtually as result of pandemic restrictions in the summer of 2021.

The lessons the students learned through conversations with traditional knowledge keepers were especially impactful, says Nodin Outten-Joseph, 16, who is of L’nu and Mohawk ancestry.

“I’ve always strongly identified with my Indigenous roots and the LIT program very much delivered on the integration of diverse Indigenous ideologies – including my people’s – into various aspects of the program,” he says.

“The teaching of STEM and leadership resonated with me, but most importantly they brought incredibly wise Indigenous mentors to expand our understanding of the world through Indigenous mindsets.”

Outten-Joseph says one teaching that has stuck with him is that “there is no difference between ecology and economy.”

“We can find critical traditional knowledge everywhere, but society is keeping us fixated on empty successes,” he says. “Success is just being able to take care of yourself and you need to keep in mind, less is more.”

Students who complete the LIT program will be prepared to take on instructional roles at camps and workshops, and they will also have opportunities to take part in additional Indigenous leadership and training opportunities through the U of T Engineering Outreach Office and Actua, Canada’s largest STEM organization, which includes the Engineering Outreach Office as one of its network members.

“With IDEA, our goal has always been to create something that not only has representation, but also creates a sense of strength, identity and community,” says Boyer, who is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario.

“Doug Dokis, the director of Actua’s National Indigenous Youth in STEM program, would often say to us that ‘You may not know what impact you’re having on a person, just know that you’re having one and understand that you won’t even see most of the impact of the work you’re doing.’”

The Earth's crust has been 'dripping' beneath the Andes Mountains for millions of years: Researchers

geoff.vendeville — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:41:12 +0000

The Earth's crust has been 'dripping' beneath the Andes Mountains for millions of years: Researchers

geoff.vendeville Tue, 07/19/2022 - 11:41

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Salar de Arizaro in the Atacama Desert (photo by Nicolas de Camaret, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Sean Bettam

Topic

Breaking Research

Earth Sciences

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

Just like honey slowly dripping from a spoon, parts of the rocky outermost layer of Earth’s shell are continuously sinking into the more fluid layer of the planet’s mantle over the course of millions of years. Known as lithospheric dripping – named for the fragmenting of rocky material that makes up Earth’s crust and upper mantle – the process results in significant deformations at the surface such as basins, folding of the crust and irregular elevations.

Though the process is a relatively new concept in the decades-old field of plate tectonics, several examples of lithospheric drip around the world have been identified – the Central Anatolian Plateau in Turkey and the Great Basin in the western U.S., for two. Now, a team of researchers led by Earth scientists at the University of Toronto has confirmed that several regions in the central Andes Mountains in South America were formed the same way.

And they’ve done so using materials available at any hardware store and art supplies outlet.

“We have confirmed that a deformation on the surface of an area of the Andes Mountains has a large portion of the lithosphere below avalanched away,” says Julia Andersen, a PhD candidate in the department of Earth sciences at U of T and lead author of a study published in Communications Earth & Environment, part of the Nature family of journals. “Owing to its high density, it dripped like cold syrup or honey deeper into the planetary interior and is likely responsible for two major tectonic events in the Central Andes – shifting the surface topography of the region by hundreds of kilometres and both crunching and stretching the surface crust itself.

“Overall, the results help define a new class of plate tectonics and may have implications for other terrestrial planets that do not have Earth-like plate tectonics such as Mars and Venus.”

A geological map of the Arizaro Basin, demonstrating folding and thrust faults within the basin, as compared with surface view of the experimental simulation of lithospheric dripping. Folding and direction of shortening is depicted with red arrows (left photo courtesy of DeCelles, et al.; right courtesy of Julia Andersen et al.)

Lithospheric dripping occurs when portions of the lowest layer of Earth’s outer shell thicken and begin to drip into the mantle below when warmed to a certain temperature.

As the fragments sink into the lower mantle, it first forms a basin at the surface which later springs up when the weight below breaks off and sinks further into the deeper depths of the mantle. This results in an upward bobbing of the land mass across hundreds of kilometres.

The Central Andean Plateau is defined by the Puna and Altiplano high plateaus and was first formed when the Nazca plate slid beneath the South American plate during the well-documented plate tectonics process of subduction, during which a portion of the heavier of two tectonic plates sinks into the mantle when they converge.

Past studies have suggested, however, that the subsequent rise of Central Andean topography has not been uniform in time but rather was built through sporadic pulses of uplift throughout the Cenozoic Era that began approximately 66 million years ago.

Geological estimates indicate that the relative timing and mechanism of uplift in the region and the styles of tectonic deformation are different between the Puna and Altiplano plateaus. The Puna Plateau is characterized by higher average elevation and includes several isolated inland basins, such as the Arizaro Basin and the Atacama Basin, and distinct volcanic centres.

“Various studies invoke removal of the lithosphere to account for the widespread, non-subduction related surface deformation and evolution of the plateaus,” says Earth sciences Professor Russell Pysklywec, co-author of the study and Andersen’s PhD supervisor. “Further, crustal shortening in the Arizaro Basin interior is well documented by folding and local thrust faults but the basin is not bounded by known tectonic plate boundaries, indicating there is a more localized geodynamic process occurring.”

Geoscientists have used the sedimentary rock record to track changes in surface elevation of the Central Andes since the Miocene epoch approximately 18 million years ago. Seismic imaging provides a remote image of Earth’s interior much like an ultrasound for a human body, illuminating a new view of the lithospheric drip structures.

A simulation of the rocky outermost layer of Earth’s shell using silicone polymer fluid, modelling clay, and a sand-like layer made from ceramic and silica spheres demonstrates the process of lithospheric dripping. (photo by Julia Andersen/Tectonophysics Lab/University of Toronto)

Andersen and her colleagues say past geological studies advance evidence for lithospheric drips in the region, but the dynamical processes of lithospheric dripping and their role in driving local surface tectonics in these purported geological cases are uncertain. For the most part, geodynamic model predictions have not been tested in the context of direct regional geological or geophysical observations.

So, the team set about developing analogue laboratory models with geological and geophysical constraints to recreate what happened over thousands of centuries and test their hypothesis that the topographic and tectonic evolution of hinterland basins of the Central Andes was caused by lithospheric drip processes.

“Recognizing the massive time and length scales involved in these processes – millions of years and hundreds of kilometres – we devised innovative three-dimensional laboratory experiments using materials such as sand, clay and silicone to create scaled analogue models of the drip processes,” Andersen says. “It was like creating and destroying tectonic mountain belts in a sandbox, floating on a simulated pool of magma – all under incredibly precise sub-millimetre measured conditions.”

The models were constructed inside a Plexiglass tank with a set of cameras positioned above and beside the tank to capture any changes. The tank was first filled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) – a silicone polymer fluid approximately 1,000 times thicker than table syrup – to serve as Earth’s lower mantle. Next, the upper-most solid section of the mantle was replicated using a mixture of PDMS and modelling clay and put into the tank on top of the mantle. Finally, a sand-like layer made from a mixture of precision ceramic spheres and silica spheres was laid on top to serve as Earth’s crust.

The researchers activated the model by inserting a high-density seed into the PDMS and modelling clay layer, to initiate a drip that was subsequently pulled downward by gravity. The cameras outside the tank ran continuously, capturing a high-resolution image roughly every minute.

“The dripping occurs over hours so you wouldn’t see much happening from one minute to the next,” Andersen says. “But if you checked every few hours, you would clearly see the change – it just requires patience.” The study presents snapshots from every 10 hours to illustrate the progress of the drip.

The researchers then cross-referenced the size of the drip and the damage to the replica crust at select time intervals to see how their scaled processes matched up against the sedimentary records of the areas in question over millions of years.

Artist impressions of two types of lithospheric drip, supported by surface views of the experimental simulation of the processes. One produces thickening and uplift of Earth’s crust, while the other results in the formation of a basin at the surface (photo by Julia Andersen/Tectonophysics Lab/University of Toronto)

“We compared our model results to geophysical and geological studies conducted in the Central Andes, particularly in the Arizaro Basin, and found that the changes in elevation of the crust caused by the drip in our models track very well with changes in elevation of the Arizaro Basin,” Andersen says. “We also observed crustal shortening with folds in the model as well as basin-like depressions on the surface so we’re confident that a drip is very likely the cause of the observed deformations in the Andes.”

The researchers suggest the findings aim to clarify the link between mantle processes and crustal tectonics, and how such geodynamic processes may be interpreted with observed or inferred episodes of lithospheric removal. “The discoveries show that the lithosphere can be more volatile or fluid-like than we believed,” says Pysklywec.

Additional contributors to the study include Tasca Santimano, of U of T's department of Earth sciences, and Oguz Göğüş at Istanbul Technical University and Ebru Şengül Uluocak at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey.

The research was made possible thanks to support from a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers Programme of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, a TUBITAK Fellowship for Visiting Scientists, as well as Compute Ontario and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

Reverse engineering the heart: U of T researchers create bioartificial left ventricle

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 15:46:53 +0000

Reverse engineering the heart: U of T researchers create bioartificial left ventricle

geoff.vendeville Fri, 07/15/2022 - 11:46

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A model heart ventricle, made with real living heart cells and designed at U of T, can be used to study heart disease and test out potential therapies without the need for invasive surgery (photo by Sargol Okhovatian)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

University of Toronto researchers in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have grown a small-scale model of a human left heart ventricle in the lab. The bioartificial tissue construct is made with living heart cells and beats strongly enough to pump fluid inside a bioreactor.

In the human heart, the left ventricle is the one that pumps freshly oxygenated blood into the aorta, and from there into the rest of the body. The new lab-grown model could offer researchers a new way to study a wide range of heart diseases and conditions, as well as test potential therapies.

“With our model, we can measure ejection volume – how much fluid gets pushed out each time the ventricle contracts – as well as the pressure of that fluid,” says Sargol Okhovatian, a PhD candidate in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. “Both of these were nearly impossible to get with previous models.”

Okhovatian and Mohammad Hossein Mohammadi, who graduated from U of T with a master's in chemical and biomedical engineering, are co-lead authors on a new paper in Advanced Biology that describes the model they designed. Their multidisciplinary team was led by Milica Radisic, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry and senior author of the paper.

All three researchers are members of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT). A unique partnership between Canada’s National Research Council and U of T, CRAFT is home to world-leading experts who design, build and test miniaturized devices to control fluid flow at the micron scale, a field known as microfluidics.

“The unique facilities we have at CRAFT enable us to create sophisticated organ-on-a-chip models like this one,” Radisic says.

“With these models, we can study not only cell function, but tissue function and organ function, all without the need for invasive surgery or animal experimentation. We can also use them to screen large libraries of drug candidate molecules for positive or negative effects.”

Many of the challenges facing tissue engineers relate to geometry: while it’s easy to grow human cells in two dimensions – for example, in a flat petri dish – the results don’t look much like real tissue or organs as they would appear in the human body.

To move into three dimensions, Radisic and her team use tiny scaffolds made from biocompatible polymers. The scaffolds, which are often patterned with grooves or mesh-like structures, are seeded with heart muscle cells and left to grow in a liquid medium.

Over time, the living cells grow together, forming a tissue. The underlying shape or pattern of the scaffold encourages the growing cells to align or stretch in a particular direction. Electrical pulses can even be used to control how fast they beat – a kind of training gym for the heart tissue.

For the bioartificial left ventricle, Okhovatian and Mohammadi created a scaffold shaped like a flat sheet of three mesh-like panels. After seeding the scaffold with cells and allowing them to grow for about a week, the researchers rolled the sheet around a hollow polymer shaft, which they call a mandrel.

The result: a tube composed of three overlapping layers of heart cells that beat in unison, pumping fluid out of the hole at the end. The inner diameter of the tube is 0.5 millimetres and its height is about 1 millimetre, making it the size of the ventricle in a human fetus at about the 19^th week of gestation.

“Until now, there have only been a handful of attempts to create a truly 3-D model of a ventricle, as opposed to flat sheets of heart tissue,” says Radisic.

“Virtually all of those have been made with a single layer of cells. But a real heart has many layers, and the cells in each layer are oriented at different angles. When the heart beats, these layers not only contract, they also twist, a bit like how you twist a towel to wring water out of it. This enables the heart to pump more blood than it otherwise would.”

The team was able to replicate this twisting arrangement by patterning each of their three panels with grooves at different angles to each other.

In collaboration with the lab led by Ren-Ke Li, a professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute in the University Health Network, they measured the ejection volume and pressure using a conductance catheter, the same tool used to assess these parameters in living patients.

At the moment, the model can only produce a small fraction – less than five per cent – of the ejection pressure that a real heart could, but Okhovatian says that this is to be expected given the scale of the model.

“Our model has three layers, but a real heart would have eleven,” she says.

“We can add more layers, but that makes it hard for oxygen to diffuse through, so the cells in the middle layers start to die. Real hearts have vasculature, or blood vessels, to solve this problem, so we need to find a way to replicate that.”

Okhovatian says that in addition to the vasculature issue, future work will focus on increasing the density of cells in order to increase the ejection volume and pressure. She also wants to find a way to shrink or eventually remove the scaffold, which a real heart wouldn’t have.

Though the proof-of-concept model represents significant progress, there is still a long way to go before fully functional artificial organs are possible.

“We have to remember that it took us millions of years to evolve a structure as complex as the human heart,” Radisic says.

“We’re not going to be able reverse engineer the whole thing in just a few years, but with each incremental improvement, these models become more useful to researchers and clinicians around the world.”

“The dream of every tissue engineer is to grow organs that are fully ready to be transplanted into the human body,” Okhovatian says.

“We are still many years away from that, but I feel like this bioartificial ventricle is an important stepping-stone.”

With smiles and stoles, student-run event celebrates U of T's Black graduates

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 14:15:29 +0000

With smiles and stoles, student-run event celebrates U of T's Black graduates

geoff.vendeville Mon, 07/04/2022 - 10:15

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Black graduates recognized one another's achievements at a student-led event held at Hart House following U of T's spring convocation ceremonies (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Hart House

St. George

St. Michael's College

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Undergraduate Students

Victoria University

Women and Gender Studies

“Understand that your presence here, and what you achieved here, is monumental and that cannot be denied.”

The words of Adriana Williams, president of the University of Toronto's Black Students' Association (BSA), echoed through Hart House’s Great Hall, where dozens of Black U of T students who graduated earlier this spring gathered recently to celebrate their achievements.

Students at U of T began organizing Black Grad celebrations in 2017 and over the years the events have been held on the St. George and U of T Mississauga campuses, as well as virtually during the pandemic.

The theme of this year's student-run celebration was “trials and tribulations.” It was meant to underscore challenges each student overcame to earn their degree – both as Black students and as students navigating university during a pandemic.

The event itself marked a triumph over difficulties since it was the first in-person celebration in two years due to COVID-19. “I feel the biggest thing about this entire ceremony is it's a really good example of overcoming adversity, which is something our community does all the time,” Williams told U of T News.

“Post-secondary was never created with people of colour – let alone Black people – at all,” said Williams, who graduated this spring with a degree in linguistics, history and African studies as a member of St. Michael's College. “I feel like the Black student experience in general is just very unique, so I think it's imperative that we highlight what we've done here.”

U of T News senior reporter and associate editor Geoffrey Vendeville captured the following images of this year’s event: