Canada Foundation for Innovation

The Dalhousie University researcher is looking to create synthetic versions of spider's silk that have the potential to help heal damaged nerves and damaged hearts. Researcher Jan Rainey’s curiosity about synthetic fibres began during an undergraduate work term with DuPont. Years later, he heard stories from a fellow researcher that alluded to the amazing properties of spider’s silk. Now he's studying the unique characteristics of spider fibres in hopes of generating synthetic versions that are stronger than bullet-proof Kevlar and body restorative. Drop in, stick around and get trapped in a great science story from a cutting-edge bio-lab. Want to know more? • Jan Rainey’s biography from Dalhousie University • Learn about the fascinating history of Lycra • Explore the history of a most extraordinary textile fibre, spider silk • Cicada recording courtesy of Songofinsects.com

(Available only in French) Can our critical infrastructure withstand the effects of climate change? Pooneh Maghoul and her research team are working to make our bridges, roads and other critical infrastructures more resistant to climate change and extreme environments on Earth and in space. She founded the Sustainable Infrastructure and Geoengineering Lab at Polytechnique Montréal. In this podcast, she explains the complexities of permafrost engineering and shares the most important lesson life has taught her. Some of the additional content for this podcast is only available in French. Read Pooneh Maghoul's biography on the Polytechnique Montréal website; Read the La Presse article: Du permélisol... jusqu'à la Lune! Read the blog post from the school of engineering at Polytechnique Montréal: An earthworm robot ... for the Moon!; Awards and honours: Winner of the prestigious ISSMGE (International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering) award; Recognized by the Canadian Geotechnical Society

In 2002, German researcher Volker Gerdts relocated to Saskatoon. Cutting-edge vaccine research was the attraction. Now he is at the helm of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) World-renowned infectious disease specialist Volker Gerdts calls himself a “builder” who is carefully assembling a passionate team working to stop disease outbreaks in their tracks. His passion is infectious as he strives to keep people in Canada safe from future pandemics. The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), working out of the University of Saskatchewan, is at the frontline of Canada’s pandemic preparedness initiatives. Want to know more? Learn more about VIDO and how it’s helping to build a healthier world Click here if you’re interested in knowing more about immunology and vaccinology Find out how VIDO is working to identify future diseases in order to control and contain initial outbreaks Visit VIDO’s profile on the Research Facilities Navigator to learn more about research and business opportunities

(This podcast is only available in French) Nafissa Ismail focuses on the effects of hormones on the brain to pin down the interactions between our organs and our emotions Epidemiological data shows that the roots of depression form during puberty or adolescence for 75 percent of adults experiencing it. Nafissa Ismail is a professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology and a leading figure in mental health research. Her work is making a significant contribution toward understanding the causes of mental disorders and how to treat them.

The University of Waterloo’s Suzanne Kearns is a global leader in sustainable aviation, but her flight path wasn’t without turbulence. Suzanne Kearns grew up in Wiarton, Ont., where she would lie in the grass and watch airplanes from the local airport take flight overhead. Her dreams of flying led to a fixed-wing licence at 16 and helicopter licence a year later. At 24, she was a full-time university lecturer on aviation. Today, as the founder of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, she is helping curb the environmental impacts of flight and inspiring the next generation of aviation professionals in the process. Want to know more? Suzanne Kearns biography from the University of Waterloo. More about the history, mission and vision of the Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA), its research studies and its flight simulator lab. Pipistrel Aircraft , a light aircraft manufacturer aiming to provide sustainable and environmentally-friendly solutions to the aircraft industry. Read about University of Waterloo alum Jeremy Wang and his company Ribbit, an innovator in pilotless planes.

(The audio content of this podcast is only available in French.) Céline Surette embodies both the chemistry of living things and interdisciplinarity to serve the real needs and questions of communities. And to achieve this, and ensure that critical thinking triumphs, she'll pull out all the stops. Céline Surette is Dean of the Faculty of Science and Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Université de Moncton. She has a unique perspective on natural ecosystems as well as New Brunswick’s research community, including mentors and students, for whom she is a guiding light. And she isn’t easily thrown off course, even in the face of attempts to criticize science. Listen to Céline Surette talk about all the dimensions of her work in the field and in the lab. Want to know more? Biography: Dr. Céline Surette, Environmental Scientist Group of Shediac, N.B. residents calling for bylaw to ban pesticides - New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca Tracadie- Sheila looking at by-law to ban the use of glyphosate Manganese in water tied to kids' low IQ | CBC News Protecting the health of our oceans: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

This podcast is about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery and gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Researcher Kelsey Leonard, member of the Shinnecock Nation and founder of the Wampum Lab at the University of Waterloo, delves into ocean, water and climate justice. Shinnecock is a dialect derived from the Algonquian language. It means “people of the stony shores.” It’s along the stony shores of the Shinnecock Nation, on the Atlantic-facing eastern coast of New York’s Long Island that Kelsey Leonard developed her passion for the water. Undergraduate studies took her to Samoa and graduate studies brought her to the University of Waterloo, where she is now the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability.

(Available only in French) This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery. Our podcast gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Ocean science research is at a pivotal moment according to Guillaume St-Onge, Director of the Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski at Université du Québec à Rimouski. Canada abounds with ocean science expertise and technology, yet its fleet of research vessels has seen better days. Should we be concerned about how this will impact Canadian research in marine geology, physical oceanography, marine biology and marine chemistry? In this episode, a professor of marine geology at Université du Québec à Rimouski and Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology lets us in on his thoughts. Want to know more? Guillaume St-Onge: Guillaume St-Onge's personal page on ISMER's website (French only) Guillaume St-Onge's personal page on UQAR's website (French only ) Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology (French only ) Profile of Guillaume St-Onge on the Fonds de recherche du Québec website (French only ) Facility and partnerships: Navigator's profile for the Paleomagnetism and Marine Geology Laboratory Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski (ISMER) of Université du Québec à Rimouski (French only) Paleomagnetism and Marine geology Laboratory Réseau Québec maritime (RQM) (French only) Institut France-Québec maritime (IFQM) (French only) Articles about Guillaume St-Onge’s research (in publication order, from most recent to oldest): L’UQAR obtient le renouvellement de sa Chaire de recherche du Canada en géologie marine [UQAR gets its Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology Renewed], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (August 30, 2023) L'UQAR et ses partenaires reçoivent 154M$ du Fonds d’excellence en recherche Apogée Canada pour l’action climatique et le rôle des océans [UQAR and its partners receive $154 million in funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund for climate action and the role of oceans], from the UQAR communications department (May 4, 2023) Remonter dans le temps pour mieux connaître les risques de séismes dans l’estuaire [Going back in time to better understand the risks of earthquakes in the estuary], by Julie Tremblay, published in Radio-Canada ICI Bas-Saint-Laurent (January 19, 2023) Le chercheur Guillaume St-Onge à l’honneur dans Québec Science [Researcher Guillaume St-Onge in the spotlight with Québec Science], with Bis Petitpas, episode on Radio-Canada’s Bonjour la Côte (January 19, 2023) Tremblements de fleuve [River earthquakes], by Joël Leblanc, published in Québec Science(January 12, 2023) Un chercheur de l’UQAR figure pour une quatrième fois parmi les dix découvertes de l’année de Québec Science [UQAR researcher named for the fourth time in Québec Science’s top ten discoveries of the year], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (January 12, 2023) Apogée, un programme de recherche sur les océans sans précédent [An unprecedented marine research program], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (January 9, 2023) Articles of interest on topics addressed in the podcast: Prédire le comportement futur du champ magnétique terrestre [Predicting the future behaviour of Earth’s magnetic field], by Pauline Gravel, published in Le Devoir (February 20, 2016) Le secret du cratère des Pingualuit [The secret of the Pingualuit crater], by Joël Leblanc, published in Québec Science (December 13, 2012) Information about the research vessels mentioned in the podcast: The Coriolis II, ISMER web page (French only) The Coriolis II, REFORMAR web page Le Coriolis II, un laboratoire flottant pour des recherches océanographiques [The Coriolis II, a floating laboratory for marine research], by Valérian Mazataud, Guillaume Levasseur, Alexis Riopel, published in Le Devoir (August 12, 2023) The Listening River , dossier written by Pascaline David, photos by Benjamin Rochette and sound from besidemedia · BESIDE in partnership with Novarium 2 The Amundsen The JOIDES Resolution, press release from the National Science Foundation of the United States: Climate can grind down mountains faster than they can rebuild Daily reports from the JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (International Ocean Discovery Program)

Welcome to 10,000 ways. This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science, and the joys of discovery. York University’s Pirathayini Srikantha studies power grid systems with the aim of keeping Canada’s infrastructure safe from fluctuations and hackers. Find out why she’s passionate about power. Our power grid is vulnerable. For one thing, it’s aging. For another, it’s prone to hackers. In the meantime, climate change means we need to find ways to integrate renewable energy sources that are intermittent with the shining sun or blowing wind. To avoid the crippling cost of replacing this infrastructure, jurisdictions must find ways to adapt. Pirathayini Srikantha, from York University’s, Lassonde School of Engineering, is an award-winning engineer who is confronting these multiple challenges.

(This podcast is available only in French) Alexandre Langlois is passionate about all aspects of his job. As a researcher in Northern Canada, he studies the fastest-warming place on the planet and presents data on the issues that await us in terms of climate change. Like a high-level athlete, Alexandre Langlois has been training since the age of nine to live in extreme cold conditions. Today, his research in physical geography provides him with a unique understanding of the evolution of the Earth, past and future and his observations on the relationship between man and nature leave him with clear insights about the impact of humans on the climate and environment.

On a cold March 2, 2004, Carla Prado arrived on the doorsteps of the University of Alberta. She left behind her native Brazil to fulfill a dream of studying abroad. Today, she is an academic leader in body composition research who passionately shares the benefits of protein-rich diets in the treatment of cancer. She uses social media and classic movies like The Wizard of Oz to help explain the science behind by her research.

(This podcast is available only in French) Simone Dalla Bella of Montréal’s International Laboratory for BRAin, Music and Sound Research asks “How can music help us in our daily tasks? And how can it slow down the deleterious effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s?” Why is it that some people who are perfectly capable of hearing a beat still can’t dance? Researchers at the International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research are trying to establish a correlation between music and cognitive skills such as speech, memory, attention span and a host of other executive functions. Their research findings could lead to major breakthroughs for people with cognitive impairments.

Leyla Soleymani is Canada’s Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices. Her passion for the miniature world of nanotech and her commitment to collaboration have led her and her colleagues at McMaster University to inventions ranging from rapid tests that use pig saliva to disease detection to a plastic wrap that repels pathogens like rain drops off a lotus leaf.

For many, RNA vaccines seem to have appeared out of nowhere. The curious and the hesitant have wondered how a vaccine to fight COVID-19 could have been brought to market so quickly. In fact, messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have been in development for over three decades. Here is the story about a persistent RNA vaccine pioneer and her socially connected admirer, University of British Columbia researcher, Anna Blakney.

This podcast is only available in French.Une chercheuse à l’Université de Montréal se concentre sur le sommeil des femmes.Julie Carrier of the Université de Montréal has devoted her academic career to the fascinating world of sleep, using equipment she received from the CFI to monitor the slumber patterns and sleep disorders of her test subjects. When she began her studies more than 20 years ago, little was known about women and sleep. Now, an aging population and the effects of menopause on sleep make Carrier’s research more relevant than ever. In celebration of International Women’s Day, Carrier has pledged to focus her research more on women and sleep. She begins this podcast by telling us why women weren’t considered ideal candidates for these kinds of studies when she first started her research.This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.

This podcast is only available in French.A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre explores ways to improve drugsStéphane Laporte, a researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, became interested in pharmacological research when he noticed just how often drugs were associated with harmful side effects. In his lab at the Centre for Translational Biology, Laporte and his team are working to understand how pharmaceutical drugs work on the body in order to find ways to minimize unwanted side effects.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

This podcast is only available in French.One of the co-founders of LensVector talks about the origins of their molecular lens.Tigran Galstian, professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics at Université Laval and co-founder of LensVector, explains the invention of a molecular lens that could, among other things, improve our cellphones.Tigran Galstian received the David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction at the Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards ceremony on October 22, 2014.

This podcast is only available in French.A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre studies the link between genetics and cardiovascular disease.In the 1980s, when Jacques Genest was starting out in the Faculty of Medicine, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death among Canadians. Dr. Genest and his team built on advances in molecular genetics to discover multiple genes that predispose people to early cardiovascular disease and tested many drugs to fight them. At the McConnell Centre for Innovative Medicine of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Genest continues to study familial hypercholesterolemia using genetic screening to identify other family members at risk of this asymptomatic disease and give them medical treatments to mitigate the danger.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Ian Clark, professor of Earth sciences at the University of Ottawa, explains how radiocarbon dating using an accelerator mass spectrometer can help resolve significant issues surrounding contaminated environments.This podcast is part of an in-depth report on the Advanced Research Complex.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Constantin Polychronakos has devoted his career to studying the genetics of juvenile diabetes and treating children afflicted with the disease. As head of the Child Health and Human Development Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, he is working towards new interventions to replace the need for painful daily insulin injections.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Chris McGibbon from the University of New Brunswick is researching robotic exoskeletons to help people with brain and spinal cord injuries regain mobility.The fundamental goal of the John R. Evans Leaders Fund is to help universities attract and retain the world’s top researchers by giving them the tools they need to push the boundaries of their work. In the podcasts below, meet three of the leaders behind the projects receiving support from the April 2016 fund.READ: Government of Canada support for science helps attract top talent

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Basil Petrof heads the Program for Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. His research group participated in a clinical trial that proved the efficacy of a new therapy that burns away the muscle tissue in the lungs of asthmatic patients to help open their airways. It’s this kind of cutting-edge discovery that Petrof expects will move more rapidly from concept to proven treatment thanks to the new facilities at the RI-MUHC.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.PhD student in Oceanography at the Université Laval, Jordan Grigor, discusses his research on the Arctic arrow worm, known as the tiger of the plankton. He also gives a glimpse into life aboard the CCGS Amundsen, Canada's only dedicated Arctic research vessel.Image credit: Cyril Aubry

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.With an aging population, the need for joint replacements is increasing. Researchers at Queen's University are working to solve this problem. Dr. John Rudan, an orthopaedic surgeon at Kingston General Hospital and a principal investigator at the Human Mobility Research Centre discusses their technique.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.​John Braun from the University of British Columbia will use his new data visualization lab to make sense of the complex data behind wildfire science.The fundamental goal of the John R. Evans Leaders Fund is to help universities attract and retain the world’s top researchers by giving them the tools they need to push the boundaries of their work. In the podcasts below, meet three of the leaders behind the projects receiving support from the April 2016 fund.READ: Government of Canada support for science helps attract top talent

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Spindly black spruce cloak the mountains and rise from the banks of the Skeena River, one of the longest free-flowing rivers in British Columbia. But Jonathan Moore is more interested in what lies below the water’s surface — thousands of sockeye salmon charging up these channels in their annual marathon to spawn. Moore, a biologist at Simon Fraser University, studies the complex life cycles of this iconic fish in the Skeena and in its big brother to the south, the Fraser River. In this podcast, he explains the ecology of salmon and why their conservation is essential. But first, he takes us below the river’s waves and into the rush of swimming with salmon.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Leslie Weir, the first female university librarian at the University of Ottawa, led a team who received $20 million from the CFI in 1997 to help 64 Canadian university libraries make the leap from print to digital. Prior to the Canadian Site Licensing Project, researchers — or their grad students, Weir says coyly — would physically track down articles in paper journals buried in the library stacks. After the project was launched in the early 2000s, Weir says researchers had access to more digital publications than they’d ever had before. That blast of on-demand information fundamentally shifted how research was done in Canada and became a model for countries around the world. In this podcast, Weir talks about her path to becoming the innovative librarian who led this project, with a story that begins on a day that tragedy shook the world.This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.The University of Victoria’s Verena Tunnicliffe recalls the open hostility she faced when she first began boarding research ships to conduct her oceanographic studies. In one instance, the cook refused to sail, saying it was either him or her. Guess who walked that plank? Tunnicliffe persevered, despite the male-dominated nautical culture, to answer fundamental questions about deep sea ecosystems off the west coast. She was one of the lead researchers who used CFI-funds to build VENUS, a system of interconnected underwater cables that beam real-time measurements from the sea floor to onshore computers. Such on-demand access has opened the field for many female researchers who would otherwise have had to choose between a career in science and raising a family. In this podcast, Tunnicliffe takes us to the deepest, darkest corners of the ocean where some of the creepiest experiments have occurred. Her story begins in the 1980s as one of the only woman on board a research ship at sea in the Pacific Ocean where she experienced a few dark moments.This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Pediatrician and epidemiologist Michael Kramer studies the long-term effects of pre-term births, including by Caesarean section or induced labour, as well as other adverse pregnancy outcomes such as still births and infant mortality. He will oversee these types of important population health studies as the director for the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.In 2001, pediatrician and epidemiologist Michael Kramer and his colleagues published the largest ever randomized trial on breastfeeding which followed 17,000 babies into their teenage years and showed links between how exclusively and for how long they were breastfed and improved cognitive development at an early school age. Kramer will oversee these types of important population health studies as the director for the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.The holiday shopping spree of the future will be nothing like the crowded, stuffy gauntlet of today, according to Brian Greenspan, director of Carleton University’s Hyperlab. Greenspan and his students research the implications of a Big Brother culture that inevitably comes about when we live in the cloud. In this podcast, Greenspan takes listeners on a tour of the mall of the future, describing how marketers mine the data we continuously generate through our mobile devices to shape the way we shop.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.In her two-pronged study, York University psychology professor Melody Wiseheart found that students’ test scores fell by 10 percent when asked to surf through Facebook, YouTube and their email while simultaneously trying to pay attention to a lecture. But it was the grades of students seated around their wired peers that caught Wiseheart by surprise. Click play to find out what happened in the second part of her experiment.This podcast is part of an in-depth report called Educating Generation Z.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Laureen McIntyre from the University of Saskatchewan aims to improve children’s literacy and speaking abilities through her new community-based research lab, where she and her team can observe and document children’s interactions with others.The fundamental goal of the John R. Evans Leaders Fund is to help universities attract and retain the world’s top researchers by giving them the tools they need to push the boundaries of their work. In the podcasts below, meet three of the leaders behind the projects receiving support from the April 2016 fund.READ: Government of Canada support for science helps attract top talent

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.This country’s extraordinary real-life research facilities provide a wondrous backdrop for Sawyer’s imagined futures, proving you don’t have to stray far from home to be inspired by leading-edge scienceAward-winning author Robert Sawyer dreamed of a career in science, but was discouraged by the state of Canadian research in the 1970s. So he decided to write science fiction instead. These days, he often sets his novels in Canada’s remarkable research labs, including the Canadian Light Source (where he was writer-in-residence) and SNOLAB (where part of his Hugo Award-winning novel Hominids is set). Speaking to a room full of researchers at a workshop for the country’s national research facilities in November 2018, he surveyed the state of Canadian science institutions from the time he was entering university in 1979 through to the world-class installations we have today. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier said the 20th century would belong to Canada; Sawyer tells us why, as far as science is concerned and thanks to the CFI, he was off by a hundred years.Music credit:Soda Machine by Kabbalistic Village | @kabbalisticvillageMusic promoted by www.free-stock-music.comAttribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0)creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/Transcript:[SAWYER] I started out to be a scientist in this country in the 1970s. I was graduating from high school in 1979, and I wanted to be a dinosaurian paleontologist.[NARRATOR] This is Robert J. Sawyer, award-winning Canadian science fiction writer. He has written more than twenty novels, and his books can be read in over two dozen languages. Here he speaks to a room of about 85 Canadian researchers at a workshop hosted by the Canada Foundation for Innovation in Ottawa in November 2018.[SAWYER] My father taught economics at the University of Toronto, and he said, “Whatever you want to do, do a little research. Find out what the job opportunities are before you invest.” Because if you’re gonna become a scientist, you’re talking ten years to get your PhD. You’re going to invest a lot of time. So I started looking around, and at that time, 1979, there were precisely three dinosaurian palaeontologists in Canada. There are only 24 full-timers in the entire world. And so what I thought was a crazy dream, which was being an internationally successful science fiction writer, based in Toronto, based in Canada, actually turned out to be more practicable as a career choice than choosing science in this country in the 1970s.[NARRATOR] After he wrote his first novel in 1988, Sawyer was still troubled about not having become a scientist. He quotes David Suzuki, who was also reflecting on the state of Canadian science at the time.[SAWYER] He had said this in ’87. So, again, just to give us some perspective here, this was 31 years ago — “I was soon to see the difference between Canada and the United States. My American peers, starting out as assistant professors like me, could expect their first grants in the 30- to 40 thousand dollar range. I was told that National Research Council of Canada grants start at about 25 hundred dollars.”So there’s no question that, at the time I was thinking of becoming a scientist, and indeed in the early days of science in this country, we were undervaluing it. We didn’t have a lot of people who were making full-time careers in science. We were underfunding our institutions. We were depreciative of the great intellectual base we were producing here in Canada.Times change though. And I've been privileged as a science fiction writer to watch those changes. In 2002, a novel of mine came out called Hominids, which is set in large part at what was then called the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, and is now — because it has widened its mandate — SNOLAB.[NARRATOR] SNOLAB is a unique underground research facility in Sudbury, Ontario. Located in a nickel mine two kilometers underground, the lab specializes in neutrino and dark matter physics. In 2015, Canadian astrophysicist, Arthur McDonald, and his research partner won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that subatomic particles known as neutrinos have mass.[SAWYER] And I remember, very vividly, calling up Art McDonald, and I said, “You know, I want to write a novel set …” And he said, “Oh man, we had a mystery writer come here. We weren’t really happy with what they did, I don’t know.” And he said, “What do you want to do?” And I said, “Well, in the first chapter, I want to destroy the neutrino detector.” And he said, “You know how you can do that?” [SAWYER AND AUDIENCE LAUGH]And I actually used his scenario. So he immediately got engaged. And I loved the fact that, when I was writing this novel, I was able to … I was looking for a facility that was world-class, and unlike when I started writing in the late 80s, by the early 2000s, I could look around and have my pick of them to write and set novels at. But I started with the Sudbury Neutrino

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly serious problem - threatening to alter modern medicine as we know it. It's an area of research that has captured Gerry Wright's attention for over two decades. As the director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University, Wright and his team have made some exciting progress in identifying where resistant genes come from and how to beat them.Transcript:This podcast is brought to you by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.Imagine cancer chemotherapy without being able to control infection. Imagine open heart surgery. Organ transplantation. Saving premature babies. All of this stuff is based on our ability to control infection and without antibiotics, all those wonderful things we've come to expect from medicine evaporate.My name is Gerry Wright, I'm the director of the Michael G. de Groote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. Antibiotic resistance has been called an apocalyptic scenario by a number of public health leaders around the world. It's taking us back to what it was like before 1940 when the major reason people died was because of infection. Now your chances of dying of infection or about three percent whereas in say 1930 it was almost sixty percent so the reason for that is antibiotics and vaccines and all the wonderful things that control infection and we're at risk of losing that.In our lab we are investigating how to overcome antibiotic resistance so that includes finding out what the enemy is an then see what we can do in terms of being able to discover new drugs or new approaches to killing resistant bacteria. Resistance is spreading like wildfire across the the planet because of modern transportation because of all of these interventions that we're doing in hospitals and as a result we have a really significant problem.One of the biggest issues that we face is that we're not considering in terms of evolution. We think it's sort of a stochastic event but this is entirely predictable process and it's been going on for millennia. So we really need to rethink how we look at a microbes and think about them in terms of their evolutionary history. And then we'll start to be able to rationalize why antibiotic resistance is such a significant problem and maybe even get ahead of it instead of trying to react to it.We're very interested in thinking about antibiotic resistance on a global level and not just in pathogenic bacteria, disease causing bacteria but rather where do these resistance genes come from in the first place and what we found for example is that environmental bacteria that don't cause disease are actually large reservoirs of resistance genes. Probably the origins of antibiotic resistance and so these genes move throughout bacterial populations horizontally so from one organism to another they share DNA so bacteria are notoriously promiscuous having sex with each other all the time and as a result they share these these genes and we're trying to understand these mechanisms in order to use that against these organisms to solve this problem.We reported in, "Nature" a molecule that blocks one of the most important antibiotic resistance elements out there right now and that rescues antibiotic activity. That was a big day in the lab when we were actually able to give a mouse an infection with a lethal dose of of drug resistant organisms, add the antibiotic and add this compound and when this compound, this inhibitor of resistance is added the mice live so that was the big eureka sort of moment that we were really onto something hot...And so we're actually in the early stages of sort of a real drug discovery process where we're doing things that I never thought we would be able to do because we have this really this really hot molecule. So that's incredibly exciting and time will tell whether or not will actually be a drug that we can use for people but it's the closest I've come in the last twenty five years of dreaming about something like this. It's a pretty exciting feeling to go back and look at where we started and where we are now. It really shows that you can stay in Canada and get things done.This podcast is brought to you by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.If you're a researcher looking for funding opportunities click here.If you're a business looking for research facilities that can help you succeed click here.

Disponible aussi en français: https://blubrry.com/fci_cfi/41971985/annie-castonguay-de-meilleures-molcules-pour-une-meilleure-mdecine/Annie Castonguay, a researcher at Quebec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique, works to mobilize metals to destroy cancer cells and drug-resistant bacteria when traditional antibiotics and cancer treatments fall short.Cancer treatments like chemotherapy aren’t perfect. The drugs meant to kill cancerous cells aren’t choosy, so they take out healthy cells too, which can mean serious side-effects for the patient. And if cancer cells develop a resistance, the therapies might not result in a complete remission. Engineering new molecules that incorporate the power of metals to destroy diseased cells could not only lead to more effective cancer treatments, but also better defences against another serious health threat — multidrug resistant bacteria.Return to the collection 00:00:05 - 00:05:02This podcast is brought to you by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.My name is Annie Castonguay and I'm an Assistant Professor of chemistry at INRS institute Armand Frappier. Metals are at the heart of Dr. Annie Castoguay's research. Her programme involves both fundamental and applied research. She is interested in the design of new organic metallic complexes for their use as catalysts and as therapeutics such as anti cancer and antimicrobial agents. She and her collaborators at the INRS Institute Armand Frappier are engineering new molecules to overcome some of the problems with current cancer therapies.Unfortunately metal complexes often have a bad reputation as therapeutic agents. Very often people mistakenly believed that they are too toxic to be used in medicine. What they do not know though is that metal complexes are widely used in clinics every day. It is reported that approximately fifty percent of all cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy are at some point treated with a metal complex. So for example a compound known as cisplatin which contains a platinum metal atom which is widely used in the world for cancer therapy. The compound is injected to the patient intravenously undergo some transformations and reaches its main target believed to be DNA so then the cancer cells die and the patient survives. Unfortunately there are many problems associated with chemotherapy. As we know firstly therapeutic agents become less and less effective due to the development of cancer cell resistance. Cancer cells learn how to recognize the drug and adapt to survive in its presence so moreover theraputic agents are not only toxic to cancer cells but are toxic to healthy tissues as well leading to numerous side effects. I wish i could say that researchers have now solved all these problems. But unfortunately this is not the case. The part of my research program which aims at developing novel anti-cancer drug candidates attempts to address those two problems. So my team develops compounds based on routeenium. Some routeenium complexes are known to linked to DNA but also to act through other modes of action so previously reported routeenium complexes were found to be very promising as drug candidates and some of them even in third clinical trials during the last few years. For example, an ongoing research project in my lab involves the preparation of multitasking metal complexes which consistent in the synthesis of compounds based on routeenium to which are coordinated molecules that can themselves display an anti-cancer activity. So the creation of metallic compounds able to act through different mechanisms simultaneously could lead to the development of new efficient treatments that induce less cancer cell resistance.Another ongoing project in my research group is the design of metal complexes that can display a higher selectivity towards cancer cells so to reached his goal we create thermal sensitive linkages between metal complexes and targeting molecules which can be disassembled at higher temperatures so those targeting agents with the special affinity with cell receptors or orginels of certain cancer cells are carefully chosen so that they can act as shuttles and helped the metal complexes to reach cancer cells or tumors more efficiently before being released either slowly at body temperature, thirty seven degrees or more rapidly with the use of a laser. So we hope this strategy to be beneficial for cancer patients by reducing the occurrence of side effects during their treatment.Dr. Thomas Sanderson is a professor of toxicology and he works with Dr. Castonguay at the Institute Armand Frappier. They hope the complex's they're testing will also work at starving ER positive breast cancer cells of the estrogen that they need to grow.And the other action of the same molecule would be to enter the micro environments of the tumor and enter the cells around the tumor that are actually producing the estrogens that feed the tumour and the enzyme involved there is called aromatase and the or

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.University of Calgary post-doctoral student Chukwunonso Nzelu studies the deadly tropical disease Leishmaniasis.Leishmaniasis is a devastating disease that kills tens-of-thousands of people every year. By studying the sandflies that transmit it, the University of Calgary’s Chukwunonso Nzelu is helping to zero in on a vaccineRaising sandflies is tricky, but with the help of Chukwunonso Nzelu’s expertise, researchers have grown a large, thriving colony of the insects at the University of Calgary’s high-level containment insectarium. It’s a critical resource for studying how the flies transmit Leishmaniasis to humans, with the goal of producing a vaccine against the disease which kills 30 000 people a year. What they learn could also inform the prevention of other insect-borne diseases like Lyme disease and malaria.Return to the collection

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Carrie Bourassa explains what Indigenous research methodology means, and why it mattersWhen non-Indigenous scientists wish to conduct research in Indigenous communities, cultural misunderstandings can arise over issues including the methods of research; ownership of data; and interpretation of results. In this podcast, Carrie Bourassa – Research Chair in Indigenous and Northern Health and Senior Scientist at Health Sciences North Research Institute in Sudbury, Ontario – introduces listeners to the complexities of conducting research in First Nations communities and the philosophy of Indigenous research methodology.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.PhD student Sheena Gurm looks deep into brain cells for clues to a deadly diseaseWhen viruses infected our ancestors millions of years ago, they left behind strands of their DNA embedded in human brain cells. At the University of Manitoba, Sheena Gurm studies these viral sequences, as part of a research team seeking to understand the causes of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her research may lead to new treatments, such as the use of antiretroviral drugs, to combat this debilitating and ultimately deadly affliction.With thanks to CKUW 95.9 FM Winnipeg for their assistance in producing this podcast.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Sub-atomic research portends a second digital revolution that could solve some of our most vexing problemsBuilding on the theories of Einstein and his contemporaries, today’s quantum physicists investigate the unique properties of sub-atomic particles, aiming to deepen our knowledge of the universe, and to usher in a new technological revolution. With applications in fields including computer science, pharmacology, clean energy, and many more, quantum science holds tremendous potential for innovative disruption. Learn more about emerging quantum technologies in this podcast featuring Dr. Shohini Ghose (Professor of Physics, Wilfrid Laurier University; VP elect, Canadian Association of Physicists ); Dr. Andrea Damascelli (Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia; Canada Research Chair in the Electronic Structure of Quantum Materials); Dr. Kimberley Hall (Professor and Canada Research Chair in Ultrafast Science, Dalhousie University); and Dr. Michel Pioro-Ladrière (Professor of Physics and Deputy Director of Institut Quantique, Université de Sherbrooke).

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Twenty years ago, University of Waterloo Optometry and Vision Science Professor Trefford Simpson began researching the nerves on the surface of the human eye, using a specialized machine called the pneumatic esthesiometer. In this podcast, he shares the insights gained over two decades of research, and discusses the elusive goal of modern lens-makers: to create a comfortable contact lens.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Michael Houghton’s discovery of the Hepatitis C virus in 1989 — along with colleagues Qui-Lim Choo and George Kuo — led to blood screening tests that have protected tens of millions of people from contracting the disease. In this podcast, Houghton — Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology at the University of Alberta — discusses the scope of Hep C infection worldwide, describes his discovery of the virus and explains his current search for a vaccine that will help the World Health Organization reach its goal of eradicating Hep C by 2030.

Disponible aussi en français: https://blubrry.com/fci_cfi/27727460/catherine-girard-attnuer-limpact-du-mercure-dans-la-nourriture/At the Université de Montréal, Catherine Girard analyzes gut bacteria to understand the impacts of mercury in the human body. She is particularly interested in how mercury interacts with traditional foods in the North and the health impacts it has on those living there. Her PhD project has taken her to Resolute Bay, a remote hamlet in Nunavut, where she collects samples from the local Inuit population. In Montreal, she works in two CFI-funded biology labs and uses a gut simulator to conduct her experiments.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.In the 2017 Federal Budget, the word “innovation” appeared 262 times. Innovation's future as a buzzword is secure but in this episode, CFI President & CEO Gilles Patry and Board Chair Kevin Smith look at what innovation in Canada looks like today. They also comment on what needs to be done to ensure Canadian research continues to thrive.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.To help reverse the brain drain that plagued Canada's research community in the 1990s, the newly established Canada Foundation for Innovation started outfitting Canadian universities with the state-of-the-art research infrastructure they sorely needed. But it would take more than funding a couple of new microscopes here and there — the CFI would need to turn the current system on its head to get the job done.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.The new Canada Foundation for Innovation begins to assemble a talented team that charts an exciting course for the organization, but must also address opposition from Quebec. Researchers try to adjust to a new “mind blowing” way of doing research. And…the Queen is not amused by the CFI’s early success.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.The Liberal government suddenly finds itself facing a budget surplus for the first time in decades. Researchers, university presidents, government officials in the department of Finance and the PMO work on a plan to support research through an independent foundation that will invest in the cutting-edge labs and equipment researchers need.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.The Liberal government cuts spending across government so deeply, even Finance Minister Paul Martin faces a crisis of confidence. At the same time, university presidents try to convince Minister Martin that research in Canada is in serious trouble…and they offer an intriguing solution.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.When the Wall Street Journal calls Canada the “Banana Republic of the North”, Jean Chrétien and his new Liberal government prepare to take dramatic action to control the deficit. This threatens to make a difficult situation even worse for Canadian researchers.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.In this excerpt, former Deputy Minister of Finance Scott Clarke describes former Prime Minister Jean Chretien's reaction to a Wall Street Journal article in the late 1990s that called Canada the "Banana Republic of the North."This is a promo clip for the upcoming release of "Our origin story", a new four-part podcast series that traces the Canada Foundation for Innovation's unlikely origin story.