Canada Foundation for Innovation

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.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.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.Two decades ago Canada’s federal government was struggling to contain a deficit that, in the words of one top finance official, was pulling the country towards "fiscal Armageddon." And yet, this was the moment when the government decided to make historic investments in research infrastructure. The creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation was a game-changer for research in Canada. But how did it come to be? This podcast series tells this story through extensive interviews with key players in the federal government and the research community. It is an insider’s look at how Canada jumped to the front of the line in research capacity.