K. W. Michael Siu Archives | Research & Innovation

New partnership embeds 91��ɫ researchers at Southlake Hospital

fmaquito — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A new research initiative involving a partnership between 91��ɫ and in Newmarket will see feature leading scientists from the University serving as embedded researchers at the hospital.

91��ɫ Professors Chris Ardern, , Paul Ritvo and Lauren Sergio will work on site for one to two days a week with hospital clinicians to foster research collaborations and knowledge exchange, and engage in joint knowledge mobilization efforts.

The partnership will realize important benefits to the research communities at both institutions and for the general public, says 91��ɫ Professor (right), associate vice-president research, science & technology, who led the effort to develop the partnership with Southlake Regional Health Centre.

"The embedded 91��ɫ researchers are senior scientists who will explore and cultivate research collaborations between 91��ɫ and Southlake researchers and clinicians," says Siu. "They will act as 'matchmakers' and brokers and will bring 91��ɫ's research expertise and knowledge to Southlake to facilitate collaboration.

"The partnership will broaden the research capacity for both 91��ɫ researchers and the Southlake clinicians," says Siu. "91��ɫ does not have a Faculty of Medicine or a teaching hospital. As a result,��University researchers do not have the patient access they would like to have. By working with Southlake,��the University is enhancing a collaboration that would benefit both parties."

The embedded University scientists bring to Southlake Regional Health Centre their recognized expertise in biomedical and health research. Southlake is the only community-based hospital in Ontario to offer six regional tertiary programs, including child and adolescent mental health, maternal and child,��cardiac and cancer care.

"We anticipate this to be an outstanding opportunity for both Southlake and 91��ɫ," says , director of research at Southlake.

"Serving some 1.5 million people through our regional programs and providing tertiary level care in many areas, the depth and breadth of programs and services, and the unexplored opportunities for reasearch collaboration between Southlake and 91��ɫ are endless," says Clifford.

"Southlake is interested in strengthening its research in terms of breadth and depth and in fact, Southlake is developing a research institute with a plan to become a teaching hospital with an official affiliation with a Canadian university," says Siu.

91��ɫ is a preferred candidate for this kind of partnership with Southlake, says Siu,��because the two institutions have shared goals and visions, and a willingness to work together.

The partnership offers exceptional training and educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students working in the research teams, says Siu.

In addition, the opportunity presented by the collaboration between the two institutions is consistent with the goal of integrating teaching and research with the world outside the University that was articulated in 91��ɫ's recent .

More about the 91��ɫ-Southlake embedded researchers

Chris Ardern (left) is a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health. His current research interests include the epidemiology of physical activity, obesity and cardiometabolic risk. His most recent work has focused on the use of risk algorithms, behavioural profiling and trajectory modelling approaches to identify high-risk subgroups for the development of the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease mortality. Arden is currently investigating the role of geospatial analysis to improve the surveillance of cardiovascular disease in 91��ɫ Region, and is a co-investigator on the Pre-diabetes Detection & Physical Activity Intervention and Delivery (PRE-PAID) program, a six-month trial of culturally-preferred physical activity. Ardern will be embedded in Southlake's chronic disease portfolio.

In her research, (right) works on a family of proteins known as nucleoside transporters. These transporters play significant roles in a number of clinical settings because they transport drugs used in cancer and are targets of drugs used in some cardiac care settings. Despite their clinical relevance, Coe, who is a professor of biology in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Science & Engineering, says researchers know very little about how these transporters work and how they differ in terms of their distribution, activity and regulation in individual patients. Using a molecular diagnostics approach, Coe and her team will work with Southlake clinicians from both the cardiac care and oncology portfolios to investigate the transporter profiles in individual patients and correlate these profiles with drug treatments and outcomes. The ultimate goal of this work is to contribute to the efforts to develop more personalized approaches to the treatment of disease.

Paul Ritvo (left) is a behavioural scientist who will serve as the research adviser, physical and mental health liaison and special projects scientist. A professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, Ritvo’s research interests focus on electronic health interventions that employ cell phones, smartphones and online programs to change health behaviours in diabetics, HIV-positive individuals and individuals with mental health difficulties. Ritvo will work with Southlake clinicians to extend current intervention studies that use Blackberry smartphones and innovative software applications to help patients reduce health risks by way of healthy exercise, diet and improved medication adherence.

Lauren Sergio (right) is a neuroscientist working in 91��ɫ's Sherman Health Science Research Centre. Her current research projects examine the effects of age, sex, neurological disease and past head injuries (of athletes versus non-athletes) on the brain's control of complex movement. In her role with Southlake Regional Health Centre, Sergio will be an embedded researcher in the chronic disease, emergency medicine and surgical portfolios. She works with a wide range of adult populations, including professional hockey players and Alzheimer's disease patients. Her findings have implications for neurological disease diagnosis and rehabilitation and for understanding the fundamental brain mechanisms for movement control. She is using cognitive-motor integration research to test if new instrumentation developed in her laboratory can differentiate between types of dementia. She is also researching the long-term effects of concussion in young athletes. Sergio is a member of the .

The embedded researcher program at Southlake Regional Health Centre is an example of the collaboration between the Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ and is part of an ongoing commitment by the Faculties' deans to work together.

For more information on 91��ɫ's partnerships with regional hospitals, see YFile,��April 17, 2009 and April 21, 2009.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ researcher part of international team developing instrument to map asteroid

fmaquito — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The Canadian Space Agency invests in concept studies for future space mission to Venus, the Moon or an Asteroid

The Canadian Space Agency has awarded two contracts to Richmond, BC-based and a contract to the University of Calgary to develop three different concept studies for Canada’s participation in NASA’s Program − the next space venture to another celestial body in our solar system.

Under these contracts, worth $500,000 each, MDA and the University of Calgary will work with international science research teams to develop preliminary designs for the three proposed missions, one of which will be selected by NASA for launch on a planetary space mission between 2016 and 2018. The final decision will be made in 2011.

Michael Daly, a professor in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, is the deputy science team lead on the University of Calgary’s project. He will oversee the Canadian instrument development for the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), which would collect samples from a primitive asteroid and return them to Earth. The samples would help scientists better understand the formation of our solar system and the origin of complex molecules necessary for life.

Left: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead stars. This artist's concept illustrates one such dead star, or white dwarf, surrounded by the bits and pieces of a disintegrating asteroid. Image: NASA/JPL Caltech.

The OSIRIS-REx proposal includes a lidar instrument, based in part on the Canadian-built laser used on NASA's Phoenix-Mars lander. Daly will collaborate with colleagues at the Universities of Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and British Columbia to develop a lidar capable of mapping asteroids and moons. Michael Drake at the University of Arizona in Tucson is the principal investigator for the overall project.

“This project builds upon 91��ɫ’s long history of successful collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and our expertise in developing instrumentation for space research,” said Michael Siu, associate vice-president research, science & technology. “We have every confidence that Professor Daly and the rest of the OSIRIS-REx team will make significant strides.”

Daly, a former staff member at MDA, was the chief engineer for the Phoenix Meteorological Station project. He joined 91��ɫ’s faculty in January 2010.

“The selection process for missions like is highly competitive,” said Canadian Space Agency president Steve MacLean. “It is a testament to Canadian talent that our industry and academic community are part of all three candidates for the mission. No matter which proposal wins, it is significant that Canada is in a position to play a highly visible and vital role in the final mission.”

The Canadian Space Agency has also published a .

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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Biomarkers hold promise of a blood test for endometrial cancer

fmaquito — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Researchers at 91��ɫ’s Centre for Research in Mass Spectrometry (CRMS), Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network have identified protein biomarkers that may aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of endometrial cancer, which affects the lining of the uterus. The researchers hope that a partnership with the private sector will expedite clinical testing and eventually move their discovery from the research bench to patients’ bedsides.

Endometrial cancer is the most common form of cancer in the female reproductive tract. In 2009, 4,400 Canadian women were diagnosed with endometrial cancer, making it the fourth-most-common cancer among Canadian women after breast, lung and colorectal cancers.

Although 85 per cent of diagnosed women show a five-year survival rate from endometrial cancer, and the overall survival rate is 79 per cent, those numbers have remained static for the last 20 years. Currently, endometrial cancer is often detected when unusual uterine blood discharges prompt a diagnostic investigation. These discharges can sometimes be the first signal that cancer is present, yet they may appear after the cancer has already progressed to a more advanced stage. Hysterectomies, with or without lymph node dissections, are currently the primary treatment; patients may also receive adjuvant therapy (radiation or chemotherapy), depending on the disease’s type, stage and grade.

Enter protein biomarkers – biological substances associated with a particular disease that can ideally be detected in the blood to aid the disease’s diagnosis and/or prognosis.

“We have identified several proteins that are present in much higher concentrations in endometrial cancer cells compared to normal cells,” says Professor Michael Siu (right), director of the , 91��ɫ’s associate vice-president research, science & technology, and professor in the Department of Chemistry in the Faculty of Science & Engineering. “These differences in protein expression have been verified in the lab on a couple of hundred patient samples; early results for testing in blood are very encouraging. By working with the private sector, we hope to be able to expedite clinical testing of the panel of biomarkers and develop a diagnostic kit for endometrial cancer.”

Siu’s research team includes Dr. Terry Colgan, head of gynecological pathology and cytopathology at , and Alex Romaschin, formerly with the and now a scientist with the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital.

Over the last five years, the team has published eight papers on endometrial cancer biomarkers in prestigious international journals and a number of additional articles are in various editorial and reviewing stages. Siu’s team has attracted over $1.3 million in external research funding for this endometrial cancer research, as well as an additional $1.8 million in funding for biomarkers of other cancers.

Siracor, a private-sector company founded by biotechnology entrepreneur Joel Cheng, has licensed the intellectual properties of the endometrial cancer biomarkers. Siracor is 100 per cent Canadian-owned, but has a global view and reach. “Endometrial cancer affects women all over the world,” says Cheng. “By developing kits that will expedite the detection of the disease and at an earlier stage, Siracor hopes to be a part of the scientific solution that will lessen this cancer’s impact worldwide.”

91��ɫ’s technology transfer service leads the patenting and licensing of the endometrial cancer biomarkers in collaboration with its counterparts at Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network. It’s part of ongoing efforts to make sure research is not kept on the shelf.

“Technology transfer is a specialized service 91��ɫ offers to all researchers whose findings have commercial potential,” says Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation. “Strong basic research discoveries can lead to important applications, as we hope will be the case in this instance by improving endometrial cancer detection and treatment options. Through careful collaboration with industry, 91��ɫ is using initiatives such as this to maximize the benefit of our research findings to patients and their families.”

By David Phipps, director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange, and Elizabeth Monier-Williams, Research Communications Officer

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Particle physics team looks forward to working with TRIUMF

fmaquito — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ particle physicist Sampa Bhadra (below right) has already figured out how she intends to spend her next sabbatical leave when it comes in 2013 – she's hoping to visit British Columbia so she can spend some quality time at a subatomic research facility that’s larger than two city blocks and houses the biggest cyclotron in the world. It will be the ultimate busman’s holiday as she takes part in research into the tiniest secrets of the universe along with scientific colleagues at TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics.

While there, Bhadra, a professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, will also visit with 91��ɫ alumnus Nigel Lockyer (BSc Spec. Hons. ’75), director of TRIUMF, in which 91��ɫ became a partner July 1 (see YFile, July 2). The two met 22 years ago at another subatomic research facility, Fermilab, near Chicago, and established a networking connection that made 91��ɫ’s eventual partnership in TRIUMF possible.

When Lockyer became director in 2007 (see YFile, March 20, 2007), he accepted an invitation from then president Lorna Marsden to visit 91��ɫ's Keele campus and meet the University’s growing team of particle physicists. When he arrived, Lockyer was in the early stages of a campaign to promote membership in TRIUMF to Canadian universities. He quickly recruited Bhadra to champion the idea at 91��ɫ, along with Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ’s vice-president research & innovation, and Michael Siu, associate vice-president research, science & technology, and she is now 91��ɫ’s representative on TRIUMF’s Policy & Planning Advisory Committee. 91��ɫ became an associate member of the consortium in September 2008 (see YFile, Sept. 16, 2008).


Taylor	Menary

The Faculty of Science & Engineering has seven researchers, members of 91��ɫ’s group, who will benefit from the association with TRIUMF, says Bhadra. She and fellow experimentalists Scott Menary and Wendy Taylor are the 91��ɫ principal investigators for several projects around the world and the Canadian leaders of these experiments reside at TRIUMF.

91��ɫ theorists Roman Koniuk, Randy Lewis and Kim Maltman have also collaborated closely with TRIUMF physicists, either as staff and/or on sabbatical. The newest member of 91��ɫ’s particle physics group is theorist Veronica Sanz-Gonzalez, who joined 91��ɫ this year from Boston University.


Koniuk	Lewis	Maltman	Sanz-Gonzalez

“Our connection to TRIUMF is long overdue,” says Bhadra. “It’s a great meeting place for scientific discussions; it’s a concentration of experts. The synergy is fantastic right now.”

The benefits of 91��ɫ’s membership will soon be felt at the Keele campus when Lia Merminga, director of TRIUMF’s accelerator division, makes a visit to 91��ɫ in November. “91��ɫ and TRIUMF will be exploring joint intitiatives that will have long-reaching benefits for both institutions,” says Bhadra.

TRIUMF “is a value statement by Canada about the long-term importance of strategic investments in science, technology and innovation,” said Lockyer in a director’s message. “TRIUMF’s accomplishments in basic research (particle and nuclear physics, molecular and materials science, nuclear medicine and information technology), international partnerships and commercial successes with Canadian companies are the proof behind this statement.”

Right: Nigel Lockyer

TRIUMF’s Isotope Separator and Accelerator Complex is recognized as the world’s most advanced laboratory for the production of exotic or “medical” isotopes. While not using the accelerator complex itself, Bhadra and her colleagues have access to the excellent resources provided by TRIUMF in terms of expertise in electronics, computing and engineering support.

TRIUMF's accelerator division has long been recognized as one of the world's best and has contributed hardware and expertise to CERN, the international consortium based in Switzerland that is home to the world's largest particle accelerator.

For more information about TRIUMF, visit its Web site.

Republished with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ scientist elected to the Royal Society of Canada

fmaquito — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ Professor K.W. Michael Siu has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest honour a Canadian scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences.

This year’s new Fellows will be inducted at a ceremony to be held Nov. 28 in Gatineau, Que.

A specialist in mass spectrometry whose work is highly regarded by researchers around the world, Siu is also known for service to his field in a number of professional organizations, including president of the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry and chair of the Canadian National Proteomics Network Board of Directors.

Right: Professor K.W. Michael Siu

"We are tremendously proud that Professor Michael Siu is elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society," said Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ vice-president research & innovation. "Michael Siu is a pioneering scientist who has made significant contributions to advance research in chemistry, and especially in mass spectrometry, and has made great strides in establishing collaborations and partnerships regionally and internationally."

The citation for his election as a Fellow to the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences reads:

“Professor K.W. Michael Siu is one of Canada's foremost bioanalytical and biophysical chemists and an exceptional mass spectrometrist with an outstanding record of innovation and accomplishment. He has made most-significant contributions to understanding the structures, energetics, and ionization and gas-phase chemistries of protonated and metalated peptides as well as peptide radical ions, developing new mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation in collaboration with Canadian industry, and developing innovative MS technologies and methodologies for proteomics, especially in the discovery, identification, verification and quantification of protein biomarkers for better diagnostics and prognostics of cancers.”

Siu is a Distinguished Research Professor (see YFile May 8, 2007) who did his PhD at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University and arrived at 91��ɫ in 1998 after a successful career at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) where he first developed some of the pioneering techniques that he uses to help other scientists in their investigations as well as his own. He is director of 91��ɫ's , holds an Industrial Research Chair funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council and MDS Analytical Technologies (formerly Sciex), and is developing new instrumentation and methodologies in mass spectrometry in collaboration with the industrial partner.

He is also collaborating with researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital, St. Michael’s Hospital, University Health Network and the Hospital for Sick Children on discovering and verifying protein biomarkers for endometrial, head and neck, brain, and renal cancers. Siu also has extensive collaboration within and outside of 91��ɫ on proteomics and fundamental chemistry relevant to mass spectrometry.

Since 2005, Siu has also been 91��ɫ's associate vice-president research, science & technology.

He is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including a New Pioneers Award (see YFile, Jan. 22, 2007), the Maxxam Award for distinguished contribution in the field of analytical chemistry (see YFile Aug. 2, 2006), the 2005 Lossing Award (see YFile Jan. 20, 2006) and the Gerhard Herzberg Award from the Canadian Society for Analytical Sciences and Spectroscopy (see YFile, Sept. 13, 2004).

In an article first published in 91��ɫU ��Ա�’s 2007 Special Research Edition, Siu said he was “in the right place at the right time” to ride the technological revolution in biomolecular analysis: electrospray ionization – a Nobel Prize-winning discovery that made it possible to analyze and measure proteins with hitherto unheard of sensitivity and accuracy. “The concept of moving proteins from the solution to the gas phase in order to weigh them accurately was completely revolutionary. This was entirely virgin territory,” Siu explained. He and his colleagues at NRC quickly modified an existing mass spectrometer and began exploring the new technology’s capabilities. As the technique opened up new possibilities, Siu’s work earned him recognition as an innovator and much sought-after collaborator.

Published in 91��ɫ's e-newsletter YFile.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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