Seminar

Profs Presents - Understanding the Individual Healthcare Seeking Journey: Insights for Healthcare Providers

Chandler Berardi — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 17:14:58 +0000

Profs Presents - Understanding the Individual Healthcare Seeking Journey: Insights for Healthcare Providers Chandler Berardi Mon, 06/03/2024 - 13:14

Abstract

Patients worldwide confront a myriad of obstacles when accessing healthcare, spanning from financial constraints and insufficient infrastructure to social stigma. Additionally, they must navigate through personal preferences, societal pressures, and cultural beliefs, further complicating their healthcare-seeking journey. In this talk, the speaker will share insights garnered from research conducted in TB-high burden countries, shedding light on the individual healthcare seeking journey and its implications for healthcare providers across diverse settings. Through a nuanced examination of healthcare seeking behaviors, she will elucidate the universal challenges and opportunities inherent in patient care. Spanning from resource-rich to resource-constrained environments, this talk will delve into the hurdles faced by individuals and opportunities for impactful support.

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Speaker: Charity Oga-Omenka

Dr. Charity Oga-Omenka is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences. Her research interests focus on global public health, healthcare access and services research - particularly related to infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV and COVID-19, social determinants of health and the intersections between health inequities - using mixed methods research. She is invested in research that focuses on transformative conceptual frameworks and methods to address the inequalities and underutilization of evidence-based approaches in global public health - particularly in resource-limited settings or with marginalized groups, one that will reflect on socioeconomic diversity in population health. Dr Oga-Omenka has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria, and has graduate degrees in Public (Global) Health from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and the University of Montreal, Canada.

Profs Presents - Beyond Limitations: How Inclusive Technologies Can Break Down Barriers in Disability and Mental Health

Chandler Berardi — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 13:04:33 +0000

Profs Presents - Beyond Limitations: How Inclusive Technologies Can Break Down Barriers in Disability and Mental Health Chandler Berardi Tue, 04/02/2024 - 09:04

Abstract

Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of ability, can lose themselves in the joy of playing a videogame, or the thrill of playing music, or even the satisfaction of being able to water your plants or grow your first tomato? Accessible technology can make this world a reality. Dr. Karen Cochrane is looking at how we can better design assistive technologies that can help support everyone to participate and enjoy their hobbies no matter their cognitive or physical ability. In this talk she will discuss some of her previous work and ongoing projects in her lab the Embodied Computing Lab where she is working on projects in both the area of accessible technology and designing technology to support mental health.

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Speaker: Assistant Professor Karen Cochrane, PhD

Dr. Karen Cochrane is an assistant professor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Dr. Cochrane holds a PhD specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Design from the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. With an interest in designing technology to support people’s overall health and well-being including designing accessible technology for people with disabilities and designing technology to support positive coping strategies for your mental health. Her other research areas include making the research and design process more inclusive by augmenting design methodologies to support researchers with disabilities and looking into how we can incorporate storytelling and futurism of minority communities into design research.

Profs Present - The social neuroscience of eating: Why it matters for you and your patients

Chandler Berardi — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:00:01 +0000

Profs Present - The social neuroscience of eating: Why it matters for you and your patients Chandler Berardi Wed, 02/28/2024 - 15:00

Abstract

Eating is part of everyday life and takes on special significance for all of us at one point or another. Nearly all cultural activities take place in the presence of foods, many with an emphasis on accentuated flavour, color, and texture. Celebration of life through food is common around the world, and this is a hint as to the special significance of food in our lives. But what makes food desirable, and worthy of expressing joy and celebration? Does any of this matter for patients in healthcare settings? In this talk I will explore the special significance of food in cultures around the world, and the role that the brain plays in rendering food worthy of special significance. This will be a different take on food and eating than would be prescribed by a conventional focus on health promotion; however, the key to addressing the need for flavour and the relationship between flavour and other sensory dimensions of foods will be explored as critical to promoting healthy diets. Brain networks involved in restraint, indulgence and decision making will be given special consideration, and we will review some findings from the neuroimaging and brain stimulation literature. Importantly, our coverage of the topic of eating will be framed by the evolutionarily ancient roots of the drive toward calorie maximization present in nearly all heterotrophic organisms, including herbivores and carnivores, but especially omnivores (e.g., humans). We will conclude with a discussion of why understanding these dynamics are critical to consider when tailoring menu options and dietary prescriptions for patients, and why we should consider the relationship between brain health and eating as being a reciprocal one.

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Speaker: Professor Peter Hall, PhD

Dr. Peter Hall is a full professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ and member of the Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering. He studies translational neuroscience with an emphasis on the social neurobiology of eating, next-generation cognitive assessment technologies, and brain health impacts of SARS-CoV-2. He is a clinical psychologist by training and continues to be interested in the intersection between research and clinical practice in medical settings. HIs research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). He is author of the forthcoming book, "Social Neuroscience of Disease Prevention" by Academic Press.

Profs Present - Microrobots with potential applications in medicine

Chandler Berardi — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 15:53:28 +0000

Profs Present - Microrobots with potential applications in medicine Chandler Berardi Fri, 02/02/2024 - 10:53

Abstract

This talk will introduce micro-and nanorobots and their potential to revolutionize medicine. One of the main goals of microrobots is to make medical interventions more targeted and less invasive. Nano-and microrobots show great potential for active and remote-controlled motion inside the human body. Possible future applications include active, targeted delivery of therapeutics to diseased sites (e.g. tumours), cell delivery for regenerative therapy and non-invasive surgery. The removal of obstructions inside the body such as blood clots, renal stones or other blockages in a minimal invasive manner is another main subject of our research. This talk will give an overview of the very interdisciplinary research that combines expertise from robotics, medicine, engineering, chemistry and biology.

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Speaker: Assistant Professor Veronika Magdanz, PhD

Assistant Professor Dr. Veronika Magdanz is developing wireless small scale magnetic robots for biomedical applications. One of the challenges for remotely controlled microrobots is finding efficient power sources on the microscale. Veronika Magdanz uses different approaches spanning from biohybrid to magnetic actuation to power these tiny machines.

Magdanz studied Biotechnology at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, and conducted her PhD studies at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research IFW Dresden. During her PhD, she pioneered the development of a novel type of microrobots driven by motile sperm cells. To do so, she used rolled-up nanotechnology to fabricate ferromagnetic nanomembranes that are able to capture single sperm cells and allow the capture, remote magnetic control and release of single motile sperm cells.

From 2017-2020, she was Open Topic Postdoc at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, investigating sperm migration and sperm-particle interactions for the development of diagnostic tools for reproductive biology.

In 2020, Veronika Magdanz was awarded a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which allowed her to join the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. From 2020-2022, she developed flexible magnetic microrobots for cell delivery and 3D printing of muscle tissue. In 2021, she received a Junior leader Fellowship from the La Caixa Foundation.

The expertise of Dr. Magdanz is highly interdisciplinary and ranges from microfabrication to cell biology, material science and magnetic actuation. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles, many of them in high impact journals.

Veronika Magdanz is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, supporting the Biomedical Engineering program as a core member.

Profs Present - DNA aptamers: disease diagnosis and targeted drug delivery

Carly Turnbull — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:12:56 +0000

Profs Present - DNA aptamers: disease diagnosis and targeted drug delivery Carly Turnbull Wed, 03/29/2023 - 10:12

Abstract

DNA aptamers are single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides that can selectively bind to target molecules. They can be used for the detection of various metabolites and proteins as disease biomarkers. Our lab recently discovered new aptamers that can bind to caffeine, uric acid and lactate, and converted them to highly sensitive and selective fluorescent biosensors. In addition, we have isolated aptamers that can bind to exosomes, which could be used for the isolation and detection of exosomes as important disease biomarkers. Finally, we have isolated aptamers that can bind to pig cornea and established an aptamer-enhanced ocular drug delivery method to treat dry eye diseases.

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Speaker: Professor Juewen Liu, PhD

Dr. Juewen Liu is a professor of chemistry at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ and a University Research Chair. He is interested in developing DNA and aptamer-based biosensors for detecting heavy metal ions, small molecules and proteins. He received a Fred Beamish Award (2014) and a McBryde Medal (2018) from the Canadian Society for Chemistry for his contribution in bioanalytical chemistry. He is a College member of the Royal Society of Canada. He serves as a Section Editor for Biosensors & Bioelectronics, a Contributing Editor for TrAC, and is on the editorial advisory board of Langmuir. He has published over 300 papers, receiving over 37,000 citations with an H-index of 92. He is in the list of 2022 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers.

Profs Present: Wearable sensors to inform mobility and health: Novel applications and advances in methodology

Carly Turnbull — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:33:08 +0000

Profs Present: Wearable sensors to inform mobility and health: Novel applications and advances in methodology Carly Turnbull Fri, 03/17/2023 - 13:33

Abstract

Health and mobility are two tightly coupled constructs for people’s independence and quality of life. Recent research has shown that wearable sensors, worn continuously for several days, provide an avenue to collect health and mobility-related metrics as they occur in our daily lives. This presentation will demonstrate the utility of research-grade wearable sensors to evaluate mobility for both healthy older adults and those living with mobility impairments and provide unique perspectives on novel advances in gait and activity analytics.

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Speaker: Ben Cornish, PhD Candidate

Ben Cornish is a PhD candidate working in the neuroscience, mobility, and balance lab (NiMBaL) in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. He worked as a gait and balance research coordinator within a province-wide multi-disciplinary research study called the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI) before starting his PhD. In this role, he gained experience with wearable sensors and gait analytics for people living with neurodegenerative disease in both clinical and at-home environments. His current thesis project is aimed at improving gait analytics with directed to a focus on those with motor and/or cognitive impairments that can impact gait and mobility, where clinical gait assessments are particularly important, for both research and care of those living with neurodegenerative disease.

Forgoing animal experiments: a case study in intervertebral disc regenerative medicine

Takudzwa Chipo Valerie Mudzongo — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 15:49:34 +0000

Forgoing animal experiments: a case study in intervertebral disc regenerative medicine Takudzwa Chipo… Wed, 06/29/2022 - 11:49

Abstract

The intervertebral disc (IVD), a fibro-cartilaginous structure acting as a natural shock absorber, contains an outer network of collagen fibers (Annulus fibrosus) surrounding a central gelatinous (Nucleus pulposus). Low back pain, affecting over 80% of adults during their lifetime and resulting in considerable disability and socioeconomic consequences, has been associated with IVD degeneration. On one hand, preclinical animal models of the disease have been considered to reproduce IVD degeneration and better understand its pathophysiology. They have proven useful in evaluating the efficacy of new therapeutic strategies and overcoming safety issues and ethical considerations prior to human clinical trials. On the other hand, ethical guidelines and concerns for animal welfare and care have led to the implementation of the three Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine) principles and alternatives to animal experimentation are needed. In this talk, we will first provide an overview of the clinically relevant animal models of IVD degeneration that can provide insights into the degenerative process and be used for preclinical translational studies. We will then look at IVD specific alternative translational approaches to the classic in vivo approach. The implementation of ex vivo models and the design of bioprinted constructs recapitulating the complex architecture of an IVD could become an essential tool for data collection leading towards clinical trials, both human and veterinary ones.

Light refreshmemts will be provided

Speaker

Catherine Le Visage

Research Director & Deputy Director of the Regenerative Medicine and Skeleton lab

Catherine Le Visage is a Research Director and the Deputy Director of the Regenerative Medicine and Skeleton lab in Nantes, France (www.rmes.univ-nantes.fr). She was trained as a Pharmacist, received her PhD in Paris then performed a post-doc in the Johns Hopkins University (USA). In 2007, she joined with a tenured position the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. In 2013, she was appointed as a Research Director and joined the Regenerative Medicine and Skeleton laboratory in Nantes. In the "Skeletal Physiopathology and Joint Regenerative Medicine" team headed by Prof J. Guicheux. As a group leader, her most recent works have focused on innovative hydrogels as i) carriers of cells or bioactive molecules in the context of IVD disease and osteoarthritis and ii) tools for stem cell-based organogenesis. She is an elected member of the TERMIS-EU Council, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces”, and a reviewer for national and international funding agencies. She has coauthored 75 publications (h-index 33) and 11 patents, and has given 60 invited lectures/seminars at national and international conferences. ResearcherID: E-5460-2011

Research Talks: Mapping the Human Brain

Charlotte Armstrong — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:23:11 +0000

Research Talks: Mapping the Human Brain Charlotte Armstrong Wed, 12/09/2020 - 19:23

Mapping the human brain

A panel presentation and discussion exploring cognition, behaviour, and degenerative disease

Online via Webex (Please REGISTER)

Amer Burhan

Modulating brain networks with non-invasive brain stimulation to treat neuropsychiatric illnesses

Amer Burhan is a Geriatric Psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Endowed Chair for Applied Mental Health Research at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby, Ontario, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also an Adjunct Research Professor in Psychiatry and Neurosciences at Western University and Geriatric Psychiatrist with the Operational Stress Injury Clinic at Saint Joseph’s Health Care and is associate scientist at the MacDonald Franklin Operational Stress Injury Research Centre and the Lawson Health Research Institute in London Ontario. He leads several pragmatic clinical trials in the area of neuropsychiatry of dementia and in therapeutic brain stimulation for resistant mental illness across the life-span in addition to being active in several initiatives to develop guidelines to standardize definitions, assessment, and management of treatment resistant mental illnesses. He is a clinician, educator, and investigator and his career is focused on complex mental health presentation in old age and on therapeutic brain stimulation.

At Research Talks, he will discuss modulating brain networks with non-invasive brain stimulation such as electronic and magnetic transcranial stimulation to treat neuropsychiatric illnesses.

Myra Fernandes

Memory and the life cycle of the brain

Myra Fernandes is a Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Her research identifies cognitive processes and key brain structures supporting memory function. She uses procedures such as fMRI brain scans, as well as computer and paper/pencil testing in young adults, in senior citizens, and in those with a past head injury or concussion.

Myra was awarded the Canadian Psychological Association’s President’s New Researcher Award, the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation’s Research Excellence Award, and the Women in Cognitive Science Canada Mentorship Award. She holds numerous editorial board positions and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour & Cognitive Sciences. She is a past co-Chair of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s grant review panel for Biological Systems.

The ability to encode, store, and retrieve information requires numerous cognitive processes. Identifying those critical for successful memory performance is a goal of psychologists and neuroscientists. At Research Talks, Myra will discuss the brain changes that accompany aging, and how these impact our ability to think, communicate and remember. She will review evidence from cognitive experiments, neuroimaging data, and studies of normal aging, that pinpoint critical processes and brain regions important for enabling contextually-rich high-quality memories and recollections of the past. She will also review a variety of encoding techniques that can be used on a daily basis to engage more diverse brain representations, ultimately enhancing memory capabilities and performance.

Peter Hall

Reaching beyond conventional brain health metrics

Peter Hall is a Professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, and Director of the Prevention Neuroscience Laboratory. His research has two main foci: 1) the interplay of the mind and brain with the social environment in the context of disease prevention research, and 2) the development and validation of conceptually meaningful measures of brain health using magnetic stimulation and mobile brain imaging. He is a Fellow of the Academy for Behavioral Medicine research, and recipient of early career awards from the Canadian Psychological Association and Canadian Institutes for Heath Research. He has completed advanced fellowships in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) at Harvard Medical School and Duke University Medical Centre.

At Research Talks, Peter will discuss the rationale for reaching beyond conventional brain health metrics with the aim of identifying new approaches to brain health assessment that might eventually play a role in early diagnosis of brain diseases. In particular, challenge-based paradigms - very widely used in other areas of medicine might be of particular interest when mapping the brain, behaviour and cognition. He will provide an overview of some emerging approaches using TMS coupled with mobile brain imaging.

Donna Kwan

A team science approach to looking across the neurodegenerative spectrum

Donna Kwan is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and the Neuropsychology Platform Lead for the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI) and Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) funded initiative. ONDRI is a multi-site, multi-cohort, multidisciplinary cohort study on Ontarians living with diseases such as Alzheimer's, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Vascular Dementia.

At Research Talks, Donna will outline the team science approach across the neurodegenerative spectrum and how, in her unique role as a neuropsychological liaison, she collaborates with scientists, clinicians, statisticians, and community members to shed light on the role of cognitive (dys)function in understanding neurodegenerative disease.

PROFS PRESENT ... Professor Katja Mombaur discusses How Intelligent Human-Centred Robots Can Transform Health Care in the Future.

Charlotte Armstrong — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 03:11:03 +0000

PROFS PRESENT ... Professor Katja Mombaur discusses How Intelligent Human-Centred Robots Can Transform Health Care in the Future. Charlotte Armstrong Mon, 11/23/2020 - 22:11

CBB Profs Present...Professor Katja Mombaur discusses How Intelligent Human-Centred Robots Can Transform Health Care in the Future.

The efficacy of skilled practice in promoting beneficial brain reorganization to affect functional recovery has long been appreciated. However, current best practices to stroke rehabilitation are labour intensive and characterized by variable levels of functional recovery. In many cases, recovery of function in the stroke-affected limb is incomplete. Part of the variability in functional recovery across individuals may arise because of an incomplete understanding of the neural basis of learning. Learning, and by extension functional recovery, is not a singular process. They are comprised of separate abilities that operate on different time scales. One hypothesis is that excessive or compensatory reliance on conscious, declarative knowledge promotes quick, relatively transient, short-term increases in performance at the expense of sustained increases in procedural ability. However, the brain substrates by which declarative brain areas may shape procedural motor areas are unknown. We have recently used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, to identify two different brain circuits in motor cortex by which declarative strategies may shape procedural motor control. A preliminary study by our group also shows that one of these circuits is an important predictor of neuroplastic potential in motor cortex post-stroke. Continued work in this area is a critical step towards maximizing the benefits of current best practices by promoting optimal brain states that reduce variability in/increase the ceiling for skill acquisition in healthy and clinical populations.

Professor Katja Mombaur joined the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ in March 2020 as Full Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) for Human-Centred Robotics & Machine Intelligence. Her research focuses on understanding human movement by a combined approach of model-based optimization and experiments and using this knowledge to improve motions of humanoid robots and the interactions of humans with exoskeletons, prostheses and external assistive devices. Her goal is to endow humanoid and wearable robots with motion intelligence that allow them to operate safely in a complex human world.

Prior to coming to Canada, Katja has been a full professor at the Institute of Computer Engineering of Heidelberg University and head of the Optimization, Robotics & Biomechanics Chair, as well as coordinator of the Heidelberg Center for Motion Research. She holds a diploma degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Stuttgart and a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Heidelberg University and has worked as a researcher at Seoul National University, and at LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse.

Zoom link will be sent via registration confirmation email.

PROFS PRESENT ... Cognitive-Motor Interactions and Implications Post-Stroke

Charlotte Armstrong — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 00:42:53 +0000

PROFS PRESENT ... Cognitive-Motor Interactions and Implications Post-Stroke Charlotte Armstrong Tue, 10/20/2020 - 20:42

CBB Profs Present...Cognitive-motor interactions and their implications for motor learning-based interventions post-stroke with Sean Meehan

Sean Meehan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. He completed his PhD in Kinesiology with a specialization in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ before completing his post-doctoral work in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC). Prior to returning to the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Dr. Meehan’s research goals are to enhance our fundamental knowledge of the neural mechanisms governing sensory-motor control/learning and develop evidence-based interventions to augment learning and recovery.

Zoom link will be sent via registration confirmation email.