Leah Cowen

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

National Taiwan University

Women's College Hospital

The ��ϲ�� and its partner hospitals are propelling the Toronto region as a leading global hub for life sciences research – but its success is at risk from underinvestment.

That’s among the findings of a new report that examines the strengths and challenges within the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) – which comprises ��ϲ�� and 14 academic hospitals – and its surrounding ecosystem. The report was commissioned by ��ϲ�� and conducted by Shift Health.

In addition to leading on research, talent and public and private investment in Canada, the report finds that TAHSN rivals top-tier hubs in the United States despite receiving less funding.

“The TAHSN research outputs and impacts really do match or exceed those of our competitors across North America,” said Leah Cowen, ��ϲ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“Our community is a phenomenal resource for Ontario, for Canada, and really inspiring around the world.”

Cowen was one of several health, research, industry and government leaders who gathered to discuss the report at an event hosted by the ��ϲ��’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and ��ϲ��’s Government Relations Office, as part of the New Frontiers for Policymakers policy discussion series.

The report marks the first time TAHSN’s impact has been evaluated against leading hubs in North America. Measuring 10 quantitative indicators, the report finds that TAHSN’s strength lies in its fusion of discovery research, talent development, startup and commercialization supports, and robust industry partnerships.

From left: Aristotle Voineskos, Heather McPherson, Leah Cowen and Anne Mullin (photo by ��ϲ�� Government Relations Office)

It also adds to a body of evidence that demonstrates life sciences research at the university and its affiliated hospitals is supporting growth of the sector in Canada. A recent Nature ranking, for example, listed ��ϲ�� as the third-most prolific institution in the world (and second among universities) for health sciences research.

Research is at the foundation of the life sciences sector, one of Canada’s most intensive R&D industries. In 2022, life sciences contributed $89.6 billion to the national GDP and supported 200,000 jobs. The federal government and provincial governments, including Ontario, have developed strategies that seek to leverage new investments in bioinnovation and biomanufacturing, increase the competitiveness of Canadian companies and meet the projected demand for more workers.

Reaching those goals requires renewed investment, the report argues.

“There are two points,” Cowen said during the event. “One is that we’re great. But that’s not what we’re here to address. We’re here to do something much more ambitious, which is to recognize that our greatness is at risk if we don’t have considerably more investment.”

In particular, the report identified a significant gap in access to government health research funding for the TAHSN hub compared to its U.S. peers.

TAHSN is able to deliver globally leading results because of collaboration among its affiliated institutions and across disciplines through ��ϲ��’s institutional strategic initiatives, Cowen said. The institutional strategic initiatives facilitate research in areas of the life sciences that are transforming patient care, including regenerative medicine and machine learning.

The Toronto Academic Health Science Network comprises ��ϲ�� and 14 academic hospitals, including those found on Toronto’s “Hospital Row” (photo by Kenneth Chou)

These strategies are a foundation for global scale, Cowen added, but only if Canada invests more in life sciences research in a bid to increase health security and economic growth.

“Over and over again, we see how fundamental science is able to transform innovation and lead to huge economic growth – but public support is critical,” she said.

“This ecosystem can scale. We can do more. But we can't do more if we continue to stagnate in terms of levels of investment.”

TAHSN Chair Heather McPherson, president and CEO of Women’s College Hospital, noted the report’s finding of higher salaries for life sciences research talent south of the border, which can make it difficult to recruit and retain top researchers and ultimately affects research capacity and patient care. “I think about research in a very connected way,” said McPherson. “To me, it's the pathway to a better health system for everyone. Research drives innovation and innovation drives better patient care - We need both to stay competitive and create an environment that attracts the best and brightest. ”

Other issues outlined in the report include the lower number of early-phase clinical trials conducted in Canada compared to leading U.S. hubs and a lack of sufficient capital to scale startups into global champions.

“When I reflect on the report, it's all kind of a missed opportunity,” McPherson said.

“We're doing extremely well right now – the report shows that. But how well could we do if we had some more investment? And what innovations, particularly in patient care, are we leaving on the table?"

Aristotle Voineskos, vice-president of research and director of the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), says Canada tends to have a lower appetite for risk than the U.S. when it comes to research – even though there are many examples of research projects deemed long shots that ultimately transformed human health.

“When there is that one success, it's enormous. It's massive,” says Voineskos, noting that TAHSN has all the ingredients to further increase its attractiveness as a site for early-stage clinical trials, from sharing of data findings among hospitals to the diversity of Toronto’s patient population.

“This is such as special environment. There’s just a lot of opportunity here that I think is untapped.”

��ϲ�� fifth in the world, first among North American public universities: NTU rankings

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 01:23:00 +0000

��ϲ�� fifth in the world, first among North American public universities: NTU rankings

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 09/07/2023 - 21:23

Cutline

(photo by David Lee)

Topic

Rankings

Subheadline

In a related ranking by field, ��ϲ�� placed second globally in medicine and sixth for social sciences

The ��ϲ�� is ranked among the top five research universities in the world – and first among North America’s public universities – in the latest National Taiwan University Rankings.

��ϲ�� placed first in Canada and fifth in the world, up one spot from last year, in the research-focused 2023 NTU rankings, which rate universities based on their overall output of scientific publications, in addition to scoring performance in specific fields and subjects.

Among global public universities, ��ϲ�� ranked third behind University College London and the University of Oxford.

In a related ranking by field, ��ϲ�� placed second globally in medicine and sixth for social sciences. This was complemented by success in the subject rankings, where ��ϲ�� placed in the top 10 globally in clinical medicine (2nd), neurosciences and behaviour (3rd), psychiatry and psychology (4th) and social sciences, general (6th).

“We are incredibly proud of the ��ϲ��’s exceptional performance in these rankings, which reflect our commitment to research excellence across a wide range of disciplines,” said Leah Cowen, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“From life-changing innovations in medicine and technology to paradigm-shifting discoveries in the humanities and social sciences, our researchers, faculty and students continue to push the boundaries of knowledge to the benefit of the world.”

More than 1,500 universities were considered for this year’s rankings, and the top 1,000 were ranked. Based on an analysis of scholarly publications, the rankings use measures such as number of articles and citations to evaluate a university’s performance across three criteria – research productivity, research impact and research excellence.

Similar methodology is used to determine NTU's field and subject rankings, where the sheer breadth of ��ϲ��’s expertise was on full display this year. On the world stage, ��ϲ�� ranked among the top 50 universities in four of the six fields and 13 of the 27 subject areas – all while coming first in Canada in a total of 16 subject areas.

Three other Canadian universities made the top 100 in the overall NTU rankings: University of British Columbia (33rd), McGill University (57th) and University of Alberta (86th).

��ϲ�� continues to be the highest-ranked Canadian university and ranked among the top 25 universities globally in the five most closely watched international rankings: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University World University Ranking.

From building bone to children’s literacy: 36 ��ϲ�� researchers awarded Canada Research Chairs

lanthierj — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:51:06 +0000

From building bone to children’s literacy: 36 ��ϲ�� researchers awarded Canada Research Chairs

lanthierj Tue, 08/29/2023 - 13:51

Cutline

Karina Carneiro, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Dentistry, is one of 36 researchers at ��ϲ�� and its partner hospitals to receive a new or renewed Canada research chair (photo by Jeff Comber)

Topic

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Canada Research Chairs

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Computer Science

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Economics

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Hospital for Sick Children

Faculty of Dentistry

Geography and Planning

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

University Health Network

��ϲ�� Scarborough

Subheadline

The new and renewed chairs at ��ϲ�� and its hospital partners were part of a broader research funding announcement by the federal government

At the ��ϲ��’s Faculty of Dentistry, Karina Carneiro and her team are working on developing new treatments to regenerate bone with DNA-based biomaterials.

Karina Carneiro (photo by Jeff Comber)

The researchers are exploring ways to use synthetic materials, created using DNA nanotechnology, to help bones regenerate and support the body’s efforts to heal them naturally.

That’s in contrast to current bone repair treatments, which involve taking bone tissue from another part of the body and breaking it into little pieces that can be inserted into the defect.

“Using a DNA-gel for this purpose could be an effective treatment option as it can be injected to fill the defect size fully,” says Carneiro, an assistant professor in the faculty.

“What we believe to be the difference between our DNA gel and other materials being developed is that over time, the DNA can degrade into molecules that promote our own body’s healing mechanism to further regenerate the bone.”

Carneiro is one of three researchers at the Faculty of Dentistry to be awarded a new or renewed Canada Research Chair in the latest round – and one of 36 across ��ϲ��’s three campuses and hospital partners (see list below).

Established in 2000, the prestigious federal program aims to recruit and retain top researchers and scholars in the country. It invests more than $300 million annually to enable world-class researchers to reach new heights in disciplines spanning engineering, health sciences, humanities and social sciences.

“Congratulations to all the researchers at the ��ϲ�� who received new or renewed Canada Research Chairs in the latest round,” says Leah Cowen, ��ϲ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“From using AI to improve medicine and health care to better understanding Indigenous geographies and environmental dispossession, the work by ��ϲ�� investigators supported by this important federal program is pushing the boundaries of research and innovation – and promises to have a big impact in Canada and around the world.”

Anil Kishen (photo by Jeff Comber)

Professor Anil Kishen, who is also at the Faculty of Dentistry, will use the funding associated with his Tier 1 Canada Research to advance his work in oral health nanomedicine.

He and his colleagues in the Kishen Lab are using multifunctional bioactive nanoparticles to study how cells communicate with each other and how wounds heal – in particular, how nanoparticles can be used to help save infected natural teeth and treat wounds and ulcers in individuals with diabetes.

Kishen says one of the reasons chitosan-based nanoparticles, which are optimized for different therapeutic applications, are so promising is because they’re derived from a naturally occurring molecule that is readily available.

“Affordability is important when developing a treatment to reach the masses,” Kishen says.

Massieh Moayedi (photo by Jeff Comber)

Massieh Moayedi, an associate professor in the Faculty of Dentistry, is receiving funding to pursue research in pain neuroimaging as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair.

“There’s tenuous evidence that body image might be involved in some types of chronic pain,” Moayedi says, adding that his end goal is to understand how pain works so he can improve patient outcomes.

He’s already shown that people with arthritic hands who see the limb looking healthier through a special device experience improvements in pain, so he’s now trying to understand which brain regions are involved.

“This chair will give me funding and the capacity to allow me to investigate these questions, and to really understand the relationship between pain and body image.”

Randy Boissonnault, minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, announced the CRCs at a press conference on Aug. 29 on behalf of François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, and Mark Holland, minister of health.

He also revealed the researchers and projects receiving funding through a diverse array of programs administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

They include the recipients of the SSHRC’s Partnership Grants, Partnership Development Grants and Insight Grants, as well as the recipients of the CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), which helps institutions to recruit and retain outstanding researchers, and provide them with the necessary tools and technology to perform their work. Named after a former ��ϲ�� president, JELF supports projects that deal with a range of pressing issues. This year’s recipients include 35 researchers at ��ϲ�� and its hospital partners sharing a total of more than $11 million for projects ranging from an assessment of plant responses to environmental change to the development of an ultra-sensitive cryogenic detector for dark matter and neutrino experiments.

“The federal government’s ongoing support for research through all of these programs – from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund, to the NSERC and CFI grants and the Canada Research Chairs – is critical to supporting the kind of research that ultimately improves lives through new knowledge and innovations,” Cowen said.

Here is the full list of new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at ��ϲ��:

New Canada Research Chairs

Stephanie Ameis at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and in the department of psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in neuroimaging of autism and mental health in youth
Yvonne Bombard at Unity Health and in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Tier 2 in genomics health services and policy
Karina Carneiro in the Faculty of Dentistry, Tier 2 in DNA-based biomaterials
Jesse Chao at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in precision cancer diagnostics and artificial intelligence
Xi (Becky) Chen-Bumgardner in the department of applied psychology and human development in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Tier 1 in literacy development of bilingual and multilingual children
Mark Chiew at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in computational biomedical imaging
Sarah Crome at University Health Network and in the department of immunology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in tissue-specific immune tolerance
Michelle Daigle in the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Tier 2 in Indigenous geographies and environmental dispossession
Karen Davis at University Health Network and in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in acute and chronic pain research
Rahul Gopalkrishnan in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in computational medicine
Housheng (Hansen) He at University Health Network and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in RNA medicine
Margaret Herridge at University Health Network and in the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in critical illness outcomes and the recovery continuum
Anil Kishen in the Faculty of Dentistry, Tier 1 in oral health nanomedicine
Bowen Li in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Tier 2 in RNA vaccines and therapeutics
Iacovos Michael at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in tumor biology and precision oncology
Massieh Moayedi in the Faculty of Dentistry, Tier 2 in pain neuroimaging
Faiyaz Notta at the University Health Network and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in pancreatic cancer and cancer evolution
Valeria Rac at the University Health Network and in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Tier 2 in health system and technology evaluation
Fahad Razak at Unity Health Toronto and in the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in health-care data and analytics
Clinton Robbins at the University Health Network and in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in cardiovascular immunology
Lena Serghides at the University Health Network and in the department of immunology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in maternal-child health and HIV
Catriona Steele at the University Health Network and in the department of speech language pathology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in swallowing and food oral processing
Bo Wang in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, tier 2 in artificial intelligence for medicine

Renewed Canada Research Chairs

Angela Cheung at University Health Network and in the department of medicine at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 1 in musculoskeletal and postmenopausal health
Xi Huang at the Hospital for Sick Children and in the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in cancer biophysics
Cendri Hutcherson in the department of psychology at the ��ϲ�� Scarborough, Tier 2 in decision neuroscience
Joanne Kotsopoulos at Women’s College Hospital and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Tier 2 in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer prevention
Arthur Mortha in the department of immunology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in mucosal immunology
Kelly O’Brien in the department of physical therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in episodic disability and rehabilitation
Trevor Pugh at the University Health Network and in the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in translational genomics
Diego Restuccia in the department of economics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Tier 1 in macroeconomics and productivity
David Sinton in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Tier 1 in energy and fluids
Olivier Trescases in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Tier 2 in power electronic converters
Joel Watts in the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Tier 2 in protein misfolding disorders
Michael Widener in the department of geography and planning in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Tier 2 in transportation and health
Stephen Wright in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Tier 1 in population genomics

��ϲ�� ranked first in Canada, among top 25 universities globally in Shanghai ranking

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 20:00:33 +0000

��ϲ�� ranked first in Canada, among top 25 universities globally in Shanghai ranking

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/18/2023 - 16:00

Cutline

(photo by Matthew Dochstader / Paradox Images)

Topic

Shanghai Ranking Consultancy

The ��ϲ�� is rated first in Canada and 24th globally in the latest edition of ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s worldwide university rankings.

Among public universities, ��ϲ�� placed sixth in North America and 13th overall in the 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities, released earlier this week.

This marks the seventh year in a row that ��ϲ�� has placed among the world’s top 25 universities in the closely watched annual ranking, which was first launched in 2003.

“We are thrilled to see the ��ϲ�� once again recognized as a world leader in research and education,” said Leah Cowen, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“Our consistent performance in these and other worldwide rankings reflects ��ϲ��’s unwavering commitment to making new discoveries, advancing knowledge across disciplines and producing graduates who can effect change on a global scale.”

The Academic Ranking of World Universities is based on six weighted measures related to research and academic performance. They include: the number of alumni and faculty winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; the number of highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories; the number of papers published in the prestigious journals Nature and Science; articles cited in major science and social sciences citation indices; and each institution’s per capita academic performance.

In all, the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy evaluated more than 2,500 universities to determine the 1,000 that would make the cut for its 2023 publication.

��ϲ�� received a similar score to last year but dropped two spots as the rising performance of Chinese universities saw Tsinghua University join the top 25 for the first time while Imperial College London, ranked 23rd, maintained its position.

The ranking’s top 10 universities were identical to 2022, with Harvard University taking the top spot in the ranking, followed by Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge, the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, University of Oxford, Columbia University, the California Institute of Technology and University of Chicago.

Four other Canadian universities made the top 100: the University of British Columbia (44), McGill University (70), University of Alberta (91) and McMaster University (98).

Overall, ��ϲ�� is ranked first in Canada and among the top 25 universities globally in the five most closely watched international rankings: QS World University Rankings, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities, Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities and National Taiwan University World University Rankings.

Nature ranks ��ϲ�� among top three institutions in the world for health sciences research output

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 13:08:37 +0000

Nature ranks ��ϲ�� among top three institutions in the world for health sciences research output

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/16/2023 - 09:08

Cutline

(photo by Matthew Dochstader/Paradox Images)

Topic

Global Lens

Health

Toronto Academic Health Science Network

The ��ϲ�� is the third-most prolific institution in the world – and second among universities – for health sciences research, according to new rankings by the publisher of Nature.

��ϲ��’s ranking in the Nature Index Annual Tables for health sciences research output placed it just behind Harvard University and the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. government’s primary agency for health research.

The Nature Index Annual Tables 2023 evaluates the research contributions of countries and institutions to top-tier scientific journals across a variety of disciplines.

Across all subjects – health sciences, physical sciences, chemistry, Earth and environmental sciences and biological sciences – ��ϲ�� was the only Canadian university to score among the top 25 institutions across the globe.

For its first health sciences ranking, the Nature Index tracked the author affiliations of 9,200 articles in 64 medical journals.

��ϲ�� stood out on a top-10 list dominated by U.S. institutions.

Leah Cowen, ��ϲ��’s vice-president of research, innovation, and strategic initiatives, told Nature that ��ϲ��’s top-three ranking reflects its commitment to collaboration in the health sphere.

Through its unique relationships with the 14 research hospitals in the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN), interdisciplinary Institutional Strategic Initiatives and industry partnerships, ��ϲ�� has brought together researchers, clinicians and entrepreneurs to take medical innovations from theory, to testing to treatment, said Cowen.

That includes world-leading research on cancers, heart failure, regenerative medicine, aging and personalized medicine.

“We’re really committed to engaging on the full spectrum of research, all the way from state-of-the-art pioneering fundamental research through to clinical research, knowledge translation, clinical trials, drug discovery and bio-innovation,” Cowen said.

��ϲ�� has benefitted from government support. That includes a recent $200-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund to support the Acceleration Consortium, which is using AI and robotics to discover new sustainable materials and drugs with a strong plan for equity, diversity and inclusion guiding project implementation and research design. Yet, Cowen told Nature that “there is plenty of advocacy” for improving Canadian funding of health science research, which has lagged behind the pace of inflation.

“Despite limited investment, we’re really punching above our weight,” she said. “We’re achieving exceptional impact, so further investment would yield extraordinary additional reward.”

Read the story in Nature

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��ϲ�� receives $200-million grant to support Acceleration Consortium's ‘self-driving labs’ research

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 23:17:42 +0000

��ϲ�� receives $200-million grant to support Acceleration Consortium's ‘self-driving labs’ research

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/28/2023 - 19:17

Cutline

Funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund will support the Acceleration Consortium’s work on “self-driving labs,” which combine AI, robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Breaking Research

Acceleration Consortium

Artificial Intelligence

Chemistry

Computer Science

Equity

Meric Gertler

Sustainability

Vector Institute

The ��ϲ�� has been awarded a $200-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) to revolutionize the speed and impact of scientific discovery through its Acceleration Consortium.

The funding – the largest federal research grant ever awarded to a Canadian university – will support the consortium’s work on “self-driving labs” that combine artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials and molecules in a fraction of the usual time and cost. Applications include everything from life-saving medications and biodegradable plastics to low-carbon cement and renewable energy.

Researchers in the consortium recently revealed that they used the technology to develop a potential cancer drug in just 30 days – a process that typically takes years, or even decades.

“The ��ϲ�� is grateful for this significant investment in artificial intelligence-driven research and innovation, which promises to improve the lives of Canadians and those of people around the world,” said ��ϲ�� President Meric Gertler.

“The federal government’s critical support of this initiative builds on years of strategic planning and decisions in this space by the University and the federal government, including the 2017 launch of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy that helped cement Toronto’s status as a global hub for a revolutionary technology.

“This is the next step in achieving that bold vision.”

François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, announced the ��ϲ�� funding alongside 10 other large-scale projects across the country.

“The initiatives announced today will lead to breakthrough discoveries that will improve people’s lives, nourish our innovation ecosystems, and shape Canada’s prosperity for years to come,” he said in a statement. “Such is the value of Canadian institutions and researchers who think outside the box to tackle the greatest challenges of our time.”

Launched as an Institutional Strategic Initiative in 2021, the Acceleration Consortium brings together partners from academia, government and industry who are accelerating the discovery of materials and molecules needed for a sustainable future. The consortium aims to reduce the time and cost of bringing advanced materials to market, from an average of 20 years and $100 million to as little as one year and $1 million.

“Our goal is to accelerate science,” said Acceleration Consortium Director Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “To do that, we realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way.

“We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery.”

The CFREF funding, along with additional support from ��ϲ�� – which includes an investment of $130 million to expand facilities to house the Acceleration Consortium’s state-of-the-art labs at the Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories building on the St. George campus – will help secure the researchers, spaces and partnerships needed to build a world-leading centre for accelerated materials discovery and innovation.

The funding will also help the consortium rapidly create high quality datasets to better train AI models and validate the model’s predictions in real time. That, in turn, will dramatically accelerate the discovery and development of molecules and materials for a wide range of industries.

With a strong plan of equity, diversity and inclusion guiding project implementation and research design, the initiative will commercialize ethically designed technologies and materials to benefit society and train today’s scientists with the skills they need to advance the emerging field of accelerated materials discovery. It will also allow the consortium to examine critical issues regarding the application of the technology, including from environmental and Indigenous perspectives.

“With this funding – which enabled us to obtain matching commitments of about $300 million from all our partners – we are talking about half a billion dollars of investments, said Aspuru-Guzik, who joined ��ϲ�� from Harvard University in 2018 as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry and is one of a growing number of global experts at the Acceleration Consortium.

“This will help us make the Greater Toronto Area and Canada world leaders in AI-frontier discovery – we have no excuse not to be after this project.”

The Acceleration Consortium comprises nearly 100 researchers – and is hiring many more – across a wide variety of disciplines, including AI, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, economics, engineering, materials science, mechatronics, biology, pharmacology, robotics, technoscience and more. It also includes 30 partners from the private and public sector, including the University of British Columbia, a lead partner on the grant.

“What’s unique about this model is that it’s kind of this idea of a university without borders,” said Jason Hein, a member of the Acceleration Consortium's scientific leadership team and an associate professor in the chemistry department in the Faculty of Science at UBC.

“What happens a lot in Canadian research culture is that we’re good at punching above our weight class, but, in the past, other countries have had bigger budgets. What’s great about this is that through the energy of the people at Acceleration Consortium, we’re saying, ‘We’re doing something huge here.’ And to get the vote of confidence back saying, ‘Yes, we believe in you and let’s go forward’ is really important.”

CFREF aims to boost the strengths of Canadian postsecondary institutions so that they can achieve global success in research areas that create long-term social and economic advantages for Canada. It invests approximately $200 million per year (or approximately $1.4 billion over a competition cycle of seven years) through a highly competitive peer review process.

“We named this a consortium and not an institute for a reason,” Aspuru-Guzik said. “We are a global effort with its homebase in Toronto that involves academia, government and industry.

“A core goal of our efforts is to spin out the next generation of companies that will develop the materials for the 21st century here in Canada. This, in turn, will help make the GTA the economic epicentre for this field.”

Leah Cowen, ��ϲ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, said the impact of the CFREF grant will be felt far beyond Acceleration Consortium itself.

“This level of investment can really transform how universities do innovation,” she said. “It allows us to not only drive forward discovery, but also improve adoption by Canadian companies and foster an ethical approach to technology development that’s guided by principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, benefiting all segments of society.”

With files from Erin Warner

Experts say $200-million grant awarded to ��ϲ�� will drive ‘big science’ via the Acceleration Consortium

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 20:19:03 +0000

Experts say $200-million grant awarded to ��ϲ�� will drive ‘big science’ via the Acceleration Consortium

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/28/2023 - 16:19

Cutline

A researcher removes a vial of pre-dispensed reagent from an automated solid dispensing robot (photo by James Morley © The Matter Lab / Acceleration Consortium, ��ϲ��)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Our Community

Acceleration Consortium

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

self-driving labs

Chemistry

Computer Science

Creative Destruction Lab

History

Rotman School of Management

University Health Network

��ϲ�� Mississauga

Vector Institute

Women and Gender Studies

The $200-million Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) grant awarded to the ��ϲ��’s Acceleration Consortium will help build a world-leading centre for accelerated materials discovery and innovation.

The funding will support the consortium’s work on “self-driving labs” that realize the game-changing potential of AI by combining it with robotics and advanced computing to discover new materials and molecules in a fraction of the usual time and cost – from life-saving medications and biodegradable plastics to low-carbon cement and renewable energy.

With equity, diversity and inclusion guiding project implementation and research design, the Acceleration Consortium – a ��ϲ�� institutional strategic initiative – will use the funding to commercialize ethically designed technologies and materials to benefit society and train today’s scientists with the skills they need to advance the emerging field of accelerated materials discovery. It will also examine critical issues regarding the application of the technology, including from environmental and Indigenous perspectives.

“We realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way,” says Acceleration Consortium Director Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

In particular, the funding will help the consortium rapidly create high-quality datasets to better train AI models and help validate the model’s predictions in real time.

Leaders and researchers from ��ϲ�� and Acceleration Consortium spoke with ��ϲ�� News about the impact the CFREF funding – the largest federal research grant ever awarded to a Canadian university – will have on the consortium’s game-changing work and unique model of cross-sector collaboration.

Leah Cowen

��ϲ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives

Materials and molecules are central to solving many of the world's pressing challenges, such as climate change, plastics, pollution and cancer. But it typically takes a very long time to develop new materials with new properties that can address those big problems.

By contrast, Acceleration Consortium’s approach combines AI, robotics and advanced computing to radically reduce the time and cost of bringing materials to market. Their autonomous labs predict, synthesize and test materials for key characteristics and can repeat and refine the process, which dramatically accelerates the timeline.

This transformative capability has the potential to affect so many different parts of our lives and our planet. So, the consortium’s focus on equity, diversity and inclusion in program delivery and research design, as well as its emphasis on environmental and Indigenous perspectives, is crucial. The CFREF grant allows us to do big science – through an interdisciplinary team-based approach with an incredible scope and potential for impact – in a way that’s critical for Canada to remain competitive on the international stage.

Melanie Woodin

Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science; professor, department of cell and systems biology

The Acceleration Consortium is already having an impact. Its second annual Accelerate Conference this summer will showcase the latest methods, applications and research in accelerated materials and molecular discovery. But this funding will enable even greater breakthroughs. It will have a transformative impact on our researchers' ability to develop the cost-effective, high-performance, sustainable materials that are needed to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik

Director, Acceleration Consortium; professor, departments of chemistry and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science; Canada 150 Research Chair in Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry; CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Our goal is to accelerate science – that’s where our name comes from. To do that, we realized we need to take a cue from self-driving cars and extended that concept to a self-driving lab, which uses AI and automation to carry out more experiments in a smarter way. We’ve essentially supercharged the process of scientific discovery – and this grant will help us to take that even further.

We are already emerging leaders in the world of research excellence and we have a plan to keep building on that excellence. We’ve also shown that we’re integrated with communities – including working closely with Indigenous communities – and have innovative plans to teach this technology to future generations.

Acceleration Consortium Researchers

Cheryl Arrowsmith

Senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network; professor of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine; director of the Toronto node of the Structural Genomics Consortium

The CFREF funds will advance our self-driving lab (SDL) to tackle the early stages of drug discovery by taking an initial compound and developing it into a more drug-like molecule that modulates a protein of interest in a disease. This is a design-make-test cycle that is currently done in a very iterative, slow manner. The Acceleration Consortium approach can speed the process up to try to get to the biologically active reagent much more quickly.

It has broad implications in a whole number of areas. Our SDL will complement another self-driving lab that is making engineered tissues that mimic human tissue or a disease state like a tumour – allowing one to test drugs or early-stage compounds in disease-relevant assays.

The self-driving lab concept condenses the time it takes to get to the answer you need – and does so more efficiently.

Avi Goldfarb

Professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management and Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare; chief data scientist at Creative Destruction Lab

This grant will allow us the freedom to invest in long-term planning for more – and more ambitious – projects. You learn more when you talk to people who have expertise that's different from your own. And the consortium has been an opportunity for me to learn from a different set of people with different knowledge than I’m typically exposed to as an economist in the business school.

It allows us to work with people to make new kinds of connections – and, hopefully over the course of the grant, develop entirely new, exciting ideas.

Michelle Murphy

Professor in the department of history and the Women and Gender Studies Institute in the Faculty of Arts & Science; co-director of the Indigenous-led Environmental Data Justice Lab at the Technoscience Research Unit; Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice

No one person has all the skills to address the sustainability of new substances – we truly need much greater collaboration and a willingness to really think across difference. Insisting on Indigenous collaboration in defining sustainable substances is what marks the innovation of this work.

This is a moment of the emergence of a new branch of chemistry – and, at the same time, its industrial application has been implicated in major environmental problems we’re facing. Part of what is appealing about this project is that it’s putting questions of sustainability and environmental justice as one of its crucial dimensions – and the decision to invest in Indigenous science and technology studies as part of science at ��ϲ�� is vital.

Florian Shkurti

Assistant professor in the department of mathematical and computational sciences, ��ϲ�� Mississauga; UTM Robotics faculty adviser; director of the Robot Vision and Learning Lab; and Vector Institute faculty affiliate

What is unique about the AC is that over the last five years it has built a tightly knit and vibrant community that includes academic and industry researchers, as well as a global team of active and supportive partners in government, industry and entrepreneurial circles. Despite the seemingly disparate areas of expertise, they all work towards a common goal: to accelerate the science of advanced materials discovery in order to benefit society and our planet at large.

Together with my collaborators, Professors Alán Aspuru-Guzik and Animesh Garg, we are working on enabling general-purpose robots to perform as well as chemists in a typical chemistry lab. Having additional funding from the CFREF will help us to pursue more research efforts in enabling robots to visually perceive and autonomously manipulate granular materials, powders, liquids and transparent objects, which traditionally have been extremely challenging. It opens up so many opportunities for robots to be helpful in chemistry labs and work alongside human chemists to augment their capabilities.

Ilya Yakavets

Bioengineering post-doctoral researcher in the Kumacheva Group

The CFREF grant is a game-changer for researchers like me at the Acceleration Consortium.

It's not just about the funding, but also about the opportunities it creates. Collaborating with the consortium has been incredibly valuable for my research project – working to create a microchip that can simulate the growth of cancer cells and test different drug combinations to see which are the most effective, using artificial intelligence.

I'm fortunate to be collaborating with Alán Aspuru-Guzik and the Acceleration Consortium to accelerate the translation of promising multidrug anticancer therapies from the laboratory to clinics. It has been an excellent opportunity to learn from and work with a team of experts who share a common goal.

Laura Matz

Chief science and technology officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Breakthroughs in AI-driven experimentation will revolutionize the process of discovering new molecules and materials for health care, life sciences and electronics. We see the Acceleration Consortium as uniquely positioned to bring the ecosystem together to drive cutting-edge

advancement in the field of accelerated materials and drug discovery through self-driving labs.

Because of this, we have become a founding member of the Acceleration Consortium. Through this collaboration, we look forward to developing and defining best practices in the area of AI algorithms and automation for materials and molecule discovery.

With files from Erin Warner

��ϲ��-led collaboration to develop community-tailored clean energy technologies

lanthierj — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:57:30 +0000

��ϲ��-led collaboration to develop community-tailored clean energy technologies

lanthierj Tue, 04/25/2023 - 09:57

Cutline

It’s important to develop clean energy systems that meet the needs of individual communities, says Kate Neville, one of the lead researchers of the CANSTOREnergy project (photo by Kate Harris)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Breaking Research

Climate Positive Energy

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Political Science