2013
Inventors
of the
Year
1
Congratulations
University research, in all disciplines, studies the way we live on this
planet.
It also can improve how we live.
U of T has an impressive record of tangible, positive impact by way of the
innovation of our researchers. Our history includes such society-changing
inventions as Pablum and a tree vaccine to combat Dutch Elm Disease
and, more recently, technology that helps buildings withstand earthquakes
and social media applications that enable people who can’t speak to
communicate.
The U of T Inventor of the Year program celebrates the spirit of innovation
in our research community. And that spirit is thriving at our institution.
Each year, U of T receives more than 150 invention disclosures, many of
which translate into licenses and spin-off companies.
More importantly, these inventions have a direct impact on society. They
create jobs and prosperity and they contribute to progress on so many
fronts.
Notably, invention disclosures come from across the University and include
work that has been conducted by both faculty members and students.
We are proud to honour the outstanding innovation from the researchers
being recognized through the 2013 Inventors of the Year awards.
Thank you for the positive impact you are making on U of T – and on
global society. Bravo!
Professor R. Paul Young
Vice President, Research and Innovation
Professor Peter Lewis
Associate Vice President, Research and
Innovation, Global Research Partnerships
Dr. Derek Newton
Executive Director, Innovations and
Partnerships Office
1
Improving Health Through Personalized Nutrition Assessment
Ahmed El-Sohemy
Dr. Ahmed El-Sohemy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional
Sciences and holds a Canada Research Chair in Nutrigenomics. He received his PhD
in 1999 from the University of Toronto in the Department of Nutritional Sciences
and was a Post Doctoral Fellow of the Department of Nutrition in the Harvard
School of Public Health. In 2003, Ahmed was voted one of the top 10 people to
watch in 2004 by the Toronto Star. In 2012, he was awarded a commercialization
development grant by the Advanced Foods and Materials Network, one of Canada’s
NCE’s, to commercialize the genetic test kit he developed.
In January 2012, Dr. El-Sohemy disclosed a panel of seven genetic markers that
can be used to determine a person’s response to seven key components of the diet.
These included vitamin C, folate, whole grains, omega-3 fat, saturated fat, sodium
and caffeine. His ground-breaking research on how common genetic variations
determine a person’s nutritional needs and response to specific components of
the diet has made headlines around the world including the front page of the
London Times (UK), LA Times, Washington Post and USA Today. The invention
is a result of his multi-disciplinary research program that integrates nutrition,
genomics, physiology, bioinformatics and epidemiology. The value of the genetic
test was recently validated by the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) of
genetic information on personalized nutrition-based outcomes. The results showed
that providing personalized DNA-based dietary recommendations based on the
invention is more valuable than the current population-based dietary advice.
The invention has been successfully commercialized with over 150 clinics across
Canada and Australia through Nutrigenomix Inc., which is an Ontario company
founded by Dr. El-Sohemy. The test is also being offered by dietitians in Israel,
Qatar, Chile and Singapore, and was introduced to the US market in March 2013.
2
3D Bio Printer for Tissue Engineering Applications
Axel Guenther
Co-inventors: Milica Radisic, Lian Leng, Arianna McAllister,
Andrew Woollard and Boyang Zhang
Dr. Guenther is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and
Industrial Engineering with cross-appointment to the Institute of Biomaterials and
Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He obtained his doctoral degree
from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and conducted
postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a recipient
of the ETH silver medal (2002), the Ontario Early Researcher Award (2009), the I.W.
Smith Award of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers (2010) and currently
holds the Wallace G. Chalmers Chair of Engineering Design. Dr. Guenther is well
known for his work in microfluidics, microreactors and lab-on-a-chip, but his latest
invention is unique. It builds on his expertise in biomaterials, the contributions by
co-inventors Dr. Milica Radisic, Lian Leng, Arianna McAllister, Andrew Woollard
and Boyang Zhang, all of which are associated with the NSERC CREATE Program
in Microfluidic Applications and Training in Cardiovascular Health (MATCH) as
either graduate trainees or mentors. Skin printer prototypes are being fabricated and
tested at the nationally unique Centre for Microfluidic Systems in Chemistry and
Biology (U of T Engineering and Chemistry) and York University (Chemistry).
The invention involves the automated formation of sheets of soft tissue with
predictably varying thickness and composition using a printer-like technology. This
3D “bio-printer” can produce cell-populated mosaic wound dressings that accurately
mimic important pathophysiological features of human skin. It may allow for the
continuous production of tissues and provide an automatable platform for drug
screening. The invention provides a device for preparing a planar soft biomaterial in
one step with precise control over its local composition. It allows a digital approach
for the tessellation and coding of soft tissue that is scalable and continuous, does not
involve any moving components, and is compatible with a range of biopolymers.
The invention has broad applications in two areas:
1) Wound dressings and other tissue engineering applications. These are currently
being tested and validated in vivo in collaboration with Dr. Jeschke at Sunnybrook
Hospital and funded with a 2013 Connaught Innovation Award
2) 3D cell culture for automated drug development.
The technology has been taken in to the Mars Innovation portfolio. Development
partnerships are being sought as clinical applications are being validated. If you like
to learn more about the skin printer and other related technologies, join us for two
exciting days at the Ontario-on-a-Chip/MATCH Symposium on May 23-24, 2013 at
Trinity College.
3
Drug Discoveries for Cancer Treatment
Patrick Gunning
Dr. Gunning is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry and Physical Sciences
Department at University of Toronto Mississauga. He received his PhD in 2004 from
the University of Glasgow and was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Yale University. Dr.
Gunning has received numerous National and International awards and other forms
of recognition for his medicinal chemistry inventions. After only 18 months as a PI,
the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society acknowledged Dr. Gunning’s achievements
with the ‘David Rae Memorial Award’ in 2008 for innovative research. In 2010,
Dr. Gunning has received recognition from the pharmaceutical industry and was
the recipient of the prestigious Boehringer Ingelheim Young Investigator Award
for his work on STAT3 drugs targeting lethal glioblastoma brain cancers. In the
same year, Dr. Gunning won an Ontario Early Researcher Award. In 2011, 2012
and 2013, Dr. Gunning was the recipient of the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s
Ichikizaki Award for Young Chemists, an award to recognize young researchers
demonstrating unique achievements in basic research. Internally, Dr. Gunning was
awarded the highest research award given at University of Toronto Mississauga, the
2011 University of Toronto Mississauga Dean’s Research Excellence Award for his
STAT3 inhibitor project. Most recently in 2013, and as evidence of International
impact and significance, Dr. Gunning was named the inaugural Royal Society for
Chemistry’s (RSC) Emerging Medicinal Chemistry Lectureship Award given to
one recipient internationally who has made a significant contribution to medicinal
chemistry research. Also in 2013, Dr. Gunning was honoured by the Toronto Star as
being one of the Top 10 People to Watch in 2013.
Why all this recognition? Dr. Gunning invented the most potent small-molecule
‘drug-like’ inhibitors of the cancer-promoting Signal Transducer and Activator
of Transcription 3 (STAT3) protein for the treatment of human cancers. Aberrant
STAT3 activity is prevalent in numerous cancers and is widely recognized as a master
regulator of tumor processes. Targeting STAT3 with oligonucleotide inhibitors or
dominant negative constructs kills cancer cells. Unfortunately, these inhibitors are
rapidly degraded in vivo, which limits their clinical application. Thus, Dr. Gunning
has pioneered novel, highly effective, ‘drug-like’ small molecule STAT3 inhibitors.
Most excitingly, these agents are most effective when administered orally. BP-1-102
represents the first STAT3 inhibitor to show potent oral bioavailability in numerous
tumor models in vivo. As a result, the invention is subject to competing parties
seeking to commercialize this technology.
4
Innovative Cloud-Based eLearning Tools
Steve Joordens
Co-inventor: Dwayne Pare
Dr Steve Joordens is a Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of
Toronto, Scarborough Campus. Dr. Joordens, along with Ph.D. candidate Dwayne
Pare, created peerScholar™ is an innovative cloud-based eLearning tool that supports
the development of critical thought, creative thought and powerful communication
by combining three evidence-based learning contexts: formative assessment, peerassessment and self-assessment.
This award is preceded by several others. In 2009, Joordens and Pare were the
recipients of the 2009 National Technology Innovation Award for their creation and
research of peerScholar. In 2010, Joordens was named a finalist for Computer World
Magazines IT Educator of the Year award, and was awarded the President’s Teaching
Award, the highest teaching honour at the University of Toronto. In 2012, Joordens
was the recipient of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
(OCUFA) Teaching Award, as well as, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to
create a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), both in recognition of excellence in
lecturing and innovative creation and use of technology to enhance learning in even
very large class settings.
The technology represents a major advance over traditional (e.g., essay writing)
approaches by providing a much richer and analytical pedagogical experience.
Students are first asked to think critically or creatively about some issue and to
express their thoughts efficiently. They are then typically exposed to six randomly
selected and anonymously presented peer compositions, and are instructed to
critically analyze those compositions, expressing their conclusions in a way that
effectively highlights current strengths while also emphasizing one thing the author
could do to improve their composition. As the student assesses the work of their
peers, their work is simultaneously being assessed, and in the subsequent phase
students are asked to reflect on the comments they received and to revise their
argument appropriately. Students are also asked to rate and comment on their own
work with the goal of transferring the learning experience to themselves. Teachers
grade the final product in addition to evidence of the thought processes employed:
did students provide rich and useful comments and did students revise their work
appropriately given the comments they received? Educators and students alike have
widely endorsed peerScholar as providing a highly creative and powerful approach
for enhancing thinking and communication skills in a manner that is easy to use,
resource friendly, and fully compatible with both online and traditional learning
contexts.
5
Power Circuit Topologies for Power Conversion
Peter Lehn
Dr. Peter Lehn is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
at the University of Toronto. He completed his doctoral training at the University of
Toronto in 1998. He joined the University of Toronto in 1999. His research deals
with applications of converters to wind energy and distributed generation.
Dr. Lehn’s invention consists of a new power electronic circuit topology for ultra
high efficiency power conversion from low voltage to high voltage dc. Unlike
conventional electrical power conversion circuits that offer high operating efficiency
over only a narrow range of operation, the invented topology offers the ability to
transfer power, over a very broad operating range, with very little loss of power.
This makes the converter ideally suited to applications within the renewable energy
area, such as electrical energy harvesting from solar panels, where high efficiency
is crucial for economical deployment of such systems. Through application of this
cost effective, safe, low voltage to high voltage, dc-to-dc conversion system, a new
architecture is enabled for collection of power for solar arrays. The resultant system,
unlike other offerings, exceeds the new safety standards recently codified in the
United States under the National Electrical Code 2011.
To commercialize this invention, ARDA Power Inc. was formed. The focus of the
company is the development of novel power conversion equipment and power
architectures for commercial rooftop solar arrays. Since 2011, ARDA Power Inc.
has raised over $3M in funding, most of which is sourced from private equity. The
company is based in Ontario and has a total of 10 employees, including 6 engineers
(three with graduate degrees from University of Toronto). Manufacturing and
assembly of its current product is also performed in Ontario through its partners.
The company recently completed a 30kW solar photovoltaic demonstration project
in Lindsay, Ontario and is poised to begin its next round of financing.
6
Technology for the Early Detection of Dental Caries
Andreas Mandelis
Co-inventors: Jose A. Garcia, Jinseok Jeon, Lena Nicolaides,
Anna Matvienko
Dr. Andreas Mandelis is Professor in the Departments of Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the Institute of Biomaterials
and Biomedical Engineering. He is also the Chairman and CEO of Diffusion-Wave
Diagnostic Technologies, Inc., and the CTO of Quantum Dental Technologies, Inc.
The technology behind the incorporation of Quantum Dental Technologies Inc.
(QDT) was conceived by Dr. Mandelis along with its experimental and theoretical
underpinnings, and was subsequently developed in his lab at the University of
Toronto, with the help of his co-inventors and guidance and technical input from
co-founder Dr. Stephen Abrams. The group set out to develop a diagnostic device
for the detection and monitoring of caries or tooth decay. The optical-to-thermal
energy conversion technology that powers The Canary System™, | Photothermal
Radiometry and Modulated Luminescence (PTR-LUM), allows clinicians to detect
and monitor caries on all tooth surfaces including interproximal regions around the
intact margins of restorations beneath opaque dental sealants and around orthodontic
brackets. The contributions by Dr. Mandelis and his team to the research were an
essential component of the development efforts that led to the commercialization
of The Canary System, which is now available to dental professionals in Canada
and the USA. Several studies have shown that PTR-LUM technology in the Canary
System exhibits higher sensitivity and specificity in detecting caries compared to
visual inspection, x-rays (radiographs), or fluorescence-based devices such as
DIAGNOdent. QDT was awarded the Sanofi Pasteur Healthcare & Biotechnology
Venture Challenge Award at the CMT2007 Convergent Medical Technologies
Conference, and is the winner of the 2010 National Instruments’ Graphical System
Design and Achievement Award in the Medical Device Category.
7
Neuroprosthetic Systems
Milos Popovic
Santa Huerta Olivares Massimo Tarulli
Aleksandar Prodic
Peter Lehn
Dr. Popovic is a Professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical
Engineering. He holds the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Chair in Spinal Cord Injury
Research and has received the Professional Engineers Research and Development
Award. Dr. Popovic’s research interests are in developing neuroprostheses for stroke
and spinal cord injury patients, brain-machine interfaces, assistive technology and
neurorehabilitation.
Dr. Massimo Tarulli completed B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering
cross- appointed with Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2006,
and 2009, respectively. Massimo is currently a third year medical student at the
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Massimo is a receipent of 2009 Gordon
Cressy Student Leadership Award. He will continue pursuing medical devices
development as a physician innovator. He is most eager to use his engineering
background in providing compassionate patient care.
Dr. Santa Concepcion Huerta Olivares received the B.Sc. degree from Technical
Institute of Celaya, Mexico, in 2003 and the Ph.D. from the Polytechnic University
of Madrid (Spain), in 2009. Between 2009 and 2012, she was a cross-appointed
Postdoctoral Fellow between ECE Department, University of Toronto and the
Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Presently, she works as a system architect for
power management products at Exar Corporation in Toronto. Her research interests
include power electronics, control techniques for dc-dc converters, and
low-power biomedical devices.
Prof. Aleksandar Prodic obtained Dipl. Ing. degree from the University of Novi Sad
(Serbia) in 1994 and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Colorado, Boulder, in 2000 and 2003, respectively. In 2003 he joined the ECE
Department at the University of Toronto. His research interests include power
electronics converter topologies, control, and mixed-signal IC design for power
management systems. The applications are ranging from portable electronics and
medical devices to hybrid vehicles. His research has resulted in more than 20 patents
and patent applications, many of them have become commercial products.
He was also a recipient of 2012 Inventor of the Year Award.
Prof. Peter Lehn – bio shown on pg. 6
8
Neuroprosthetic Systems
Milos Popovic
Santa Huerta Olivares Massimo Tarulli
Aleksandar Prodic
Peter Lehn
Dr. Popovic’s research is part of an exciting new discipline known as neuroprosthetic
systems - designing devices that help to restore or replace functions of the human
nervous system when it is damaged. In some cases, like the technology he is
developing within his company MyndTec Inc. (the company very recently changed
the name from Simple Systems to MyndTec), these devices have the potential to not
only replace lost function but to help people regain at least some normal function.
The founders of MyndTec Inc., which include Drs Popovic, Prodic, Baronijan, and
Pliura, are very excited about the recent financing for the company. The company
will be focused on manufacturing, testing and marketing an advanced electrical
stimulator, the purpose of which is to help restore voluntary reaching and grasping
functions in severely disabled individuals. Specifically, the stimulator will be used to
help those who have suffered severe strokes and spinal cord injuries relearn how to
manipulate objects. This is a transformative technology which will enable severely
disabled individuals to become more independent, and by doing so improve their
quality of life.
Polymers for Drug Delivery and Regeneration
Molly Shoichet
Co-inventors: Dimpy Gupta, Charles Tator,
Jordan Wosnick and Ryan Wylie
Dr. Molly Shoichet holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering
and is Professor of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, Chemistry and
Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is an expert
in the study of Polymers for Drug Delivery & Regeneration which are materials that
promote healing in the body. She is the recipient of many prestigious distinctions
including: the Canada Council for the Arts’ Killam Research Fellowship, NSERC’s
Steacie Fellowship, CIFAR’s Young Explorer’s Award (to the top 20 scientists under
40 in Canada), Canada’s Top 40 under 40. In 2011, Dr. Shoichet was appointed to
the Order of Ontario, Ontario’s highest honour, and recognized as a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2012, she received the
United States Society for Biomaterials’ Clemson Award and in 2013, Dr. Shoichet’s
contributions to Canada’s innovation agenda and the advancement of knowledge
were recognized with the QEII Diamond Jubilee Award
Professor Shoichet’s nomination is related to three inventions, which were created in
collaboration with co-inventors, Dimpy Gupta, Charles Tator, Jordan Wosnick and
Ryan Wylie. The family of patents related to hyaluronan/methylcellulose (HAMC)
has garnered great interest both from industry and academia worldwide. Molly’s
group has patented three variations of the HAMC formulations, in addition to the
composition of matter patent: one to deliver biological cells, one for polymeric
particles and finally, one to deliver hydrophobic drugs. All four have been optioned to
development partners and are currently being advanced through industry sponsored
research collaborations. A separate patent related to 3D hydrogel chemical patterning
has also attracted collaboration and industry interest.
9
Technologies to Prevent Marine Biofouling
Gilbert Walker
Co-inventor: Nikhil Gunari
Dr. Gilbert Walker is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University
of Toronto, Canada Research Chair in Biointerfaces and Director of the University
of Toronto Nanotechnology Network. His research is currently focused on Aquatic
Materials: Protecting the oceans, and delivering better healthcare. His research
group is addressing two serious maritime problems: 1) keeping ship hulls free of
fouling organisms, and thereby use dramatically less energy in transportation; and
2) keeping aquaculture nets clean, to reduce the costs of farming fish. In addressing
sticky problem #2, Drs. Walker and Gunari, with the help of the Innovations and
Partnerships Office and Mars Innovation, started Sylleta, a company formed to
commercialize their marine biofouling prevention solution, Macroblock.
Macroblock, has been approved by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory
Agency (PMRA) for large scale field testing (100m aquaculture cages) by
aquaculture companies. 3 cages containing 180,000 fish have been tested and all
have exhibited performance as good or superior to the copper-based standard. The
companies are allowed to sell the fish that were raised within the cage, after a growout period. Sylleta is now applying to PMRA for approval for sales in Canada,
which will trigger the ability to sell in some foreign markets, as well. Pending
regulatory approval, Sylleta plans 1) to sell an antifouling liquid to treat nets; and 2)
to sell treated nets.
10
Inventions for Human Computer Interaction
Daniel Wigdor
Co-inventor: Ricardo Jota
Daniel Wigdor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences at UTM, as well as the Department of Computer Science at
St. George. He is also Co-Director of the Dynamic Graphics Project at the University
of Toronto. Before joining the faculty at U of T in 2011, Daniel was a researcher
at Microsoft Research, the user experience architect of the Microsoft Surface Table,
and a company-wide expert in Natural User Interfaces. He is also the co-founder of
a number of startups aiming to commercialize his research.
Daniel and Ricardo’s research interest lies in the general area of Human Computer
Interaction. They have investigated why computers, smartphones, and tablets have
an inherent lag between the user’s input, and the system’s response. The duration
of this latency is currently dependent on a number of things, including the ‘load’
of the system, such as how many applications are running, how much memory is
available, and how efficiently the applications have been designed. In modern touchbased devices, the lag ranges from 50 to 200ms. Their studies have shown that users
are able to perceive as little as 6ms of lag, which they vastly prefer more responsive
systems, and basic operations are more accurately performed under lower latency.
Their invention, created in collaboration with co-inventors Dr. Clifton Forlines
(VP of Software, Tactual Labs) and Mr. Steven Sanders (Co-President, Tactual
Labs), is the Input Processing Unit (IPU), which reduces end-to-end latency to
less than 10ms. They can achieve this by generating the response to user input in
computer hardware, rather than relying on application software to provide this
response, as in traditional systems. This is accomplished while also achieving two
critical goals. First, the responses are in context, so that the user believes it is the
application itself that provides them. Second, there is no appreciable difference in
writing applications for our system than writing for traditional tools.
The invention
has been spun out as Tactual Labs (www.tactuallabs.com), which, in partnership with
U of T, is continuing to develop the technology.
11
Office of the Vice President, Research and Innovation
Simcoe Hall, Room 109
27 King’s College Circle
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1A1
May 15th, 2013
www.research.utoronto.ca
Ahmed El-Sohemy
Improving Health Through
Personalized Nutrition Assessment
Axel Guenther Milica Radisic, Lian Leng,
Arianna McAllister, Andrew Woollard and
Boyang Zhang
3D Bio Printer for Tissue Engineering Applications
Patrick Gunning
Drug Discoveries for Cancer Treatment
Steve Joordens Dwayne Pare
Innovative Cloud-Based eLearning Tools
Peter Lehn
Power Circuit Topologies for Power Conversion
Andreas Mandelis Jose Garcia
Jinseok Jeon Lena Nicolaides
Anna Matvienko
Stephen Abrams
Technology for the Early Detection of Dental Caries
Milos Popovic
Santa Huerta Olivares
Massimo Tarulli Peter Lehn
Aleksandar Prodic
Neuroprosthetic Systems
Molly Shoichet Dimpy Gupta
Charles Tator
Jordan Wosnick
Ryan Wylie
Polymers for Drug Delivery and Regeneration
Gilbert Walker
Nikhil Gunari
Technologies to Prevent Marine Biofouling
Daniel Wigdor
Ricardo Jota
Clifton Forlines Steven Sanders
Inventions for Human Computer Interaction