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The Year of COVID 2: WRH CEO reflects on one year with COVID To mark the anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex on March 20, the Windsor Star has prepared a four-part series called The Year of COVID. We speak with health-care professionals, long-term care representatives, family members of loved ones lost, and more.
St. Clair is testing a made-in-Canada device that helps patients breathe Dr. Clive Davis, left, and Dr. Jay MacDonald, right, test an early prototype of the Canada Hood. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Jay MacDonald) Helping critically ill patients breathe while protecting health-care workers is a challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, one involving researchers around the world. A Windsor collaboration involving St. Clair College is in the early stages of developing a made-in-Canada solution that was recently awarded a $19,450 Igniting Discovery grant by the local WE-SPARK Health Institute. It’s called the Canada Hood. The researchers are Dr. Jay MacDonald, an emergency physician at Windsor Regional Hospital who also works in the hyperbaric medicine program at Hamilton Health Sciences; Dr. Clive Davis, an expert in respirology, intensive care and hyperbaric medicine in Hamilton; and Dr. Rob Woodall, an emergency physician and former ER chief at Windsor Regional. Crest Mold Technology Inc. in Oldcastle is building the hood prototypes, while St. Clair is providing…
Researchers set to screen for COVID-19 on campus Jackie Fong leads staff member Elizabeth Fidalgo Da Silva through the MyCap app as part of a pilot project to screen campus volunteers for COVID-19 Photo courtesy: University of Windsor UWindsor researchers launched a pilot project to screen 60 campus volunteers for COVID-19. Participants in the COVID Surveillance Platform study will have their saliva tested weekly, and will get results via a cellphone app called MyCap. Phase one of the three-phase campus COVID screening program started on March 9, for individuals working in the Faculty of Science’s Essex Centre of Research (CORe) building. “This will be critical for the rapid response and virus surveillance,” says lead researcher and biomedical sciences professor Lisa Porter. “We’re using a low-cost, rapid PCR test, which was developed by chemistry and biochemistry’s Yufeng Tong as part of a WE-SPARK Health Institute seed grant; this test has a very low number of false positives, similar to that of public health, and…
Researcher is seeking to make classrooms more inclusive John Freer, co-ordinator of St. Clair College’s Educational Support program, is researching a strategy for making classrooms more inclusive. Photo courtesy: St. Clair College A St. Clair College professor has landed two grants to test a strategy he believes could make classrooms more inclusive for those with disabilities. John Freer, co-ordinator of the College’s Educational Support program, is receiving a $15,000 Igniting Discovery grant from the local WE-SPARK Health Institute. The seed money helped him land another $11,000 in funding from the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities to cover equipment costs for his project. The grants are making it possible for him to build on research he began as a doctoral student at the University of Windsor. “Historically, people with disabilities have been excluded from schools and classes,” Freer said. “Now we see more and more children with disabilities being educated alongside their peers, which is fantastic. But my concern is we lack…
WE-SPARK Igniting Discovery Grants Support Several WRH Projects Last week, WE-SPARK Health Institute and its funding partners announced 15 research grants totaling $287,450 to tackle local health challenges, including several projects lead by teams at Windsor Regional Hospital. Called “Igniting Discovery Grants”, they provide funding to promote the development of early-stage, innovative health research and health education projects in Windsor-Essex, and can include studies related to emerging topics in health, addressing gaps in healthcare needs, igniting new ideas, generating and disseminating knowledge, and sparking collaborations. A key goal of the grants is to ignite new collaborators across WE-SPARK’s four partner institutions - Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital, St. Clair College, and the University of Windsor - along with numerous community members, students, and volunteers across Windsor-Essex. Research teams at Windsor Regional hospital received a total of $75,000 in grants to support the following projects: Real-World…
WE-SPARK Health Institute and its funding partners have awarded 15 research grants totaling $287,450 WE-SPARK Health Institute and its funding partners have awarded 15 research grants totalling $287,450 to tackle local health challenges, including nine UWindsor projects. Called “Igniting Discovery Grants,” the funding promotes the development of early-stage, innovative health research and education projects in Windsor-Essex, and can include studies related to emerging topics in health, addressing gaps in healthcare needs, igniting new ideas, generating and disseminating knowledge, and sparking collaborations. A key goal of the grants is to encourage co-operation across WE-SPARK’s four partner institutions — the University of Windsor, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital, and St. Clair College — along with community members, students, and volunteers. “Grants are the fuel that allows researchers to put together a team, to move their idea forward and tackle the biggest health problems that impact society,” said biomedical sciences professor Lisa Porter,…
WE-SPARK Health Institute awards research grants to promote research and health education projects The WE-SPARK health institute has awarded 15 research grants worth more than $287,000 to promote research and health education projects across Windsor-Essex region such as gaps in healthcare needs. The 15 projects will involve over 100 researchers and trainees and thousands of participants, with a key goal to collaborate across WE-SPARK's four partner institutions - Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital, St. Clair College and the University of Windsor. The Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation was the largest grant funder, supporting $130,000 in cancer research grants. Read more. Courtesy: https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/we-spark-health-institute-awards-research-grants-to-promote-health-education-projects-1.5337451
UWindsor chemist designs alternate treatment for brain cancer Chemistry professor John Trant has received a $50,000 grant from the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada to launch research into cancer-fighting nanoparticles that kill tumours by tricking the brain’s defences.
UWindsor researcher signs on to effort building new Canadian neutron beams UWindsor graduate students Michael Nguyen, Mitchell DiPasquale, and Brett Rickeard visit the NIST Center for Neutron Research, a neutron beam facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A $14.25 million federal grant will fund new neutron beam equipment in Canada and access to similar facilities in the U.S. The University of Windsor is part of a national initiative to increase Canadian researchers’ access to neutron beams, with a $14.25 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for a project called “Building a Future for Canadian Neutron Scattering,” led by McMaster University. Neutron beams for materials research require extremely expensive equipment and are crucial to myriad fields of research, including clean energy technology, biomedicine, and the auto industry. “This is one of the most exciting parts of the proposal, we don’t know which new materials will be discovered as a result of these new resources,” says Drew Marquardt, grant co-applicant and assistant…
