Forum to consider health research proposals Professors Jill Urbanic and John Trant will propose potential research projects at an upcoming WE-Spark think tank event. Two UWindsor professors will present their ideas for potential research projects at an upcoming health-related forum. Engineering professor Jill Urbanic and chemistry professor John Trant will be among the featured speakers at the WE-Spark Health Institute Virtual Think Tank on June 4. Dr. Urbanic will talk about the use of artificial tissue, called anthropomorphic phantoms, in medical training. Dr. Trant will discuss antimicrobial agents and research into quorum sensing, bacteria’s ability to share information to adjust gene expression. A third speaker, Rasna Gupta from the Windsor Regional Hospital’s cancer program, will talk about building a local physician wellness program. The WE-Spark Health Institute is a research partnership involving the University of Windsor, Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and St. Clair College. “Our Think…
Professor dedicated to diversifying faculty A young Kristoffer Romero enjoys the 1991 Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. Psychology professor Kristoffer Romero considers himself part of the changing face of academia. A Filipino-Canadian, he hopes that over time, more and more students will see themselves reflected in the faculty of the University of Windsor. “My parents immigrated to Canada in the early ’80s, first landing in B.C. and eventually settling in Kitchener-Waterloo,” he recalls. “As they were part of an earlier wave of Filipino newcomers, I didn’t know many other Filipinos growing up.” When he moved to Toronto to attend university, he found a more diverse population, but observed a discrepancy. “Despite the diversity I saw in the city and the student body, the faculty were not nearly as diverse, and I only had one Asian professor during all of undergrad,” says Dr. Romero. “It was a situation I wanted to remedy.” When he moved to Windsor in 2019, he did not expect much diversity in the faculty,…
Researcher to study COVID variants surfacing in Windsor-Essex Chemistry professor Kenneth Ng will study the proteins that manage how coronaviruses replicate and infect, to prepare to battle emerging variants. A new health research grant will allow a UWindsor professor to closely study the proteins that manage how coronaviruses replicate and infect, to help prepare for the development of new vaccines and drugs to battle emerging COVID variants. Kenneth Ng, a chemistry and biochemistry professor, received a $50,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) COVID variant grant, supplementing a previous COVID-19 therapeutics grant awarded to Dr. Ng and his research partner, Chang-Chun Ling of the University of Calgary. It will allow the team to work closely with the wastewater surveillance and saliva testing research projects led by UWindsor researchers Mike McKay, Lisa Porter, and Yufeng Tong. There are now several vaccines available for COVID-19, but there are concerns that they will be less effective against some of the coronavirus variants…
Capstone project helps visually impaired individuals see with sound Bryce McGregor, a graduating student from the Biomedical Engineering Technology program, demostrates his sensor device. Graduating Biomedical Engineering Technology students have created a device which detects objects in the immediate walking path of a visually impaired person. The customizable and wearable harness consists of a clip-on ultrasonic sensor which sounds an alert when the person wearing it is approaching a mass. It was designed to take the place of a white cane or walking stick. Instructor Jim Durocher said for their year-end capstone projects, the students were told to consider a disease or disability and improve the quality of their life. “These are more ambitious and higher risk projects. With ambitious projects you’ll often encounter many roadblocks.” But this is the nature of the course said Durocher. “How are you able to adapt around the roadblocks and course correct when something detrimental occurs? To their credit these students have done really well with…
Students develop app to improve health A pair of St. Clair College students have created an app to assist people in taking their medication. The application, named Medify, allows users to add their medications with the date and time they are to be taken in a calendar format. The app also features an option for caregivers to view what medications the user is taking and what medications have been taken on any given day. It was created by Abel Anderson and Hasan Muslemani, two students in the mobile application development program at St. Clair College. Anderson said the idea grew out of addressing the needs of a registered pharmacist, Jody Lecuyer, early last year. “During that time, we talked with her and got a general idea of the project she wanted. Later on, at the beginning of the past semester, we met with her again and started making plans for the project itself,” said Anderson. This process involved discussing features that would be provided on the app between himself and partner Muslemani, drawing prototypes to…
Return to campus plans taking shape The pedestrian promenade at University of Windsor's main campus is pictured. PHOTO BY NICK BRANCACCIO /Windsor Star Wayne State University in Michigan is offering students a $10 incentive to get a COVID-19 vaccine as part of the plan for a return to face-to-face learning this fall. M. Roy Wilson, the school’s president, announced the incentive last week in an email to students. A university spokesman said more than 1,300 students uploaded vaccine verification the first day. “I do not believe we have offered money before as an incentive, certainly not for anything health related,” said Matt Lockwood, the university’s associate vice president of communications. The $10 is placed in a student’s account and can be used immediately on Grubhub or on campus next fall. Lockwood said the idea came out of a virtual meeting about pandemic protocols and vaccine compliance. St. Clair College is pictured, Monday, January 25, 2021. PHOTO BY DAX MELMER /Windsor Star “We were talking…
Science students get creative with microbes Student Shannon Smith designed a poster highlighting the genetics, habitats, and health impacts of yeast, along with — in the section shown — its culinary uses. Undergraduates were encouraged to let their artistic-sides flow for a class project that turned microbiology knowledge into works of art. Terri Lawrence, instructor of the second-year course “Introductory Microbiology,” asked students to create posters or infographics featuring micro-organisms in real-world situations. “Asking them to create these infographics and getting them to use what they had learned in the course deepens their understanding of the information,” says Dr. Lawrence. She says her teaching assistant, fourth-year student Lucas Vajko Siddall, thought up the project and directed the students into translating their knowledge. Vajko Siddall says he assigned all types of microbes — from fungi to prions — to the students and let them create what they wanted. “It just had to be a real-world application,…
Communicating health research - it takes a team At WE-SPARK Health Institute communicating health research, what researchers do and why it’s important is critical to helping translating knowledge and findings into action. Megan Pidgeon, a 3rd year student in the Graphic Design Program in the School of Media, Art & Design at St. Clair College filled a huge gap when joining the WE-SPARK team for a one-month internship providing marketing, media and design expertise. Megan brought her expertise and passion to the table, helping on a number of special projects including WE-SPARK Quarterly Metrics Snapshots, stand-alone graphics and a portfolio of social media tiles. WE-SPARK is already taking advantage of her “Research Happens Here” badge across several of its platforms. “I was so impressed with the quality of Megan’s work and the perspective she brought to our team. She not only designed products that we requested, she helped guide us so that the end result was something we are all excited and proud of” said Karen Metcalfe,…
Biology students win recognition for provincial conference presentations Integrative biology student Cassandra Simone won first-place honours for her presentation in the Ecology and Environment category at Ontario Biology Day. Two science undergraduates won first-place presentation awards at Ontario Biology Day 2021, an annual conference which allows biology students from across the province to showcase their research, engage with others, and get inspired by current research. Integrative biology major Cassandra Simone, a student in the laboratory of Tina Semeniuk, says she was honoured to win in the Ecology and Environment category for presenting her research investigating whether polar bear foraging is facilitating gull predation of Common Eider eggs and what strategies gulls are using during disturbance foraging. “My other objective was to examine the subsequent antipredator responses that eiders display to bears and gulls to determine if gulls are successfully preying on the eider nests or not,” says Simone. “I watched aerial drone video footage,…
