Health research gathering to provide project overview WE-SPARK Health Institute is preparing to host its next bi-monthly virtual Think Tank, a unique opportunity for researchers, healthcare providers, students, and the Windsor-Essex community to come together to share ideas, get to know each other, and learn what’s happening in the region. The Think Tank is open to everyone and will take place Friday, April 9, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Click here for more information and to register. Laura D’Alimonte, clinical practice manager for Windsor Regional Hospital, says that participating in previous Think Tanks has helped her to understand the research landscape in Windsor-Essex, allowed for networking opportunities with academic leaders across the region, and provided opportunities for collaborations with experts with similar academic interests. “I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the participants and I encourage people from all backgrounds to be part of these,” she says. “You don’t have to be thinking of being on a research team…
UWindsor researchers launch COVID testing pilot project on campus Jackie Fong, a research manager to Dr. Lisa Porter in the biomedical sciences department at the University of Windsor, holds a COVID-19 testing swab, on March 18, 2021. PHOTO BY DAX MELMER /Windsor Star Researchers at the University of Windsor have launched a pilot project for on-campus COVID-19 testing in hopes it lays the foundation for a safe return to in-person learning. The three-phase project started earlier this month with 30 volunteers from the science faculty’s Centre of Research (CORe) building. Participants collect a saliva sample and turn it in for weekly testing. Results are given through a cellphone app. Chemistry professor Yufeng Tong developed the rapid PCR test being used for the project with funding from a WE-Spark Health Institute grant. “Screening is quite a straightforward process,” said lead researcher and biomedical science professor Lisa Porter. “We have all the equipment, the same kind of equipment as public health. Screening asymptomatic people is…
On the frontlines and in the headlines: Dr. Jessica Summerfield In spite of the uncertainty and sometimes chaos of the last year, Adjunct Professor Dr. Jessica Summerfield says her days on-call are characterized by an efficient, unwavering routine. She wakes up at 5:00 a.m.; breakfast is always coffee and two eggs. After driving to Windsor Regional Hospital - Ouellette Campus, she pulls into her regular parking spot and carefully puts on the layers of necessary protective equipment. The ritual continues with the daily screening upon entering the hospital, and a careful disinfection of the surfaces in her office. As a COVID-19 frontline physician in the midst of a two-week on-call stretch, Dr. Summerfield makes her way through her list of patients; completing rounds, updating families and reviewing new admissions. While the rate of new infections is slowly beginning to relent, the volume in the hospital remains high. “I’m coping as best I can, and I’m grateful for a supportive family and fantastic colleagues. Morale has actually been pretty…
Cancer research gets $250,000 boost Two UWindsor professors developing new therapies for particularly aggressive cancers have received another round of funding for their ground-breaking research. Molecular biologist Lisa Porter and chemist John Trant have received $250,000 from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to support their project for another year. They received $250,000 from the institute last year and $100,000 in 2019 for a total of $600,000 to date. “Our funding has been based on progress,” said Dr. Trant. Combining biology, synthetic chemistry, and computational chemistry, Trant and Porter have gone from doing preliminary research into cancer-related proteins to creating new potential drugs to target those proteins, and devising the computational models and cell assays to test them on. Trant and Porter’s teams are researching CdKs, short for Cyclin-dependent Kinases, a family of naturally occurring proteins in the body that protect cells from mutating into tumours. Cancers — especially aggressive…
WE-SPARK issues 2021 grant call WE-SPARK Health Institute is now accepting applications to stimulate the development of early-stage, novel, and innovative health research and education projects in Windsor-Essex. The WE-SPARK Igniting Discovery Grants will provide funding for projects that have any health research focus across all health themes: biomedical research; clinical research; implementation science; educational health programs; health services research; and social, cultural, environmental, and population health research. The objectives of the grants are to provide new research teams and programs with support to pursue quality projects and encourage exploratory and discovery-oriented projects, and boost collaborations among our Windsor-Essex community and beyond. Principal applicants must be from one of WE-SPARK’s four partner institutions: the University of Windsor, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, St. Clair College, or Windsor Regional Hospital. The letter of intent deadline is March 31 at 5 p.m. For complete…
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…
