Large Scale Applied Research Project (LSARP) Competition Archives - Page 2 of 3

Mine wastewater solutions: Next generation biological treatment through functional genomics (2015)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

The Canadian mining sector is a cross-country presence, with mines in every province and territory contributing more than $57 billion to the economy (3 per cent of Canada’s GDP) and employing over 375,000 people. As pressures on Canada’s freshwater water supplies grow, the sector as a whole, is seeking to develop the most sustainable approaches to mining possible. Mining wastewaters contain sulphur compounds, which can cause acidification and toxicity in receiving waters if not properly managed. Currently the industry lacks effective monitoring tools and innovative biological solutions to better controls these contaminants. Dr. Lesley A. Warren of the University of Toronto, along with Dr. Jillian Banfield of University of California, Berkeley, is leading a project that will apply genomics, geochemistry and modeling to mining wastewaters to develop innovative biological monitoring, management and treatment tools. The integration of genomics will provide understanding of bacterial opportunities in these wastewaters for new flexible management and treatment options to safeguard the quality of wastewater. These new tools will enable the industry to better monitor, manage and reduce sulphur compounds in their wastewaters. Her international team will also generate new tools, to support science-informed, cost-benefit decision-making for the mining sector. This project is the first of its kind in Canada and possibly the world. The involvement of three mining and two environmental consulting companies, provincial and national sector industry associations and government will ensure the project’s findings are applied, leading to lower management costs, decreased risk of environmental damage, reduced liabilities for the industry and better safeguards for Canada’s vital freshwater supplies. The project’s GE³LS research component will develop a risk and options assessment for decision-making (ROAD). This process will enable translation of the team’s scientific knowledge into a nested set of decisions, to guide mining operational practices, corporate strategic planning and policy development.

SYNBIOMICS: Functional genomics and techno-economic models for advanced biopolymer synthesis (2015)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

In a world that is requiring increasingly biological-based solutions to meet sustainably a growing need for materials, tree biomass remains one of the most abundant resources on earth. While there is general appreciation of the potential of microbial enzymes in expanding the range of products made from tree biomass, to date, biotechnology development has focused largely on the deconstruction of trees into sugars that can then be converted through fermentation to biofuels. Drs. Emma Master of the University of Toronto and Harry Brumer of UBC are leading a team looking in the other direction. Their project, SYNBIOMICS, is focused on upgrading key biopolymers from trees using enzymes, to create materials that provide higher value than what otherwise might be realized. The project will harness the genetic potential of microorganisms to identify and develop new biocatalysts for this purpose. End users and stakeholders have helped to identify potential high-value products to target, including resins, coatings, bioplastics and adhesives. To facilitate commercialization of the biocatalysts and bioprocesses the team develops, the project will establish roadmaps to foster small and medium-sized enterprises that will work together synergistically with nearby pulp mills. The results will expand Canada’s role in global bioproducts markets, creating lasting knowledge-based economic opportunities for Canada’s forest sector and rural communities. The project’s GE³LS research activities include: coordinating an iterative bioproduct and biotechnology development cycle with End-users; developing techno-economic models for SME ecosystems in the forest sector; and analyzing anaerobic bioreactors to develop predictive tools for effluent treatment and energy recovery. Read more at http://www.synbiomics.ca/

UCAN CURE: Precision decisions for childhood arthritis (2017)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Arthritis – it’s not just for seniors. More than 24,000 children in Canada live with the painful, chronic disease that can cause fevers and permanent destruction of joints, leading to a life of permanent disability. A class of powerful drugs called biologics can dramatically reduce joint inflammation and pain and prevent joint damage in the longer term. The drugs cost as much as $400,000 per year, though, and children may only qualify after traditional treatments have failed, by which time permanent damage has occurred. Evidence shows that early short-term biologic treatment, even for as little as three months, can result in long-lasting disease control in the most severely affected children, possibly even curing the disease. UCAN CURE will let doctors and families quickly know who needs biologics, which biologic will work best for an individual child, and when the biologic can be safely stopped. The team will develop the first genomics-based, low-cost biomarker blood test to rapidly identify the best treatment for each child, thus completely transforming the treatment of childhood arthritis. A smartphone- and web-based system of eHealth apps will give children and their families a powerful voice and establish an integrated network of patients, physicians and researchers. An updatable model of the risks, benefits and costs of biologic therapy will help inform health-policy decision makers. The research is expected to have immediate impact on treatment for children with arthritis, improving their health and the quality of life for themselves and their families.

Microbiome-based precision medicine in inflammatory bowel disease (2017)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) results from gut inflammation and leaves sufferers with serious health issues due to this chronic inflammation. Canada has one of the highest rates of IBD in the world, with more than 10,200 new cases each year, for an estimated total of 233,000 patients (including 5,900 children) and a cost to the Canadian economy of $2.8 billion/year. There is no cure for this lifelong condition and its cause remains unknown, although it seems to be tied to an imbalance of key beneficial and deleterious intestinal microbes. Treating IBD can be unpredictable raising concerns of using too-aggressive treatments for some patients and risking doing more harm than good while using insufficiently aggressive treatments might not help. Drs. Alain Stintzi and David Mack will use genomics to characterize, identify and quantify the microbes that change in IBD patients during treatment. They will use this information to design simple and quick tests to reveal the optimal treatment for each affected patient, allow for personalized treatment plans based on each patient’s characteristics and be used to easily monitor each patient’s progress and modify treatment plans if needed. These tests will help clinicians use the right drug at the right time for the right patient. The researchers will also unravel the mechanisms underlying IBD development and identify new targets for future drug development. Their work will set the stage for future clinical trials aimed at restoring IBD patients’ microbes to a healthy state. The project will reduce long-term disability and enable patients to reach deep and long-lasting remission, thereby improving quality of life and significant cost savings.

Personalized therapy for individuals with cystic fibrosis (2017)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common fatal genetic disease, affecting 4,000 Canadians and 80,000 people throughout the world. The debilitating disease causes difficulties in breathing, recurrent lung infections and digestive disorders before killing those who suffer from it, at a median age of 35 in Canada. Currently, treatments can ease the symptoms of the disease, but there is no cure. Newer drugs today can address the underlying genetic defect that causes CF, but only some patients respond positively to them, while others do not – and there is no way for clinicians to know in advance which category a patient will fall into. Given the side effects of these drugs and their cost (more than $300,000/year per patient for a drug that needs to be administered lifelong), there is a pressing need for robust predictors of who will respond to what treatment. Dr. Felix Ratjen of the Hospital for Sick Children and his team are developing predictive tools that will help clinicians determine the right medicine for the right patient. The team will examine how genetic factors, which can be assessed from a non-invasive blood test, can help predict individual treatment responses. They will also examine if drug testing on patient-derived tissue samples can be used to inform the potential clinical response to drugs by each patient. The team will work with industry partners, patient organizations and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to integrate these strategies into patient care once they have been shown to be effective. The result of the team’s work will be a paradigm shift toward individualized treatment for CF, assistance for clinicians in making treatment decisions, guidance for policymakers on reimbursement for the most cost-effective care and better health outcomes for patients.

Care4Rare Canada: Harnessing multi-omics to deliver innovative diagnostic care for rare genetic diseases in Canada (C4R-SOLVE) (2017)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

There are more than 7,000 rare genetic diseases in Canada, which have a devastating impact on some one million Canadians and their families: two-thirds of these diseases cause significant disability; threequarters affect children; more than half lead to early death; and, almost none has any targeted treatment. Further, more than one-third of these diseases remain unsolved (their genetic cause is unknown). Building on the work of the Care4Rare Canada Consortium, the C4R-SOLVE project is working to identify the genetic cause of unsolved rare diseases and make genomic sequencing available to Canadians for rare disease diagnosis. Genomic sequencing will speed up the diagnostic process, thereby ending or even preventing years of diagnostic testing and visits to multiple specialists. Providing a timely diagnosis improves the care and wellbeing of patients and their families and reduces unnecessary healthcare spending. Key to C4R-SOLVE’s success will be new sequencing technologies and improved worldwide data sharing. In addition, the group will work with provincial ministries of health to determine how best to include genomic sequencing as a clinical test to diagnose rare diseases, beginning with Alberta and Ontario. In doing so, C4R-SOLVE will more than double our ability to diagnose unsolved rare disease, while building the infrastructure and tools needed to improve rare disease diagnosis worldwide. Accurate and early diagnosis will optimize care, improve the wellbeing of patients and their families, provide new insights into these devastating diseases, and potentially save at least $28 million/year in health-care spending.

FISHES: Fostering Indigenous Small‐scale fisheries for Health, Economy, and food Security (2018)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

The FISHES project will develop and apply genomic approaches in concert with Traditional Ecological Knowledge to address critical challenges and opportunities related to food security and commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries of northern Indigenous Peoples in Canada (Inuit, Cree and Dené communities). The project will develop genomic resources for six species important to northern communities and use these resources to identify genetically distinct populations, assess their vulnerability to future climatic conditions, quantify their contributions to mixed‐population harvests, and measure the contribution of fish from developing hatchery programs to subsistence harvests. FISHES will support the co‐generation of knowledge to foster the development and co‐management of sustainable fisheries and will also contribute to our ability to forecast the response of key fisheries to rapid global and socio‐economic changes in northern Indigenous communities.

4DWheat: Diversity, Discovery, Design and Delivery (2018)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Wheat is the most important crop for current and future global food security, as it supplies the most calories and proteins to the global population. Wheat is grown on more land area than any other commercial crop. Meeting the challenge of increasing wheat production to match the growing demand for food over the next 20–30 years is of paramount importance. Current yield gains (~0.67% per year) are impressive but will not meet the need (1.6-1.8%) of a growing global population and may become unsustainable due to lack of new genetic diversity. 4DWheat will apply the very latest in genomic strategies to address this gap by focusing on two major challenges: enhancing yield and managing producer risk to important diseases. 4DWheat will apply cutting-edge genomics for “harnessing Diversity, advancing Domestication, enabling Discovery, and expediting Delivery” of new sources of genetic variation. Applying genomic tools will result in strategies to fully capture diversity in wheat breeding. The project will also quantify the current and future value of wheat genetic resources and examine regulatory networks to promote their utilization using new breeding technologies.

Integrating genomic approaches to improve dairy cattle resilience: A comprehensive goal to enhance Canadian dairy industry sustainability (2018)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Dairy is one of Canada’s most important and dynamic industries. In 2015, the dairy sector contributed roughly $19.9 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). This project aims to use genomic tools to develop new datasets and genomic tools in order to develop a more ‘resilient’ cow, i.e. an animal able to adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions, without compromising its productivity, health or fertility. A set of new genomic breeding tools for the dairy producers and the artificial insemination industry will be implemented based on a novel selection index for resilience, which will include novel traits related to fertility, health and environmental efficiency (feed efficiency and methane emission). The new index for resilience will allow farmers to reduce costs related to poor cow fertility, diseases and animal feed, and a more accurate selection for increased fertility, broader disease resistance and environmental efficiency. This will result in benefits, not only to Canada’s dairy industry, but will help address global food security and sustainability.

GEN-FISH: Genomic Network for Fish Identification, Stress and Health (2018)

April 27, 2023 by

Overview

Freshwater fish resources contribute to Canada’s economy both directly and indirectly. Thriving freshwater fish resources are the lifeblood of many rural, northern and Indigenous communities and are central to the social and cultural lives of millions of Canadians. Yet, freshwater fish stocks are under threat. Canadian freshwater fish stocks need science-based monitoring and management. The logistical difficulties of monitoring fish stocks in Canada’s 2+ million lakes and countless rivers are compounded by the limitations of conventional sampling methods, which provide only a snapshot. The project will use genomic approaches to develop a Fish Survey Toolkit based on environmental DNA from water samples and a Fish Health Toolkit that will provide quantitative assessments of the health of fish and the stressors they face. Collectively, these toolkits will enable a complete and accurate assessment of the status of Canada’s freshwater fish resources and save millions of dollars for government, NGOs, fish culture facilities, and environmental consultants in fish survey costs, and will result in additional indirect savings through more effective and directed management actions. Furthermore, and most importantly, the project will ensure sustainability of Canada’s freshwater fish resources for generations to come.

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