AGENDA | CBB TEAM | STATIONS | REGISTRATION
Join us for an afternoon of CBB! Celebrate 13 years of bringing together researchers from across all six faculties to tackle a common goal: create solutions for health challenges.
On Friday December 13, 2024, the Centre will be hosting a showcase from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the University Club.
Hear from our passionate team, experience the results of our incredible past Seed Fund recipients, learn about our pilot Clinical Council program, match with colleagues across campus for an innovative collaboration activity, and discover how you can play a role in the future of the Centre.
*Note: VIP registration is closed, so please use the registration below if you would like to attend.
Agenda
Date: December 13, 2024
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. EST
Location: University Club
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 2:00 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. |
Arrival/socializing Hors d'oeuvres and beverages |
| 2:20 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. |
Greeting, acknowledgement, brief Centre history and 'State of Affairs.' Speaker: Clark Dickerson |
| 2:30 p.m. - 2:40 p.m. |
Staff introduction, event features, instructions on how to navigate the room. Speaker: Carly Turnbull |
| 2:40 p.m. |
Guests freely explore stations Stations: |
| 3:50 p.m. |
Close of event Speaker: Carly Turnbull |
The CBB Team
Clark Dickerson, Executive Director
As Executive Director, Clark leads the Centre, steering our long-term goals and ensuring that the team's projects and services align with our mission. He also represents the Centre within the community and to external stakeholders.
Carly Turnbull, Managing Director
Carly leads the Centre's strategic planning and projects, with a particular focus on the Clinical Council. She works to identify new initiatives and partnerships that will best serve the Centre and its members. As the welcoming face of the organization, Carly plays a key role in introducing new members and fostering collaborative relationships.
Jessica O'Connor, Operations Manager
The Centre takes great pride in offering our members a variety of events, networking opportunities, and funding initiatives, all of which are organized and managed by Jessica in her role as Operations Manager. Jessica oversees our Seed Program and serves as the primary point of contact for all internal events.
Chandler Berardi, Engagement Specialist and Administrative Assistant
As the Engagement Specialist, Chandler oversees all marketing and communications efforts. She manages the Centre's social media channels, website, and the monthly newsletter. A key aspect of her role also involves coordinating event logistics and documenting and reporting on these events.
Stations
Past Seed Recipients
Explore research projects funded by CBB's annual Seed Fund program and where they are now.
Kostadinka Bizheva | Physics and Astronomy, Round 4 Seed Fund Recipient
Project Title: Non-invasive, label-free imaging and identification of limbal stem cells with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
The limbus is about 1.5 mm wide transitional region of tissue that separates the peripheral cornea (the front transparent part of the eye) from the conjunctiva and sclera (the white part of the eyeball). The limbus contains well-defined regions (crypts) that house the limbal stem cells (LSC), which are responsible for the continuous regeneration of the corneal epithelium (the outermost cellular layer of the cornea). The limbal crypts also contain progenitor cells (the daughter cells of the LSC). Limbal stem cell dysfunction /deficiency (LSCD) is a condition that causes loss of normal function and eventually death of the LSC. LSCD causes decreased vision, photophobia, chronic inflammation, recurrent episodes of pain and in severe cases leads to blindness. LSCD affects > 5% of Canadians and can be treated both medically (topical medications and contact lenses) and surgically (transplantation of healthy LSCs) in severe cases. Clinical problem: Surgical treatment of LSCD requires harvesting of healthy LSCs from donors and implanting them at specific locations in the limbus of LSCD patients. However, currently there are no clinical imaging modalities that can image limbal cells in-vivo and without contact with the corneal surface and identify the limbal stem cells from the progenitor cells in the limbal crypts. Significance: The OCT technology and the novel biomarker for non-contact and “label-free” identification of LSC in OCT images, will help surgeons to correctly identify healthy LSC zones from LSC-deficient areas and permit safe, targeted harvesting of donor LSC and accurate placement of LSC transplants in deficient areas. Therefore, the OCT technology and biomarkers have the potential to become invaluable clinical tools for early diagnostics and more precise grading of LSCD, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment of LSCD, as well as pre-operative planning and post-operative evaluation of subjects treated with LSC transplantation surgery.
Naveen Chandrashekar | Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Round 3 Seed Fund Recipient
Project Title: Knee implant loosening detection: an accurate technique for intraoperative and post-operative loosening monitoring
Many knee implants loosen over a period of time due to structural issues leading to revision surgeries. A dramatic increase in the number of knee implant surgeries and revision surgeries have been witnessed recently but still no reliable tool for the detection of loosening exists. The goal of this project is to conduct pilot studies on developing a wearable device that uses vibration to accurately detect and monitor implant loosening.
The collected data and designed techniques will be used to build a prototype of an easy-to-use wearable system for non-invasive, objective and highly accurate detection of knee implant loosening. The system can be used in clinics for patient follow-ups to monitor implant loosening conditions during visits to the orthopedic surgeon, nurse or physiotherapist with a simple, non-invasive, 2-4 minute test. It can also be used intra-operatively to ensure that the implant was optimally secured to the bone which can support the orthopedic surgeons’ decision and for training of new orthopedic surgeons.
Lyndon Jones, Chau-Minh Phan and Debbie Jones | Optometry and Vision Science, Round 6 Seed Fund Recipients
Project Title: Development of an educational optometric package for training foreign body removal
Vision is critical to the quality of life, but at times corneal health can be threatened by the impact of various “foreign bodies.” Small pieces of metal, glass, wood or plastic in the environment can become lodged in the cornea through everyday activities. When left untreated, these particles cause pain, tissue damage and potentially vision loss. Unfortunately, eyecare practitioners (optometrists and ophthalmologists) are often poorly trained in the removal of impacted corneal foreign bodies, which could potentially lead to delayed or suboptimal treatments for patients. This project aims to develop a comprehensive educational package consisting of instructional videos combined with a physical eye model to teach foreign body removal (FBR).
Nikolas Knowles (presenting on his behalf: Chloe Karrie Anne Stiles, MSc) | Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Seed Fund Round 6 Recipient
Project Title: Utilizing CT Image Based Data and Biomechanical Approaches to Improve Surgical Management of the Proximal Humerus
Demand for shoulder replacements is increasing exponentially due to an aging population. With younger patients driving much of the demand, bone preserving joint replacement implants are gaining popularity. New designs rely on existing bone for fixation and support, but little data exists to guide surgeons in determining which patients would benefit from these designs, and which are at increased risk of early failure. Bone strength is a measure that relates bone density and other characteristics to bones mechanical properties and may distinguish individuals who are ideal candidates for new implant designs or at risk of early failure.
Tejal Patel and Catherine Burns (presenting on their behalf: Bincy Baby, MSc) | School of Pharmacy, Systems Design Engineering, Seed Fund Round 5 Recipients
Project Title: Designing a real-time medication intake and adherence dashboard: Features, functionality, and data display to meet the needs of patients, care partners and clinicians
In-home medication dispensing technology can track medication intake by patients automatically. This information can be used by end users such as patients, care partners and clinicians to identify patterns of non-adherence and design personalized strategies to improve medication taking. If this data is not presented easily or clearly it runs the risk of not being utilized or misinterpreted and can impact patient safety. However, the best way to present this information to end users so that they can use it effectively to address non-adherence is not known. This project intends to determine the key features, utilities, and functionalities of an adherence dashboard so that patients, care partners and clinicians can effectively use it to identify and improve medication adherence.
Evelyn Yim and Carolyn Ren | Chemical Engineering, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Seed Fund Round 5 Recipients
Project Title: Engineering a biochemically defined bioactive hydrogel for stem cell culture with high-throughput droplet microfluidic screening system
Human organoids have a great potential in drug screening and personalized medicine applications. Current challenges include issues with generation throughput and reproducibility. The animal derived Matrigel has played a significant role in organoid culture; however, it is undefined and introducing variability. Thus, it would be essential to find alternative hydrogel systems that support organoid growth with consistent results. Droplet microfluidics (DM) technology enable precise control of reaction environment within droplets, with capability to generate large number of reproducible microcapsule for high-throughput studies. We will employ DM to generate tunable microdroplet to study potential hydrogel and the bioactivities with single cell encapsulation.
Round 8 Seed Fund
Learn how to apply for our 8th annual Seed Fund from our Centre's Operations Manager, Jessica O'Connor.
Application deadline: January 15, 2025 by 11:59 p.m.
Objectives
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Enable CBB’s vision and mission.
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Help develop sustainable research programs by facilitating applications to external funding agencies.
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Support multi-disciplinary research across UW faculties.
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Support new interdisciplinary research collaborations involving partners from different institutions, sectors, and/or jurisdictions.
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Mentor and support the next generation of CBB researchers.
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Communicate CBB’s research impact both locally and globally.
Awards
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$10,000 award
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$15,000 award (available to CBB members who successfully apply to CBB's priority funding pool)
Priority funding pool
'Digital Health' objectives:
- Develop technology to improve and/or manage health and health care (i.e. mobile health, wearable devices, AI and machine learning, digital therapeutics, etc.)
- Integrate a broad range of tools and solutions that leverage digital technologies to enhance the quality of care, promote health, and increase access to health care services.
- Collaborate with clinical, industrial, and government partners internationally on projects involving connected health, cognitive health technologies, biomedical data intelligence, and bio-mechatronics.
Visit our webpage to learn more.
Clinical Council
Discover the impact of CBB's Clinical Council from our Managing Director, Carly Turnbull.
Research and innovation drive improvements in health-care by addressing complex challenges, especially when researchers collaborate with health-care professionals who bring valuable insights. The Clinical Council at the University of Waterloo supports these efforts by fostering networking, facilitating interdisciplinary partnerships, and inspiring impactful innovations.
The clinicians that are part of the Council have engaged in conversations with researchers in the following structured events:
- Social Launch
- Engagement Sessions
- Clinical Problem Space Exposition
Learn more about the Clinical Council on our website.
Moonwalk Sign-up
This collaborative initiative is meant to encourage faculty to interact with other faculty members they otherwise would not have had the opportunity to.
Researchers will be paired up and arrange to walk and talk over their lunch break, or whenever they have free time. At the end of the Winter term, we will announce if we have collectively made it to the moon (384,400 km) and which teams have logged the most kms.
There will be a sign up sheet at the event.
Member Testimonials
This is your opportunity to share a story, talk about an event you enjoyed, reflect on the connections you've made or simply say something you love about CBB!
Our Centre's Engagement Specialist, Chandler, will have prompts available to help you deliver a short testimonial on camera.
Can't make it to the CBB Showcase but still have something nice you'd like to share? Book a separate date and time with Chandler to capture your message here.