If you wish to apply for funding to go on an exchange please complete and submit the form entitled
“TOeP Travel Award Application” from the Forms page.
These trainees have participated in the following exchanges.
Miles Montgomery
Internship at Medventions, Sunnybrook Research Institute: Jan to April 2018
This internship allows a trainee to identify and document clinical challenges that impose a significant clinical burden through shadowing physicians in operating rooms, rounds in the intensive care units, catheterization laboratory, patients’ floors, outpatient clinics, etc. the aim is to Identify and document clinical challenges that impose a significant clinical burden, then develop and translate the final concept into a prototype.
This opportunity gave Miles a good appreciation of doing clinical needs screening and identifying problems that clinicians/nurses face, exposure which is hard to get in a university setting.It is recommended for people who are interested in medical devices or clinical workflow innovation.
Eric Strohm
Collaborative exchange with Dr. Kolios, Ryerson University: April 2017 to Jan 2019 (110 hours to date)
This opportunity is providing Eric with access to unique equipment and expertise that facilitated the development of a patent application and continuing collaboration. The US patent: Method, system and apparatus for the detection, characterization and classification of particles was issued in Sept. 2018
Anastasia Korolj
Collaborative exchange with Dr. Konvalinka, Division of Nephrology at UHN: Sept 2017 to Sept 2018 (200 hours)
This experience allowed Anastasia to gain a clinical perspective on the realities and treatments in kidney disease. This perspective was important for tailoring her platform of a model for kidney disease. A US patent application entitled Apparatus and Method for High-fidelity Podocyte Cultivation.has been filed.
Serena Mandla
Collaborative exchange with Dr. Biernaskie, University of Calgary: Feb 2018 to Sept 2018 (17 days to date)
This exchange was a collaborative project with the University of Calgary. The purpose of the exchange was to test Sabrina’s novel wound healing material on different animal models to evaluate its efficacy in wound healing. During these exchanges, her material was tested in a new formulation on an equine wound healing model. The experiment is currently ongoing, however the results from this study will be used to support the efficacy of the material as a treatment in equine wounds. A US patent application entitled Hydrogel Composition and Associate Method of Use was filed in May 2018.
Shuailong Zhang
Exchange to Peking University: Dec 6-29, 2018
Shuailong was recently invited to give an oral presentation entitled “Optoelectronic Tweezers – a useful toolbox” at the State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, at the School of Physics at Peking University. He met with the top researchers at Peking University in the field of semiconductor photonic device and optical micromanipulation and exchanged research ideas. New collaborations have emerged from this visit, which should assist in his on-going quest to improve the instruments that are under development.
Locke Davenport Huyer
Exchange to University of Sydney: Nov 26-28, 2018
Through this exchange Locke will gain some practical knowledge in the development and use of natural biomaterial based scaffolds currently being used in the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Weiss. Locke’s overall research interest is a biomaterial based approach to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, particularly biomaterials with inherent instructive or bioactive properties.By participating in discussions, as well as laboratory experiments with Dr. Weiss and his trainees, Locke will increase his knowledge and build potential collaborations.
Karl Wagner
Exchange to the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering (Prof. Gordana
Vunjak-Novakovic at Columbia University) Feb 13-20/19
Prof. Vunjak-Novakovic’s lab has developed expertise in exosome therapies in recent years, and they are interested in using our organ-on-a-chip platforms to analyze mechanisms in personalized human tissues.Karl’s research will focus on this collaborative project. It will be essential for Karl to develop an expertise in techniques employing exosomes including isolation, characterization, manipulation, and engineering of exosomes for therapeutic cardiac applications.
A week-long exchange to Columbia University will provide an excellent start.