12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards

Twelve researchers at the University of Toronto are receiving Connaught Innovation Awards to help accelerate the development and commercialization of promising technologies with strong socio-economic potential that will have a positive impact on society.

“The University of Toronto congratulates this year’s recipients, whose work is addressing some of society’s most important challenges,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “From energy-saving windows to the use of plant hormones as appetite suppressants or the development of therapeutic targets that hold promise for a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases, these researchers’ inventions have the potential to make life-changing impacts here in Canada and around the world.”

This year's recipients are:

• Julie Audet, Institute of Biomedical Engineering:  A tool to optimize complex formulations based on evolutionary computation accelerated by artificial neural networks
• Denise Belsham, department of physiology: The use of a plant hormone CX as an appetite suppressant
• Alan Cochrane, department of molecular genetics: Development of broad-spectrum, host-directed antivirals
• Kevin Golovin, department of mechanical and industrial engineering: Reducing microplastic fibre pollution using low friction polymer brush as textile coatings
• Glenn Gulak, department of electrical and computer engineering: A hardware accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption-based machine learning applications
• Patrick Gunning, department of chemical and physical sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga: Development of an artificial intelligence-driven platform to explore the undruggable genome
• Benjamin Hatton, department of materials science and engineering: Smart building facades for scalable operational energy management
• Ronald Kluger, department of chemistry: Production and evaluation of hemoglobin-bis-tetramers for oxygen transport to increase supply of lungs for transplant by enhancing ex vivo perfusion of donor lungs
• Eugenia Kumacheva, department of chemistry: A platform for safety evaluation of chemical agents
• Janice Robertson, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology: Targeting TDP-43 aggregation as therapeutics for TDP-43 proteinopathies
• Paul Yoo, Institute of Biomedical Engineering: Novel electrodes for non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation
• Yu Zou, department of materials science and engineering: Autonomous additive manufacturing system 

The Connaught Innovation Award, which provides one-time seed funding to support the development and commercialization of the researchers’ innovative technologies, is backed by the Connaught Fund – the largest internal university research funding program in Canada. Established 50 years ago through the sale of Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, which is known for the discovery and production of insulin, the fund supports U of T scholars through programs such as the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program, the Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers, the McLean Award and international doctoral scholarships.