ONTARIO INNOVATES
DECEMBER 2007
Top U.S. Equity Firm Invests in Innovative Ontario Green Technology Company
The Plasco Energy Group has attracted a $54 million investment from First Reserve — one of the oldest and largest private equity firms specializing in the energy industry.
The company’s patented Plasco Conversion System applies intense heat to waste materials and turns that waste into clean electricity. Ontario has invested $4 million in Plasco’s demonstration plant in Ottawa, to test the technology for use on a larger scale.
Plasco's technology offers a lot of promise for municipalities looking for better ways to deal with their waster. Plasco's patented technology uses a sealed system to break down waste. The outputs of this process are a clean fuel, used to generate electricity, and a material that can be used to make concrete and asphalt. There are no air emissions released from the conversion process.
Ontario Inventors of Life-Saving CPR Device Win U.S. Award
Two young Ontarians were recently awarded US$15,000 at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in Pasadena, California for their ingenuity in developing the CPRGloveTM, a portable device that guides the user in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) correctly.
Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel developed the glove as engineering students at McMaster University and with a third classmate, Sarah Smith, launched the company Atreo Medical Inc to commercialize their idea. The two young innovators have filed a provisional U.S. patent on the technology and are planning to look for a manufacturer to produce the glove.
Centen and Patel have received numerous awards and recognition throughout North America for the innovative design of their portable and inexpensive device including this year's Popular Science Invention Award and first place at the Ontario Engineering Competition.
Structural Genomics Consortium Announces Discovery
The Structural Genomics Consortium announced the discovery of the 500th protein structure. These 500 structures represent almost a quarter of the new human protein structures known in the world. Structural information provides one of the most powerful means to discover how a protein works.
The structures of human proteins are part of the information that defines us. The SGC’s 500th structure plays a key role in our body’s defence against infection viruses such as Hepatitis C. The SGC is funded by 11 separate organizations, including the Ministry of Research and Innovation. MORE
World-renowned Physicist Joins Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute
Dr. Leonard Susskind, a world-renowned scholar and teacher in the field of particle physics, has joined the faculty of Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. As an associate member, he will visit the institute each year to conduct research, while continuing to serve as Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University.
String theory and Einstein’s theory of relativity
Dr. Susskind is credited with being an early and central contributor to the string theory of particle physics, which postulates that all subatomic particles are comprised of even tinier “loops” of one-dimensional strings that vibrate in resonant patterns.
String theory is an important step in resolving discrepancies between Einstein’s theory of relativity – which describes gravitation for large-scale structures such as planets – and quantum mechanics – which describes the seemingly random and often bizarre properties of particles at the subatomic level. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.
How quantum gravity could change how we understand the universe
Quantum mechanics describes the other three fundamental forces:
- electromagnetism
- strong interactions (which hold nuclei together); and
- weak interactions (which describe how some particles decay).
As mentioned, Einstein’s theory of relativity describes gravity, which has observable effects on large objects but arguably no effects at the subatomic level. If physicists can successfully bridge quantum mechanics with the theory of relativity, this new unified quantum theory of gravity will provide a framework to describe every fundamental force in the universe, and would therefore have major impacts across the field of physics from particle physics to cosmology. It could help answer such fundamental questions as whether other universes existed before the big bang that created the current universe, around 14 billion years ago.
About Perimeter Institute
Perimeter Institute is an independent centre dedicated to advanced research and educational outreach by bringing together researchers from around the world. Dr. Susskind joins more than 60 resident researchers at the Institute. Perimeter Institute is unique for Ontario because it allows researchers with diverse sub-field specialties to work in a collaborative environment on issues of significance in physics. For example, the institute is working to understand the nature of dark matter, which is thought to make up close to 25 per cent of the universe but has not yet been directly observed.
For more information
Read the news release from Perimeter Institute announcing that Dr. Susskind joined their faculty.
Read about the Ontario government’s recent announcement to assist the search for dark matter.
Promoting Ontario on the World Stage – Bio Japan 2007 & Bio Korea 2007
The Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) is committed to promoting Ontario innovators and researchers on the world stage.
MRI’s Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer, George Ross, led an Ontario delegation of our top business leaders and researchers in life sciences to BIO Japan 2007 in September.
Bio Japan is one of the largest biotechnology conferences in Asia. It annually attracts companies and governmental organizations from over 20 countries and regions, and more than 20,000 visitors. Japan’s biotech market is already the second largest in the world with sales of US$16 billion – the market has grown by more than 72 per cent over 10 years.
MRI and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) worked with the federal government to promote Ontario at the conference. Strategic seminars, company presentations, business partnering meetings, company site visits and networking sessions took place in Tokyo and Yokohama from September 17 to 21, 2007. In addition, an Ontario pavilion at the Bio Japan trade show promoted our province's thriving life sciences sector.
MRI also participated in BIO Korea 2007 in Seoul from September 12 to 14. Korea is expected to become one of the world’s top biotech-producing countries with present sales of US$2.5 billion.
International partners like Korea will be key to the continued success of the Barcode of Life genomics project initiated by the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario. This project aims eventually to catalogue all living species on earth and has positioned Ontario as a global scientific leader. The current phase of the project is funded in part by MRI's Ontario Research Fund and in part by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI). OGI's CEO, Dr. Christian Burks, joined ADM Ross and Dr. Hebert for the signing ceremony with KRIBB.
Ontario’s life sciences industry generates more than US$10 billion in annual revenues, and employs 40,000 people in more than 800 companies in Ontario.
For more information on the Barcode of Life initiative, please visit:
Biodiversity Institute of Ontario
 BIO Korea 2007 — George Ross, MRI’s Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer (front row, far right), Christian Burks, President and CEO, Ontario Genomics Institute (front row, second from right), and Paul Hébert, Director, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (front row, third from right) join Sang-Ki Rhee, President, Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (front row, fourth from right), and other members of KRIBB to celebrate a new partnership agreement to work on the Barcode of Life Initiative. |
 BIO Japan 2007 — MRI’s Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer, George Ross, led an Ontario delegation of top business leaders and researchers to BIO Japan 2007 in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan to promote the province’s strengths in life sciences. From left to right: Stephane Gagne, President and CEO, Constab Pharmaceutical |
Second edition of Ontario Innovates Released
MRI Stakeholder Newsletter Showcases Ontario’s Innovation Successes
We are pleased to present you with the second issue of our ministry’s stakeholder newsletter Ontario Innovates. In this issue, you’ll read about how Ontario’s reputation as a global leader in biotechnology continues to grow with highlights from our exciting participation at BIO 2007, the world’s largest biotechnology conference.
This issue also illustrates examples of Ontario’s many strengths. Specifically, the strengths of our education system are featured in two stories: one about award-winning young scientist and BioGENEius, James MacLeod (Fresh Eyes) and another provides an industry overview of nanotechnology (Small is Beautiful).
Ontario Innovates is helping to keep the innovation conversation going between researchers, business and government. Please let us know your thoughts on this issue. Your feedback will help us deliver a quality publication that will encourage continued innovation in Ontario. You may send comments and suggestions to us by phone at (416) 325-5146 or e-mail at ontarioinnovates@ontario.ca.
We look forward to your input and continued excellent work in moving Ontario's innovation agenda forward.
A print-friendly version of the Ontario Innovates newsletter is also available.
Ontario Supports International Collaboration on Nanotechnology
From June 11 to 15, the University of Waterloo hosted the Ontario-India Nanotechnology Mission that brought together 90 participants to share ideas and explore opportunities for potential partnership on nanotechnology between the two regions. The weeklong event was followed by the fourth annual NanoForum Canada Conference from June 18 to 20, where industrial scientists and academic researchers presented on the latest achievements and ideas in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Both events were sponsored by the government and highlighted the successes of nanotechnology advances in Ontario.
The Ontario-India Nanotechnology Mission built on the success of the Premier’s trade mission to India in early 2007. In the longer term, scientists in India and Ontario hope to build on their respective capabilities and specialty areas to take advantage of market opportunities.
Dr. Alastair Glass, Deputy Minister of Research and Innovation, spoke at both events and officially launched the Nanotechnology Network of Ontario website, designed to help facilitate dialogue and leverage synergies between Ontario companies and universities.
According to figures provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (a major contributor to nanotechnology research in Ontario), the province leads the country in nanomaterials development and nanoelectronics/nanophotonics research activity.
The University of Waterloo is one of six Ontario academic research centres specializing in nanotechnology. Waterloo’s specialty areas include nanoelectronics and sensors, energy storage and nanostructured materials. The other five academic research centres are at Toronto, McMaster, Queens, Western Ontario and Ottawa universities.
Read more about Ontario’s growing relationship with India.
Ontario Invests $30 Million in New Cancer Stem Cell Consortium
On May 30, Premier Dalton McGuinty and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met in Toronto to announce the two jurisdictions will collaborate to find new cures and therapies for cancer. Researchers from Ontario and California will work under the new Cancer Stem Cell Consortium housed at Toronto’s MaRS centre.
The Ontario government invested $30 million in the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium to encourage research in this important field and reduce barriers to collaboration with stem cell researchers in California. The Consortium will work under the auspices of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.
Stem cells are thought to be present in most, and arguably all, forms of cancer. Stem cells differ from ordinary cells in the body in that they are able to differentiate into different cell types and they can multiply. The research at the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium will be focused on adult stem cells to better understand the link between stem cell development and how cancer grows.
To learn more about Ontario and California will work together to discover new therapies and cures for cancer, please visit:
http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/news/Product.asp?ProductID=1281&Lang=EN
Top Ontario Stem Cell Researcher Receives March of Dimes Prize in Development Biology
May 2007 – Janet Rossant, Chief of Research at the Hospital for Sick Children and professor at the University of Toronto, received the prestigious March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology for her groundbreaking research to advance our understanding of human embryonic development and birth defects.
Professor Rossant shares the $250,000 prize with Anne McLaren, principal research associate at the University of Cambridge (UK). Both women are internationally recognized as pioneers in stem cell research and world-class leaders in the field of reproductive biology.
To learn more about Dr. Rossant’s March of Dimes Prize, please visit:
http://www.sickkids.ca/research/custom/marchofdimes.asp
Premier McGuinty Celebrates Ontario’s Top Research and Innovation Talent
Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty joined some of Ontario’s top researchers and innovators to celebrate this year’s recipients of the inaugural Catalyst, Discovery and Summit Awards held at the MaRS Discovery District.
MRI Stakeholder Newsletter to Promote Ontario’s Best and Brightest
The Ministry of Research and Innovation released its stakeholder newsletter Ontario Innovates this month. The inaugural edition focuses on how Ontario is creating a culture of innovation and how some of our best and brightest minds are working to help bring exciting new ideas to life.
In Ontario, we want to create an environment that supports and rewards innovation. We recognize that for this to occur, we need to actively engage our innovative thinkers, celebrate our talent and inspire our next generation. We need to trigger discussion and encourage partnerships among the individuals and organizations that are transforming creative, cutting-edge ideas into the economic advantages that will drive Ontario's future prosperity.
Ontario Innovates will help promote partnerships and keep the innovation conversation going between researchers, business and government. Please let us know your thoughts on our first issue. Your feedback will help us deliver a quality publication that will encourage continued innovation in Ontario. You may send your comments and suggestions to us at ontarioinnovates@ontario.ca.
We look forward to your input and continued interest in moving Ontario's innovation agenda forward.
Print-friendly version of Ontario Innovates is also available.
Three Ontario cities among 21 'smartest' global communities
Burlington, Ottawa-Gatineau and Waterloo are among the 21 smartest communities in the world.
The Smart21 list is compiled by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), based in New York city, and evaluates cities based on their possession of six key capabilities: broadband infrastructure, knowledge workforce, digital inclusion, innovation and finance, marketing and leadership.
Great Ideas – Ontario – A Year In Review
From genomes to 3-D posters, Ontario’s doctors, scientists and researchers are breaking new ground and making discoveries that will have a profound effect on our province and the world. Here is a sampling of some of the innovative ideas from across Ontario in 2006. MORE
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