Group IV

Ontario is supporting breakthrough technology that promises to transform lighting in homes and businesses, help tackle climate change and create jobs.

Through the Innovation Demonstration Fund, the province is contributing $3.6 million to Group IV Semiconductor Inc. (Group IV), an Ottawa-based company, to help expand its fabrication facility at Carleton University and complete technology development. MORE

Vive Nano

Ontario is supporting the development of breakthrough technology that will help create jobs and protect the environment. The province is supporting Toronto-based Vive Nano, an award-winning company that has developed an environmentally-friendly process for creating products and materials using nanotechnology. Ontario is investing almost $3.8 million through the Innovation Demonstration Fund to help the company build a pilot plant, refine its processes and come to full production levels. The company expects to create 19 new high-skill jobs over the next two years, including chemists, technicians, engineers, project managers and a controller. MORE

The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator

Ontario is supporting a new commercialization centre that will help digital media entrepreneurs build new companies and create jobs. The province plans to invest more than $26 million in The Communitech Hub: Digital Media & Mobile Accelerator (“The Hub”), a new centre that will help emerging digital media companies grow and succeed in the global market. In particular, The Hub will look beyond the entertainment sector to focus on companies creating hardware and software for industries, including advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance. MORE

eSight

Thanks to a $500,000 investment from Ontario’s Investor Accelerator Fund, Kanata-based eSight will be able to bring their “evSpex” to the global market. For people with inoperable low vision, this new technology means improved sight. The evSpex consists of a wearable headset and a touch screen unit where users input their settings. With this investment, eSight expects to grow by 25 people in the next two years. MORE

BIOREM Technologies Inc.

BIOREM designs and manufactures environmentally friendly air pollution control systems that remove odours and harmful contaminants from the air. Specially formulated particles are used in the biofiltration process, and promote the growth of bacteria and other organisms that clean the air by feeding on odour-causing chemicals. MORE

Sentinelle Medical Inc.

Sentinelle’s technology improves the performance of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) breast cancer detection. Sentinelle has developed a technique to improve MRI detection of breast cancer, resulting in shorter testing time, reduced costs, better images and 3-D visualization software for reading MR images. MORE

Dr. Hertzel Gerstein

When McMaster University scientist Dr. Hertzel Gerstein began researching diabetes in the early 1990s, there was no word for the abnormal glucose levels that are prevalent among diabetic and pre-diabetic patients. So he invented a word to describe it – dysglycemia – and today it’s in use by medical professionals around the world. MORE

Dr. Tom Hudson

From his eighth floor offices in the South Tower of the MaRS complex, Dr. Tom Hudson has a panoramic view of the many research facilities that comprise Toronto’s downtown Discovery District. Within easy view, Hudson can survey world-class biomedical research facilities at the University of Toronto, The Hosptial for Sick Children, and Mount Sinai, Princess Margaret and Toronto General hospitals. MORE

Dr. Andras Nagy

Dr. Andras Nagy keeps a dog-eared, coffee stained lunch menu from a restaurant outside of Munich, Germany close to him at his desk in a lab office in Toronto’s downtown Discovery District.

That menu – one side covered in crude circles and triangles, connected by crooked arrows and cryptic words like PiggyBac and Sox – represents little more than bored doodling to the untrained eye. But that menu is the genesis of what has become one of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs in stem cell research in recent years. MORE

Dr. Michael Salter

Dr. Michael Salter is one of Ontario’s leading pain researchers, exploring the very genesis of pain at the molecular level. His work is opening new doors to our understanding of cell-to-cell communication throughout the body’s nervous system. And his discoveries offer new hope of relief for millions of chronic pain sufferers around the world. MORE

Dr. Anthony Pawson

Ontario is supporting world-class biomedical research by matching renowned University of Toronto cell biologist Dr. Anthony Pawson’s $500,000 Kyoto Prize.  Dr. Pawson’s research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital has been instrumental in the fight against diseases including diabetes and cancer.  He is one of the first Canadians to ever receive the Kyoto Prize. MORE

EcoVu

Meet Ray Novokowsky and his team at EcoVu in Kanata, Ontario. $4 million from the Ontario government is helping EcoVu bring new water purification technology to the global market. MORE

Molecular Breast Imaging System

Ontario has been chosen to lead the world in clinical trials of new technologies for detecting breast cancer. MORE

The Woodbridge Group

Meet Kevin Liping Dong, and five co-workers at The Woodbridge Group in Woodbridge, Ontario. Through the Ontario BioAuto Council, the province is investing $2.5 million in The Woodbridge Group, Canadian General-Tower Limited and GreenCore Composites Inc. MORE

Purdue Pharma Canada

Meet Rosa Martins and four co-workers at Purdue Pharma Canada in Pickering. They’ll soon be joined by 53 new employees, thanks to Ontario government support. MORE

Transforming Cardiac Care

Graham Wright is a man on a mission. His goal is to extend Ontario’s leadership in the fight against cardiovascular disease by developing the next-generation of imaging tools. MORE

Turning Landfills Into Valuable Assets

Chances are, when you leave your garbage at the curb for pickup, you don’t give it another thought. MORE

Taking Solar Power Mainstream

“The sun is by far the largest potential source of energy for the planet,“ says Dr. Nazir Kherani. “In fact, if we could capture all the energy reaching us from the sun in just one hour and turn it into electricity, we could power the earth for a year.” MORE

Centre For The Control Of Emerging Contaminants: Protecting Our Water Supply

In May 2007 major media outlets across the country reported on a study by a Canadian fish researcher. What she’d discovered was that trace amounts of estrogen – used in birth control pills – found in lake water was enough to seriously distort development in entire fish species. MORE

Centre for Brain and Mind: Exploring the Connection Between Brain and Behaviour

There’s no mistaking the enthusiasm in Dr. Melvyn Goodale’s voice when he talks about the work being done at The University of Western Ontario’s Centre for Brain and Mind. MORE

U of T Research Team Aims to Harness the Wind to Produce Clean Energy

Wind power – it’s clean and renewable. And it diversifies the energy supply.

But there’s one big problem with it. Because the wind doesn’t blow all the time, wind- generated power can be unpredictable. And that’s slowing its growth both in Ontario and around the world. MORE

Digging Smarter: Ontario Becoming a World Leader in Mining Technology

Anyone who thinks mining is about picks and shovels, should think again, says Dr. Peter Kaiser.

“Mining is a high-tech industry with sophisticated exploration technologies, automated equipment and advanced modeling and simulation technology,” says Dr. Kaiser. “And it’s worth between $6 and $8 billion a year to the Ontario economy.” MORE

Fuel Cell Research Surging Ahead to Make Clean, Green Fuel a Reality

With the environment a top concern for Canadians, the pressure is on to reduce green- house gas emissions – and do it quickly.

That’s one of the goals of the Ontario Fuel Cell Research and Innovation Network. Formed in August 2005, the network is a partnership between industry and researchers at eight universities across Ontario that aims to harness the potential of fuel cell technology. MORE

Initiative for Automotive Manufacturing and Innovation to Drive the Future of Ontario’s Auto Industry

With $100 billion in annual sales, the auto industry is the engine that drives Ontario’s economy.

But while we make more cars and parts than anywhere else in North America, in recent years our industry has come under increasing pressure from low cost, less regulated jurisdictions. MORE

Bringing New Tools From the Lab to the Patient’s Bedside

“Advanced instruments for studying biological systems have been essential in revolutionizing our understanding of health and disease,” says Dr. Dwayne Miller, professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Toronto and director of the Institute for Optical Sciences (IOS). MORE

Farm and Forestry Fueling Green Car of the Future

Dr. Mohini Sain’s interest in developing an environmentally friendly automobile began when he was a student at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta, India. At the time, Dr. Sain commuted from school to home via public transit that gave him plenty of time to observe just how much pollution vehicles were producing. MORE

Coming Soon To Your Grocery Store: “Intelligent” Food Packaging

Imagine food packaging that changes colour once the product has passed its “best before” date. That possibility – and hundreds more like it – are one step closer, thanks to researchers like Dr. Loong-Tak Lim at the University of Guelph and his investigations into active and intelligent food packaging. MORE

Ottawa Researchers Lead International Team Focused On Improving Infant Hearing

To see a hearing-impaired infant respond to her mother’s laugh for the first time is like witnessing a miracle; an Ottawa research team has launched a search to discover new ways to make that miracle happen more often. MORE

Harnessing Nature In The Fight Against Cancer

With cancer causing more than 25,000 deaths in Ontario and almost 60,000 new cases being reported every year, researchers at Sudbury’s Laurentian University are joining the race to discover natural products with cancer fighting properties. MORE

Future Of Forest Industry Shifts From Hard Hats To Lab Coats

The future of Ontario’s forest industry will be shaped not just by workers in hardhats but also by researchers in lab coats.  Scientists like the University of Toronto’s Dr. Emma Master are applying the latest discoveries in biotechnology to develop innovative new, high-value forestry products. MORE