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.

1. Alzheimer's

University of Toronto scientists discovered a substance in the brain that can stop Alzheimer's disease in its root. A naturally occurring brain protein — known as TPM21 — blocks the formation of Abeta, which is responsible for the onset of the degenerative neurological ailment. The discovery could lead to a treatment for the disease through the creation of medicines that would emulate the protein.

2. Mapping the Genome

Researchers in Toronto led the effort to create a new map of the human genome that will help reveal the genetic origins of disease, including diabetes, Alzheimer's and various cancers. The new map will change the understanding of inheritance of disease and evolution. 

3. How Sweet It Is — Diabetes Breakthrough

A Toronto-led team of researchers discovered a trigger for Type 1 diabetes that could pave the way to preventing the disease. The team found abnormal nerve endings in the in the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas caused diabetes in mice and when they removed them, the animals didn't get the disorder. That means diabetes may be a disease of the nervous system, not just an autoimmune disease.

4. Bringing Posters to Life

Ottawa based company XYZ RGB has figured out how to bring a paper-thin piece of plastic to life. Using cutting edge technology, XYZ RGB can turn an eight-second video into a full colour hologram and place it in a plastic film that can be posted to billboards or even wrapped around a can of soup. 

5. Let There Be Light

A researcher at Hamilton's McMaster University is revolutionizing the light bulb using nanotechnology. The solid state light bulbs Jacek Wojcik is working on will use 90 per cent less energy than an incandescent bulb and they will last for decades.

6. Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

The institute is located in the MaRS Discovery District and will receive about $82 million a year from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Tom Hudson, who came to Toronto in 2006 to head up the institute, wants to immediately focus research efforts on early detection of cancer tumours through better imaging technologies to improve survival rates. 

7. Sudbury Companies Band Together And Go Underground

Marc DeCaen, a senior robotics specialist at Inco, and several Sudbury companies have banded together to create a wireless network in an underground mining environment. The network will provide real time data on everything from the location of miners to how much ore is travelling throughout the mine, but also provide video on-demand, voice-over Internet protocol phone communications and more.

8. Giving The Cold Shoulder

Windsor's CentreLine Ltd. has developed Supersonic Spray, a "cold-spray" technology ideal for engine repair because it doesn't use heat, which can warp metal parts. It's used to repair items that would normally require welding, but uses air compression to blast bondable particles of metal on damaged surfaces.

9. Centre For Excellence in Mining Innovation

Located in Sudbury, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) will accelerate research in key fields; capitalize on research and business opportunities; develop collaborative programs; link Canada's mining and exploration industries and educators; and strengthen the industry's profile as innovate, environmentally responsible and a technology-driven industry.
With $20 million committed to the mining centre, including $10 million from the province, some of those funds are being allocated to research projects.

10. Fuel Cell Reality Is One Step Closer

University of Windsor scientists have discovered a new way to capture and release hydrogen, which might help overcome vexing problems with the storage of the gas seen by many as the clean energy source of the future. The new process takes up hydrogen, hangs on to it and releases it on demand, much like what happens in a rechargeable battery. This might prove useful in development of lightweight fuel cells to power vehicles. 

11. A Full Deck

Professor Ghaus Rizvi of the Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, along with collaborators from the University of Toronto, has patented a new process to turn waste sawdust and plastic into light, stiff and maintenance-free materials for outdoor use on such things as decking. Rizvi has received a $65,000 grant from the Ontario Centres of Excellence to demonstrate a scale-up of the process.

12. Test Tube Semiconductors

Nanotechnology maven Ted Sargent and his team at the University of Toronto announced a major step in the attempt to make semiconductors in a test tube rather than the current costly manufacturing that uses scorching temperatures and vacuum chambers. The researchers suspended semiconducting particles known as quantum dots in a super-pure version of oleic acid and painted a piece of glass with a drop of the liquid. Further chemical and physical manipulation produced semiconducting photodetectors 10 times more powerful than conventional ones. 

13. Atomic Science

University of Toronto Nobel chemistry laureate John Polanyi and his co-workers reported that they had created molecular corrals that self-assemble. The corrals are very useful devices for producing custom-tailored new materials by manipulating the energy levels of atoms, but are tricky to make and easily brake apart.