4 IBBME Profs Tapped as 2012 U of T Inventors of the Year

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4 IBBME Profs Tapped as 2012 U of T Inventors of the Year

image of Eugenia Kumacheva IBBME 2012 Inventor of the Year

Prof. Eugenia Kumacheva, Image courtesy E. Vollick

IBBME professors Tom Chau, Peter Zandstra, Aaron Wheeler and Eugenia Kumacheva net 4 of the 10 Inventor of the Year 2012 titles awarded by U of T

A quartet of IBBME's most celebrated faculty—Professor Tom Chau, Peter Zandstra, Aaron Wheeler and Eugenia Kumacheva—were handed yet another honour yesterday, this time close to home. The professors were each given the distinction of being one U of T's ten "Inventors of the Year" at a ceremony held on St. George campus Thursday afternoon. Distinguished through three categories - Biomedical and Life Sciences , Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Information and Communication, Technology, Social Sciences and Humanities - the awards pay homage to "the superb contributions U of T researchers make to global society through their inventions," Professor Paul Young, U of T's Vice President (Research) said in a statement.

Tom Chau, a core faculty member at IBBME, as well as Vice-President of Research at the Bloorview Research Institute , and Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Rehab Engineering is being recognized for his work with disabled children. Widely recognized as a leader in communications technologies for children, Chau researches neural interfaces to aid communication with severely disabled children. In 2009 Chau won the DaVinci Award for his Virtual Musical Instrument, designed to aid persons with disabilities to play music. "This is a special honor," said Chau in a statement. "The award recognizes the importance of innovation in the area of childhood disability. Indeed, what drives all our trainees and scientists at the Bloorview Research Institute is the passion to make a difference in the lives of children living with disability whether that be through excellence in applied science and engineering research or interdisciplinary health sciences research."

Peter Zandstra , Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering and core faculty at IBBME is a leader in stem cell research. Zandstra is being honoured for his years of discovery in the field of blood stem cell growth, where he has, among other innovations, discovered novel new ways of growing large quantities of stem cells for the purposes of drug and therapy research. Zandstra, who runs his lab out of the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (CCBR), is happy to recognize his colleagues with this award. "I am honored by the award," said Zandstra, "[but] the real recognition should be made to the team of researchers including Gerald Madlambayan, Dan Kirouac and Elizabeth Csaszar (all PhD student for IBBME) who have contributed to our basic understanding of this complex biological system over the last 5-10 years."

Aaron Wheeler, Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry and core faculty in the Department of Chemistry and IBBME, is a leading researcher in microfluidics, which involves the manipulation and study of minute amounts of liquid for the purposes of developing new drugs research and screening applications. Among his many patents and inventions in recent years, Wheeler recently launched a promising microfluidic devices start-up company, Kapplex Inc, with the help of U of T's Innovation and Partnership Office.

Canada Research Chair in Advanced Polymer Materials, and Cross-appointed Professor to IBBME and the Department of Chemistry , Eugenia Kumacheva has a lot to celebrate. Kumacheva body of work in microfluidics—the manipulation and study of minute amounts of liquid for research, which " laid the foundation for a start-up company FlowJEM," Kumacheva explained, involving "the applications of the technology platform [which] range from chemistry and cell biology to point-of-care devices." Kumacheva, who related that "this particular award is especially rewarding, since innovation and invention are the distinct features of the research in my group since I became Faculty at UofT," has also just been awarded an incredible distinction, the international Humbold Prize, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to internationally renowned scientists and scholars.

Only in its 2 ^ndinaugural year, the Inventors of the Year award is a coveted U of T honour. IBBME's Director, Professor Paul Santerre pointed out that "IBBME’s core and cross-appointments have again acquired a presence among the University’s top innovators by garnering 3 of the 10 recognized honors." But it's not just about the award, Santerre explained.

"This is further evidence that excellent research can and does lead to innovative ideas and technologies that are deemed significant in terms of their potential for impact in translational medicine."

Prof. Tom Chau Prof. Aaron Wheeler Prof. Peter Zandstra

Read further on the 6 awards to faculty in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.

Read more on Dr. Chau's award at the Bloorview Research Institute website.

University of Toronto Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

4 IBBME Profs Tapped as 2012 U of T Inventors of the Year

IBBME professors Tom Chau, Peter Zandstra, Aaron Wheeler and Eugenia Kumacheva net 4 of the 10 Inventor of the Year 2012 titles awarded by U of T