Co-Leads: Aaron Wheeler and Teodor Veres
Aim: to create and deploy inexpensive diagnostic devices that will empower health care professionals to provide more timely and appropriate care anywhere, anytime and to anyone who needs it.
Most in vitro diagnostic tests—which are the cornerstone of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment—are run in centralized laboratories. They require highly trained personnel, specialized infrastructure, and expensive reagents, which mean the tests are less accessible (even inaccessible) to certain groups of people. Further, results are often slow to reach health care professionals, which delays clinical decision-making and patient management. Collectively, these factors can compromise the care of patients, putting them at higher risk of morbidity and mortality.
Microfluidic technology can significantly improve the accessibility of tests by miniaturizing and automating the laboratory procedures on a portable device (lab-on-a-chip) that can be taken directly to the patient, at point-on-care (POC), and process samples and provide results much more rapidly, efficiently, and cost effectively than using centralized laboratories.
The Diagnostics Pillar will focus on health challenges of national priority for which the use of rapid and precise diagnostics are urgently needed, including infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and care in remote and rural communities.
Research Affiliates - Diagnostics
| Researcher | Afiliation(s) | Research Summary | Link to Research Page | Contact email |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Aaron Wheeler | Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Bioanalysis | Dr. Wheeler's research focuses on creating ‘labs-on-a-chip’ for a variety of applications, including chemical synthesis, clinical analysis and cell culture. His group has developed an inexpensive point-of-care microfluidic device capable of quantifying disease biomarkers in patient sample matrices including blood and saliva. | Wheeler Lab | aaron.wheeler@utoronto.ca |
Claudia Dos Santos | Critical Care Physician and Scientist, Unity Health Toronto; Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; Robert and Dorothy Pitts Chair in Acute Care and Emergency Medicine; Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) | Dr. dos Santos is an international leader in functional genomics and bioinformatic approaches to identify disease mechanisms, biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets in critical illness and acute lung injury. Towards these goals, she has developed various model systems from basic epithelial cell stretch models to animal models of lung injury. She has extensive expertise in co-developing new medical technologies for the ICU, evaluating them in clinical settings and leading clinical trials. She is a champion of the use of microfluidic technologies in clinical research and practice, and has collaborated extensively with the Bio-Analytical MicroNano Devices section (BioAMND) at the National Research Council of Canada. | Claudia Dos Santos | Claudia.DosSantos@unityhealth.to |
Teodor Veres | Director Research and Development in the Bio-Analytical MicroNano Devices section (BioAMND) at the National Research Council of Canada; Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto; Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University; Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Laval University; Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) | Dr. Veres leads the Bio-Analytical MicroNano Devices section (BioAMND) at the National Research Council of Canada in Boucherville, Quebec. Under his leadership, the BioAMND has filed over 135 patent applications, 37 of which were granted, and licensed 8 of its technologies. Dr. Veres pioneered the use of thermoplastic elastomeric materials (TPEs) for the rapid, low-cost fabrication of lab-on-chip microfluidic devices with scalable methods and materials. These advances are paving the way for the mass production and broad deployment of low-cost complex microfluidic devices. His team at NRC developed the PowerBlade, a microfluidic technology that will soon be deployed to the International Space Station through a collaboration between Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian space industry. | NRC Medical Devices Research Centre | teodor.veres@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca |
Michael Dryden | NRC Research Officer; Assistant Professor (status-only) in the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto. | His research interests include digital microfluidics, spatial single cell-omics, nanopore sequencing, and instrumentation. With a strong focus on developing integrated instrumentation ranging from digital microfluidic platforms and electrochemical sensors to AI‑enhanced laser‑lysis tools, his work has significantly advanced both the capabilities of single-cell analyses and the democratization of laboratory tools through open-source hardware. | Michael Dryden | mk.dryden@utoronto.ca |
Yufeng Zhao | NRC Research Officer; Assistant Professor (status-only) in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto | His research combines microfluidics with protein engineering, fluorescence microscopy, and AI to create next-generation biosensors for monitoring molecular analytes. The resulting platforms and engineered cell lines support emerging applications in diagnostics and drug screening. | Yufeng Zhao | yfeng.zhao@utoronto.ca |
Keith Pardee | Associate Professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto; Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Synthetic Biology and Human Health. | Dr. Keith Pardee's group is pioneering the development of in vitro devices to host cell-free synthetic gene networks. They work to develop portable, low-cost, and biosafe platforms that can be used in molecular diagnostic tools, portable drug manufacturing technologies, and tools for regenerative medicine. His lab seeks to impact human health by developing portable, affordable tools using the principles of synthetic biology. | Pardee Lab | keith.pardee@utoronto.ca |
Helen Tran | Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, and the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto | Dr. Helen Tran's group designs next-generation polymer materials that self-assemble, conduct electronic transport, and degrade sustainably to enable soft, bio-integrated electronics for health diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and advanced consumer products. | Tran Lab | tran@utoronto.ca |
Freeman Lan | Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto | Dr. Freeman Lan’s research centres on using ultrahigh-throughput droplet microfluidics in combination with molecular biology, biomaterials, synthetic biology, and AI to explore complex microbial ecosystems such as the human gut microbiome. Dr. Lan also seeks to leverage microfluidics to develop clinical diagnostics of infectious disease. | Lan Lab | freeman.lan@utoronto.ca |
John Marshall | Professor of Surgery and Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto; Senior Scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Unity Health Toronto; Chair of the International Forum for Acute Care Trialists (InFACT); Co-chair of the WHO R&D Working Group on the Clinical Characterization and Management of COVID-19 | Dr. John Marshall is investigating the cellular mechanisms that regulate neutrophil survival and apoptosis in sepsis and critical illness. His research interests include sepsis, life-threatening infection, trauma, and the host’s innate immune response. | John Marshall at Unity Health | John.Marshall@unityhealth.to |
Haibo Zhang | Staff Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael’s Hospital; Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Medicine, and Physiology at the University of Toronto. He holds the Robert and Dorothy Pitts Chair in Acute Care and Emergency Medicine, a joint Hospital–University Endowed Chair. and Technology (iBEST) | Dr. Zhang is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and an internationally recognized leader in translational research on acute lung injury and sepsis. His research program bridges basic science and clinical medicine, with a focus on elucidating mechanisms of infectious lung injury and developing novel therapies including cell-based treatments and the integration of artificial intelligence into mechanical ventilation strategies. He has served on the Standing Committee of the Critical Care Assembly of the American Thoracic Society and as an Associate Editor for Intensive Care Medicine. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several leading medical journals and contributes as a reviewer for national and international funding and award agencies. | Haibo Zhang | Haibo.Zhang@unityhealth.to |
Caitlin Maikawa | Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto | Dr. Maikawa's research group aims to design dynamic polymer materials to address key challenges in biopharmaceutical delivery: targeting therapeutics to the disease site, timing the release of therapeutics, and monitoring local biomarkers to monitor or adjust treatments. Her group focuses on drug delivery strategies that are adaptive in response to biological cues to provide more personalized care to patients. | Maikawa Lab Webpage | caitlin.maikawa@mail.utoronto.ca |
Raphael Schneider | Neurologist and Researcher in the BARLO MS Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital; Assistant professor at the University of Toronto in both the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Medical Science. | Dr. Raphael Schneider investigates shifts in blood immune cell populations, low-abundance proteins, extracellular vesicles, and cytokines to identify new blood and spinal fluid biomarkers for early detection and prognosis of multiple sclerosis. | Raphael Schneider | raphael.schneider@unityhealth.to |
Ramzi Fattouh | Director of the molecular biology laboratory, and clinical microbiologist at the division of microbiology at St. Michael's hospital; Clinical microbiologist at St. Joseph's Health Centre; Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto | His research and clinical work focus on microbial epidemiology, sequencing-based diagnostic assays, and antimicrobial resistance detection to improve outbreak response and patient care. He leads the clinical molecular microbiology testing program and is deeply involved in molecular microbial epidemiology, sequencing-based diagnostics, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) detection and stewardship, particularly in intensive care settings. | Ramzi Fattouh | Ramzi.Fattouh@unityhealth.to |
| Felix Lussier | ||||
| Tae-Hyeong Kim |
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