The Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT), a collaborative centre of the National Research Council Canada (NRC) and the University of Toronto (U of T), is supporting six new research projects through its CRAFT Project Awards. The projects will develop new microfluidic technologies aiming to improve health care and patient outcomes. In parallel, they will produce new intellectual property that will promote commercialization and translation of these device technologies to the clinic and industry.

Each project is led by a team consisting of researchers at U of T and NRC’s Boucherville campus in Quebec, as well as a clinician at U of T-affiliated research hospitals. “We created these awards to kick-start new collaborative projects between NRC, U of T and hospitals to accelerate device translation to health care. By combining the expertise and resources of these institutions, CRAFT aims to make Canada a world-leader in developing and manufacturing microfluidics-powered medical devices,” says Teodor Veres, a co-Director of CRAFT and Research Director of the Bio-Analytical Micro-Nano Devices at NRC in Boucherville.

According to Axel Guenther, CRAFT co-Director and U of T Professor, U of T students and postdoctoral fellows will benefit in many ways from participating in CRAFT projects. “Trainees will acquire diverse skills and knowledge by interacting with government scientists, clinicians, industry representatives and patent agents. The experience gained by trainees using CRAFT’s nationally unique facilities in Toronto and Boucherville will make them more competitive candidates for jobs and broaden their career opportunities. By inventing cutting-edge technologies, learning about urgent clinical needs, rigorously validating their technologies in a clinical setting and pro-actively protecting intellectual property, CRAFT trainees with the most promising inventions will be poised to commercialize them in Canada.”

CRAFT Project Awards are financed by NRC and U of T’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives fund.

Projects supported by CRAFT Project Awards:

Bioengineering human airway mimetics for preclinical use in disease modeling and regenerative medicine
PI: Amy Wong, Scientist, The Hospital for Sick Children; Assistant Scientist, Dept. of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, U of T
co-PIs: Axel Guenther (U of T), Christine Bear (The Hospital for Sick Children, U of T), Keith Morton (NRC)

Novel osteoarthritic joint-on-a-chip (JOC) systems for disease modelling
PI: Edmond Young, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, U of T
co-PIs: Sowmya Viswanathan (U of T), Byeong-Ui Moon (NRC)

Automating SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics for decentralized screening in the community
PI: Claudia dos Santos, Clinician-Scientist, St-Michael’s Hospital; Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine, U of T
co-PIs: Keith Pardee (U of T), Teodor Veres (NRC and U of T), Lidija Malic (NRC)

Towards kidney-on-a-chip
PI: Milica Radisic, Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, U of T
co-PI: Ana Konvalinka (University Health Network, U of T), Teodor Veres (NRC, U of T)

A portable surveillance tool for COVID-19 infection and immunity
PI: Aaron Wheeler, Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, U of T
co-PI: Aaron Campigotto (U of T; The Hospital for Sick Children)

Development and deployment of an electrochemical antigen testing system for respiratory viral infections
PI: Shana Kelley, Professor, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences
co-PI: Daniel Brassard (NRC)