CRAFT team in front of NRC booth.
Microfluidics community congregates at the 2023 CRAFT Research Symposium.
Despite a snowstorm, more than 180 people participated the annual research symposium of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) on February 22 and 23, 2023. CRAFT is a strategic initiative of the University of Toronto (U of T) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). Attendees, many from industry, NRC, U of T and its teaching hospitals as well as other Canadian universities, were rewarded with hot breakfast and ample stimulating discussions on the development of new applications of microfluidics in medicine.
The symposium was held at the Myhal Centre for Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship at U of T and was co-hosted with the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering and Entrepreneurship (TOeP) led by CRAFT co-lead, Prof. Milica Radisic.
The symposium kicked-off with opening remarks given by Prof. Timothy Chan, U of T’s Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives, which were followed by an overview of CRAFT’s achievements and future plans, presented by CRAFT co-Directors Prof. Axel Guenther and Dr. Teodor Veres.
To celebrate the first in person symposium in almost four years, CRAFT aimed to make this a very special and memorable event headlined by more than a dozen invited speakers from Canada, Europe, the US and Brazil.
Keynotes lectures were provided by Prof. Mehmet Toner from Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Prof. Annie Colin from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) Paris PSL; and Dr. Kristina Haase, a Group Leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Barcelona.
CRAFT hosted an additional 10 invited speakers, including professors, an industry researcher from Precision Nanosystems Inc. and researchers from NRC in Boucherville, QC. One of these speakers was Prof. Darius Rackus, a UofT alumni who delighted the audience with a description of his career path and research, from his PhD with CRAFT co-lead Prof. Aaron Wheeler to being appointed an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
CRAFT’s star trainees presented 50 abstracts, either as posters or oral presentations, and four trainees competed in the TOeP business pitch competition. Those who gave the best presentations received VISA gift cards funded by our sponsors. A complete list of the winners is provided below the story.
Other popular events at the symposium were the daily tours of CRAFT’s nationally unique research facilities, breakout sessions where a small group of trainees met privately with a keynote to share a meal, and an evening networking session with passed hors d’oeuvres and Canadian wine and beer.
CRAFT is grateful for the generous support of its funders, including U of T, NRC, U of T’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives, and U of T’s Faculties of Applied Science & Engineering, Arts & Science, Pharmacy and Medicine. In addition, the symposium was made possible thanks to the symposium’s generous sponsors including Kraken Sense, Keyence, TOeP, DBM Reflex, StarFish Medical and BASF.
We hope to see everyone again at CRAFT’s next symposium in 2024!
Winners of Trainee Oral Presentations
- Carolina del Real Mata (Sara Mahshid Lab, McGill University)
- Sonya Kouthouridis (Boyang Zhang Lab, McMaster University)
- Rick Lu (Milica Radisic Lab, U of T)
Winners of Poster Session 1
- Jennifer Kieda (Milica Radisic Lab, U of T)
- Chuan Liu (Milica Radisic Lab, U of T)
- Jaemyung Shin (Keekyoung Kim Lab, University of Calgary)
Winners of Poster Session 2
- Ruonan Cao (Alison McGuigan Lab, U of T)
- Suryavarshini Sundar (Arun Ramchandran Lab, U of T)
- Tianhao Chen (Hani Naguib Lab, U of T)
Winners of TOeP Business Pitch Competition
- Jeremy Newton (Edmond Young Lab, U of T)
- Aleksandra Fomina (Alison McGuigan Lab, U of T)
- Karl Wagner (Milica Radisic Lab, U of T)
- Kakit Cheung (Edmond Young Lab, U of T)
All symposium photos, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Images by Delmar.
Researchers from the Medical Devices Research Centre at the National Research Council of Canada in Boucherville (QC), at their booth.
The biofabrication keynote lecture was contributed by Dr. Annie Colin (left), Professor at École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles PSL Paris and Director of the Institute Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (IPPG) in Paris, France.
Drs. Anuthasan Balasingam (left) and David Reyter (right) from silver sponsor DBM Reflex from Laval, Quebec at their booth.
Dr. Priyum Koonjul (left, Director of Business Development at NRC), Gail Garland (middle, founder and former CEO of the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization, OBIO) and Dr. Arij Al Chawaf (Executive Director, Institutional Strategic Initiatives, U of T).
CRAFT co-lead Prof. Aaron Wheeler (right) enjoying the company of invited speaker Prof. Govind Kaigala (left, UBC).
All oral presentations at the 2023 CRAFT Research Symposium took place in the Myhal Centre’s beautiful state-of-the-art auditorium.
Invited speaker Dr. Matthias Geissler from NRC’s Medical Devices Research Centre presenting his research on the use of polymer micropillar arrays as templates for bioanalytical assays.
Diagnostic keynote Prof. Mehmet Toner, the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Biomedical Engineer at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA, asks invited speaker Dr. Matthias Geissler a question after his exciting talk.
CRAFT Research Symposium attendees gowning up for their tour of the CRAFT Device Foundry’s cleanroom with its cutting-edge equipment (courtesy of D. Voicu).
Larissa Velasco is a graduate student from the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil who is currently visiting the University of Toronto to collaborate with the laboratory of CRAFT co-lead Prof. Aaron Wheeler.
A busy poster session.
Graduate student Jennifer Kieda in front of her prize-winning poster entitled “Monodisperse elastomeric particle jamming for use in self-healing biomaterials.”
Graduate student Tianhao Chen (right) presenting his prize-winning poster titled “Design of multi-model biodegradable brain stimulation electrodes towards activating endogenous neural precursor cells (NPCs)” to Prof. Dae Kun Hwang from Toronto Metropolitan University.
CRAFT co-Directors Dr. Teodor Veres (left) and Prof. Axel Guenther (right) grabbing a bite and chatting with invited speaker Prof. John Frampton (middle) from Dalhousie University.
Gold sponsor Keyence at their booth.
Invited speaker Prof. Tohid Didar from McMaster University discussing his research with Profs. Govind Kaigala and Axel Guenther.
Invited speaker Dr. Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf (left) from NRC’s Digital Technologies Research Centre chatting with Prof. Lidan You (right).
Delicious food served by U of T’s Pegasus at symposium.
Trainees socializing and feasting during lunch break.
CRAFT co-lead and TOeP Director Milica Radisic (right) and TOeP organ-on-a-Chip keynote speaker Kristina Haase (left).
CRAFT researcher Prof. Edmond Young (left) and Prof. Scott Tsai from Toronto Metropolitan University (right) enjoying a coffee together in between sessions.
CRAFT’s leadership getting excited for the CRAFT Research Symposium’s closing event and looking forward to seeing everyone back in 2024.
