Susanne Staer

This author has written 424 articles

Crowdmark successfully pilots two-stage exams in North America

Crowdmark's two-stage exam interface.
A screenshot of Crowdmark’s two-stage exam interface.

TORONTO, Oct. 21, 2015 – Working with five leading universities in North America during 2014-15, Crowdmark Inc., a collaborative online grading and analytics platform, has demonstrated the benefits and advantages of using two-stage examinations in a number of undergraduate programs in post-secondary institutions across the world.

Crowdmark has worked with universities to introduce two-stage exams as a way to integrate collaborative learning and assessment into the traditional exam format. In a two-stage exam, students individually complete the exam and then, working in groups of three to four, immediately complete the exam again. This method provides students with immediate feedback through discussion with their peers as they deliberate the most correct response. The two-stage exam provides feedback on individual performance while increasing students’ engagement and comprehension of course content.

James Colliander, Crowdmark Founder/CEO and Professor of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia is encouraged by the reception two-stage exams have received at universities in North America.

“The experiments with two-stage exams last spring were very informative and helped shape our platform to support a new and emerging assessment scenario,” says Colliander. “Also with feedback from our customers, we made elegant improvements allowing Crowdmark to be used for other assessment types including lab reports and group projects.”

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MaRS Innovation partners with Chris Hadfield’s Generator event

Win a pair of Generator tickets or a signed copy of a Hadfield book!

Today, MaRS Innovation’s launching our new WordPress website, built with feedback and input from our community (thanks to all who took the web survey back in June and please be patient with us as we make tweaks and adjustments this week).

We’re excited because our website is where we talk about our role in advancing Toronto’s innovation ecosystem. We share news from our portfolio of companies and technologies, which are all built on the world-class research happening across the Toronto innovation community that we represent:

  • Three universities: U of T, York and Ryerson
  • Nine research-driven teaching hospitals: Baycrest, CAMH, Holland Bloorview, Mount Sinai, SickKids, St. Michael’s, Sunnybrook, UHN and Women’s College
  • Two specialized research institutes: Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute
  • Our sister organization: MaRS Discovery District

 

Enter the Generator Contest

Col. Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

To celebrate the web launch, we’ve partnered with Chris Hadfield’s Generator series.

Hosted by Commander Chris Hadfield, Generator is a science-based variety show that blends knowledge, perception, music and comedy.

The event takes place at Massey Hall on October 28, 2015 and MaRS Innovation is pleased to be among its sponsors.

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Encycle Therapeutics raises $2.85 million to advance macrocycle platform and pipeline

Encycle TherapeuticsTORONTO, ON (September 30, 2015) — Encycle Therapeutics, Inc., a University of Toronto spin-off company created in partnership with MaRS Innovation, announced today that it has completed a $2.85 million (CAD) financing led by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. through its venture capital arm, Takeda Ventures, Inc., with Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, BDC Capital and MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund.

This news was covered in PEHub, BetaKit and TechVibes.

The funding will support ongoing development of Encycle’s unique nacellin platform chemistry and advance the company’s pipeline of novel therapeutics. It will also allow the company to build on research collaborations with several pharmaceutical companies and ultimately position it for a series A transaction and/or additional strategic partnerships.

“Our proprietary chemistry has the potential to unlock myriad therapeutic avenues, including via intracellular protein-protein interactions that cannot be targeted with conventional therapeutics,” said Dr. Jeffrey Coull, president and CEO of Encycle Therapeutics; upon the closing, Coull joined Encycle’s board of directions. “This funding is critical to enable the company to further explore the vast potential of our technology and to de-risk it to the extent that major transactions will be enabled.”

“Our goal is to make an impact on patients’ lives by turning science and technology into life-changing medicines. We are enthusiastic about Encycle’s technology and its potential in the context of ‘undruggable’ proteins,” said Dr. Ilan Zipkin, senior investment director at Takeda.

“Encycle’s growing momentum reflects MaRS Innovation’s efforts to shift the Canadian paradigm for technology transfer,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, chairman of the Encycle Therapeutics Board of Directors and president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “This company began with promising research in Dr. Andrei Yudin’s laboratory at the University of Toronto. With crucial support from many players along the Ontario-Quebec life sciences corridor, MaRS Innovation collaborated with him to package and protect the technology, launch the company and hire experienced management. The success of this funding round bodes well for its future growth and success.”

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Financial Post covers Onyx Motion’s Swish app, scheduled to launch in November

Company plans future sports applications for tennis and golf for its Motion Marketplace

Onyx product shotSwish by Onyx Motion “takes advantage of motion sensors to provide accurate tips and feedback to improve play,” wrote Robert Liwanag in “App for smartwatches helps users become better basketball players” for the Financial Post‘s “Entrepreneur” section on September 28, 2015.

“Using it is simple — you turn it on, press calibrate and lift your arms and hands as you would to shoot a basket,” wrote Liwanag. “The objective is to bring the circle hovering inside the target on the watch’s screen to go green. When it does, the user is in the right starting position and has the ability to achieve consistency shot after shot.”

Onyx Motion is a graduate of the UTEST program‘s third cohort (and is currently based in Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone). Their basketball app, which is scheduled to launch in November after a successful Indiegogo campaign, is the first of several sports-focused products planned by CEO Marissa Wu.

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Triphase announces Health Canada approval to initiate Marizomib Phase 1 study in recurrent glioma patients

Triphase-logo-WebTORONTO and SAN DIEGO (September 25, 2015) — Triphase Accelerator Corporation, a private drug development company dedicated to advancing novel compounds through Phase 2 proof-of-concept, today announced that it has received approval from Health Canada to initiate its Phase 1 clinical study of marizomib in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin®) in patients with recurrent malignant glioma in Canada. Marizomib is a novel and highly potent proteasome inhibitor that readily penetrates the blood brain barrier. It prevents the breakdown of proteins involved in signal transduction, which inhibits tumor growth.

The study will be conducted in Canada at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and led by principal investigator Warren Mason, M.D., medical director of the Brain Tumour Centre and Kirchmann Family Chair in Neuro-oncology Research at Princess Margaret Hospital.

“Malignant gliomas are rarely curable, and the prognosis for patients with high-grade gliomas is generally poor. One of the few treatment options currently available for recurrent gliomas is bevacizumab. As a result, new treatment options are urgently needed for patients suffering from this universally fatal disease,” said Dr. Mason. “Published literature indicates that targeting the proteasome in glioma cells has shown significant anti-tumor activity. Given that marizomib is a first-in-class pan-proteasome inhibitor that is brain penetrant, I am looking forward to evaluating this combination regimen in my patients.” 

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