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University of Toronto sperm selection technology featured in the Toronto Star

U of T Logo“In a project spearheaded by PhD candidate Reza Nosrati, U of T researchers are trying to learn more about the way sperm cells move — something that could benefit those using in vitro fertilization (IVF),” writes Daniel Otis in “Sperm show U of T researchers a new trick: slithering” published in the Toronto Star on November 13, 2015.

MaRS Innovation is working with Professor David Sinton, Nosrati and the university’s Innovations and Partnerships Office to commercialize the technology for the human sperm selection markets, including intellectual property strategy and patent filing, and securing industry partners and collaborators.

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Triphase secures FDA orphan drug designation for Marizomib in Malignant Glioma

MI_triphaseTORONTO and SAN DIEGO (November 19, 2015) — Triphase Accelerator Corporation, a private drug development company dedicated to advancing novel compounds through Phase 2 proof-of-concept, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for marizomib to treat patients with malignant glioma.

Malignant glioma is an aggressive form of brain cancer for which there is a significant unmet need in current treatments due to the disease’s poor prognosis. Triphase is evaluating marizomib, a novel and highly potent proteasome inhibitor, in combination with bevacizumab in patients with recurrent glioblastoma.

Orphan drug designation is granted by the FDA Office of Orphan Products Development (OOPD) to novel drugs or biologics that treat a rare disease or condition affecting fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States.

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Flybits named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Companies to Watch

FFlybits Corporate Logo Nov 2015lybits, a Ryerson University start-up company created in partnership with MaRS Innovation, has been named to Deloitte‘s Technology Fast 50 Companies to Watch list.

According to TechVibes, “Companies were selected for their technological innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership and growth. Now in its 18th year, Technology Fast 50 celebrated companies with an average four-year growth rate of 1,293%.”

You can read TechVibes’ coverage of the Deloitte announcement here. The full list, of which 62% are software companies, is posted on Deloitte’s website.

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UTEST cited among Toronto’s top 10 tech accelerators

MI_utestUTEST, the tech accelerator co-directed by MaRS Innovation and the University of Toronto, was named to BlogTO‘s Top 10 list of technology accelerators on November 8, 2015.

The list was published just weeks before the announcement of the fourth UTEST cohort, and included recognition of TrendMD and Whirlscape as notable startups among the graduated UTEST companies.

Here’s the excerpt:

UTEST, a collaboration between U of T and MaRs Innovation, is in its fourth year of operation with 15 teams. The program is one year in length and is only available to current students, recent grads and university faculty. UTest invests $30,000 in its companies in return for 5% equity. Two notable alumni are scholarly content recommendation engine TrendMD and mobile keyboard creator Whirlscape.

The article also mentions Slyce as a breakout company from the INCubes accelerator; the company acquired York University technology through a license deal negotiated by MaRS Innovation prior to their IPO.

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TrendMD’s recommendation engine now reaches 70 STEM publishers, 12 million readers

TrendMD’s content recommendation engine, an innovative content marketing solution, delivered 450,000 article readers last month

TrendMD's exponential network growth since May 2015. The company's platform has made 95 million article recommendations to its 12 million readers in the last month alone.
TrendMD’s exponential network growth since May 2015. The company’s platform has made 95 million article recommendations to its 12 million readers in the last month alone.

Faced with the challenge of finding research they need across a staggering and ever-growing number of articles online, researchers and clinicians are clicking on personalized article recommendations delivered by TrendMD’s recommendation widget.

TrendMD is a graduate of the UTEST program’s third cohort.

Using sophisticated algorithms across millions of articles served each month, recommended articles are identified based on keywords and user behaviour, such as click behaviour (“people that read X, also clicked on Y”), article popularity, and personalization (what the specific visitor has read on past visits to the network). From an article page with the TrendMD widget, readers get direct links to recommended articles either from within that publisher, or from a third-party publisher — exactly at the moment they are engaged in research– saving time and increasing awareness of relevant research they may not have discovered with a keyword search.

“Since launch, each week we have consistently increased viewers reached by at least 5%. We’re now generating over 95 million recommended articles to approximately 12 million readers per month. Of the people we reach, we’ve delivered over 450,000 readers to publishers in the network. As we continue to grow the TrendMD network, we retain readers longer and increase new traffic for our publishers. We’ve invested in infrastructure to prepare for significant growth in partnerships. We recently indexed over 1 million articles from Wolters Kluwer and began delivering readers to more articles right from the point our recommendation software went live,” said Paul Kudlow, co-founder of TrendMD.

MI_trendmdIngentaconnect recently added 96 journals from 32 publishers to the TrendMD network. Byron Russell, head of Ingentaconnect at Publishing Technology explains, “Each month we direct thousands of readers to our publishing clients’ content and add value by enhancing their research experience. Partnering with TrendMD is an innovative way of delivering more value to both readers and publishers. Readers get highly targeted recommendations for further research, and our publishers’ articles get significantly greater visibility through TrendMD’s growing network.”

In the past month, TrendMD’s recommendation widget was added to over a million articles across hundreds of journals from leading STM publishers such as Wolters Kluwer, Elsevier, Nature Publishing Group, and others. TrendMD’s network is a growing list of the world’s leading research publishers which includes BMJ Group, IEEE (EMBS), MDPI, and Rockefeller University Press. The article recommendation widget is featured across more than 70 publishing partners and is viewed by nearly 12 million readers per month.

“Science, medicine, nursing, and allied health are strengths of our publishers’ network. We can deliver specific article recommendations personalized to a cardiologist’s interests, for example. Articles are identified based on what the user is reading at the moment and what he or she and others also clicked on from within the TrendMD widget across visits to network publishers’ articles,” Paul Kudlow commented.

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