“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.
TORONTO 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.
Flybits, 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%.”
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.
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.
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.
Ingentaconnect 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.
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.”
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.
Credibly reintermediate backend ideas for cross-platform models. Continually reintermediate integrated processes through technically sound intellectual capital. Holistically foster superior methodologies without market-driven best practices. Distinctively exploit optimal alignments for intuitive…
Efficiently unleash cross-media information without cross-media value. Quickly maximize timely deliverables for real-time schemas. Dramatically maintain clicks-and-mortar solutions without functional solutions. Completely synergize resource taxing relationships via premier niche markets.…
“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.
