Canada Foundation for Innovation

The Dalhousie University researcher is looking to create synthetic versions of spider's silk that have the potential to help heal damaged nerves and damaged hearts. Researcher Jan Rainey’s curiosity about synthetic fibres began during an undergraduate work term with DuPont. Years later, he heard stories from a fellow researcher that alluded to the amazing properties of spider’s silk. Now he's stud...

(Available only in French) Can our critical infrastructure withstand the effects of climate change? Pooneh Maghoul and her research team are working to make our bridges, roads and other critical infrastructures more resistant to climate change and extreme environments on Earth and in space.  She founded the Sustainable Infrastructure and Geoengineering Lab at Polytechnique Montréal. In this podcas...

In 2002, German researcher Volker Gerdts relocated to Saskatoon. Cutting-edge vaccine research was the attraction. Now he is at the helm of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) World-renowned infectious disease specialist Volker Gerdts calls himself a “builder” who is carefully assembling a passionate team working to stop disease outbreaks in their tracks. His passion is infectio...

(This podcast is only available in French) Nafissa Ismail focuses on the effects of hormones on the brain to pin down the interactions between our organs and our emotions Epidemiological data shows that the roots of depression form during puberty or adolescence for 75 percent of adults experiencing it. Nafissa Ismail is a professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology and a leading f...

The University of Waterloo’s Suzanne Kearns is a global leader in sustainable aviation, but her flight path wasn’t without turbulence. Suzanne Kearns grew up in Wiarton, Ont., where she would lie in the grass and watch airplanes from the local airport take flight overhead. Her dreams of flying led to a fixed-wing licence at 16 and helicopter licence a year later. At 24, she was a full-time univers...

(The audio content of this podcast is only available in French.) Céline Surette embodies both the chemistry of living things and interdisciplinarity to serve the real needs and questions of communities. And to achieve this, and ensure that critical thinking triumphs, she'll pull out all the stops. Céline Surette is Dean of the Faculty of Science and Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Bio...

This podcast is about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery and gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Researcher Kelsey Leonard, member of the Shinnecock Nation and founder of the Wampum Lab at the University of Waterloo, delves into ocean, water and climate justice. Shinnecock is a dial...

(Available only in French) This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery. Our podcast gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Ocean science research is at a pivotal moment according to Guillaume St-Onge, Director of the Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski at Univers...

Welcome to 10,000 ways. This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science, and the joys of discovery. York University’s Pirathayini Srikantha studies power grid systems with the aim of keeping Canada’s infrastructure safe from fluctuations and hackers. Find out why she’s passionate about power. Our power grid is vulnerable. For one thing, it’s aging. For another, it’s prone to hack...

(This podcast is available only in French) Alexandre Langlois is passionate about all aspects of his job. As a researcher in Northern Canada, he studies the fastest-warming place on the planet and presents data on the issues that await us in terms of climate change. Like a high-level athlete, Alexandre Langlois has been training since the age of nine to live in extreme cold conditions. Today, his...

On a cold March 2, 2004, Carla Prado arrived on the doorsteps of the University of Alberta. She left behind her native Brazil to fulfill a dream of studying abroad. Today, she is an academic leader in body composition research who passionately shares the benefits of protein-rich diets in the treatment of cancer. She uses social media and classic movies like The Wizard of Oz to help explain the sci...

(This podcast is available only in French) Simone Dalla Bella of Montréal’s International Laboratory for BRAin, Music and Sound Research asks “How can music help us in our daily tasks? And how can it slow down the deleterious effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s?” Why is it that some people who are perfectly capable of hearing a beat still can’t dance? Researchers at the International Laborator...

Leyla Soleymani is Canada’s Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices. Her passion for the miniature world of nanotech and her commitment to collaboration have led her and her colleagues at McMaster University to inventions ranging from rapid tests that use pig saliva to disease detection to a plastic wrap that repels pathogens like rain drops off a lotus leaf.

For many, RNA vaccines seem to have appeared out of nowhere. The curious and the hesitant have wondered how a vaccine to fight COVID-19 could have been brought to market so quickly. In fact, messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have been in development for over three decades. Here is the story about a persistent RNA vaccine pioneer and her socially connected admirer, University of British Columbia resear...

This podcast is only available in French. Une chercheuse à l’Université de Montréal se concentre sur le sommeil des femmes. Julie Carrier of the  Université de Montréal has devoted her academic career to the fascinating world of sleep, using equipment she received from the CFI to monitor the slumber patterns and sleep disorders of her test subjects. When she began her studies more than 20 years ag...

This podcast is only available in French. A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre explores ways to improve drugs Stéphane Laporte , a researcher at the  Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre , became interested in pharmacological research when he noticed just how often drugs were associated with harmful side effects. In his lab at the Centr...

This podcast is only available in French. One of the co-founders of LensVector talks about the origins of their molecular lens. Tigran Galstian , professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics at  Université Laval and co-founder of  LensVector , explains the invention of a molecular lens that could, among other things, improve our cellphones. Tigran Galstian received the Da...

This podcast is only available in French. A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre studies the link between genetics and cardiovascular disease. In the 1980s, when  Jacques Genest was starting out in the Faculty of Medicine, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death among Canadians. Dr. Genest and his team built on advances in molecular genetics to...

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Ian Clark , professor of Earth sciences at the  University of Ottawa , explains how radiocarbon dating using an accelerator mass spectrometer can help resolve significant issues surrounding contaminated environments. This podcast is part of an in-depth report on the  Advanced Research Complex .

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Constantin Polychronakos has devoted his career to studying the genetics of juvenile diabetes and treating children afflicted with the disease. As head of the Child Health and Human Development Program at the  Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre , he is working towards new interventions to replace the need for painful daily insu...

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Chris McGibbon from the University of New Brunswick is researching robotic exoskeletons to help people with brain and spinal cord injuries regain mobility. The fundamental goal of the  John R. Evans Leaders Fund is to help universities attract and retain the world’s top researchers by giving them the tools they need to push the boundaries of their wo...

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Basil Petrof heads the Program for Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases at the  Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre . His research group participated in a clinical trial that proved the efficacy of a new therapy that burns away the muscle tissue in the lungs of asthmatic patients to help open their airways. It’s this k...

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. PhD student in Oceanography at the Université Laval , Jordan Grigor , discusses his research on the Arctic arrow worm, known as the tiger of the plankton. He also gives a glimpse into life aboard the CCGS Amundsen , Canada's only dedicated Arctic research vessel. Image credit: Cyril Aubry

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. With an aging population, the need for joint replacements is increasing. Researchers at Queen's University are working to solve this problem. Dr. John Rudan , an orthopaedic surgeon at Kingston General Hospital and a principal investigator at the Human Mobility Research Centre discusses their technique.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais.​ John Braun from the University of British Columbia will use his new data visualization lab to make sense of the complex data behind wildfire science. The fundamental goal of the  John R. Evans Leaders Fund is to help universities attract and retain the world’s top researchers by giving them the tools they need to push the boundaries of their work. I...