An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has uncovered over 100 genes that are common to primate brains but have undergone evolutionary divergence only in humans–and which could be asource of our unique cognitive ability.The researchers,led by Associate Professor Jesse Gillis from the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the department of physiology at Uof T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine,found the genes are expressed differently in the brains of humans compared to four of our relatives–chimpanzees,gorillas,macaques and marmosets.The findings,published in Nature Ecology&Evolution,suggest that reduced selective pressure,or tolerance to loss-of-function mutations,may have allowed the genes to take on higher-level cognitive capacity.The study is part of the Human Cell Atlas,a global initiative to map all human cells to better understand health and disease.“This research contributes to our understanding of differences in the brain between humans and other primates at the cellular level,but it has also resulted in adatabase that can be used to further characterize genetic similarities and differences across primates,”said Gillis.The team,which includes researchers from Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in the U.S,created abrain map for each primate species based on single-cell analysis,a relatively new technique that enables more specific genetic sequencing than standard methods.They used aBRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network(BICCN)dataset created from samples taken from the middle temporal gyrus of the brain.In all,the team found 139 genes that are common across the primate groups but highly divergent in their expression in human brains.These genes displayed astronger ability to withstand mutations without impacting their function,suggesting they may have evolved under more relaxed selective pressure.“The genes that have diverged in humans must be tolerant to change,”said Hamsini Suresh,first author on the study and aresearch associate at the Donnelly Centre.“This manifests as tolerance to loss-of-function mutations,and seems to allow for rapid evolutionary change in the human brain.”Our higher cognitive function may have resulted from the adaptive evolution of human brain cells to amultitude of less threatening mutations over time.It’s also worth noting that around aquarter of the human-divergent genes identified in the study are associated with various brain disorders.The divergent genes the researchers identified are found in 57 brain cell types,grouped by inhibitory neurons,excitatory neurons and non-neurons.A quarter of the genes were only expressed differently in neuronal cells,also known as grey matter,and half were only expressed differently in glial cells,which are white matter.Grey matter in the brain consists of neurons,while white matter consists of other cell types,including those responsible for vasculature and immune function.This study is part of the BICCN initiative to identify and catalogue the diverse cell types in the brains of humans and other species.In 2021,the consortium published acomprehensive census of cell types in the mouse,monkey and human primary motor cortex in the journal Nature.The initiative is shedding light on the evolution of the brain by studying neurotransmission and communication at the finest resolution.“There are around 570,000 cells in the cross-primate single cell atlas of the middle temporal gyrus,”said Suresh.“Defining acatalogue of shared cell types in this area of the brain provides aframework for exploring the conservation and divergence of cellular architecture across primate evolution.We can use the resulting information to study evolution and disease in amore targeted manner.” 查看详细>>

A team of researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough have discovered that the waxy protective barrier around plants might play arole in sending chemical signals to other plants and insects–and could be harnessed to develop plants that can deal with challenging environments.For the study,published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,researchers looked at cuticular wax,a thin layer that plants deposit on their surface to protect against losing water.“These waxes act as aphysical defence,”says Eliana Gonzales-Vigil,an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences who led the study.“If plants didn’t have this wax,they would dry out very quickly.It’s the reason you see water drops beading on the surface of leaves.Plants evolved this trait over time when they moved from growing in water to growing on land.”The waxes play arole in defending plants against ultraviolet radiation,fungus,bacteria,high and low temperatures as well as insects.It was thought they were stable,unreactive barriers–but the researchers found that some waxes break down after being exposed to air and light,releasing other compounds in the process.Using amethod of analyzing waxes in aspecies of poplar tree(cottonwood),the researchers found that unsaturated waxes,known as alkenes,degrade to produce nonanal–a well-known aldehyde signalling compound and insect pheromone.This means smaller compounds of interest could be released from larger waxes found in the plants.“This process could one day be used to engineer desirable traits in plants that can improve their resilience from drought or insects,”Gonzales-Vigil says.Role in plant communication Aldehydes perform an essential role in both plants and animals,including humans.In animals,they work as signalling molecules,influencing various aspects of growth,development and reproduction.They’re also the reason why mosquitos are attracted to some people and animals more than others.In plants,they’re present in pheromones that attract insects and are also responsible for plant-to-plant communication.If aplant is stressed due to drought,for example,it will release the compound to let neighbouring plants know so they can prepare.Jeff Chen,who recently completed amaster’s in cell and systems biology at Uof TScarborough,discovered that waxes can break down to produce aldehydes–by accident.He wanted to see what happened to waxes in poplar plants as they aged,so he tracked the plants’leaves from when they were young until they were dying.He found the waxes decreased in abundance as the plants got older. 查看详细>>

The newly appointed chair of Tamil studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough says he is looking forward to making the campus aglobal hub for Tamil research and scholarship.“I‘m honoured to be appointed as the inaugural chair of Tamil studies,”says Sidharthan Maunaguru,who will start the role in May 2024.“Scholars at Uof Thave already set asolid foundation for Tamil studies.As chair Iwill be building on these foundations while looking forward to expanding scholarship and research by bringing an interdisciplinary approach.”The chair in Tamil studies will not only support academic programming and research in Tamil language and history,it will also help preserve its rich culture for future generations.Maunaguru is currently an associate professor in the department of sociology and anthropology,and South Asian studies program,at National University of Singapore.He is arenowned expert on global Tamil communities whose research intersects with anthropology,history and philosophy.His 2019 book Marrying for aFuture:Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War explored how marriage emerged as an important means of building alliances between dispersed segments of Tamil communities across the globe.He hopes to foster Tamil scholarship,teaching and research by taking acollective approach.“My vision is to ground,create and promote thriving Tamil scholarships and research on the ethos of inclusiveness and diversity that will connect and bring together Tamil scholarships from communities across the world into Canada,”he says.“I believe Uof TScarborough will emerge as aglobal hub for collaborating,experimenting and creating discussions on new directions for Tamil studies.” 查看详细>>

Raccoons may be Toronto’s unofficial mascot,but the furry creatures that plunder our green bins are far from the only wild animals that live among us.“Toronto has alot of wildlife,”says Tiziana Gelmi Candusso,postdoctoral researcher in the University of Toronto‘s department of ecology and evolutionary biology(EEB)and School of Cities in the Faculty of Arts&Science.Using"camera traps,”Gelmi Candusso studies how urban mammals select their habitat,how they travel and how different species interact–both through animal-animal and plant-animal interactions.“We don’t always see them because they‘re mainly nocturnal,but we have so many species of mammals detected in our cameras,from small chipmunks to large deer,”she says.“Most are in the ravine system and because we have such an intricate ravine system in the city,many species are present virtually everywhere.”The remote cameras used by Gelmi Candusso and her colleagues are placed in the field,with shutters triggered by the movement of animals.They offer advantages over research tools such as GPS collars–which require animal trapping–and labour-intensive data-gathering techniques that depend on collecting scat or hair samples.In apaper published in the journal Food Webs,Gelmi Candusso and her colleagues describe how they tested the effectiveness of these devices in gathering data about coyote and fox predation.Gelmi Candusso‘s co-authors on the paper included graduate students Chris Brimacombe and Germain Collinge Ménard,as well as University Professor Marie-Josée Fortin–all with EEB.Gelmi-Candusso is amember of Fortin’s lab and is also funded through the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Fellowship,Fortin Canada Research Chair and acontribution by Péter Molnár,an associate professor at Uof TScarborough.Since May,Gelmi Candusso has also been part of the School of Cities postdoctoral fellowship program.The team used 33 cameras located throughout the Greater Toronto Area.Many were located along the shore of Lake Ontario east of downtown,the Don River valley and the Humber River valley.Their study looked at images captured between October 2020 to September 2021.That included 2361 images of foxes and 1195 of coyotes.Out of those,Gelmi Candusso and her collaborators found 43 images in which coyotes and foxes carried prey in their mouths.For coyotes,that mostly meant mice,voles,rabbits and squirrels;for foxes,it was birds,rabbits,squirrels and small rodents.They also looked at separate images of predators and prey species that were taken by the same camera less than five minutes apart,reasoning that the proximity of the animals could lead to apredation event.They found 299 such encounters.In analyzing their photographic“catch,”Gelmi Candusso and her collaborators found their camera trap data to be consistent with previous studies using other data-collection methods.They also found that the predation and potential predation images were complementary,as predation images underestimated the number of large mammals caught,and potential encounter events underestimated the number of small mammals caught. 查看详细>>

Already juggling acareer as anurse practitioner,marriage,two kids and aging parents,Laura Istanboulian wondered if she was too old–or if it was too late–to pursue her doctorate in nursing science.Yet it had been her dream to complete her PhD–and as anurse,she was motivated to situate her research around her patients.She was specifically interested in addressing adecades-old problem in hospital intensive care units(ICUs)that makes it difficult for individuals who require aventilator to communicate with their health-care providers.Istanboulian decided to pursue her doctorate,making it her objective to reframe communication as something essential to aquality patient experience.While in the program,she co-designed and implemented abundled communication toolkit for ICU patients as part of her PhD at the Lawrence S.Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.The bundle is aportable,multi-modal set of tools that Istanboulian co-designed with nurses,patients and their families.Each item in the bundle is evidence-based in supporting the communication needs of patients–including alphabet boards,blank boards for writing on,writing tools like markers and pencils,a pain scale,a basic needs scale and some pre-translated boards in multiple languages.The bundle also contains six short education modules for staff to gain abetter understanding of how to use each tool option to best support apatient.“I was not trying to invent something brand-new–these tools existed already,but it became necessary to have them contained in one convenient and accessible location,and to also make providers aware of the need to make an effort to communicate with ventilated patients,”Istanboulian explains.When apatient is on aventilator,no air can pass over their vocal cords–meaning that they cannot speak.They might make efforts to communicate–but that requires both interpretation and time from the health-care provider,which is not always available,Istanboulian says.Some patients may also have cognitive impairments or brain dysfunction from their illness or medical condition,making communication that much harder–and their fear from not knowing what is going on even more palpable.Istanboulian notes that limited communication with apatient can also affect care providers.“It can be intimidating caring for someone when you cannot explain what it is happening to them or understand what they are trying to say,”she says.Istanboulian recounts amoment when she used the new communication tools to try to understand one of her clients,who could not speak or hear.“On the blank board,he wrote,‘Thank you so much for taking the time.’I took aphoto of that and it hangs by my desk,because it is areminder that this effort to communicate really mattered to this person–and it also tells me that this doesn’t happen as arule,”she says.“As nurses and physicians,we might be doing the best for them medically,but if patients don’t understand what is happening to them,they can feel very unsafe and alone.”Developing the communication bundle was not without its challenges,especially as Istanboulian began her PhD just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold. 查看详细>>

Anjum Sultana credits her University of Toronto education for giving her the global perspective to make an impact as the inaugural director of youth leadership and policy advocacy at Plan International Canada.An alumna of Uof TScarborough and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health,Sultana advocates for the health of young women and children at development and humanitarian organization.“We help young people to activate their global leadership by providing them with the skills,tools and networks to make meaningful change on children‘s rights.My team and Ialso do work influencing Canadian and global decision-makers on children‘s rights and equality for girls,”Sultana says.“As aG7 nation,Canada can make adifference.Our world’s experiencing climate change,COVID-19 and conflict–what many are calling the‘Triple C’.I want to figure out what positive role our country can play because we want to be that platform for global citizenship.”During her undergraduate degree at Uof TScarborough,Sultana took advantage of the university’s wide range of academic offerings after realizing that studying across disciplines could better position her to effect change by bringing new perspectives.She graduated with adouble major in health studies and neuroscience,and aminor in psychology."Studying at Uof Tgave me the tools to be aglobal citizen,”Sultana says.“We must understand how what happens in one part of the world impacts all of us.”Sultana also completed amaster’s of public health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health with afocus in health promotion,global health and public health policy.“I wanted to know how elements outside our bodies impact health and well-being,”says Sultana.“It was great to learn about the biology behind good health such as neurotransmitters,but it was also important to understand public policy and economics and how these variables influence health.”While at Uof T,Sultana volunteered with the University of Toronto International Health Program and War Child Canada,and was afirst-year director with the Scarborough Campus Students’Union,among many other activities.She received the Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award in and the D.R.Campbell Merit Award.“U of Tinstilled the importance of learning in the classroom,”says Sultana.“But it also inspired me to soak up everything Icould through extracurriculars,which compounded my understanding of public service.”Suzanne Sicchia,an associate professor,teaching stream,in Uof TScarborough’s department of health and society,says she enjoyed sharing her classroom with Sultana.“Her critical and creative contributions to our collective learning still stand out,”Sicchia says.“It has been wonderful to watch her career unfold.She’s doing important policy and advocacy work to the benefit of us all.”Sultana makes time to give back to her alma mater.She has volunteered as amember of several mentorship programs at Uof Tand offered her expertise as aguest speaker.“I also work with the Public Good Initiative located on the St.George campus,”Sultana says.“It’s apro bono consulting service for students who want to learn more about how they can support charities and non-profits.It‘s been such ajoy to be part of that because I’m helping students think about how they want to contribute and play arole in those sectors,but also give back while they‘re at Uof T.”Growing up in Scarborough,Sultana remembers wanting to attend Uof Tfrom ayoung age.Both her and her brother attended the university for their undergraduate and graduate degrees.“I’m grateful my family achieved these milestones in higher education,”says Sultana,who was the first in her family to graduate from auniversity program in Canada.“And we were able to do it in our hometown.” 查看详细>>

It is now easier for researchers to study asexuality and aromanticism thanks to anew resource created by two University of Toronto English scholars.Liza Blake,an associate professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Uof TMississauga,and Jenna McKellips,a graduate student in English language and literature,have co-created the Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography.The bibliography is unique in that it combines references to literature on asexuality,which is defined as having little to no sexual attraction to others,with those on aromanticism,which is defined as not being romantically attracted to others.While other collections of citations and references on these orientations exist,Blake and McKellips say much writing in this area is scattered across the web,which can make research difficult.“One of the best ways we thought to advance this field of study was to let people save themselves that extra step and just dive right in and find the relevant writing for them,”says Blake,who has taught classes on early modern asexualities and is co-editing ascholarly collection on this topic.The project arose through the two scholars’research process while the bibliography was launched last September.“A lot of the work academic work on aromanticism is kind of buried within asexuality resources.So we wanted to make those writings visible without conflating them,”says McKellips,whose research focuses mainly on queer virginities–and more narrowly on asexualities–in the context of medieval drama.The bibliography currently contains more than 500 references to asexuality and aromanticism writings that are primarily humanities-and theory-based resources,although there are plans to add psychological and sociological sources touching on scientific discourses on asexuality that influence theoretical formulations.There are also reading and teaching collections that instructors can use in their courses on asexual or aromantic studies.In addition to writings by academics,the resource includes work by members of the asexuality,or“ace,”community.The researchers say providing scholars with access to materials beyond peer-reviewed journal articles increases opportunities for truly inclusive research.“The ace community publishes alot of reflective and theoretical blog posts and Tumblr posts and videos on asexuality as an identity,”Blake says.“We wanted to include these as part of the archive because they are so thoughtful and meaningful.”The bibliography was developed with the support of Uof T’s Critical Digital Humanities Initiative(CDHI),an institutional strategic initiative that enables transdisciplinary collaborations that deal with questions of power,social justice and critical theory.The initiative provided McKellips with agraduate partner grant to start building the resource.The project is an example of the type of projects that CDHI’s UX Design for DH Accelerator Program was made for,says CDHI Managing Director Danielle Taschereau Mamers,adding that the accelerator program supports researchers in creating websites,digital exhibitions,databases and other digital projects.The CDHI Accelerator team,which included Peter Luo,a user-experience design co-op student from the Faculty of Information,and CDHI developer Matt Lefaive,worked with McKellips and Blake to identify accessibility issues on their existing site and to make it amore usable resource for both academic and wider audiences.“In addition to implementing new design elements and improving the bibliography’s search functions,Peter tested the new design with an array of users to ensure we were meeting the research team’s goals around accessibility and usability,”Taschereau Mamers says.To make it easy for researchers to find relevant resources,all of the bibliography’s content is tagged from alist of several dozen relevant topics.They can also filter their searches by publication type–for example,article,book chapter or dissertation,and by academic or community writing.“One of our big goals has been to make sure that we are not thinking about categories like race and disability as secondary to asexuality.A lot of the best writing on asexuality is precisely asexuality as an intersectional category,”Blake says.“Thinking about asexuality as acritical category is something that helps us challenge what makes it difficult for asexual people to exist in the world,and how that is impacted by things like race,disability and gender.” 查看详细>>

As artificial intelligence(AI)continues to rapidly advance,there has been asurge in the development of AI-powered content creation tools like ChatGPT and Dall-e that offer users arange of personalized experiences.However,with this growth come concerns about the potential dangers and ramifications of such apps,from privacy concerns to the displacement of human workers.For example,the previous paragraph was written by ChatGPT,illustrating the blurring of lines between AI-and human-generated content.And the image at right was created by directing Dall-e to produce an image of“the University of Toronto in the style of van Gogh’s The Starry Night.”In recent months,news headlines have outlined the issues relating to generative AI tools and content.Illustrators,graphic designers,photographers,musicians and writers have expressed concerns about losing income to generative AI and having their creations used as source material without permission or compensation.On the academic front,instructors are having to cope with students submitting work written by ChatGPT and are re-evaluating how best to teach and assess courses as aresult.Institutions such as Uof Tare examining the ramifications of this technology and providing guidelines for students and instructors.Despite the challenges,many experts say that the technology is here to stay,and that our focus should be on establishing guidelines and safeguards for its use,while others look to its positive potential.Faculty of Arts&Science writer Chris Sasaki spoke with six Uof Texperts about the impact of generative AI tools–and the ethical questions posed by the new technology. 查看详细>>

More than ayear after Russia invaded Ukraine,universities around the world are taking steps to support scholars affected by the fighting in their country.To date,more 170 Ukrainian institutions of higher education have been damaged and more than 20 have been completely destroyed.Academics who remain in Ukraine now conduct their research,teaching,and public service in very challenging circumstances.On March 17-19,the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs&Public Policy will host adigital benefit conference with keynote talks by world-renowned author and Uof Talumna Margaret Atwood,acclaimed historian Timothy Snyder and two of Ukraine’s leading public intellectuals:Mychailo Wynnyckyj and Volodymyr Yermolenko.All money raised by the event,titled‘What Good Is Philosophy?–A Benefit Conference for Ukraine,’will support the Centre for Civic Engagement at Ukraine’s National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy.“By assisting Ukrainian students and scholars today,this Centre will help pave the way for avibrant and engaged post-war Ukraine,”says principal organizer and Uof Talumnus Aaron Wendland,a Vision Fellow in Public Philosophy at King’s College,London and asenior research fellow at Massey College.The conference will examine the role of academia during times of crisis,with participants analyzing the public impact of their academic research and exploring the relationship between the academy and civil society.It’s designed to provide individual academics,members of the public,colleges and universities,professional associations,charitable foundations,and private companies with away to support Ukrainian students,scholars,and civic institutions.Many philosophers from around the world will be participating.Those speaking will include Peter Adamson,Elizabeth Anderson,Seyla Benhabib,Judith Butler,Agnes Callard,Quassim Cassam,Tim Crane,Simon Critchley,David Enoch,Peter Godfrey-Smith,Sally Haslanger,Angie Hobbs,Barry Lam,Melissa Lane,Dominic Lopes,Kate Manne,Jeff McMahan,Jennifer Nagel,Philip Pettit,Kieran Setiya,Jason Stanley,Timothy Williamson and Jonathan Wolff.The hope is to build an organization that can help counteract the destabilizing impact that Russia’s invasion has had on Ukrainian higher education and civilian life.“Universities around the world began helping Ukrainian academics in exile through amix of publicly and privately funded scholars-at-risk initiatives,which have helped Ukrainian refugees very much,”says Wendland.“However,academic institutions in Ukraine still need major international assistance.“The Centre for Civic Engagement will aim to address the needs of the Ukrainian academy by offering institutional,intellectual,and financial support for students,scholars,and publicly engaged academics in the country.” 查看详细>>

With the increasing popularity of electric vehicles,car-related air pollution will be less of aconcern,right?Think again,say agroup of University of Toronto researchers who are studying the effects of air pollution from brakes and tires.While the push to mandate EV aims to reduce tailpipe emissions such as carbon dioxide–the federal government has set atarget of complete EV adoption by 2035–swapping every vehicle on the road still won’t eliminate all the sources of air pollution that can impact human health.That’s because brake pads,rotors and tires grind down over time and erode.This results in tons of particulate matter like heavy metals and microplastics polluting the air.“Millions of tires being driven on the road breaking down–that’s aproblem,”says Matt Adams,an assistant professor in Uof TMississauga’s department of geography,geomatics and environment.“It’s an emerging question in the field–it’s hard to know where the particles end up.”Adams and Greg Evans,a professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in Uof T’s Faculty of Applied Science&Engineering,belong to ateam of Uof Tresearchers who are conducting athree-year study to learn more about tailpipe vs.non-tailpipe emissions.The study is for aU.S.-based organization called the Health Effects Institute,which gathers research on the effects of air pollution.Other researchers include:Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou and Associate Professor Arthur Chan in the Faculty of Applied Science&Engineering;Associate Professor Meredith Franklin in the department of statistical sciences in the Faculty of Arts&Science;and McGill University’s Scott Weichenthal and University of Barcelona visiting professor Maria Pérez.Evans says the source of vehicle pollution has shifted in recent years.“Because of changes in vehicle technology,tailpipe emissions particularly from cars has dropped off alot over the last two decades,”Evans says.“What we found with research we’ve done in Toronto is that,since 2013,non-tailpipe emissions have exceeded tailpipe emissions.”While tires are made from acombination of plastics and rubber,brakes are made of heavy metals,including iron,barium and copper.Particles of heavy metals,microplastics and micro rubber from tires and brakes pollute the air and can contribute to arange of negative health outcomes.Some heavy metals like copper can cause oxidative stress when inhaled.Lungs suffer from inflammation and an immune response is triggered.“There is not an organ in your body that’s not impacted by air pollution,”Adams says.“We know your health risk is increased.We know alot of these pollutants are carcinogens.[It]can contribute to cardiorespiratory issues.”Evans says the researchers hope the study will improve methods of gathering vehicle pollution data.“At the end of it,we’re hoping to have better methods to able say how much is coming from tailpipe and how much is non-tailpipe,and how do we identify hot spots,”he says.The findings could potentially result in regulations for tire and brake emissions.In late 2022,the EU proposed new Euro 7standards to reduce vehicle emissions and improve air quality.The new proposals were the first worldwide emissions standards to set additional limits for emissions from tires and brakes. 查看详细>>