Apr 24, 2023

updateArticle was updated 13 mins ago Small Canadian biotech start up Treventis is playing in the big leagues. The Toronto company just secured a partnership with Takeda, Japan’s largest drug marker, to help develop a new therapy for Alzheimer’s. There’s still uncertainty around the causes of Alzheimer’s, but misfolding of a protein called tau is thought to play an important role. It is believed that misfolded tau proteins can build up in the neurons of the brain and kill them. As neurons die, the patient’s ability to think and remember becomes impaired. Treventis has built a software platform that creates computer models of how these proteins misfold. Christopher Barden, Treventis’s CEO, says these simulations allow its scientists to work out where potential drugs could attach to the protein and stop them from accumulating. Barden says Treventis has “identified a class of compounds that are particularly well-suited to affecting tau.” Takeda and Treventis will figure out which of these compounds have the most potential and then take them into lab and clinical tests. Scientists have made some progress in understanding Alzheimer’s in recent years, but effective treatments remain elusive. “There’s certainly an unmet medical need,” says Barden. “We like the challenge.” New innovation centre set for Kitchener The University of Waterloo and Velocity incubator have broken ground on a new purpose-built space in downtown Kitchener to help fast track local entrepreneurs and accelerate commercialization. The new Innovation Arena will feature collaborative spaces aimed at inspiring partnerships and facilitating exchanges between businesses, founders, researchers and the community. No surprise here: Zoom meetings are exhausting New research from York University proves what we’ve all suspected: Zoom meetings are more difficult and taxing than ones in real life. The researchers found that the visual cues we rely on when communicating in-person — like eye contact — become misleading on video platforms, making it harder to know when it’s your turn to speak. Miovision acquires Global Traffic Technologies Miovision, a Kitchener-based smart city equipment vendor, has acquired American company Global Traffic Technologies. Global sells software that enables emergency vehicles to switch traffic lights to green when they approach intersections. Sampler snaps up Abeo Canadian product sampling startup Sampler has acquired Abeo, a digital sampling agency for beauty products. The acquisition will deepen Sampler’s expertise in the beauty sector and accelerate its expansion into Europe and the U.S., where Abeo currently has offices. Good news, Einstein — you’re still right Einstein’s theory of general relativity, now over 100 years old, still checks out. That’s according to researchers at an international collaboration of astronomers, including some from the University of Toronto. Using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile, they created the most detailed map ever of the distribution of dark matter — and it aligns with what Einstein posited back in 1915. By the numbers $30 million: Toronto-based EV changing software company ChargeLab has raised $30 million in series A funding, including a $15 million investment from investors Eaton and Silver Comet, both big players in the EV charging game. $21 million: Mila , a Montreal-based AI institute, just received $21 million from Quebec’s provincial government to advance the institute’s work on socially beneficial AI. 1.8 per cent: Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 1.8 per cent in 2021. That’s a smaller-than-expected increase and takes us about a quarter of the way to the federal 2030 emissions reduction goal. $3 million: Dispersa , a startup that transforms food waste into biosurfactants (a type of sustainable cleaner), has cleaned up with a $3-million pre-seed funding round. Rebecca Gao writes about technology for MaRS . Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies. SHARE: Disclaimer This content was produced as part of a partnership and therefore it may not meet the standards of impartial or independent journalism.