The project sprung from a series of workshops organized by MBD’s Convergent Working Group, which aspires to gather diverse perspectives across the field of medicine.

The goal of James and Mucsi’s current project is to enable researchers and clinicians to build more trusting relationships and communication between African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities. It aims to do so by facilitating education, workshops and discussions, as well as modules focused on culture, race, ethnicity and anti-Black racism in the field of regenerative medicine.

The project is reflective of James’ interest throughout his extensive career, which has focused on the ways in which race intersects with ethnicity, gender, class and citizenship to mediate accessible and equitable opportunities in education and employment of racialized Canadians. His research on pathways to education and student success for Black youth, and support for Black scholars, is supported by donations from RBC Foundation and Walmart Canada. 

Some of James’ previous work includes another project completed in collaboration with Mucsi, which resulted in the article “Psychosocial distress in patients with advanced CKD by racial group and immigrant status: A Canadian cross-sectional �첥��Ƶ,” published in The American Journal of Kidney Diseases.  

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Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Science, will use epidemiological and geospatial models including mathematical and artificial intelligence-based models to study epidemiology, transmission dynamics and immunology and intervention strategies to forecast the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies for mpox and other zoonotic diseases in Canada and around the world.

MPOX

Commonly known as monkeypox, is a virus spread through close contact including sexual interactions and is typically found in parts of central and western Africa.

“We are not safe from emerging or re-emerging diseases including animal-to-human spillovers,” said Woldegerima. “Our research will provide valuable insights for preventive public health strategies and help governments be better prepared to manage and respond to an epidemic or pandemic threat in the future.”

The 2022 outbreak was reported in early May that year. A total of 87,479 cases, including 140 deaths, have been confirmed in 111 countries as of May 2023, according to the World Health Organization. 

Woldegerima and his research team will conduct risk-map assessments, geospatial analysis and machine learning to identify hotspots for potential outbreaks around the world. In addition, their research will use biobehavioural data and results of a survey by the Centre for Disease Control that involved men who have sex with men – a population considered at higher risk for infection – to examine control measures, risk factors and the impact mpox has had on sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.

These various data sources will allow the researchers to extend their mathematical models for the first time to account for how the virus has disproportionately affected people living with HIV, who make up almost half of the global cases, and to better understand how HIV stigma and discrimination may impede public health interventions.

The work will provide new training opportunities for postdoctoral researchers and undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science and builds on �첥��Ƶ’s expertise in the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. 

York is among the top institutions in Canada for publications on COVID-19 modelling.

Woldegerima’s team for the CIHR research project includes Professors Jianhong Wu, James Orbinski, Sarah Flicker, Ali Asgary, Jude Kong, Nicola L. Bragazzi and Nickolas Ogden. The project is supported by two Organized Research Units at York, Y-EMERGE and Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, which will provide in-kind support in the form of office space and administrative support.

Woldegerima’s project, “Modelling, predicting and risk assessment of mpox and other (re)emerging zoonotic threats to inform decision-making and public health actions,” received $480,000. 

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Moores specializes in the atmospheric chemistry of planets within our solar system. A world-class researcher in the planetary sciences, Moores has participated in five international space missions to date and runs the with 10 students at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoc level.

"Methane on Mars holds a lot of interest to the planetary science community because it could potentially suggest life elsewhere in the Universe."

The community he refers to is a group of 1,500 top-ranking scientists from around the world who routinely collaborate on space missions.

Methane on Earth derives from livestock, decaying organic waste and the production of coal, natural gas and oil. How it is being produced on Mars, and why, is a big question.

In his lab, Moores and his team are creating a methane spectrometer that may one day fly to Mars and examine the phenomenon, detecting and measuring the presence of methane as often as every 15 minutes. The equipment is revolutionary because making this measurement is challenging – so much so that researchers working with NASA’s Mars rover, aptly named Curiosity, have only been able to measure gas near the surface a dozen times in the past 20 years.

Moores’ team is collaborating with ABB, a company specializing in optical remote sensing instruments for space applications. Using technology called integrated cavity output spectroscopy (ICOS), the team can send out very restricted wavelengths of light through gaseous samples, to measure how much light each wavelength is absorbing. ICOS uses extremely reflective mirrors within a gas cell to measure the absorption rate of gas as each photon bounces back and forth tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times.

Previously, Curiosity used a similar technology called a tunable laser spectrometer. However, this technology only allows photons to bounce back and forth 81 times, which means it takes hours to make precise measurements of the tiny amount of methane (as low as 100 parts per trillion) in the Martian atmosphere. ABB’s technology, however, can make this measurement in a matter of minutes.

“We’ve been improving this technology a lot in the last 20 years,” says Moores.

Methane measurements remain relatively consistent on Earth, but on Mars they’re changing on a timescale of a year by a factor of three, hovering lower in winter and spring, and climbing to exorbitant heights in summer and fall.

"We thought Mars was a dead planet, but exciting things are happening even today."

Methane is being actively produced by something that can change rapidly. It could be ancient organic materials seeping through the surface and decomposing over time, or a microorganism community beneath the surface. Or it could be geological reactions between hot water and different types of rocks.

�첥��Ƶing other planets has given Moores a new perspective on life on Earth. Having grown up in St. John’s, Newfoundland, he is familiar with cold, harsh environments and how technology can play an important role in survival and quality of life.

“Out in space we have a lot of technology that we rely on here on Earth – satellites and GPS technology, to name a few.

“As Canadians, we have a deep connection to space exploration because we understand the role of technology in surviving uninhabitable environments, and this work has given me a lot of appreciation for that relationship.”

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