International interns advance breakthrough medical innovations
In total, 2,220 students from 15 countries are taking part in the Mitacs Globalink program this summer helping solve complex problems across a range of industry sectors at more than 70 universities.
Dalhousie University. Photo credit: Dalhousie University/dal.ca
A recent survey conducted for the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) found that 87 per cent of people living in Canada want universal mental health care.
Universal mental health care would ensure the services needed are available for free through public health insurance plans and that the services are available regardless of where a person resides.
Thirty-five per cent of those surveyed had experienced a mental health concern during the past year. Over one-third of those people did not seek help because it was either too expensive or they didn’t know where to access it.
The research also showed that over half of all people living in Canada would access mental health care if it was available through a community organization with a free program.
While we work to have mental health services included under the umbrella of universal health care, researchers at Dalhousie University are designing an app to boost mental resilience.
Sanjit Jeevanand is an Integrated Master of Technology student at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur as well as a game development expert. He is part of the team developing Recilify an innovative app that taps into people’s emotional state to offer personalized advice and interventions.
Jeevanand is one of 168 international students in Atlantic Canada helping to solve tough innovation challenges through a unique initiative called the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship program.
Working under the guidance of Professor Rita Orji, Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology, and Oladapo Oyebode, a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction and Persuasive Computing, Jeevanand and colleagues are designing a mental resilience building app designed to help people bounce back from challenging situations like the loss of a loved one, financial pressures, or health issues.
Research has shown that regulating negative emotions like anger, sadness and fear while promoting positive emotions like happiness can improve this resilience.
Recilify learns about the person’s emotional state and associated contexts to construct a unique profile. The app is able to track the user’s emotions from user journal entries and other self-reported information. It then uses that data to make immediate, relevant and personalized support including videos, hands-on activities, or chatting with an artificial intelligence (AI) bot.
“The goal is to provide support at the point of need using evidence-based interventions, and we’re able to apply machine learning to understand exactly how an individual is feeling right in the moment and why, so that we can provide the most appropriate and effective mental health supports,” explained Orji.
If Recilify detects anger or sadness related to trouble sleeping, it might prompt the user to participate in nighttime mindful practices or breathing exercises.
If the anger is being generated by a negative mood, it might suggest gratitude, smiling activities, music, or guided meditation to move the user to a more positive frame of mind.
Jeevanand’s internship involved writing more than 40,000 lines of code to solve both backend and frontend programming challenges. That work enhanced the app’s ability to deliver personalized interventions and improved how context is acquired.
He also helped to design the smiling feature, which uses a smartphone camera to measure how often and how long a person smiles. The more a person smiles the more rewards they receive to unlock premium content in the app.
Likewise, the more someone uses the app, the more accurate the apps profile is including which interventions work best. Ultimately, the goal is to provide interventions that will improve the overall emotional state of the user on an ongoing basis.
“When I first arrived, I didn’t know a lot about app development and all of the work that goes on behind the scenes,” said Jeevanand. That’s because his field of study focused more on computer science applications rather than health and wellness applications.
“This internship is an amazing opportunity for me to contribute to a novel technology in a state-of-the-art lab, and to learn more about the Canadian research culture at the same time,” he added.
Orji is passionate about mentoring young people and has welcomed Mitacs interns into her lab since becoming a professor in 2017.
“It’s extremely fulfilling to watch their understanding move from zero to 100% as they see firsthand how we develop an idea from idea conception to actualization to real world deployment,” she said.
Orji says the interns’ contributions are invaluable noting that her team of researchers also learn from the diverse experience and expertise of the international students, many of whom have gone on to publish papers or pursue further education in Canada.
Pennsylvanian, Lauren Iskander is working at École Polytechnique de Montréal advancing a breakthrough medical device that will empower people with spinal cord injuries to move their limbs.
Iskander is a Chemical Engineering major at Villanova University with neuroscience experience. Working under the guidance of Assistant Professor Marco Bonizzato in the Electrical Engineering Department, the team’s goal is to boost areas of the brain that control movement.
That will be achieved using an implanted neuromodulation device similar to those currently applied in treating tremors related to Parkinson’s Disease. The device delivers very precise electrical pulses to areas of the brain responsible for mobility and has already shown improved leg movement in rat populations.
“Just as pacemakers are implanted in the chest to help someone’s heart to beat at a normal rate and rhythm, the idea is that our device will be discreetly implanted in the brain to increase motor drive and produce stronger movements,” said Bonizzato.
Instead of attempting to restore activation of injured areas, this research focuses on making the most of whatever function remains intact in the spinal cord.
Iskander’s internship focuses specifically on improving hand function by observing how electrical stimulation changes the behaviour of rats with spinal cord injuries.
That’s accomplished by examining how the rats perform a series of motor tasks, capturing their movements on video, then generating complex 3-dimensional models that are analyzed using special tracking software.
Every single joint of the arm and hand is recorded and reconstructed so Iskander can pinpoint the exact requirements to compensate motor deficits. Differences in the rats’ performance are tracked with, and without, stimulation. Eventually, a rat that has difficulty reaching a pellet of food will be able to extend its reach after neuromodulation is applied.
“A lot of the time, patients don’t recover from spinal cord injuries because they have difficulty performing and repeating the motor effort to get their arm to pick up a cup, or reach for something, resulting in a physical and mental strain,” Iskander said.
“What’s cool about this project is we’re not trying to heal an injury. We’re presenting a unique way to supplement the rehabilitation process, to make it much more likely that someone will recover their mobility,” she added.
The next step will be clinical trials in humans which could be happening in a few years if all goes well with the animal trials.
For Iskander, the international internship is her first opportunity to combine her chemical engineering skills with her neuroscience research.
“I’ve always wanted to be able to use my engineering knowledge in a way that was going to help people medically and this internship is allowing me to do that in a very impactful way,” she said.
Bonizzato calls the Mitacs Globalink Research Internship an excellent avenue to attract highly motivated and skilled researchers who add to the ingenuity of his lab.
“We try to create an environment that is as diverse as possible so that ideas will circulate. When you have international interns, they come with different backgrounds and experiences that often shed a new light or thought to our process,” shared Bonizzato.
In total, 2,220 students from 15 countries are taking part in the Mitacs Globalink program this summer helping solve complex problems across a range of industry sectors including health and wellness, robotics, technology, and the environment. Designed to foster international research links while boosting Canada’s economy, the 12-week internships are available at more than 70 universities.
“Mitacs is very proud to support students through our Globalink Research Internship program so that research like Lauren’s will ultimately help people in Quebec, in Canada, and across the globe,” said Mitacs CEO John Hepburn.
“The Mitacs Globalink Research Internship promotes strategic global partnerships and helps participants gain research experience in Canada, advancing innovation and creating attractive opportunities for international students who often decide to further their education here.”
A version of this article first appeared on rabble.ca.