In The News

Toronto firm, Profound Medical Inc., is being recognized for developing a new treatment for prostate cancer, that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to make the process faster and more efficient. As reported by the Toronto Star, the company has been awarded the $200,000 Premier's Catalyst Award for a start-up company with the best innovation.

"The award "is an important validation not just of the technology but of the business model," says Paul Chipperton, CEO of Profound Medical Inc."

"Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer among men, with roughly 25,000 new cases diagnosed in Canada each year. While surgery and radiation are often successful, they also carry risk of impotence and incontinence as a result of damage to surrounding nerves and tissue."

"There is a huge emotional and psychological price to pay for the inability to treat prostate cancer successfully without side effects," says Chipperton, who gets a call every couple of weeks from newly diagnosed men who are looking for treatment alternatives. He says although it has not been tested on patients, preclinical data shows the non-surgical technology developed by the Sunnybrook researchers will be more accurate, more precise and faster."

"Chipperton has met with U.S. regulators at the Food and Drug Administration and clinical trials are set to begin there next year involving hundreds of patients, and later in Canada. He hopes to secure $10 million in venture capital in the next two months."

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original source the Toronto Star

Build Toronto, the city-owned real-estate corporation, is shaping Toronto's development future with a profile that currently includes 31 properties, with six others in the works. The National Post "tells you everything you need to know" about the company and why its projects are important to all Torontonians.

"Build Toronto is a real estate development corporation that will take the city's surplus land assets and sell them or partner with the private sector to develop the lands into profitable holdings. Build Toronto is designed to operate as a "profit driven entrepreneur" with a single shareholder: the city."

"The company's strategic plan states that by 2019 Build Toronto expects to receive about $280-million annually from its properties. In the meantime, sales from lands and other activities are projected at about $60-to $80-million."


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original source the National Post

As reported by the London Times, researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered a link between learning to lie at an early age and success later in life. According to the Toronto researchers, since lying marks a milestone in a cognitive development, learning the skill early is indicative of a highly developed brain.

"Lying involves multiple brain processes, such as integrating sources of information and manipulating the data to their advantage. It is linked to the development of brain regions that allow "executive functioning" and use higher order thinking and reasoning."

"Parents should not be alarmed if their child tells a fib," said Kang Lee, director of the Institute of Child Study at Toronto University."

"Almost all children lie. Those who have better cognitive development lie better because they can cover up their tracks. They may make bankers in later life!"

"His team tested 1,200 children aged 2-16. The most deceitful age, they discovered, was 12, when almost every child tells lies."

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original source the London Times

IndieWire writes on the TIFF Bell Lightbox theatre, the King street theatre set to become the festival's permanent home. In an announcement made at Cannes by Piers Handling, Director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival, it was confirmed at least three of Lightbox's five public theatres will be open to the public during this year's festival. When completed, the Lightbox theatre, designed by Toronto-based architecture firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, will be home not only to five public cinemas, but also "a three-storey atrium, two galleries, three learning studios, a centre for students and scholars, the staff offices of TIFF, a bistro, a restaurant and a lounge."

"Beyond the festival itself, programming in TIFF Bell Lightbox "will give context to films through innovative cross-media exhibitions, lectures, and film-related learning opportunities for all ages." The year-round programming in TIFF Bell Lightbox is being driven by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox and his programming team. To date, two significant programming initiatives have been announced for 2010: Essential Cinema, a TIFF-curated film and exhibition programme, and Tim Burton, the highly successful MoMA exhibit."


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original source Indiewire

Cycling in Toronto will soon become a more convenient option as the city prepares to launch a Toronto-wide bike sharing program. As reported by the Toronto Star, the first phase of the program, which would include 1,000 bicycles and 80 docking stations, is expected to be operational by May 1st 2011.

"In a 33-8 vote, city council authorized staff to sign a deal with a Montreal company that will initially supply 1,000 bicycles to be parked at 80 docking stations spaced 300 metres apart."

"Membership fees haven't been finalized but are expected to be $78 a year, $28 a month, or $5 a day, allowing members to take a bike out whenever they want, up to 30 minutes at a time, for no extra charge."

"The program, called Bixi (bicycle-taxi), was popular when it rolled out in Montreal last year with 3,000 bikes and 300 stations. It's expected to be a hit here as well. The Canadian-made bikes are described as rugged and lightweight, with a rack that can handle a briefcase or a case of beer."

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original source the Toronto Star

As reported by Business Week, researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children have conducted a series of studies that change the way babies are immunized. According to the report, giving infants a sugar solution prior to a needle helps them to tolerate the pain.

"Health-care professionals responsible for administering immunizations should consider using sucrose or glucose during painful procedures," study author Denise Harrison, of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and her colleagues concluded. "This information is important for health-care professionals working with infants in both inpatient and outpatient settings, as sweet solutions are readily available, have a very short onset of time to analgesia, are inexpensive and are easy to administer."

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original source Business Week

The Globe & Mail looks at the Design Exchange, the Toronto-based organization "dedicated to the promotion, exhibition and preservation" of Canadian design. Active since the 1980s the Design Exchange works world-wide to promote Canadian designers. Now the organization is tackling a even bolder project: attempting to establish a formal design policy at the national level.

"The initiative, led by the Design Exchange, in partnership with universities, business associations and organizations across Canada for presentation to the federal government, would affect the way design services and the use of design are embodied throughout our economy and culture."

"Toronto has the third largest design industry in North America and that's a major export for Canada," Ms. Lewis [founding president of the Design Exchange] says. "And it's not just 'things' we've developed and are selling. It's services � such as interior design for department stores and hotels, industrial design, clothing design, computer and animation systems � that are used worldwide."

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original source the Globe & Mail

The Globe & Mail recently featured Polar Mobile, a 30-person Toronto-based startup that creates mobile applications for smart phones. The company which already boasts TIME Magazine, Sports Illustrated and BusinessWeek among its customers, is now working with number of Asia's biggest publications to develop the mobile versions of their websites.

"Polar is on the cutting edge of a new technology phenomenon fuelled by the rise of the app generation: call it reverse outsourcing.

"A number of Asia's biggest publications have just signed deals with the firm to develop the mobile versions of their websites, leveraging Polar's content management system. The deals lend credence to a growing sentiment in technology sectors: that Toronto and Waterloo, where Polar was founded and where Research In Motion has its headquarters, are joining Silicon Valley as the world's application development hotbeds."

"The market had exploded," says Polar CEO Kunal Gupta. "Global expansion is big on our priority list. Polar, which started three years ago in Waterloo and has since moved to Toronto and opened a New York office, has signed deals with Hong Kong news portal MingPao, as well as Indonesia's largest paper, Kompas, and the Shanghai Daily."

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original source the Globe & Mail

Toronto's luxury hotel business is expanding at breakneck speed. Within just a few years Toronto will be home to 5 new hotels aimed at the wealthy traveler and the lavish Torontonian. Toronto Life profiles the first of these hotels, The Thompson Toronto, which will open its doors to the public within the next month. Situated in the King West neighbourhood (at 550 Wellington), the boutique hotel aims to double as an arts and fashion hub.

"The Thompson Toronto is the first international arm of a New York brand, and it comes to a city that's been slow to embrace its kind. Boutiques or "genre hotels" pour art and fashion from a cocktail shaker. Guests see them as anti-generic, even though many are now multinational chains. The best of them become cultural hubs, a scene of art shows and film screenings staffed by modelesque bartenders. The American hotelier Andr� Balazs calls his boutique chain The Standard, presumably since that's what it wants to be: the measure of vitality."

"Montreal saw the rise of boutiques in the early 2000s while the Toronto hotel market stood relatively still (unless you count the massive overhaul of the Windsor Arms, which had closed a tatty shell in 1991 and reopened elegantly in 1999). The last real estate bubble made investors skittish, and the city's inferiority complex fed the reticence. Were we world class? Not enough to deserve a bunch of nice hotels. Now, the GTA has swagger: a population boom, a cultural rebirth to flesh out its merits as a destination, and foreign investors snapping up our real estate."

"In the first blush of these changes, well before the economy turned, developers began planning several hotel projects to keep in step with the growth. The Ritz-Carlton, the new Four Seasons, the Trump International and the Shangri-La should be completed by 2012, at which point the city will have more than 1,000 new luxury rooms to rent. The big four will be considered five-stars, in the rankings of the hotel world. (Until now, Toronto's only five-star has been the two-year-old Hazelton Hotel in York�ville.) They come with altitude, ranging from 52 to 66 storeys."

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original source Toronto Life

As reported on Physorg.com University of Toronto researchers have discovered the hidden code within DNA that explains how a small number of human genes can provide the directives for organs as complicated as the human brain. The UofT scientists presented their groundbreaking discovery on May 6th in a paper published in the Nature journal entitled "Deciphering the Splicing Code".

"In a paper published on May 6 in the journal Nature entitled "Deciphering the Splicing Code," a research team led by Professors Brendan Frey and Benjamin Blencowe of the University of Toronto describes how a hidden code within DNA explains one of the central mysteries of genetic research - namely how a limited number of human genes can produce a vastly greater number of genetic messages. The discovery bridges a decade-old gap between our understanding of the genome and the activity of complex processes within cells, and could one day help predict or prevent diseases such as cancers and neurodegenerative disorders."

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original source Physorg.com

In a move to spur job growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Canadian government has promised $550m in loans to help Michigan finance the new Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) toll bridge

"The federal government is offering to lend Michigan more than half a billion dollars to speed up construction of a second bridge in the busiest trade corridor between Canada and the United States."

"In a letter to Michigan's governor April 29, Transport Minister John Baird said environmental assessments have cleared necessary hurdles in both countries. He said it's time to start the $5.3-billion Windsor-Detroit link, which is now before state legislators in Lansing."

"Baird offered US$550 million to the financially strapped state "for project components in Michigan that would not be funded by the public-private partnership or the United States government."

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original source Daily Commercial News

The Toronto Star recently featured local entrepreneur Kate Singer and her handmade jewellery company, Marmalade Designs. Singer, who began selling her handcrafted jewlery as a hobby in the summer of 2002, now sells to 33 boutiques across Canada.

"While Singer is pleased her jewellery is carried by stores from Victoria to Halifax, she's not trying to build a huge jewellery empire.That's partly due to the jewellery's production process. Singer recently changed the type of resin that protects the papers and fabrics in her jewellery. The new resin is more environmentally friendly, but the process of creating the coating is tricky, making the jewellery difficult to mass produce.And that's just fine with Singer. She loves being hands-on with each piece she sells."

"I like making the jewellery and having control over it, being able to change it when I want to."

"She believes when companies mass produce items, quality diminishes. That doesn't mean Singer won't expand her business. She just wants to grow it at a pace that feels comfortable. In November, Singer launched an online store to give Marmalade Designs another revenue stream. She recently added more products to the website. And her company currently ships jewellery across Canada and the United States."

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original source the Toronto Star

Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation is expanding from 215 Spadina to an additional space on Bathurst Street, and as the Toronto Star reports, it's complete with an innovative way of funding it.

"Tonya Surman is giddy with excitement.

She's literally doing cartwheels inside an old building on Bathurst St., just south of Bloor, that will become the second home of the Centre for Social Innovation if Toronto city council signs off on a $4.8 million loan guarantee this week.

Surman is executive director of the centre, better known as CSI, where small businesses and organizations � all engaged in work with a public purpose � share space in an old plumbing factory on Spadina Ave.

First opened in 2004, they are now bursting at the seams with 200 social mission groups using space on two floors, with a long waiting list of non-profits and for-profit businesses clamouring to join."

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Original Source: The Toronto Star.

While in the past two years Toronto has lost some of its most well-loved independent bookstores--notably Ballenford Books, David Mirvish Books, and Pages Bookstore--a feature in the Toronto Star finds that small-box book shops might be making a comeback. Entrepreneur Jason Rovito, for example, hopes to escape the small bookstore curse by making sure his shop is more than just a store. Instead Rovito has created a bookstore collective, one that "not only sells second-hand books, but houses publishers, reading groups, [and] writing classes". Ravito's College and Spadina storefront "Of Swallows, Their Deeds and The Winter Below" opened to the public on April 22.

An excerpt from Rovito's  interview with the Star:

"I think what the electronic bookselling model has revealed," he says, "is that yes, the book can function as almost the ideal commodity." Online, it's an easy sell: there are no sizes or sampling involved, and it's simple to ship. You know exactly what you're getting whether you order it as an e-book or in a physical print edition. The quintessential mass-marketed item."

"But what gets lost in the process, is everything that surrounds the book materially. I think it's an opportunity for us to think of a book as not a thing in and of itself, but as part of a larger process."

"The act of actually browsing in a bookshop is just as valuable, or bumping into somebody and having a conversation about the books, or seeing two books together that you wouldn't necessarily think of, and that creates a different relationship in your mind."



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original source the Toronto Star

As reported by online tech blog GigaOM, Google recently purchased BumpTop, one of Canada's hottest tech startups, at a price believed to be upwards of $30 million. The Toronto-based firm specializes in software that turns a computer desktop into a 3D environment for touch screens users "where users can toss files and folders around as though they were playing cards, stack them in related piles and "hang" them on the virtual walls".

"A post on the BumpTop website on Sunday confirmed the acquisition, and said the company's existing software (which was available for both Windows and Mac computers) "will no longer be available for sale [and] no updates to the products are planned." Despite this, however, sources say the purchase of the company isn't just another case of Google "acqu-hiring" some talented developers (something it has been doing a lot of recently)."

"Instead, they say Google is looking at the company's 3-D, multitouch interface � or elements of it � as a potential addition to a tablet device."
   
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original source GigaOM