Western researchers meeting 'Grand Challenges' - Western News ...

� Computer Science professor Charles Ling and his research team have developed a
mobile smartphone application meant to help patients with Type 2 diabetes.Called
Cluco Guide, the application targets patients newly diagnosed with Type 2
diabetes, aiming to teach them skills they need to manage their blood sugar
and prevent complications from diabetes down the road.The app is user-friendly
and patients are asked to input information into the app, including daily diet
and exercise information, as well as their blood sugar levels, explained Jody
Schuurman, a second-year MSc candidate at Western and part of Ling’s research
team.What makes the app unlike any other is the fact that the information from
the patient is transmitted wirelessly to Ling’s lab where data mining looks for
correlations between the patient’s lifestyle and glucose levels, finding a pattern
to help patients see what they should and shouldn’t do to reduce their blood
sugar.“There have a handful of different lifestyle apps like this tested out in Canada
but this one goes beyond the recommendations, taking it to the next step and
collecting data and giving feedback as well,” Schuurman said.
� Mandar Jog, a Neurology professor at Western, is also in the running with his
Augmented Immersion Virtual Reality (AIVR) system, one he and his collaborators
created as a safe and cost-effective tool to help rehabilitate patients with mobility
dysfunctions and conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.AVIR, a virtual reality
world, takes occupational therapy to the next level, providing fully interactive,
customizable environments and rehabilitation scenarios that can mimic day-to-day
tasks and activities for patients, allowing them to learn and become comfortable
performing the task safely, anywhere.Learning how to do something like crossing
a busy street, unsafe for some patients in the real world, is made safe and
accessible by AVIR, Jog said.“In (occupational therapy), how are you going to show
someone how to do groceries, make the bed, clean the kitchen? I don’t know what
challenges (a patient) faces in their environment. I need to logically, at least, come
close to simulating your environment. What this (AVIR) is going towards very fast is
personalized medicine,” he explained.
� Probiotic yogurt containing bacteria that can help break down toxins, pesticides and
heavy metals, meant to ultimately decrease associated deaths in Africa, developed
by Western Microbiology and Immunology professor Gregor Reid and his research
team, is also a finalist in Round 5 of the competition.The bacteria developed by
Reid and his team can be added to locally produced foods in African countries,
helping to break down environmental pollutants, toxins and heavy metals that
contaminate crops, killing and debilitating children in Africa.Consuming this bacteria
helps to break down these toxins, removing them from the body along with waste,
ultimately deceasing the morbidity rate associated with the consumption of toxins
and pollutants, explained Nicholas Nduti, a PhD candidate at Western and part of
Reid’s research team, now working with the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture.
Videos will be available online until May 31 and applicants will be notified of their
application’s status this summer. Voting for an application is open to the public.
The Department of Communications and Public Affairs
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