Research Profiles - Products of the imagination
Some people only see the problems; others look for solutions.
Health researchers are in the latter group. Inspired by challenges, they turn their discoveries into programs and devices that can improve lives.
As the country's major public funder of health research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research encourages scientific investigators to engage with private sector partners who can transform their research findings into better health products, technologies and tools. Knowledge translation – turning research into results – is part of our mandate. And commercialization is a key vehicle for KT.
The three researchers profiled this month toil in completely different fields – dentistry, physical rehabilitation and laser technology – but are united by a common desire: to see a problem through to its solution. The impressive products they have developed – a way to diagnose periodontal disease before it does its damage, a high-tech system to encourage medical staff to disinfect their hands more regularly, and a laser-powered way to look at living cells – likely will pay health dividends far beyond the money invested in the research that brought them to life.
