FEATURES

11:53 A.M.
At iBest, PhD candidate Eno Hysi researches a new way to measure the effectiveness of cancer therapies.

2:05 P.M.
The Library was one of the first to offer a virtual help desk, now known as Ask a Librarian.

IT’S 2:20P.M. at iBEST (the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science Technology), a 22,000-square-foot lab located at St. Michael’s Hospital. Eno Hysi, biomedical science PhD candidate, is there developing the technology that earned him a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. “My project arises from a very simple problem: how early after cancer treatments commence can you tell that the treatment is working?” says Hysi.

Cancer treatment usually involves radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination; the best clinical tools to monitor treatment are MRI and CT scans. Treatments can last anywhere from 12 to 32 weeks, and an MRI can only be performed infrequently—typically at the beginning and middle of treatment, and before surgery. Hysi seeks to measure the effectiveness of cancer therapies just hours after treatment in an inexpensive, noninvasive way through photoacoustic imaging—using short laser bursts to irradiate tissue and produce detectable ultrasound waves to study tumor blood vessels.

“In layman’s terms, the analogy is of thunder and lightning,” says Hysi. “The lightning is the laser. The thunder is ultrasound. When it’s a rainy day, you first see the lightning, and that basically causes an expansion of the clouds, and then you hear the sound a short time after.”

Launched in 2016 as a partnership between Ryerson and St. Michael’s Hospital, iBEST develops health-care solutions and supports biomedical startups. It represents the kind of inter-institutional collaboration that has become Ryerson’s forte, combining the university’s engineering, science and entrepreneurial strengths with the hospital’s biomedical research and clinical expertise. For his part, Hysi represents the kind of Ryerson student who only became possible in 2003, when the university began admitting its first doctoral students.

Ryerson’s ambitions have expanded with the size of its campus. When the George Vari Engineering and Computer Centre opened on Church Street in 2004, it heralded the university as an engineering force. The annual Norman Esch Engineering, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards offer a financial boost to Ryerson engineering and architectural science students with inventions, technologies and startups. Since 2009, the awards have given $2 million to support student entrepreneurs, furthering research, development and commercialization of more than 200 student-run business.

1974
The Ryerson Library and Archives building opens

1991
Pitman Hall, the first major co-ed residence, opens