Research Platforms

These four platforms have helped us become an important hub for translational research within the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and for our hospital partners.

Researchers systematically translate complex molecular findings to the patient’s bedside with a focus on advancing knowledge that improves prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of everything from sleep disorders to vascular disease to acute cardiac events.

Select focus areas

• The molecular basis of cardiac arrhythmias

• Molecular mechanisms regulating the thickening of the heart muscle

• Mechanisms that determine peripheral vascular resistance and blood pressure

• The impact of inflammation on cardiovascular function

• Molecular regulation in heart development and disease

Affiliated programs

Cardiovascular Sciences Collaborative Program

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Researchers are investigating the biological mechanisms behind diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease – from beta cell function and insulin resistance to appetite regulation and endocrine health. This work is helping to advance innovative treatments, including islet transplantation and next-generation therapies.

Select focus areas

• Beta cell growth factors and transplantation

• Insulin secretion and resistance

• Appetite control

• Development of novel drugs to prevent and treat all types of diabetes, prevent obesity,  and improve intestinal function

Affiliated programs

Banting and Best Diabetes Centre

CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

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Researchers are investigating how neural systems give rise to perception, behaviour, and cognition, while uncovering mechanisms behind neurological disorders. Through advanced imaging, electrophysiology, and computational approaches, the platform is driving discoveries that reveal how the brain works and how it can be better understood and treated.

Select focus areas

• How does the brain sense, encode, store, and retrieve information?

• How do cells transfer information between themselves?

• What are the molecular substrates for memory, attention, and emotion? 

• What is the molecular basis for acute and chronic pain and how can pain be alleviated and prevented?

• How does the brain control breathing and why do some infants stop breathing?

• How does maternal stress influence the development of the brain in utero? How can this be mitigated?

Associated Links

• University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain 

• University of Toronto Collaborative Program in Neuroscience (CPIN) 

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Researchers are uncovering the biological mechanisms underpinning human pregnancy and development – from fertility and placental function to the origins of disease. By combining laboratory discovery with clinical expertise, the platform is advancing new insights and therapies that improve reproductive health. The platform also strives to understand the complex relationship between the early environment of the fetus and infant and their susceptibility to future disease, leading to improved health outcomes for all.

Select focus areas

• Infertility research

• Pregnancy complications: preeclampsia and preterm birth

• Fetal development and intrauterine growth restriction

• Ovarian cancer

• Brain regulation of reproductive function

Associated Links

• Research Centre for Women’s and Infants’ Health, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital 

• Research Institute Programs of the Hospital for Sick Children

• Toronto Ovarian Cancer Network 

• Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Toronto 

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