Media Releases
Below is a selection of recent press releases. For all the latest news please visit www.utoronto.ca/news
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Psychologists find link between ovulation and women’s ability to identify heterosexual men
TORONTO, ON – A new study by psychologists at the University of Toronto and Tufts University shows that a woman can more accurately identify a man's sexual orientation when looking at his face when she is closest to her time of peak ovulation. Further, having romantic thoughts or a mating goal heightens a woman's ability to discriminate between straight and gay men. “This effect is not apparent when a woman is judging another female's orientation,” says Professor Nicholas Rule of…
Rotman NeXus links business minds with social missions
TORONTO, ON - For the seventh year, a new team of MBA students from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management who are ready to “link business minds with social missions” have started work at Rotman NeXus. Rotman NeXus offers consulting services to non-profit organizations with the goal of maximizing an organizations’ social impact. With a record of achieving innovative and practical results, NeXus consultants use business education to support the vision of the non-profit sector. Consulting services are offered…
3D coming to a galaxy near you
TORONTO, ON - Astronomers usually only see flat versions of the real galaxies in the Universe, as pictures projected on their computer screens. But researchers in the international collaboration ATLAS3D have used a clever trick to figure out what 260 galaxies do in the third dimension missing from their images. They added motion to the picture by measuring the velocities of stars going through the plane of the image. Using this method, the ATLAS3D researchers were able to tell whether…
International conference at U of T promotes global knowledge sharing to cure disease
TORONTO, ON - “Models of Human Diseases” is an ambitious initiative started by two University of Toronto researchers, Drs. Lorelei and Rosalind Silverman. The project aims to accelerate the drug discovery process by improving communication between academic research groups, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, and patient advocacy groups. It is a new and growing forum for global scientific collaboration. On Tuesday 28th June 2011 the initiative will host its second “Annual International Models of Human Diseases conference” at the University of Toronto…
U of T graduate student wins award for paper on Russian ‘mail-order brides’
TORONTO, ON – Tackling the stereotyped concept of 'mail-order brides' and international marriage broker agencies (IMB), Alex Rowlson has been awarded the 2011 Canadian Women’s Studies Graduate Student Paper Award for his paper "Negotiated Nupitals: A Transnational Analysis of the International Marriage Broker Industry and the Russian 'Mail-Order Bride.'" "I wanted to show the many shades of grey of the IMB industry instead of painting it in the stark colours of black and white that predominate depictions and explorations of…
Celebrating 150 years of University of Toronto football
TORONTO – The Friends of Varsity Blues Football and the Faculty of Physical Education and Health will celebrate 150 years of football at the University of Toronto with a gala fundraiser on November 9, 2011. The Varsity Leadership Foundation Dinner will take place in the Great Hall at historic Hart House, on the University of Toronto campus. The gala dinner will mark the official launch of the Friends of Varsity Blues Football’s “Varsity Leadership Foundation”. All proceeds from the dinner…
U of T’s medical contributions to be featured on new $100 bills
TORONTO, ON – The University of Toronto’s historic contribution to the discovery of insulin for diabetes is one of the high-profile innovations being featured on the new Bank of Canada polymer bank notes being issued this fall. The $100 note will be issued in time for the 90th anniversary of the discovery of insulin by U of T’s renowned researchers Charles Best and Frederick Banting. The note features images that focus on Canadian innovations in the field of medicine: from…
Stem cell network and commercialization centre position Toronto at the forefront of regenerative medicine
TORONTO, ON — In 1961, the University of Toronto’s own Jim Till and Ernest McCulloch (MD 4T8) broke ground when they published evidence proving the existence of stem cells in scientific journal Radiation Research. Fifty years later, U of T proved it is once again ahead of the curve by hosting the launch of two major stem cell and regenerative medicine initiatives: the Ontario Stem Cell Initiative (OSCI), and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). Over four hundred…
Scarborough’s services at stake
SCARBOROUGH, ON – In a city already sharply divided and with the probability of austerity budgets by all levels of government, neighbourhoods in Toronto’s inner suburbs have a lot to lose, according to a new University of Toronto report. The past thirty years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of low-income neighbourhoods in Toronto. The report, to be released today, points to the importance of investing in “social infrastructure”—such as transit, community services, and public spaces—in order to…
Potential genetic cause of severe sleep disorder discovered, implications for Parkinson’s disease research
TORONTO, ON – Researchers at the University of Toronto are the first to indentify a potential cause for a severe sleep disorder that has been closely linked to Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. “Our research is the first to establish a potential genetic link to human REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD). That’s important because between 60 and 80 per cent of people diagnosed with human RBD develop Parkinson’s disease or other neurodegenerative disorders later in life,” says Dr. John…