Mitacs, a leading innovation organization connecting businesses with talented researchers, held the 2025 Mitacts Innovation Awards ceremony at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on November 18.
The ceremony recognized the outstanding accomplishments of students, professors, and enterprises across Canada who participated in Mitacs programs partnering post-graduate and post-doctoral students with Canadian companies and non-profits that generate innovative solutions.
Students develop their innovative ideas and see them come to fruition with the added benefit of a potential job offer after their internship ends.
A total of 11 award winners were chosen from thousands of researchers who take part in Mitacs programs each year. Here are three of the outstanding innovators honoured at Tuesday’s event.
Using essential oils to ward off ticks
Working in archaeology, landscaping or just being an avid camper have changed for Canadians thanks to the influx of ticks since global warming made this region more hospitable.
While there used to be a distinct tick season that peaked from May to July and again from September to November, with winter temperatures often staying above 4 degrees Celcius, tick season really has become year-round.
Add to that the fact that blacklegged ticks, which carry Lymes disease, are expanding their territory thanks to warmer climates and migrating birds.
But tick season 2026 may be looking a little brighter for folks who work and play outdoors thanks to an all-natural, long-lasting fabric spray tick repellent developed by Acadia University researchers under the supervision of Nicoletta Faraone, an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department at Acadia University.
Recently appointed to head up the new Canadian Tick Research and Innovation Centre, Faraone earned a Mitacs Innovation Award — Outstanding Innovation for her work to better understand the tick smell and taste system that led to the development of first-of-their-kind Canadian-made alternatives to synthetic insect repellents like DEET.
Part of the problem, explained Faraone, is that ticks have been understudied for many years. Only during the last decade did the medical community definitively link Lyme disease to tick bites, and researchers are just beginning to understand how they behave.
Ticks are nearly blind relying heavily on smell to find hosts such as humans or pets to feed on. Acadia University researchers discovered that when ticks are exposed to certain essential oils, their ability to smell is impaired, preventing them from finding hosts.
“Our best protection against Lyme disease and other vector-borne diseases comes from first understanding how ticks respond to repellents and then discovering the formulations that work best to reduce the likelihood of a human encounter,” said Faraone, whose team is also studying the effect of climate change on tick populations, including how warmer winters could be strengthening ticks’ ability to fight off repellents, making them less effective. The goal is to ensure repellents adapt in effectiveness as tick communities evolve.
A separate project is examining the potential of using a fungus that naturally grows in Nova Scotia soil as an all-natural insecticide, given its demonstrated ability to kill ticks. The team’s innovative methods, based on interdisciplinary knowledge of entomology, chemistry and climate science, are now a benchmark for future research at the centre, Faraone said.
A neckband that monitors blood pressure
Meanwhile, Vancouver researcher, Dr. Tae-Ho Kim, was recognized with a Mitacs Innovation Award — Outstanding Innovation, for his groundbreaking work designing a self-powered continuous blood pressure (BP) monitor. The neckband with earphones provides BP measurements every few seconds.
Kim is a Simon Fraser University (SFU) postdoctoral fellow in the Biomechatronic Systems Laboratory working under Principal Investigator Professor Dr. Edward J. Park in the Mechatronics Systems Engineering department. Kim came up with the idea for a sensor-based neckband from his lived experience with hypertension that required his doctor to take multiple BP readings using a traditional arm cuff.
“It led me to ask research questions, such as if we could use small sensors to track how blood flows through the body instead of a cuff. Then, I wondered, if such a device could be made, could we also make it more energy efficient, to be used anytime, anywhere,” Kim told rabble.ca.
High blood pressure is closely associated with chronic disease and increased mortality. Kim’s device is more efficient than existing wearable BP monitors because it uses sensors that harvest energy from touch to detect pulse signals, reducing energy loss while maintaining high sensing abilities. The neckband works by detecting blood flow between two points and using the information to calculate blood pressure.
The Bluetooth-enabled earphone allows a user to listen to music while their pressure is monitored on a computer or smartphone.
Traditional BP machines require at least one minute for each measurement, but Kim’s device continuously updates BP readings every few seconds and works whether the person is sitting, lying down or standing. The device also records BP changes in different acoustic conditions opening up future work on the impact of music therapy on heart health.
“As a research engineer and scholar, my goal is to contribute to society through the development of healthcare technologies that provide inclusive healthcare for all individuals,” Kim said. “Now that we’ve shown we can enable real-time, low-cost cuffless blood pressure measurement with a high degree of portability and user comfort, it’s my hope to see this device in user’s homes.”
New ALS drug delayed disease onset in mouse models
An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Canadians live with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, medicinal chemist Nitesh Sanghai didn’t know much about ALS or the drugs available to treat it when he left India in 2019 to pursue his PhD in Manitoba.
Six years later, Sanghai is co-inventor of an aspiring new drug candidate that is patented and trademarked as Borsantrazole™. In humanized preclinical ALS mouse models, the drug demonstrated the ability to delay disease onset, prevent ALS induced weight loss and most importantly, extend life. That medical breakthrough earned Sanghai a Mitacs Innovation Award — Outstanding Innovation. Sanghi, who holds a patent for the drug, formed a partnership with his supervisor, Professor Geoffrey K. Tranmer, and the two are pursuing the commercialization of Borsantrazole as co-founders of a new Winnipeg-based start-up, Borotherapeutics Ltd.
“My journey is really from grass to grace,” said Sanghai, who is the first member of his family to pursue higher education, and strongly believes that you can achieve anything if you surround yourself with positivity.
Sanghi volunteered with the ALS Society before becoming the Canadian ALS Community ambassador and member of the Board of Directors of the ALS Society of Manitoba. With ties to worldwide ALS community organizations, Sanghi learned firsthand about their struggles and was surprised by the dearth of drugs to treat ALS.
Sanghai’s medical breakthrough came when his team decided to apply sustainable green chemistry principles that included using environmentally friendly Boron as the starting point for synthesis to improve Edaravone. Approved by Health Canada in 2018, Edaravone does slow ALS progression, but has less than ideal drug properties, shows modest clinical benefit and comes with side effects.
Successfully synthesizing a new and improved molecule, called Borsantrazole, Sanghai went on to demonstrate its safety and efficacy through tests in humanized ALS animal models — lab mice engineered to mimic the same clinical course of the disease as humans.
“It was simply amazing when we started to see the positive effect of our innovative small molecule in the lab,” said Sanghai. “The molecule extended the lifespan of the mice, delayed disease and symptom onset, and prevented ALS induced weight loss due to muscle atrophy, solidifying our proof of principle and providing the preclinical evidence we need to proceed towards human clinical trials.”
The Mitacs Innovation Award — Outstanding Innovation recognizes extraordinary talent from across Canada whose Mitacs-funded research has the potential to achieve larger societal and economic impacts, driving innovation and addressing real-world challenges. Mitacs programs are supported by funding from the Government of Canada and provincial and territorial governments across the country.
The ceremony included five awards for Outstanding Innovation as well as awards honouring the Inclusive Innovator of the Year, two awards for Outstanding Research Leadership, two awards for Canadian Start-Up Innovator of the Year and Canadian Enterprise Innovator of the Year.
In congratulating the winners, Mitacs CEO Dr. Stephen Lucas reflected on the importance of innovation talent in shaping Canada’s future. “At a time when we need to build a stronger and more resilient economy, these eleven innovators and organizations demonstrate what’s possible when we invest in ideas, talent, and innovation,” Dr. Lucas said.For more information about the Mitacs awards and a full list of winners, visit www.mitacs.ca/newsroom.
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