University of Alberta research on the path to making gluten safe for Celiac patients
As one of the top research universities in the world, University of Alberta is well known as a leading institution for pushing the boundaries of discovery and innovation. Now, researchers from University of Alberta could be one significant step closer to solving one of the most pressing dietary issues of this generation. The gluten-free diet fad of recent years has helped to shine a spotlight on the millions living with significant gluten intolerance due to Celiac disease or other autoimmune disorders. A new pill in development through U of A research could make gluten tolerable to the gluten intolerant for the first time.
RELATED CONTENT: Top 5 Canadian digital health companies to watch and why
This new “gluten pill” was developed by Hoon Sunwoo, an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in collaboration with colleague Jeong Sim, a retired former professor from the school’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. The active ingredient in the pill is yolk from chicken eggs, dried into a powder. According to Sunwoo, egg yolk antibodies prevent gliadin—the protein in gluten that contributes to allergic reactions—from being digested.
RELATED CONTENT: How do you like your eggs? Business in Canada is starting to boil
Sunwoo has explained that the pill is not a true “cure” for Celiac or for gluten intolerance, so much as a gluten analog to lactase enzyme supplements like Lactaid that help sufferers of lactose intolerance eat the occasional ice cream sundae:
"This is not treating the celiac disease or curing celiac disease," he told Edmonton AM host Tim Adams. "It's just to try to help them improve their quality of life so when they want to socialize with peers or friends."
In another likeness to dairy relief supplements, Sunwoo has also told the press that, once the treatment goes through human trials and is approved by Health Canada, it will be available over the counter as a supplement instead of through prescription as a drug:
“This is not a drug, this is a food supplement that will be over the counter so it will be available for everyone,” he said. “In two years, I expect this product to be available on the market for a reasonable, affordable cost.”
But once the pill is found to meet health standards and approved, don’t expect it to stay in Canada. With millions of Celiac and gluten intolerance sufferers worldwide, Sunwoo’s development has major global applications—and with its offer of the potential for a worry-free meal, it can expect to be welcomed with open arms.
Intelliwave SiteSense boosts APTIM material tracking
“We’ve been engaged with the APTIM team since early 2019 providing SiteSense, our mobile construction SaaS solution, for their maintenance and construction projects, allowing them to track materials and equipment, and manage inventory.
We have been working with the APTIM team to standardize material tracking processes and procedures, ultimately with the goal of reducing the amount of time spent looking for materials. Industry studies show that better management of materials can lead to a 16% increase in craft labour productivity.
Everyone knows construction is one of the oldest industries but it’s one of the least tech driven comparatively. About 95% of Engineering and Construction data captured goes unused, 13% of working hours are spent looking for data and around 30% of companies have applications that don’t integrate.
With APTIM, we’re looking at early risk detection, through predictive analysis and forecasting of material constraints, integrating with the ecosystem of software platforms and reporting on real-time data with a ‘field-first’ focus – through initiatives like the Digital Foreman. The APTIM team has seen great wins in the field, utilising bar-code technology, to check in thousands of material items quickly compared to manual methods.
There are three key areas when it comes to successful Materials Management in the software sector – culture, technology, and vendor engagement.
Given the state of world affairs, access to data needs to be off site via the cloud to support remote working conditions, providing a ‘single source of truth’ accessed by many parties; the tech sector is always growing, so companies need faster and more reliable access to this cloud data; digital supply chain initiatives engage vendors a lot earlier in the process to drive collaboration and to engage with their clients, which gives more assurance as there is more emphasis on automating data capture.
It’s been a challenging period with the pandemic, particularly for the supply chain. Look what happened in the Suez Canal – things can suddenly impact material costs and availability, and you really have to be more efficient to survive and succeed. Virtual system access can solve some issues and you need to look at data access in a wider net.
Solving problems comes down to better visibility, and proactively solving issues with vendors and enabling construction teams to execute their work. The biggest cause of delays is not being able to provide teams with what they need.
On average 2% of materials are lost or re-ordered, which only factors in the material cost, what is not captured is the duplicated effort of procurement, vendor and shipping costs, all of which have an environmental impact.
As things start to stabilise, APTIM continues to utilize SiteSense to boost efficiencies and solve productivity issues proactively. Integrating with 3D/4D modelling is just the precipice of what we can do. Access to data can help you firm up bids to win work, to make better cost estimates, and AI and ML are the next phase, providing an eco-system of tools.
A key focus for Intelliwave and APTIM is to increase the availability of data, whether it’s creating a data warehouse for visualisations or increasing integrations to provide additional value. We want to move to a more of an enterprise usage phase – up to now it’s been project based – so more people can access data in real time.