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Ron Robert, who has spent the past four years taking 35 courses on history, political science and cross disciplinary studies, graduated from King’s University College in London, Ont. on Wednesday.

Ron Robert在过去四年里在历史、政治、交叉学科领域共修35门课程。他于周三毕业于位于伦敦的King’s University College。

Robert was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2015 and struggled with depression after receiving the news. He described his decision to enrol in university “a personal experiment that has succeeded by setting an example.”

2015年，罗伯特被诊断出患有阿尔茨海默症，在得知这个消息后，他一直在与抑郁症作斗争。他把自己上大学的决定描述为“a personal experiment that has succeeded by setting an example.”

“It’s such a wonderful feeling,” Robert told CTVNews.ca as he prepared to receive his diploma at Convocation Hall. “It gives a lot of people hope that they can live they can still live a good life with Alzheimer’s. There will come a time when I won’t be able to, and I fully expect that. But in the meantime, I’m living a full life.”

“这种感觉太棒了，”罗伯特告诉CTVNews.ca。当时他正准备在毕业典礼大厅接受毕业证书。“这给了很多患有阿尔茨海默症的人希望，他们仍然可以过上好日子。与此同时，我过着充实的生活。”

Robert is not alone either. According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, more than 569,000 people were living with dementia in Canada in 2020. In a report released by the group in September this year, they predicted nearly one million people in the country will be living with dementia by the end of the decade.

罗伯特不是特例。根据加拿大阿尔茨海默病协会的数据，2020年加拿大有超过569,000人患有痴呆症。在该组织今年9月发布的一份报告中，他们预测，到2020年，该国将有近100万人患有痴呆症。

Over the four years at university, Robert said that despite his Alzheimer’s worsening, he believes the regular mental challenges may have helped slow the deterioration.

在大学四年里，罗伯特说，尽管他的阿尔茨海默症恶化了，但他相信该精神挑战可能有助于减缓恶化的速度。

“My short term memory is terrible…but my long term memory is not bad. It’s actually improved,” he said.

“我的短期记忆很糟糕……但我的长期记忆还不错。它实际上有所改善，”他说。

His wife Catherine Cornelius told CTVNews.ca that her husband persevered through the course despite his condition. “He worked hard,” she said. “I definitely believe that his focus on his studies stopped his Alzheimer’s from progressing.”

他的妻子Catherine Cornelius告诉CTVNews.ca新闻。她的丈夫尽管身体状况不佳，但还是坚持了下来。“他工作很努力，”她说。“我绝对相信，他对研究的专注阻止了他的阿尔茨海默症的恶化。”

While on campus, Robert also spoke to medical students, explaining what it’s like to live with memory loss and how patience and kindness from medical professionals is appreciated by those who suffer with dementia.

在校园里，罗伯特还对医科学生进行了演讲，解释了失忆是什么感觉，以及痴呆症患者如何感激医疗专业人员的耐心和善意。

Robert also credits teachers on his courses for adapting their classes to help him remember information, by recording the lectures he attended so he could listen to them multiple times.

罗伯特还赞扬了他课程中的老师，他们通过录制课程来帮助他记忆，这样他就可以多次听了。

One of his professors, Jeff Preston says he is “thrilled” by Ron’s achievement.

他的一位教授杰夫·普雷斯顿说，他对罗恩的成就感到“兴奋”。

“I think Ron is the living embodiment of the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, or perhaps, don’t assume someone cannot [do something] simply because of a diagnosis.” Preston told CTVNews.ca.

“我认为罗恩是‘不要以貌取人’这句话的生动体现，或者，不要仅仅因为诊断就认为某人不能(做某事)。”普雷斯顿告诉CTVNews.ca。

“We have this perception that people with disabilities like Alzheimer’s are wholly incapable. I think what Ron has shown is that all sorts of people can succeed in a university classroom when provided with the right environment and supports to nurture success,” he added.

“我们认为，像阿尔茨海默症这样的残疾人是完全没有能力的。我认为罗恩向我们展示了，只要有合适的环境和支持来培养成功，各种各样的人都可以在大学课堂上取得成功。”

The walk across the stage to collect his degree culminates in a 60-year wish for Robert. He said he had always wanted to attend university and instead had a 20-year career as a radio and television journalist in Saskatchewan and Alberta and worked as a political aide to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

走过舞台去领取学位的那一刻，罗伯特实现了他60年的愿望。他说，他一直想上大学，当他在萨斯喀彻温省和阿尔伯塔省做了20年的广播和电视记者，还担任过前总理皮埃尔·特鲁多(Pierre Trudeau)政治助理的时候。

In early November, he turns 85 years old. With one diploma to hang on his wall, he has plans to begin studies for a Master’s degree, and hopes to research ways of living better with Alzheimer’s disease, with his own experience as a model for others.

11月初，他将迎来85岁生日。有了一张挂在墙上的文凭，他计划开始攻读硕士学位，并希望以自己的经历作为榜样，研究阿尔茨海默症患者如何更好地生活。

因 COVID-19 大流行而中断后，WD Asia 团队今年终于能够线下参加MaRS Impact Health 2022。该会议为期3 天，由众多活动組成。其中包括 18 家初创公司的展示，分为 3个主题：数字健康、医疗器械和生物技术。此外，该活动还举行了各种会议及小组讨论，涉及医疗健康行业面临的重要问题。例如如何在加拿大留住人才、应对国际市场和处理错误信息等。

通过这次活动，WD Asia 得以更多地了解加拿大初创企业的发展现状，并获得有关初创公司正在向生命科学产业的各个领域引入各类创新的最新信息。成功与多家初创公司进行了初次会议，并获得了两家初创公司签署的授权书 – Aufero Medical 和 CSTS Healthcare。

2022 年 5 月WD Asia 团队线下參加了 Effervescence 2022。该会议因其在计划、执行、建立关系及可持续发展等方面提供了绝佳的机会成为加拿大最成功的会议之一。

大会由 7 个系列研讨会、15 个小组讨论和 2 个不同系列的创业比赛組成，一个面向初创公司，一个面向研究生。

WD Asia 主要对初创公司推介竞赛感兴趣，希望探索蒙特利尔不断发展的生命科学领域，并扩大我们在魁北克地区的业务网络。我们成功地与该行业的各个利益相关者建立了联系，例如 McGill HBHL、SNC-Lavalin、默克美国、JLabs Canada、Oyster Venture 和Innovacorp。 WD Asia 将继续发展其业务网络，并致力于与更多魁北克中小企业合作。

2019年WD Asia团队到访台湾，与加拿大其他机构共同参加了亚洲生技大会。由全球生物技术创新组织(BIO)和台湾生物产业组织(台湾BIO)共同主办的亚洲生技大会（台湾）于2019年首次举行。今年的主题是“连接亚洲价值链”，它反映了与庞大的亚洲生物产业实体连接的重要性和必要性，以最大限度地实现机会、创新和投资回报率。

2022年7月27-31日亚洲生技大会采用线上与线下结合的形式在台湾举行，实现了生物技术领域高水平的创新和国际参与。WD Asia与潜在的台湾合作伙伴举行了10次线上zoom会议，以更好地了解台湾生命科学市场以及需求，并讨论可能的合作机会。我们的目标是在台湾建立一个稳固的网络，并将更多的加拿大创新带到台湾，未来，WD Asia将在台湾市场更加活跃。

WD Asia团队参加了2022年5月11-13日在线下和线上同步举行的Bio Korea 2022 -韩国生物大会。Bio Korea从2006年开始每年举办一次，是国际生物健康产业的商务发展盛会。Bio Korea在生物健康领域提供了各种发展事业网络和展现竞争优势的机会。

各类研讨会和论坛为WD Asia团队全面了解韩国生命科学产业提供了绝佳机会。此外，我们与战略合作伙伴以及产业合作伙伴举行了9次线上zoom会议，讨论、分享WD Asia以及我们所代表的项目。通过Bio Korea, WD Asia团队获得了探索韩国市场的机会，并在韩国生命科学生态系统内发掘了更多的合作伙伴。在不久的将来，我们将继续加强我们在这一市场的地位，并与当地的合作伙伴建立联系。

The Idea to Innovation (I2I) grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) exists to accelerate the pre-competitive development of promising technology originating from research organizations and promote its transfer to a new or established Canadian company. The I2I grants provide funding to university faculty members to support research and development projects with recognized technology transfer potential. This is achieved through defined phases by providing crucial assistance in the early stages of technology validation and market connection.

In collaboration with WORLDiscoveries, Dr. Aaron So, Lawson Health Research Institute Scientist and Assistant Professor in Medical Biophysics at Western has been awarded the grant to help bring novel computed tomography (CT) software to market. A CT scan is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to obtain detailed internal images of the body non-invasively for diagnostic purposes.

The grant provides $125,000 in funding which will go towards development and validation of the software as well as equipment and patent costs. WORLDiscoveries worked with So to ensure his grant highlighted the commercialization value of his CT software, how it could be brought to market, and obtained letters of support from industry partners.

“It’s been a truly great experience,” said So about working with WORLDiscoveries on the grant application. “Dr. Patricia Pan helped me a lot on this grant, especially in the aspects of business plan and marketing strategy.”

CT is routinely used for anatomical assessment in patients with vascular and valvular diseases. Since blood flow assessment is also critical for optimizing the management of these patients, CT is often used in conjunction with other imaging tests for further disease evaluation, but this approach leads to ineffective clinical workflow. Current technology requires significant computations and processing times.

So’s novel CT image analysis method, which has been in development since 2017, was created to facilitate a one-stop anatomical and functional diagnosis with CT. It can accomplish in minutes what current technology takes hours to do – with much less computer processing power. This means the method does not require offsite image processing and allows blood flow measurement at a very high temporal resolution to unmask the underlying blood flow characteristics related to various vascular and valvular diseases. This translates to faster patient diagnosis and treatment planning.

“So’s technology has strong potential to overcome the current limitations of the static CT approach for blood flow assessment,” said Patricia Pan, Business Development Manager for WORLDiscoveries who guides the commercialization of the technology.

“This novel technology can compete with the existing CT-FFR method which is computationally intensive and has limited accuracy for coronary lesions that are moderately severe or densely calcified,” she continued.

Once developed with aid from the I2I grant, the technology can be licensed to any company with interests in the commercialization of medical imaging software.