Another first for Ryerson: Eno Hysi awarded John C. Polanyi Prize

Just two years ago, Dr. Eno Hysi (external link)  (Biomedical Physics ’20) became the university’s first graduate to receive a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. Now, he’s marked another milestone as the winner of a John Charles Polanyi Prize (external link) .

Each year since its inception in 1987, the Government of Ontario selects five outstanding researchers in the early stages of their career for the honour. The 2021 Polanyi Prize in Physics recognizes Hysi’s ground-breaking work combining lasers and ultrasound to noninvasively quantify scarring in donated kidneys. What started as a side interest during his PhD is now in clinical trials at St. Michael's Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto.

Hysi recently sat down to share his reflections on the award, his prize-winning work in physics and his career path as a biomedical researcher.  

Congratulations on your latest award! How meaningful is this for you?
Dr. Polanyi is a brilliant scientist, Nobel laureate and an inspiration. To have my name associated with his legacy is a tremendous honour. I’m deeply grateful for the recognition. So many past recipients are research leaders that I’ve always respected and admired from afar. I was beyond humbled to find out I’ve been selected to join their ranks. This would not have been possible without the support of my many mentors, both within the Department and across the University, but especially my graduate supervisor, Dr. Michael Kolios of the Department of Physics and my current supervisor at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Darren Yuen (external link)  who is also a Polanyi Prize recipient. My success is a clear derivative of their generous mentorship and support.

Moving your research into clinical trials is a huge step forward. How’s that progressing?
We’re very excited by this development. Late last year, we moved our device into the operating rooms at St. Michael’s Hospital, scanning the first donated kidney before it was transplanted. Using our photoacoustic technology and the interplay of laser and ultrasound physics in biological tissues, our first-in-the-world trial will non-invasively quantify and visualize fibrosis (or scarring) in transplant kidneys. Scarring is an undesirable feature of some donated kidneys, but there are currently no other tools available to accurately assess its burden on the transplant.

The goal of this trial is to examine how closely predictive our fibrosis readings are of the patients’ post-transplant outcome. If all goes well, this work could help doctors better allocate scarcely available kidney transplants. In doing so, it could also save significant health care resources that go into patient dialysis, the standard therapy for patients waiting for a kidney transplant. For me, having the opportunity to improve these patients’ quality of life is rewarding. That’s the ‘holy grail’ of applied research: taking a fundamental physics principle that started in the lab and then translating it into meaningful, real-world impacts.  

How did Ryerson equip you for this amazing journey?
I earned all three of my degrees at Ryerson, and always thought of it as my second home. The curriculum in the Department of Physics, especially toward the end of my PhD, was intensive and spectacular. It all started during my undergrad when I took one of Dr. Kolios’s courses, joined his lab, and caught the research bug almost instantaneously. From there, I got the chance to work at the Institute of Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST) at St. Michael’s Hospital, which played a huge part in exposing me to research, clinical problems and collaborations.

You’ve been a very active Ryersonian throughout. How did extracurriculars boost your experience?
Early on, I became intrigued by the actual enterprise of a university. I wanted to understand how the academe worked, how it’s run, and how the student experience is created and improved upon. Over time, this led to many opportunities, such as serving on the senate and countless committees. I learned how academic leaders are brought in, how prospective professors thought about research, and how bold ideas can truly impact the student experience. After many years observing this, I came to realize that an institution’s prestige really comes from the people who dedicate their lives to universities, facilitating knowledge translation. If I’m fortunate to one day contribute to the academic enterprise, I will carry these rich lessons learned throughout my training at Ryerson.

What insights or advice can you offer to students?
Be versatile and keep an open mind to new opportunities. You just never know where your next successful collaboration will come from or where it’ll end up. If you’d told me as a student that my career would lead to innovations for kidney transplants, I wouldn’t have believed it because my PhD had nothing to do with that at all.

I always thought of my multidisciplinary training in biomedical physics as knowing a little bit about so many things – and it was absolutely empowering. Some students are wary of disciplines that don’t lead to a very specific profession or designation. But it’s precisely that critical thinking and wide exposure to broad scientific knowledge during my PhD which has allowed me to integrate into other disciplines and contribute to them. I couldn’t have done that if I had been siloed into one narrow area. Regardless of where the tides take me next, I feel confident that my academic training will allow me to use my fundamental research skillset to make an impact. I hope that every doctoral student savours every moment of their training, for it will provide access to truly a one-of-a-kind toolbox to explore the world with.