Grants and Contributions

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• to support planning activities, partnership development and/or increasing understanding of the health research landscape that will contribute to the advancement of research consistent with the mandate of CIHR; and/or
• to support dissemination events/activities that focus on the communication of health research evidence to the appropriate researcher and/or knowledge-user audience(s), tailoring the message and medium as appropriate.

This proposed research is focused on the study and development of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for high-performance CO2 electrolyzers based on polymers invented at SFU, with Ionomr Innovations Inc. acting as a pipeline to commercialization. These polymers and membranes possess high anionic conductivity and very high, state-of-the-art, chemical and mechanical stability. These solid polymer electrolytes have been demonstrated in fuel cells and water electrolyzers but in order to integrate the materials into electrolytic CO2 devices they must be chemically and physically tailored for the specific application of CO2 reduction, as both membrane and ionomer in the catalyst layer possess differentiated requirements from either of the original applications. SFU will work in partnership with Ionomr to prepare novel anion conducting polymers and to incorporate them into different support substrates to prepare robust membranes of suitable quality for piloting and commercial deployment of CO2 electrolyzer units. SFU and Ionomr will partner with NRC to integrate solid polymer electrolyte membranes into CO2 electrolytic devices in order demonstrate anion-exchange membranes that promote high efficiency, high durability CO2 electrolysis for carbon capture and valorization.

Genemis Laboratories intends to expand detection capabilities of its proprietary rapid detection technology, by developing microorganism-specific reagents.

Integrating Laipac’s new 4G LTE standalone smartwatch LooK Watch II with medical devices for vital signs collection for telehealth and remote patient monitoring services

panKiller is an extension of panCELLa's proprietary FailSafe. panKiller is covered by the same patent as FailSafe: TOOLS AND METHODS FOR USING CELL DIVISION LOCI TO CONTROL PROLIFERATION OF CELLS. The patent was filed globally in most industrialized nations. panKiller involves the integration of a two-step safety switch. The first step utilizes FailSafe while the next step will utilize a second safety switch, panKiller, in order to eliminate all the therapeutic cells once therapy is complete and the therapeutic cells are no longer required. panKiller will link a suicide gene (iCaspase9) to a gene essential for cell survival (EEF2) in human induced pluripotent stem cells. There are currently no two-step safety switches on the market.

The purpose of this project is to design, create and validate a mobile application to be used by individuals recovering from a concussion.

FASTLIGN BodyGuard system is a camera system that takes high definition pictures of vehicle body conditions as they are driven into a dealership or work shop for service. The system consists of a number of high-speed, high definition cameras strategically positioned and angled to capture all sides and corners of the vehicle. And additional custom-built camera system using light pattern projecting on the surface of a car, with super high-speed camera to capture the reflection of the light pattern allows the system to capture scratches and dents that even human eyes cannot easily identified.

International Co-Innovation Action Program (ICAP) project. The project aims at consolidating a commercial consortium between Sporometrics and ValGenetics for the production of in-field testing kits and their rapid commercialization in Spain.

CO2 electrolysis is a promising energy storage technology that uses renewable electricity to convert CO2 into valuable fuels and chemicals. Commercializing CO2 electrolyzers requires the development and optimization of new materials, such as membranes and electrocatalysts. Today, these materials are typically tested in isolation under conditions that are much different than that of an actual electrolyzer (wherein catalysts on gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are interfaced with membranes in a membrane electrode assembly (MEA)). As a result of this non-representative testing methodology, seemingly promising material candidates may fail to exhibit high performance once integrated into an electrolyzer. MEAs can be tested in benchtop reactors, however existing benchtop approaches for screening materials are inefficient and labour-intensive. The Recipient proposes to circumvent these challenges by designing and building a robotics-based materials acceleration platform (MAP) for MEA development. This MAP will robotically fabricate and characterize GDEs before transferring them to a semi-automated, high-throughput electrochemical testing station where the GDEs will be integrated into MEAs and tested under conditions representative of an operating electrolyzer. To further increase platform productivity, machine learning algorithms will be employed to automatically analyze experimental data and design highly-informative follow-up experiments. This combination of experimental automation and artificial intelligence will result in an autonomous platform for accelerating the development of new, scaleable, and industrially-relevant materials for CO2 applications.

This proposed research is focused on the study and development of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for high-performance CO2 electrolyzers based on polymers invented at SFU, with Ionomr Innovations Inc. acting as a pipeline to commercialization. These polymers and membranes possess high anionic conductivity and very high, state-of-the-art, chemical and mechanical stability. These solid polymer electrolytes have been demonstrated in fuel cells and water electrolyzers but in order to integrate the materials into electrolytic CO2 devices they must be chemically and physically tailored for the specific application of CO2 reduction, as both membrane and ionomer in the catalyst layer possess differentiated requirements from either of the original applications. SFU will work in partnership with Ionomr to prepare novel anion conducting polymers and to incorporate them into different support substrates to prepare robust membranes of suitable quality for piloting and commercial deployment of CO2 electrolyzer units. SFU and Ionomr will partner with NRC to integrate solid polymer electrolyte membranes into CO2 electrolytic devices in order demonstrate anion-exchange membranes that promote high efficiency, high durability CO2 electrolysis for carbon capture and valorization.