Grants and Contributions

The team proposes to apply state-of-the-art Genetic Code Expansion (GCE) technology to develop an industrial biocatalytic component system for application to the sustainable removal of undesirable anti-nutritional/palatability factors during the processing of pulse meal. GCE is an emerging bio-based technology, poised to dramatically expand the potential of synthetic biology by enabling the coding of biologicals with an expanded set of building blocks, and thus a vastly expanded array of novel biochemistries. This translates into precision engineering of biological technologies (therapeutics, biocatalysts, biopolymers), with a breadth of specificities, stabilities and efficiencies far beyond what natural biology can effect.

The team will help to provide the necessary components to enable GCE in two recombinant systems, E.coli and S. cerevisiae that will be compiled. Genes encoding the biocatalytic components will be individually mutated such that each optimized full length component will only be obtained with the successful incorporation of the un-natural building blocks. In the short term of this one-year project, incorporated synthetic biochemistries will test the potential to use ncAAs to enhance the catalytic activity of the relevant biocatalysts. In the longer term, the team hopes to assess the potential to stack additional modifications for stability and re-usability as well, for development of an overall sustainable, cost-effective biocatalyst to apply to the bioprocessing of lower value agricultural commodities. Prototypes will be tested against pulse meal with partners in Western Canada.

The partnership to produce a novel industrially relevant biocatalytic system that will enable cost-effective bioprocessing of lower value commodities,and he team firmly within the emerging GCE cornerstone of synthetic biology, thereby significantly enhancing Canada’s innovation potential across multiple Canadian Industries going forward.

Research on flexible and stretchable electronics can bring about new materials with light weight, mechanical flexibility and durability, allowing simple device integration, along with low-cost and processability. They can be used in a wide range of applications such as flexible displays, energy generation and storage, E-textiles , sensors, especially in the field of sensors, health care and smart human-machine interface. Innovation of material design, synthesis, and fabrication holds the key to the development in this area and the biggest challenge is to allow the entire electronic system to be bent and stretched. Printed electronics is an emerging technology that enables printing of processable materials (organic, inorganic and hybrid) and electronic devices. We propose a new strategy to design and test new molecular ink formulation to achieve elastomer enhancement of such materials and devices. The new printable molecular ink will incorporate monomers and photo-initiators. UV irradiation will allow a photopolymerization process to produce elastomers incorporating conductive traces with enhanced stretchability. This process will enable the incorporation of a selection of desirable amount of elastomer monomers into inks that were previously unattainable because it is only limited by the solubility of elastomer polymers in the ink carrier solutions. The new materials are expected to improve the general performance of wearable electronic devices so that sport garments and personal healthcare devices can remain functional following repeated stretching cycles. The development of the molecular ink will differentiate the new technology from competitors and lead to future commercialization of the products. Young researchers will be trained for the research and development of new materials and new technology in the project.

This project will help overcome one of the major limitations for applications that use colour-changing materials – their temperature dependency. Many research groups and companies have attempted to commercialize organic molecules that undergo reversible changes in colour for applications in dynamic windows, UV indicators and eye-wear. However, all attempts have been held back by the fact that the colour-changing materials function differently at different temperatures. Typically, they darken too much at low temperatures and barely darken at high temperatures. A method to regulate the local temperature would provide an opportunity to employ this technology for many important applications.

The project will attach several classes of photoresponsive, color-changing molecules to the surface of nanowires that act as efficient heat conductors. It is anticipated that these optically transparent nanosystems will allow the photoresponsive compounds to undergo their characteristic changes in colour when exposed to different types of light, while reducing their temperature dependency. The project will target colour-changing films and inks for eye-wear, windows and sunscreen indicators.

Many antibiotics are derived from natural products, small molecules made by organisms in the environment. In this project, high-throughput screening and chemical analysis will be used to isolate and identify novel natural products with unique activities against drug-resistant strains of E. coli. Using this approach, it is anticipated that a new classes of bioactive compounds will be identified that could form the foundation for future drug development.

Atmospheric CO2 levels are at a record high. Further increases are predicted to produce large and uncontrollable impacts on the world climate and ocean acidity levels. Meanwhile, the global energy demand is expected to boom by 2040, with a growth of more than 25%. To meet this demand, while addressing our CO2 challenge, a solution (photosynthetic biohybrid systems (PBSs)) that can efficiently capture and store CO2 and solar energy in a CO2-negative or CO2-neutral manner is being explored. PBSs are still in their infancy, with less than a handful of microbes incorporated as their biocatalysts. The technical breakthrough of PBSs relies on enhancement of bacterial attachment, biofilm development, and electron-transfer rates at the microbe-electrode interfaces, all of which will benefit immensely from a deeper understanding of the ecological strategies and environmental drivers of the solar absorber compatible CO2 fixing microbes in their natural habitats. Fe- and Mn-mineral coated mining sites with ample solar exposure will be the ideal ecosystem to find these microbes. This project will thus fill the knowledge gap of CO2 fixing photoelectrotroph communities associated with Fe- and Mn-mineral coatings on Earth’s surface.

The objective of this two-year project is the construction of a new generation of inducible packaging cell line based on the HEK293 cell line for the production of adeno-associated virus (AAV). This would allow for a cheaper and more efficient method of production than the currently existing method, possibly yielding higher titers of AAVs.

Glutathione is found in most cells and tissues with an extremely important role in protecting healthy as well as cancer cells against toxic injury. The goal is to create a predictable model of glutathione metabolism in healthy cells and cancer cells in order to provide better understanding of its role in disease progression.

The unique, world-leading Ultrafast X-ray Science Facility at the University of Ottawa, will combine the atomic selectivity and high spatial resolution of X-rays with the ultrafast time-resolution of femtosecond lasers. This opens up entirely new avenues of research for the study of light-induced molecular processes, of which solar energy conversion is a key example. Nature is not static: in the 21st century, there will be a need to have an understanding of Nature which goes beyond the traditional structural studies which dominated the 20th century. For example, how specific atomic motions lead to highly efficient electronic charge transfer requires an ultrafast, dynamical understanding of Nature. The aim is to uncover the fundamental rules governing these ultrafast charge transfer processes by combining state-of-the-art Experiment with Theory. This understanding will lead to a completely new approach to the rational design of solar energy conversion devices – one that is based on the fundamental ultrafast dynamics of the charge transfer process itself.

The faster a clock ticks and the more protected it is from the environment, the more accurately we can read the clock. Currently the world’s standard clock is an atomic clock. It ticks at approximately 10,000,000,000 times per second. It is the accuracy of the atomic clock that allows the GPS navigation system that we all use.

A frequency comb is a laser device that translates the tick rate of the atomic clock into about 200,000,000 Hz intervals up to approximately 20,000,000,000,000,000 times per second while still maintaining the accuracy of the atomic clock to which it is synced. Therefore, a comb plays a role similar to the gears of an old fashion mechanical clock. With the gear works in place, the world is free to select a new standard that is more accurate than the current atomic clock. However, comb technology for the last factor of 100 is very difficult to use, so, when the next world standard is agreed upon, it will tick at only approximately 400,000,000,000,000 per second.

The project will study a means to simplifying the last factor of 100. If the project is successful, the best clocks will eventually become nuclear clocks where all of an atom’s electrons are used to shield the clock element – the nucleus – from environmental noise.

Remote sensing is a growing field that can provide valuable data from great distances without direct interaction with the test species.
Photonic sensors enables the direct assessment of the molecular composition of the species under test. In this work, the team will be developing integrated photonic sensors based on miniature ring resonators in two distinct material platforms: silicon-based and III-V semiconductors. The specific goal of the research performed is to develop III-V semiconductor photonic sensors through fabricating high-quality compact rings on-a-chip based on air-bridge waveguide geometry where the semiconductor material si surrounded by the air. Addressing fabrication challenges associated with making high-quality air-bridge waveguides and microrings, performing numerical simulations to improve the design of the devices, and optical testing of the fabricated devices are the specific activities that will be undertaken.