Despite substantial research efforts, the problems of spreading infectious diseases (such as COVID-19) through surface transmission and infections associated with medical devices persist. One promising solution is to apply a coating to the surface of concern that can provide effective surface disinfection. However, existing approaches typically provide only short-term disinfection effects (a few hours), contain materials having potential human or environmental health risks, or require specific fabrication steps that can be performed only during device manufacturing.
Mines generate metal-contaminated wastewater that needs to be cleaned before it can be re-used by the mine or discharged into the environment. There are several ways to remove this metal, but many of these technologies are expensive and require non-renewable materials to work. Biological methods to remove these metals are promising renewable alternatives, but they have their limitations too: a lack of specificity for metals and the need to destroy the biomass to recover the metal for profit.
According to world health organization (WHO) 80% of the diseases are water borne! Providing clean and affordable water then is one of the modern-times hurdles. Finding new remedies could mean saving thousands of lives. Therefore, my research expertise lies in the area of creating new strategies to remove hazardous contaminants saying heavy oil, hydrocarbons, heavy metal and pharmaceutical discharges from water. Through my research, I apply facile eco-friendly strategies for preparing advanced nano-based materials.
Increasing concerns about global warming related to greenhouse emission, and depletion of fossil fuel resources, bring biomass as a promising environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to supply chemicals and fuels. One attractive option is the conversion of biomass obtained from recycling activities to high-value chemicals.
Temperature is a critical parameter in welding and related processes such as metal additive manufacturing. The real-time temperature measurement systems based on infrared thermal cameras have a potential to significantly improve the existing process control systems and, consequently, the quality of the welds and additive manufactured products. Conventional thermal cameras work in midwave (MWIR) and longwave infrared (LWIR) part of the infrared spectrum. They require sophisticated sensor systems and special optics.
What is left after late-life SAGD production is a large amount of valuable energy in the form of heat contained in the reservoirs. Instead of leaving behind the stored energy in a hot reservoir after many years of SAGD operation, considering energy recovery from post-SAGD reservoirs leads to lower carbon emissions by saving energy already injected in the reservoir rather than leaving it to avoid burning more natural gas; saving money for SAGD operators and helping to make operations more sustainable.
Healthcare requires the early and accurate detection of disease indicators, be they small biomolecules or viruses, which is vital for successful treatments, preventative medicine and disease prevention. Improving turnaround times for early and accurate detection will improve patient care, enable the mass screening of large populations during outbreaks and effectively reduce the diagnostic burden. We have developed a small-scale filter detection device to provide high sensitivity, while being inexpensive and portable for diagnostics at the point of care.
Retinal diseases are the leading causes of blindness in Canada. Retinal diseases are currently treated by monthly or bimonthly intraocular injections of biologics. At the Sheardown lab, we are developing a new injectable hydrogel that can provide prolonged treatment for retinal diseases. Upon injection, the new treatment forms a transparent solid depot inside the eye that doesn’t interfere with the patient’s vision. The depot provides sustained release of the biologics over several months and is completely resorbable after delivery of its payload.
Additive manufacturing (AM, or 3-D printing) with metals is a rapidly growing field catalyzing a revolution in modern manufacturing. The most common approach involves the use of metal powders as a feedstock material. The proposed research program will use metalorganic gaseous precursors such as Ni(CO)4 and Fe(CO)5 which facilitate low temperature (~200 C) deposition, forming solid metal deposits utilizing infrared light radiation-based heating.
Ardra Inc. has sustainably produced many high-purity chemicals that are used for various flavor, perfume, and cosmetic applications. Combining industrial/business expertise provided by Ardra with academic/research skills provided by Dr. C. Perry Chou’s lab, we are aiming to effectively produce high-value heme compound using engineered E. coli host organism. Major efforts will be dedicated toward engineering of this bacterium by adopting synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and bioprocessing strategies to facilitate large-scale bio-based production of heme.
