In this project, carbon-based nano-materials were used not only to capture CO2, but also function as a nano-carrier platform to uptake the drugs and genes for cancer therapeutic applications. In other words, the main objective of this project is to tackle two major issues in our society: greenhouse gas emission and cancer.

Manufacturing of consistently high quality products is the commitment of the pharmaceutical industry. To achieve this, new products must be thoroughly tested and the results meet government-approved product specifications. Improving existing and adopting improved analytical technologies for product testing ensure the production of safe and effective products. This is particularly critical for the manufacturing of biologic products which, relative to small molecular drugs, have a larger size, are more complex in structure and are thus more difficult to characterize.

Bladder cancer is the fifth most common form of cancer in Canada, however progress in the development of safer and more effective therapies has been slow. The use of antibody drug conjugates (ADC) is a promising therapeutic option that would allow for targeted killing of cancer cells, if the obstacle of getting the drug inside the cell can be overcome. The proposed research project aims to use iProgen's Antibody Internalization Domain technology to engineer ADCs targeted to bladder cancer, which can be readily taken into the cell.

Periodontitis is a polymicrobial infectious and inflammatory disease that can lead to destruction of supporting structures of teeth. Although pathogenesis of periodontitis includes genetic and environmental factors, oral microbial biofilm elicits an inflammatory host reaction. Improvement in patients with periodontitis relies mainly on elimination or at least control of periodontal pathogens. The aim of this study is to investigate the activity of antibacterial-antifungal mouth rinses on growth and virulence properties of planktonic/biofilm cells of specific periodontal pathogens.

Antibodies are used for treatment of many diseases, including cancer. Within the human immune system, antibodies fight invading bacteria and viruses. We have devised a way to make high-quality antibodies in the laboratory and target them to specific disease-related proteins that have been identified by the scientific community and in our lab. Ensuring that these antibodies work in cells the way we intend them to in the body is a critical step of identifying their potential as therapeutic agents and also in the commercialization process.

Allergic asthma is a condition of the airways characterized by airway constriction and hyperresponsiveness upon allergen exposure. About half of the allergic asthmatic individuals experience only an acute airway constriction (early response) within several minutes upon exposure to allergen while the other half of individuals experience not only an acute airway constriction but also a chronic airway constriction plus inflammation (late response) within several hours after the allergen exposure. It is not clear why the late response is not developed in all sensitized individuals.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is thought to develop in people when their gut bacteria leak out of their intestines, and cause chronic gut inflammation. We recently found that the cells that line the guts of healthy people possess a specialized defense system called an inflammasome.
In preliminary studies, the inflammasome seems to prevent the gut from becoming leaky, and helps it fight bacteria. Interestingly, some people with IBD are known to be missing inflammasomes.

Recent discoveries show that neutrophils mainly die by formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in Cystic Fibrosis airways. Therefore determining mechanism and identifying FDA-approved drugs that inhibit NETosis could provide novel options to treat CF lung disease. We aimed to do the comparative gene expression analysis during NETosis induced by different NET inducing agents (PMA,LPS,A23187) in CF neutrophils. Furthermore to translate the findings for therapeutic targets, screening of large scale drugs, kinases and specific pathways inhibitors associated with NETosis are required.

A new film coating that can respond appropriately to different pH conditions of the stomach and small intestine (GI tract) was successfully prepared by combining pH-responsive nanoparticles with ethylcellulose polymer. However, the performance of the composite membrane has not been optimized for controlling drug release in the GI tract. Therefore, improvements are to be made through experimental design, such as central composite design, to find the appropriate composition of the nanoparticles to achieve the best overall combination of coating properties.

We are developing a new generation of devices for continuous chemical and nano-particle purification, based on the interactions of analyte with multiple types of driving forces in an electro-fluid-dynamic system. The two-dimensional electrofluid-dynamic (2-D EFD) devices, in which both electric field and hydrodynamic pressure are simultaneously utilized in 2-D channel networks to drive the mass transfer, provide better control on the analyte molecules or nanoparticles by simply adjusting the magnitude of pressure.