Innovative Projects Realized

Health Records over Blockchains

It is hard to understate the critical role access to a patient’s comprehensive medical history plays in diagnosing (and treating) patient illness. For a doctor, knowing the latest prescribed drugs of his patient might, for example, point directly to the cause of an illness — which might be just a drug side effect. Yet patients often do not know the names of the drugs they take or even the dates of surgeries and other medical procedures.

A Health register covers the entire log of patient medical treatments, from surgeries through periodic health check-ups and other medical interventions. These records are commonly paper registers, smart cards or online private databases, often owned by hospitals, and not always available on need. Publicly sharing these databases could address the problem — but it would create a new one by violating personal privacy (and Canadian privacy laws).

This project intends to employ blockchain technology to develop a platform that can integrate health registers and enable hospitals and other medical service providers to access health registers securely and promptly. Notwithstanding, the technology we are going to develop is applicable in various research fields.

Development of Low Smoke Zero Halogen Smart Polymer Compounds/Nanocomposites for Wire and Cable Covering Material

Currently halogen-based flame retardant is widely used as cable covering material in various industries including oil and gas. Studies have concluded that these materials will produce toxic gases and acidic fumes, and also persistent against degradation in landfill. These negative consequences resulted in a global ban on halogen-based flame retardant. This project is a direct response to the global ban by developing new low smoke zero halogen (LSZH) flame retardant without the aforementioned problems. New LSZH additives developed by Shawcor will first be characterized to determine its flame retardancy and other properties. Next, innovative nano-additives will be studied and characterized. Possible interactions between multiple additives will then be investigated in order to further improve performance. Finally, the fabrication process will be optimized to make the new composite suitable for mass production. The outcome of this project will offer Shawcor a solution to replace halogen-based flame retardant in its product lineup in response to the global ban.

Production of in vitro and in vivo bison embryos derived from sexed semen – Year two

In mammals, the sperm determines the sex of the resulting offspring. Semen sexing is a process whereby sperm are sorted into Y- (male) or X-chromosome (female) bearing gametes. Sexed semen may be used for artificial insemination or in vitro embryo production to create offspring of a desired sex. In a zoo setting, fewer males are required because of their ability to breed multiple females. A collaborative effort between the University of Saskatchewan and the Toronto Zoo has been resulted in the birth of live wood bison calves from in vitro embryo production, cryopreservation, and embryo transfer. The objective of this project is to produce bison sexed (female) semen for use in both in vitro and in vivo embryo production at the University of Saskatchewan. The female embryos will then be cryopreserved and transported to the Toronto Zoo where they will be transferred to surrogate bison to produce live bison calves. This Mitacs internship with the Toronto Zoo will not only produce the first female bison calves from sex-sorted semen, but will also serve as proof-of-concept for the advancement of a bison germplasm biobank for both conservation and commercial application.

Production of in vitro and in vivo bison embryos derived from sexed semen

In mammals, the sperm determines the sex of the resulting offspring. Semen sexing is a process whereby sperm are sorted into Y- (male) or X-chromosome (female) bearing gametes. Sexed semen may be used for artificial insemination or in vitro embryo production to create offspring of a desired sex. In a zoo setting, fewer males are required because of their ability to breed multiple females. A collaborative effort between the University of Saskatchewan and the Toronto Zoo has been resulted in the birth of live wood bison calves from in vitro embryo production, cryopreservation, and embryo transfer. The objective of this project is to produce bison sexed (female) semen for use in both in vitro and in vivo embryo production at the University of Saskatchewan. The female embryos will then be cryopreserved and transported to the Toronto Zoo where they will be transferred to surrogate bison to produce live bison calves. This Mitacs internship with the Toronto Zoo will not only produce the first female bison calves from sex-sorted semen, but will also serve as proof-of-concept for the advancement of a bison germplasm biobank for both conservation and commercial application.

Production of cannabinoid in bioengineered microalgae – Year two

Plant natural products (PNP) are important resources for pharmaceutical and food industry. In the last decades, the market price of several PNP inflated because of the limited amounts produced in plants and the challenges in growing healthy crops. To overcome this problem, our team developed a multitool box of molecular methods to transform marine algae Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
Bioengineered microalgae are great candidates to manufacture PNP because of the relatively close behavior to plants’ compared to bioengineered bacteria or yeast. We designed and inserted genes encoding enzymes involved in cannabinoid biosynthesis. We succesfully detected the production of precursor molecules from the first part of the pathway. Now, we designed genetic constructions for the rest of the pathway to produce the final products i.e. cannabinoids. This project is a proof of concept of how microalgae could be used in pharmaceutical to encounter natural limitation of PNP. The aim to produce cannabinoids is the first step because of the trend after the law change in Canada, but the PNP could be also other therapeutic molecules of medical or nutritional importance such as Taxol or omega-3 fatty acids.

Integrating First Principles and Big-Data Analytics for Improved Biomolecular Simulations

Laws of physics combined with computational prowess has allowed us to simulate biological processes at a molecular level, which have a wide range of applications which include guiding experimental observations, designing drugs with molecular precision, and improving bio-sensor technology. However, the existing models use approximations that that limit scope of their applicability, due to the vast diversity and complexity of molecular processes in physiological environments. Thus, models have to be continually refined and updated, by incorporating more empirical data, or more physics. For my research project I will be working with Prof. Carsten Baldauf to aid in the development of models that better describe ion-protein interactions at molecular scales, since these interactions are crucial for almost every physiological process, but often lack a good description at such small scales. This will be done by incorporating more quantum level data into existing simulation models, and this requires intensive computational calculation of 1000s of amino acid structures, data analysis and statistical fitting.

Production of cannabinoid in bioengineered microalgae

Plant natural products (PNP) are important resources for pharmaceutical and food industry. In the last decades, the market price of several PNP inflated because of the limited amounts produced in plants and the challenges in growing healthy crops. To overcome this problem, our team developed a multitool box of molecular methods to transform marine algae Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
Bioengineered microalgae are great candidates to manufacture PNP because of the relatively close behavior to plants’ compared to bioengineered bacteria or yeast. We designed and inserted genes encoding enzymes involved in cannabinoid biosynthesis. We succesfully detected the production of precursor molecules from the first part of the pathway. Now, we designed genetic constructions for the rest of the pathway to produce the final products i.e. cannabinoids. This project is a proof of concept of how microalgae could be used in pharmaceutical to encounter natural limitation of PNP. The aim to produce cannabinoids is the first step because of the trend after the law change in Canada, but the PNP could be also other therapeutic molecules of medical or nutritional importance such as Taxol or omega-3 fatty acids.

Masonry Construction as a Solution for Healthy and Resilient Buildings: A Life Cycle Thinking Based Evaluation

This research aims at life cycle thinking-based comparison of popular wall material (i.e., wood, concrete, masonry, etc.) for institutional, commercial, and industrial (ICI) building construction in Canada. Empirical studies will be used to observe the deterioration of interior and exterior masonry wall systems in various climatic regions. Life cycle sustainability assessment would be used to evaluate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Alternative wall construction methods will be compared using a methodological framework that integrates TBL, resiliency, and occupant health. Fuzzy logic will be used to account for data uncertainties. The knowledge generated will be used to develop decision support tools, best management guidelines, and green procurement guidelines. This research will contribute to the body of knowledge on masonry construction. Moreover, this research will guide institutions in achieving a healthy and resilient ICI building stock.

Analysis and Prototype Development of a Drive System and Novel Control Algorithm for Direct Drive Brushless Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

Brushless permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are widely used in many applications including automations, instrumentation, propulsion, vehicular systems, etc. This project is focused on research and development of a modified drive system and novel control algorithms for PMSMs that could improve efficiency and torque performance compared to conventional methods. Collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC) would provide the benefits to the Partner organization and to Canada as it is anticipated that new knowledge and technology have the potential for subsequent commercialisation. Canada has a growing high-tech sector particularly related to energy, manufacturing, mining and processing industries, robotics and industrial automation, etc., where the use of brushless PMSMs is rapidly increasing. Therefore, developing technologies that can even slightly improve the operation and efficiency of such motors can have a very significant and long-lasting impact on all devices and systems with such motors as well as on their energy efficiency and reliability.

Investigation of Innovative Methods, Tools and Processes on BC Housing’s First IPD Project

In this unique research project, the researchers will document and analyze the collaborative processes and technologies in a housing project, which follows a formal Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach. IPD is an emerging procurement method in the construction industry that engages all major stakeholders from the beginning of the construction project. However, there is still a great need for understanding better the required organizational settings, innovative processes, and collaborative tools in order to conduct successfully an IPD project. The research will inform the partner organization and the construction industry in general about the best practices for implementing IPD on a project as well as using specific beneficial aspects of IPD on other traditional projects.

Modeling the risk of breakage of beaver dams

Municipalities in Quebec lack tools to effectively anticipate and manage the consequences of beaver dam outburst flooding. When beaver dams fail the resulting flooding can pose a major threat to public safety and public and private infrastructure. A research project lead by Dr. Jan Franssen in partership with OBV RPNS and its Municipal partners is developing knowledge necessary for the effective classification of the risks associated with beaver dams situated upstream of public and private infrastructure. The project will lead to the development of a hydrogeomorphic based risk assessment approach that will enable municipalities to determine the risks associated with beaver dams. A key aspect of the project involves the hydraulic modeling of potential outburst floods that result from beaver dam failure. The applicant (Alan J D Villagómez) will work directly with Dr. Franssen and his graduate students to develop and test hydraulic models to assess how these outburst floods interact with the river channel and downstream infrastructure. This is a critical aspect of the project and one for which the applicants knowledge and academic training are particularly well suited.

Design and development of techniques to characterize optical, mechanical and chemical properties of metallic and semiconductor thin films with applications in MEMS structures and their packaging

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are complex systems with sizes in the range of few microns (human hair has thickness of 150-200 microns) which have both mechanical and electronic components. MEMS technology has entered in many industries such as optical technology, point of care diagnostics, telecommunications, automotive, and military. Today, there are hundreds of MEMS devices, e.g. microscale gyroscopes and accelerometers, used in cars to control different components, including wheels, brakes, steering, and air bags. Although MEMS have been around for a few decades, there are still some fundamental issues related to the thin films and suspended components, vital to devices performances, that must be resolved. Packaging of MEMS is also a very challenging task given that the packaging techniques vary from one device to another. It is the purpose of this study to evaluate critical of MEMS elements, specifically thin films used in their structures and packaging.