Nine TMU faculty receive NSERC Alliance International Catalyst grants for medical innovation and climate change mitigation projects

Nine Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) researchers have received Alliance International Catalyst grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to pursue international research collaborations that will advance medical technology and treatments and help mitigate pollution associated with climate change. The new grant program provides $25,000 grants for researchers to initiate international research collaborations and embark on exploratory research activities.

All nine TMU applicants received funding, including six Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science professors and three Faculty of Science professors. Eight of the award recipients are also members of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST), a partnership between TMU and St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto.

The grants will support the TMU faculty as they pursue research with colleagues in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and England. The projects include the development of new tools for medical imaging and early cancer detection, the conversion of agricultural waste to nanomedicine materials for bone regeneration, and work to reduce particulate matter pollution from aircraft.

“Congratulations to the researchers for receiving this new award,” said Vice-President, Research and Innovation Steven. N. Liss. “From improving health care to mitigating climate change, their projects embody TMU’s inclusive and collaborative approach to research and will advance our scientific and medical research knowledge to the benefit of both Canadians and those abroad.”

Award Recipients List

Alexandre Douplik
Physics and iBEST
Development of nano-micro optical fiber needle endoscope for small invasive imaging and therapy

Seth Dworkin
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in High Performance Computing and Sustainable Energy
Collaborative studies on soot particle formation and characterization

Dae Kun Hwang
Chemical Engineering and iBEST
Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Microarchitecture for Advanced Polymeric Materials
Development of a highly sensitive detection platform based on metallic nanoparticle hydrogel composites in a microfluidic device

A. Emre Karatas 
Aerospace Engineering and iBEST
Mitigating climate change by reducing particulate matter pollution from aircraft

Bo Tan 
Aerospace Engineering and iBEST
Conversion agricultural waste to nanomedicine for bone regeneration

Jesse Tanguay
Physics and iBEST
X-ray detectors for the next-generation of medical imaging of breast cancer

Scott Tsai
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and iBEST
Microfluidic microbubbles and nanobubbles: Experiments and mathematical modeling

Krishnan Venkatakrishnan
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and iBEST
Ultrasensitive sensors for the detection of onset metastatic cancers from blood samples

Guanghui (Richard) Wang
Computer Science and iBEST
Non-coding RNA structure analysis based on deep neural networks