LLE – Bridging Chemical Engineering and Quantum Nanotechnologies to Healthcare and Environmental Protection Applications (Frank Gu, University of Toronto)

The term “nanotechnology” often elicits images of advanced materials, nanoelectronics, medical devices, and powerful imaging tools – a spectrum of complex, high value technologies developed for demanding conditions. Professor Gu heads an interdisciplinary research group that combines chemical engineering principles and nanotechnology to tailor the material design for life sciences and environmental remediation applications. The seminar will also introduce several major activities in our lab for therapeutics and pathogen sensing applications through the use of metallic nanoparticles to generate a “fingerprint”-like interactions with biological structures. This seminar will also showcase our recent development of advanced nanocomposites for photocatalytic treatment of persistent organic water pollutants.

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Frank Gu is an NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair Professor in Nanotechnology Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the University of Toronto in July 2018, Dr. Gu was an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Gu received his Ph.D. from Queen’s University, Canada, where he majored in chemical engineering. Following completion of his graduate program, he pursued postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gu has established a frontier research program in Nanotechnology Engineering, with important advances in medical and life science applications. Leading-edge projects have produced new materials and tools for targeted drug delivery, rapid pathogen detection, and passive water treatment. His research has had tangible impacts on his field and industry, including mucoadhesive nanoparticles for the treatment of Dry Eye Disease that has led to the creation of MyX Therapeutics, and photocatalytic water treatment technologies that are the core technology of H2nanO Inc, both are Canadian companies. Dr. Gu has authored and co-authored more than 200 journal and conference publications, as well as 25 U.S. and World patents and applications.

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