Department Calendar of Events

Jan
12
Wed
SOCAAR Seminar with Prof. Naomi Zimmerman @ Zoom
Jan 12 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Upcoming SOCAAR Seminar:

Wednesday, January 12, 2022
2:00 – 3:00PM

Join on MS Teams(Phone Conference ID: 317 125 206#)

Prof. Naomi Zimmerman

Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering University of British Columbia (UBC)

Air quality, odour, health and equity: Leveraging interdisciplinary approaches to understand the impacts of cannabis cultivation in Metro Vancouver

In 2018, Canada became the only G7 nation to legalize cannabis for non-medical (recreational or non-prescribed uses) and medical use at the federal level. To date, there are over 500 facilities with licenses to cultivate cannabis. Of these, almost 25% are located in British Columbia, with some of the largest cultivation greenhouses being located or developed in the Metro Vancouver region. 

As the number and size of cannabis cultivation facilities (CCFs) have grown, so have odour-related complaints; a report from March 2019 listed 326 complaints in Metro Vancouver over a 12-month period. The odours associated with CCFs are caused by emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can also increase formation of health-damaging pollutants such as ground-level ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM). As such, air quality regulators have begun exploring options to curb these emissions. In this talk, I will highlight ongoing work in the Metro Vancouver region to understand CCF emissions from an interdisciplinary lens. This includes the development and deployment of a citizen science web application for reporting CCF odours and observed health effects (https://www.smell-vancouver.ca), modelling of odourous emissions and their dispersion, and plans for real-world ambient sampling of emissions from CCFs using mobile monitoring. The talk will also provide a high-level summary of identified knowledge gaps in our understanding of the air quality impacts of CCF facilities from the occupational to community scale.

For more information, please contact socaar@utoronto.ca

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)
+1 647-794-1609,,317125206#   Canada, Toronto

Phone Conference ID: 317 125 206#

Jan
19
Wed
Cell Therapy Minisymposium @ Zoom
Jan 19 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

EnVISIONing reGENEration WITHIN tissues by enhancing cell-based plasticity

Please register via Zoom.

Cindi Morshead to give land acknowledgement and opening remarks

11:05am-11:35am
Penney Gilbert introduces Sally Temple
Sally Temple, Scientific Director, Neural Stem Cell Institute
Using stem cell technology to combat age-related neurodegenerative disease

 

Cell transplantation therapy to restore vision

11:55am-12:25pm
Valerie Wallace introduces Rachael Pearson
Rachael Pearson, Professor, King’s College London
Stem cell-derived cone photoreceptor transplantation to restore vision

12:40pm-12:50pm
Arturo Ortin-Martinez, Scientific Associate, Krembil Research Institute
Modulating intracellular material transfer in transplanted photoreceptors

12:50pm-1:00pm
Margaret Ho, PhD Student, University of Toronto
A hyaluronan and methylcellulose-based hydrogel to perturb photoreceptor material transfer

1:00pm-1:10pm
Madison Gray, PhD Student, University of Toronto
Tracing synaptic connections in normal and regenerating retina

 

Gene therapy to promote neuroplasticity

1:20pm-1:50pm
Maryam Faiz introduces Shane Liddelow
Shane Liddelow, Assistant Professor, New York University
Reactive astrocyte heterogeneity in Inflammation and neurodegenerative disease

2:05pm-2:15pm
Justine Bajohr, PhD Student, University of Toronto
Astrocyte reprogramming for brain repair

2:15pm-2:25pm
Rikke Kofoed, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sunnybrook Research Institute
Kate Noseworthy, MSc student, University of Toronto
Focused ultrasound mediates brain plasticity and viral vector delivery

2:25pm-2:35pm
Hussein Ghazale, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
Glia to neuron conversion in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Stimulating endogenous repair in neural and muscle tissue

2:45pm-3:15pm
Julie Lefebvre introduces Joshua Sanes
Joshua Sanes, Professor, Harvard University
Enhancing neuronal survival and regeneration after retinal injury: insights from single cell
transcriptomics

3:30pm-3:40pm
Emily Gilbert, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
Metformin-mediated recovery following spinal cord injury: Sex-dependent effects on
inflammation and neural precursor cells

3:40pm-3:50pm
Erik Jacques, PhD Student, University of Toronto
Engineered bio-mimetic niche supports muscle stem cell quiescence

3:50pm-4:00pm
Danielle Jeong, PhD Student, University of Toronto
Characterization of neural stem cells and their niche during CNS remyelination

Molly Shoichet to give closing remarks

Information and registration via Zoom.

Cell Therapy Mini Symposium Poster (Portrait) – updated Jan 18, 2022:

Symposium poster

Feb
2
Wed
SOCAAR Seminar with Sandra Odendahl @ Virtual - Microsoft Teams
Feb 2 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Upcoming SOCAAR Seminar:

Wednesday, February 2, 2022
3:00 – 4:00PM

Join on MS Teams
(Phone Conference ID: 770 545 938#)

Sandra Odendahl, P.Eng., CFA
Vice President and Global Head of Sustainability, Scotiabank

The Role of Finance in Canada’s Quest for Net Zero

For more information, please contact socaar@utoronto.ca
SOCARR website: https://www.socaar.utoronto.ca/
Feb
16
Wed
LLE: At the Exciting Intersection of Quantum Chemistry and Non-equilibrium Dynamics (Prineha Narang, Harvard) @ Zoom
Feb 16 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

External members were required to register to receive the link and passcode. Registration closed at 9am on February 14. 

Prineha Narang, Harvard

Host: Prof. Frank Gu

 

Quantum systems host spectacular nonequilibrium effects and unconventional transport phenomena, but many of these remain challenging to predict and consequently, technologically unexplored. My group’s research focuses on how quantum systems behave, particularly away from equilibrium, and how we can harness emergent effects in these systems. By creating predictive theoretical and computational approaches to study dynamics, decoherence and correlations in molecules and materials, our work enables technologies that are inherently more powerful than their classical counterparts, ranging from scalable quantum information processing to ultra-high efficiency optoelectronic and energy conversion systems. Capturing these phenomena poses unique computational and theoretical challenges. In fact, the simultaneous contributions of processes that occur on many time and length-scales has eluded state-of-the-art computational physics and model Hamiltonian approaches alike, necessitating a new lens. In this context, I will focus on our work on approaches to describe excited-states in quantum matter, including electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions beyond leading order, and predicting emergent states introduced by external drives. Our approach brings quantum chemistry, quantum optics and condensed matter together to create unexpected and useful properties, including surprisingly long coherence times and propagation lengths, as well as enabling new quantum probes of correlations. I will also discuss our methods in spatially-resolved non-equilibrium transport in quantum matter. By introducing GPU-accelerated large-scale transport frameworks that retain microscopic scattering, we are overcoming long-standing barriers in the field and taking transport in matter to exascale computing. Finally, I will share our vision for the future towards crossing the finite-extended system divide, and leveraging the power of both classical high-performance computing and quantum computation paradigms in predicting new phenomena.
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Professor Prineha Narang came to Harvard University from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she worked as a Research Scholar in Condensed Matter Theory in the Department of Physics. She received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Prineha’s work has been recognized by many awards and special designations, including a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a Max Planck Sabbatical Award from the Max Planck Society, and the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics in 2021, an NSF CAREER Award in 2020, being named a Moore Inventor Fellow by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for pioneering innovations in quantum science, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and a Top Innovator by MIT Tech Review (MIT TR35).

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

 

Questions? Please contact Delicia Ansalem, Communications Officer & External Relations Liaison delicia.ansalem@utoronto.ca

Feb
24
Thu
From Foods to Function: Research at the Food-Nutrition Interface @ Zoom
Feb 24 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

BioZone will be hosting Professor Amanda Wright, from the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, at the University of Guelph on Thursday, February 24th from 3 pm – 4:30 pm.

Abstract

Functional foods deliver health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Natural health product (NHP) is the Canadian regulatory term for over-the-counter supplements that contain health-promoting molecules derived from foods, e.g., vitamins, minerals, herbals, probiotics. Together, these product categories encompass so much of the science and technology surrounding foods and nutrition. Our group works at the food-nutrition interface to support the evidence-basis for a variety of functional foods and NHPs. We have specialized interests in dietary lipids and in understanding how the structure of foods and food ingredients influences bioavailability and metabolic response, mediated by events in the gastrointestinal tract.

For example, what role does triacylglycerol crystallinity play in determining postprandial lipemia and what does this mean for saturated fatty acids? This talk will discuss our application of in vitro digestion and human research methods to relate emulsion properties to gastric microstructure, emptying, and postprandial satiety and lipemia (a risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases) to highlight the benefits of integrated food-nutrition research. Examples drawing on other functional foods will also be presented. Foods have always been functional. Focusing specifically on food structure and applying a physical property lens to what happens in the gastrointestinal tract paves the way for better understanding the nuanced relationships between foods and health, and ultimately to realize the potential for efficacious functional foods and NHPs.

Speaker Bio

Amanda Wright is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, College of Biological Sciences at the University of Guelph. She holds a BSc (Food Science – University of Guelph, 1998) and PhD (Food Chemistry – University of Guelph, 2002) and completed postdoctoral training in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto). Amanda teaches in the Nutritional and Nutraceutical Sciences BSc Program and leads an interdisciplinary research group working at the food-nutrition interface. In particular, She has specialized expertise in dietary lipids and has held NSERC funding in this area since 1997. Amanda works to integrate advanced food analysis and in vitro digestion methods with human clinical trials for a variety of foods and natural health products. She also serves as Director of the Human Nutraceutical Research Unit (https://www.uoguelph.ca/hnru/), a research and education vehicle at the University of Guelph which specializes in collaborative nutrition clinical trials.

For more information about the series:Contact Sofia Bonilla; sofia.bonillatobar@mail.utoronto.ca or Olan Raji; olan.raji@utoronto.ca

_______________________________________________________________________

Join Zoom Meeting:https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83975927179Meeting ID: 839 7592 7179Passcode: 054682

Mar
2
Wed
SOCAAR Seminar: Bridging the gap between microbiology and chemistry in built environments @ Microsoft Teams
Mar 2 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Bridging the gap between microbiology and chemistry in built environments

Prof. Sarah Haines, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering
University of Toronto

We spend the majority of our time indoors where the built environment has important implications for human health, particularly for those with asthma. Asthma disproportionately impacts low-socioeconomic communities due to poor quality housing associated with mold and moisture exposure. One of the main exposures to mold in housing is through the resuspension of floor dust. Microbes grow in carpet dust at elevated relative humidity conditions and release microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs). However, we do not know how the influence of moisture may drive species composition and chemical emissions from microbes in dust and on common building materials. Understanding
these interactions in the indoor environment is the next frontier in environmental engineering and has the potential to lead to substantial improvements in public health.

Utilizing cutting edge techniques, my work has ranged from collecting dust in carpet from homes in Ohio to analyzing dust particles from the International Space Station. Ultimately, results from my work have demonstrated that microbial growth can be quantitatively modeled in buildings, and for the first time demonstrated interactions between chemicals and microbes in house dust under elevated relative humidity conditions. My future work will link climate change, social justice, and viruses to contribute to healthy indoor environments.

Microsoft Teams meeting:
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting

Or call in (audio only)
+1 647-794-1609,,691691226#   Canada, Toronto

Phone Conference ID: 691 691 226#
Find a local number | Reset PIN

Mar
9
Wed
LLE: Nano-scale Characterizations of Ancient Mars Minerals and Earth Copper: Stories of Corrosion and Resilience (Desmond Moser, Western) @ Zoom
Mar 9 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

External members were required to register to receive the link and passcode. Registration closed at 9am on March 7.

Desmond Moser, Western

Host: Prof. Jane Howe

The characterization of long-lived minerals, including natural metal deposits of copper, and their corrosion behaviours is an area of shared interest among geo- and materials scientists. This is particularly true in regard to transdisciplinary efforts to improve the design of multi-barrier Deep Geological Repositories for spent nuclear fuel. Examples of our application of micro- and nano-characterization techniques (e.g. EBSD, SIMS, Atom Probe Tomography) will be presented for a range of geomaterials including > 4 billion-year-old weakly-radioactive minerals in Martian meteorites and 1 billion-year-old copper from Earth.

_____________________________________

Professor Desmond Moser has spent most of his career unraveling the evolution of ancient planetary crusts using weakly radioactive and highly resilient microminerals. Increasingly his group is directing their expertise to help understand all aspects of the long-lived natural materials important to designing multi-barrier Deep Geological Repositories for spent nuclear fuel.

Prof. Moser conducts solid Earth and planetary science research using Western’s nationally unique Zircon and Accessory Phase Laboratory (ZAPLab). Micromineral crystal growth and deformation analysis (e.g. CL, EBSD) is integrated with field mapping, microchemical (EDS, WDS), petrologic and mass spectrometry measurements (radiogenic and stable isotopes) at Western and partner institutes. His active projects investigate meteorites, crustal cross-sections, kimberlite xenoliths, sedimentary basins and impact structures in the Americas, Africa and Europe. His ZAPLab team is advancing our knowledge of the timing and nature of processes that form and modify planetary crusts and ore deposits while advancing the growing sub-discipline of accessory mineral science.

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

 

Questions? Please contact Delicia Ansalem, Communications Officer & External Relations Liaison delicia.ansalem@utoronto.ca

Mar
11
Fri
Sustainable Plastics vs Sustainable Systems @ Zoom
Mar 11 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Sustainable Plastics vs Sustainable Systems
Presented by: Prof. Michael Shaver (University of Manchester)
Friday, March 11th, at 12pm EST on Zoom

This talk will explore the complex nature of our plastic environment, the interdependency of plastics on our goals for lowering our carbon footprint and increasing our expected lifespan, while also showcasing our own work on how polymer chemistry has the opportunity to shape a new sustainable future by developing interdisciplinary solutions that work for all actors.

For more information, please see the event page:
https://www.sustainablehealthsystems.ca/current-centre-events

Mar
23
Wed
LLE: Ion Solubility, Diffusivity, and Transport in Charged Polymer Membranes (Benny Freeman, University of Texas at Austin) @ Zoom
Mar 23 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

External members are required to register to receive the link and passcode. Registration closed at 9am on March 21.

Co-hosted with the Institute for Water Innovation (IWI)

Benny Freeman, University of Texas at Austin

Host: Prof. Jay Werber

 

Charged polymer membranes are widely used for water purification applications involving control of water and ion transport, such as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis.  Efforts are also underway worldwide to harness separation properties of such materials for energy generation in related applications such as reverse electrodialysis and pressure retarded osmosis.  Additional applications, such as energy recovery ventilation and capacitive deionization, rely on polymer membranes to control transport rates of water, ions, or both.  Improving membranes for such processes would benefit from more complete fundamental understanding of the relation between membrane structure and ion sorption, diffusion and transport properties in both cation and anion exchange membrane materials. Ion-exchange membranes often contain strongly acidic or basic functional groups that render the materials hydrophilic, but the presence of such charged groups also has a substantial impact on ion (and water) transport properties through the polymer.

We are exploring the influence of polymer backbone structure, charge density, and water content on ion transport properties.  Results from some of these studies will be presented, focusing on transport of salt, primarily NaCl, through various neutral, positively charged and negatively charged membranes via concentration gradient driven transport (i.e., ion permeability) and electric field driven transport (i.e., ionic conductivity).  One long-term goal is to develop and validate a common framework to interpret data from both electrically driven and concentration gradient driven mass transport in such polymers and to use it to establish structure/property relations leading to rational design of membranes with improved performance.

Ion sorption and permeability data were used to extract salt diffusion coefficients in charged membranes.  Concentrations of both counter-ions and co-ions in the polymers were measured via desorption followed by ion chromatography or flame atomic absorption spectroscopy.  Salt permeability, sorption and electrical conductivity data were combined to determine individual ion diffusion coefficients in neutral, cation exchange and anion exchange materials. Manning’s counter-ion condensation models and the Mackie/Meares model were used to correlate and, in some cases, predict the experimental data.
_____________________________________

Professor Benny Freeman is the William J. (Bill) Murray, Jr. Endowed Chair of Engineering in the Chemical Engineering department at The University of Texas at Austin.  He is a professor of Chemical Engineering and has been a faculty member for 30 years.  He completed graduate training in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in 1988.  In 1988 and 1989, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI), Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Structurale et Macromoléculaire in Paris, France.  Dr. Freeman was a member of the chemical engineering faculty at NC State University from 1989 – 2002, and he has been a professor of chemical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin since 2002.  Dr. Freeman’s research is in polymer science and engineering and, more specifically, in mass transport of small molecules in solid polymers.  His research group focuses on structure/property correlation development for desalination and gas separation membrane materials, new materials for hydrogen separation, natural gas purification, carbon capture, and new materials for improving fouling resistance in liquid separation membranes. He leads the Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems (M-WET), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center and serves as Challenge Area Leader for Membranes in the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), a five-year, DOE sponsored Energy-Water Desalination Hub to address critical technical barriers needed to radically reduce the cost and energy of water purification.

His research is described in more than 450 publications and 30 patents/patent applications.  He has co-edited 5 books on these topics.  He has won a number of awards, including a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Disruptive Separations (2017), Fellow of the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) (2017), the Distinguished Service Award from the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) (2015), Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award from The University of Texas (2013), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Clarence (Larry) G. Gerhold Award (2013), Society of Plastics Engineers International Award (2013), Roy W. Tess Award in Coatings from the PMSE Division of ACS (2012), the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science (2009), AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology (2008), and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Project of the Year (2001).  He is a Fellow of the AAAS, AIChE, ACS, and the PMSE and IECR Divisions of ACS.  He has served as chair of the PMSE Division of ACS, chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Membranes: Materials and Processes, President of the North American Membrane Society, Chair of the Membranes Area of the Separations Division of the AIChE, and Chair of the Separations Division of AIChE. His research has served as the basis for several startup companies, including Energy-X and NALA Systems.

 

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

Questions? Please contact Delicia Ansalem, Communications Officer & External Relations Liaison delicia.ansalem@utoronto.ca

Mar
31
Thu
Microbes are the same but different: Incorporating microbial ecophysiology into environmental bioprocess engineering @ Zoom
Mar 31 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

BioZone will be hosting Professor Ryan Ziels, from the Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of British Columbia on Thursday, March 31st from 3 pm – 4:30 pm.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Ryan Ziels is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia, with appointments in the Genome Sciences and Technology Training Program and the Environmental Engineering Program at UBC. His research focuses on the role of microbial communities in converting waste materials into high-value resources, such as bioenergy, nutrients, and clean water, to promote a circular economy. He combines multi-omic sequencing with biological process modeling and fundamental engineering design to elucidate mechanisms of nutrient and carbon flow within engineered microbiomes. Recently, his research has focused on new approaches to map microbial metabolic networks within sustainable environmental biotechnologies by quantitatively measuring in situ function and activity.

Join Zoom Meetinghttps://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83975927179Meeting ID: 839 7592 7179Passcode: 054682

For more information about the series:Contact Sofia Bonilla; sofia.bonillatobar@mail.utoronto.ca or Olan Raji; olan.raji@utoronto.ca