Department Calendar of Events

Dr. Syeda Tasneem Towhid, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa

The emergence and circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in a population could be detected through surveying the municipal wastewater. This project presents the outcomes of the wastewater surveillance from Ottawa City, selected neighborhoods of Ottawa City and the University of Ottawa. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was done targeting the N1 and N2 genes in the SARS-CoV-2 genome and the SARS-CoV-2 titre was normalized with reference to Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMoV), the endogenous indicator of fecal discharge in sewage.

During the span of this project (April 2020-till date), we have been able to track the increase of the SARS-CoV-2 titre in the wastewater 48 hours before the reporting of the clinical cases and 96 hours before hospitalization from the community.   We have also been able to track the 2nd and 3rd wave from May 2020 to May 2021. We could detect the ɑ-variants from Ottawa municipal sewage since February, 2021 and determine the allelic frequencies of N1, D3 and D3L in wastewater. The sudden increases in wastewater titers around national holidays and festivals indicated periods of susceptibility for SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the communities. To sum it up, wastewater-based surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is an early detection system that indicates the burden of COVID-19 in the population from both symptomatic and asymptomatic people.

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Syeda Tasneem Towhid finished her Master of Science in Microbiology from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2007 and obtained PhD from Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen, Germany in 2013 in clinical biology. She was employed as a surveillance officer during the avian influenza epidemic in Bangladesh in 2013 under projects conducted by the International Center of Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. She joined as an assistant professor of Microbiology in Jagannath University, Dhaka, were her team reported the burden of critical drug-resistant bacteria from people with long-term hospitalization. She joined Prof. Robert Delatolla’s group in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa in January, 2021, to assay the wastewater titer from First Nations and Vulnerable Communities from Ottawa City. She is also involved in community engagements and discussions to explain the importance of wastewater-based surveillances in controlling epidemics.

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Professor Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne
Department of Chemical Engineering
McGill University

Protein-based materials represent sustainable and easily customizable alternatives to conventional synthetic polymers. With their biocompatibility, bioactivity and genetic tunability, proteins can be customized for a range of applications. Specifically, protein materials that self-assemble into macromolecular structures and can be produced at large scale are of interest for deployment into wearable devices, tissue scaffolds, and alternatives for commodity materials like plastics, textiles and electronics. Curli fibers produced by Escherichia coli bacteria represent a very promising protein scaffold due to their unique physicochemical properties. Once secreted by bacteria cells, CsgA subunits, the self-assembling repeats of curli fibers, form fibrous structures that can further aggregate and gel into macroscopic materials. Among other functionalities, we have genetically encoded in CsgA the ability to fluoresce, to conduct charges, and to nucleate mineral particles.

In this talk, I will describe advances from our group to engineer curli fibers and confer them with properties relevant for biosensing devices, wearables, and plastic-like (“aquaplastic”) materials. First, I will present methods that we have developed to express and isolate bacterial fiber extracellularly secreted from E. coli cells, and I will show examples of materials (thin films, hydrogels, aerogels, coatings) that we have fabricated with these nanofibers. Then, I will focus on specific applications and proof-of-concept functional devices that we have fabricated. We will discuss bio-functionalized pH-sensing textiles, living adaptive wearable devices, curli-based bioplastics, and protein fibers – polymer composites for conductive biocompatible electrodes.Such devices bring us closer to a bio-based circular economy, and enable novel functions that can only be achieved by biological materials.
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Noémie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at McGill University since 2017, and a Canada Research Chair in Biologically-Derived Materials since 2021. Previously, she obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2015 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard until 2017. She was trained as a multidisciplinary scientist and engineer, and has worked in the field of biologically-derived materials for over a decade, focusing on the fabrication and characterization of novel functional materials and devices using recombinant proteins. In her research, she integrates synthetic biology with scalable assembly processes, to fabricate functional materials. Prof. Dorval Courchesne is actively involved in industrially-relevant research, with the goal of introducing biologically-derived technologies in real-world products. Among other projects, she has she has an ongoing collaboration with Lululemon Athletica Inc. She is also part of an NSERC CREATE on Sustainable Electronics and Eco-Design (SEED). In addition, Prof. Dorval Courchesne is a member of several research networks including the Quebec Center for Advanced Materials (QCAM) and the Research Center for High Performance Polymer and Composite Systems (CREPEC). In 2020, she was recognized for her research potential as the recipient of the Christopher Pierre Award for Research Excellence (Early Career) at McGill. She was also recently named one of three “Emerging Leaders in Chemical Engineering” at the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC 2020).

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Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 839 7592 7179
Passcode: 054682
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+17789072071,,83975927179#,,,,*054682# Canada
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+1 613 209 3054 Canada
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If you are an external member, registration is required to receive the Zoom link and passcode. External registration closes at 9am on Mon Oct 18.

Sankar Nair, Georgia Institute for Technology

Host: Prof. Nikolai DeMartini

This lecture will discuss our progress in developing materials-based separation processes for biorefinery applications. The discussion will be centered on the kraft process, which is a high-volume biorefining process that currently yields biopolymer (cellulose), biobased chemical (such as tall oil), and bioenergy (steam and electricity) products. The main byproduct of the process – kraft black liquor – is dewatered by energy-intensive multi-effect evaporation, followed by combustion of the concentrated black liquor to produce steam and electricity. However, black liquor is a potential high-volume feedstock (available at > 1 billion tons/yr in kraft processes) for chemical production because it contains lignin and hydroxy acid fractions.

We will highlight the key role of advanced separation processes in increasing the energy efficiency of the kraft process as well as enabling valorization of stream components. The discussion is placed in the context of three interconnected issues. First, we will illustrate the importance of imagining biorefineries as an interconnected network of conversion and separation processes, and the possibility for materials-based separations to enable new ways of dewatering black liquor as well as valorizing black liquor components such as hydroxy acids and lignin. Second, we will illustrate the differing separation challenges encountered in stream fractionation versus product purification, both of which are critical for biorefineries. Third, we will explore the development and identification of versatile and inexpensive separation materials that can handle complex multicomponent streams in harsh conditions of temperature, pH, and high dissolved solids content.
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Sankar Nair is Professor, Associate Chair, and Simmons Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research interests are in the science and engineering of nanoporous materials for the development of sustainable chemical processes. His current work focuses on nanoporous membrane and adsorption-based separation systems and processes that can enable new technological paths in biorefining, plastics upcycling, industrial water management, and CO₂ utilization.

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

Questions? Please contact Jennifer Hsu, Manager, External Relations  jennifer.hsu@utoronto.ca.

External members are required to register to receive the link and passcode. Registration now closed!

James Collins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Host: Prof. Krishna Mahadevan

Synthetic biology is bringing together engineers, physicists and biologists to model, design and construct biological circuits out of proteins, genes and other bits of DNA, and to use these circuits to rewire and reprogram organisms.  These re-engineered organisms are going to change our lives in the coming years, leading to cheaper drugs, rapid diagnostic tests, and synthetic probiotics to treat infections and a range of complex diseases.  In this talk, we highlight recent efforts to create synthetic gene networks and programmable cells, and discuss a variety of synthetic biology applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.
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Professor James Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, as well as a Member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty. He is also a Core Founding Faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, and his research group is currently focused on using synthetic biology to create next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics. Professor Collins’ patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma and medical devices companies, and he has co-founded a number of companies, including Synlogic, Senti Biosciences, Sherlock Biosciences and Cellarity, as well as Phare Bio, a non-profit focused on AI-driven antibiotic discovery. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship and a MacArthur “Genius” Award, and he is an elected member of all three national academies – the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

Questions? Please contact Jennifer Hsu, Manager, External Relations  jennifer.hsu@utoronto.ca.

BioZone will be hosting Dr. Jens Kastenhofer, from our Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, on Thursday, October 28 from 3 pm – 4:30 pm.

Title: Extracellular production of recombinant proteins with E. coli

Abstract

Escherichia coli is among the most favored expression hosts for recombinant proteins. It grows fast on cheap media, is easily genetically manipulated and bears low risk of contamination. However, the product is usually located inside the cell, resulting in a complex and costly purification process. Extracellular production may alleviate this bottleneck but is difficult to achieve due to the nature of the E. coli cell envelope and missing secretory pathways.

Dr. Jens Kastenhofer will present various strategies on how to achieve extracellular production of recombinant proteins with E. coli and demonstrate its benefit for the downstream process, both economical and ecological. Furthermore, the talk will explore approaches to monitoring extracellular production processes with E. coli.

Speaker Bio

Jens Kastenhofer obtained his MSc degree from Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands) and his PhD from TU Wien (Vienna, Austria). His doctoral research was concerned with novel techniques for recombinant protein production in E. coli. He was awarded with the Erwin-Schrödinger-Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for a postdoc position at the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto. In the lab of Prof. D. Grant Allen, he is working towards understanding the response of microalgae to rare earth elements.

To receive the Zoom link and passcode, please contact Sofia Bonilla (sofia.bonillatobar@mail.utoronto.ca) or Olan Raji (olan.raji@utoronto.ca)

Rachel O’Brien
Assistant Professor

Chemistry Department
College of William and Mary

Abstract:

Brown carbon (BrC) in aerosol particles and cloud droplets can contribute to climate warming by absorbing radiation in the visible region of the solar spectrum. Large uncertainties remain in our parameterization of this warming, in part due to a lack of knowledge about atmospheric lifetimes for the chromophores (the light absorbing structures in BrC molecules). An important removal pathway involves chemical transformations that fragment the chromophore, thus removing its ability to absorb visible light. However, the rates measured for this removal pathway in the laboratory are much shorter than what is observed in ambient measurements. There also can be different amounts of photo-resistant BrC, which is a fraction of the mixture that does not rapidly bleach and therefore affects the practical lifetime of the BrC. An important BrC source in the atmosphere is biomass burning and the overall photochemical decay rates for these emissions are important to quantify to improve our parameterizations for their radiative effects. In this talk, I will be combining results from work in our lab, along with a broader review of prior literature of photochemical bleaching, to evaluate gaps in our ability to predict the observed ambient removal rates using laboratory measurements. By probing complex mixtures from recent biomass burning experiments (e.g. FIREX samples), I will demonstrate that our current measured rates in the laboratory are overestimated and that a slower photolysis rate, as well as a potential gas-phase oxidation rate, should be included to better predict BrC lifetimes in the atmosphere.

For the Microsoft Teams Meeting details, please email natalieyl.leung@utoronto.ca.

External members are required to register to receive the link and passcode. Registration closed at 9am on Monday, November 15.

EDUCATION IN ENGINEERING LECTURE

Co-hosted with the Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice (ISTEP)

Alice Pawley, Purdue

Host: Prof. Greg Evans

Social activism has increased, even during the COVID pandemic, around both systemic racism in North America and around the climate crisis internationally.  While both movements have roots decades old, we are not yet seeing a sea-change in engineering curricula around either, despite its necessity. I argue there are similarities between engineering education’s intransigence on social justice and equity issues and its lack of adequate response regarding the global climate crisis. Scholars in linguistics, education, sociology, and critical race studies, and journalists writing about the climate crisis, can help us see how both are related to a moral discussion rather than the techno-rational one that scientists, engineers, and science and engineering educators seem most equipped to have.  In this talk, I call for the development of a moral infrastructure to address both engineering education’s foundation in white supremacy, and its global obligation to halt the anthropogenic climate crisis.
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Alice Pawley (she, her) is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education and an affiliate faculty member in the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies Program, the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, and the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. Prof. Pawley’s goal through her work at Purdue is to help people, including the engineering education profession, develop a vision of engineering education as more inclusive, engaged, and socially just. She runs the Feminist Research in Engineering Education Group, whose diverse projects and group members are described at pawleyresearch.org. She has won numerous best paper awards in ASEE, and professional awards, including a PECASE award, ABIE Denice Denton award, the ASEE-LEES Sterling Olmsted award, and mentoring and leadership awards in her school. She helped found, fund, and grow the PEER Collaborative, a peer-mentoring community of academics primarily evaluated on doing engineering education research. She is president of Purdue’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (2020-22).

View the complete 2021-22 LLE schedule

Questions? Please contact Jennifer Hsu, Manager, External Relations  jennifer.hsu@utoronto.ca.

BioZone will be hosting Tyler Irving, from our Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering on Thursday, November 25 from 3-4:30pm on Zoom.

Title: Science communication for fun and profit

Abstract
Science communication is a critical skill for anyone in STEM, but it can also be a career unto itself. Tyler will talk about his journey as a professional science writer/communicator and fold in some tips for anyone interested in either pursuing a similar path or simply improving their science communication practice.

Speaker Bio
Tyler Irving graduated with a MASc from U of T Engineering in 2010. He has since worked as a freelance science writer and communicator, as well as for a range of organizations, including the Canadian Chemical News, the Science Media Centre of Canada, and the University of Toronto. His work has won awards from Engineers Canada and from Science Writers and Communicators Canada.

To receive the Zoom link and passcode, please send an email to either Sofia Bonilla (sofia.bonillatobar@mail.utoronto.ca) or Olan Raji (olan.raji@utoronto.ca).