Symposium on
Sensing of Pathogens & Biomarkers at Point-of-Care
Disease Screening for Plant and Human Systems
Date: Wednesday, 29th May 2024
In-Person, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, 2nd Floor – Debates Room
Toronto, ON, M5S 3H3
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/symposium-on-sensing-of-pathogens-biomarkers-at-point-of-care-tickets-894092965127
Symposium on
MetaMaterials Chemistry
Process Enhancements for Chemical Fuels, Feedstocks & Water
Date: Thursday 30th May 2024
In-person, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, 2nd Floor – Debates Room ,
Toronto, ON, M5S 3H3
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/symposium-on-metamaterial-chemistry-tickets-895705468167
Greenhouses and the agricultural sector face huge annual losses in crop productivity due to pathogenic microorganisms, with consequent economic and social repercussions. Rapid and reliable detection of pathogens and associated biomarkers at point-of-plant-care is critical for screening of infested plants and thus mitigating the spread of disease and hence crop loss.
In humans, diseases world-wide remain a significant cause of illness and death. Improved health delivery can be made possible through disease screening methods that permit rapid and high-sensitivity detection of of pathogens and biomarkers in bodily fluids at point-of-care.
This Symposium on Sensing of Pathogens & Biomarkers at Point-of-Care for Disease Screening for Plant and Human Systems will host leading scientists and industry experts who will present state-of-the-art studies in the field, including overviews on ‘plants, pathogens and beneficial bacteria’ and ‘current and emerging trends in pathogenic sensing in biological systems’.
The Symposium will provide an excellent opportunity for networking for researchers and industry leaders.
Organized under the aegis of the Ontario Research Foundation – Research Excellence, NSERC CREATE, NFRF and IC-IMPACTS research programs.
Symposium organizers:
Gloria Vytas
Erfaneh Shaygannia
Richard Hao Yu Zhang
Nazir Kherani
A manifold of chemical processes underlie the operation of chemical fuels, chemical feedstock and water treatment plants. For the most part, these processing facilities are large-scale centralized plants and as such any process enhancement vis-à-vis rates and energy efficiency can have significant positive impact.
As an example, it is estimated that 90% of all commercially produced chemical products involve catalysts at some stage in the manufacturing/refining process. Catalysts in the simplest sense improve the energy efficiency and rate of chemical reactions; and as such any process enhancement can have huge benefits.
With the impetus to create sustainable societies, process efficiency enhancements, utilization of renewable energy and development of circular economies are three important pillars for this vision. In this context, there is an emergent paradigm for chemical processes – metamaterials chemistry. Metamaterials are engineered materials – founded on existing materials – such that size, shape, and orientation are carefully designed to collectively yield ‘new’ materials with unprecedented properties that otherwise do not exist naturally.
This Symposium on Metamaterials Chemistry – Process Enhancements for Chemical Fuels, Feedstocks & Water will host leading scientists and industry experts who will respectively present perspectives on sustainability challenges facing humanity, issues of scale and decentralization, and state-of-the-art overviews on a range of topics including metamaterials, circular carbon economy, hydrogen, water remediation and more.
The Symposium will provide a forum to learn and debate opportunities and challenges of metamaterials chemistry in relation to applications at small scale (CO2, water splitting, urea), at scale (methanol, ammonia, urea), and other relevant processes (desalination, physical separations).
The Symposium will provide an excellent opportunity for networking for researchers and industry leaders.
Organized under the aegis of the Ontario Research Foundation – Research Excellence, NSERC CREATE, and CFI research programs.
Symposium organizers:
Gloria Vytas
Erfaneh Shaygannia
Samira Mehrabi
Richard Hao Yu Zhang
Rajiv Prinja
Dave Purvis
Nazir Kherani
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/8bHr215X3asWiC5f8
Parking: https://transportation.utoronto.ca/parking-map-rates/
Program Contact: Nazir Kherani (nazir.kherani@utoronto.ca)
Symposium Organizing Contact: Gloria Vytas (gloria.vytas@mail.utoronto.ca)
Speakers' Bio.
Day 1 (Wednesday, 29th May 2024)
Prof. Hans Rediers
Hans Rediers obtained his Ph.D. degree on the study of molecular and genetic mechanisms of plant-bacterium interactions at KU Leuven University in Belgium. In 2006, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the Lessius University College, but returned to his alma mater in 2012 where he is now a professor affiliated with the faculty of engineering technology and is currently also a board member of the Leuven Plant Institute.
Research in his lab focuses on plant-microbe interactions, with a clear emphasis on microbial plant pathogens as well as on biocontrol organisms to tackle these pathogens. He is especially interested in unraveling the molecular mechanism behind their mode of action and in the use of biocontrol organisms in the field. In that context his research interest also extends to developing state-of-the-art techniques to detect and quantify plant pathogens as well as biocontrol organisms
Prof. Robin Cameron
Dr. Robin Cameron is a Professor in the Department of Biology at McMaster University. She is a recognized expert in plant immunity research including Systemic Acquired Resistance, Age-Related Resistance and the role of bacterial pathogen biofilm-like aggregates during infection of plants.
Dr. Cameron is translating her fundamental knowledge and expertise to applied research questions to help identify plant immune-stimulating formulations for industrial collaborators. Dr. Cameron enjoys the challenge of convincing undergraduate students that plants are not boring, but instead, are amazing, complex and vitally important, given food insecurity and climate change. She has also given back to McMaster in terms of service as Biology’s Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, Acting Associate Dean (Academic), member of the University Planning Budget Committee and to the Canadian plant biology community as Vice President, President and Past President (2019-2025) of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists.
Dr. Bradford Behr
Dr. Bradford Behr started his career as an astrophysics researcher, using high-resolution spectroscopy to measure the chemical compositions of ancient stars in the outer reaches of our Milky Way galaxy, but since 2012 he has been applying the philosophy of “no photon left behind” to terrestrial applications like Raman spectroscopy.
Brad served as Senior Optical Scientist and then Chief Technology Officer for Tornado Spectral Systems leading up to its recent acquisition by Bruker, and he is now part of the Bruker Optics family, where he continues to develop and enhance Tornado’s high-performance Raman instrumentation systems.
Saba Ale Ebrahim
Saba is a fourth-year PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research mostly focuses on the application of nanophotonic sensing substrates for disease screening at point-of-care. In that regard, she is using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy coupled with machine learning for quantitative detection and classification of biomarkers and pathogens for healthcare-related applications.
Day 2 (Thursday 30th May 2024)
Prof. Frank Gu
Frank Gu is the Director of the Institute for Water Innovation in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, the NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Nanotechnology Engineering, and a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto.
Gu’s research focuses on leveraging the knowledge of nanoscience to drive industrial applications in various areas, including ocular drug delivery, medical devices, and water treatment. His research group has been at the forefront of engineering buoyant photocatalysts that can be powered by natural sunlight, showcasing their effectiveness in improving the safety of industrial wastewater. His ongoing research projects encompass diverse areas such as AI-powered nanomedicine formulation discovery, the development of low-carbon and climate-resilient water treatment technologies, and the extraction of critical minerals from waste materials to establish a circular economy.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.