Recognizing this, the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) program was created to support interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and high-risk research. Through its Exploration stream, the NFRF program seeks to inspire projects that bring disciplines together beyond traditional disciplinary or common interdisciplinary approaches by research teams with the capacity to explore something new that might fail, but has the potential for significant impact. Four professors from the Faculty of Science are part of successful teams who received NFRF-Exploration funding in 2019/20.
Professor Lora Ramunno from the Department of Physics specializes in theoretical and computational photonics, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical microscopy, and intense laser-matter interaction. Her interdisciplinary team, which also includes Prof. Ksenia Dolgaleva from the Faculty of Engineering, is combining physical sciences, basic medicine and life sciences, computer and information sciences, electric electrical engineering and nanotechnology, to develop a second harmonic generation microscope for imaging molecular orientation in cells and tissues in real time, with a resolution 1000x smaller than the width of a human hair and without the use of labels or dyes. This innovative technology is allowing the team to investigate a yet unanswered question in neuroscience: what is the role of the polarity of microtubules within axons and dendrites? Their results could help our understanding of the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The Ben Lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences specializes in carbohydrate chemistry and cryopreservation. For his successful NFRF project, Professor Robert Ben joined forces with a Professor of Surgery from Université Laval (Véronique Moulin) to pursue paradigm-changing research in biomedical engineering and cryopreservation that will greatly benefit organ and tissue replacement therapy. They are using human induced pluripotent stem cells and human skin keratinocytes with a unique bioprinting technology to develop 3D organ constructs such as skin and other essential tissues. They will use novel ice recrystallization inhibitors to cryopreserve these tissue constructs, which will be available for transplant immediately after thawing. Their inhibitors prevent cryoinjury during freezing and thawing, thus enabling the successful storage and transport of tissue constructs prior to transplant.
In collaboration with Prof. Patrick Giguère (Faculty of Medicine), Professor André Beauchemin from the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences is part of a project exploring the development of hybrid analgesics as safer alternatives for use in pain management and addiction treatment. Together, they are designing small-molecule drugs that combine action on several sensitive nodes belonging to the pain network to produce dramatic pain relief without the life-threatening effects associated with addiction. Their work will contribute to addressing Canada’s national opioid crisis.
As a co-Principal Investigator on a project led by McGill University (Nagissa Mahmoudi), Professor Brett Walker from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is contributing his expertise in radiocarbon dating and marine biogeochemistry to explore how microbial activity in the oceans will change with global warming, and how this will impact deep ocean carbon storage. By combining approaches from microbial ecology, accelerator mass spectrometry and enzymology, the team is examining the long-standing paradox of deep ocean carbon cycling by quantifying its vulnerability to microbial degradation. This project is generating critical knowledge for making informed decisions about adapting to and mitigating climate change.
