Grant: Alliance Grants

Since 2016, nearly 20,000 people who use drugs in Canada have died from apparent opioid toxicity. This, compounded with increased rates of illicit substance consumption and death from overdose since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. People who use drugs are generally unaware of what they are truly consuming, and their criminalization and marginalization limits access to resources required to maximize safety when using substances. This project builds off of the University of Ottawa teams experience commercializing a low-cost point-of-source cannabinoid sensors and expanding it towards other street drugs. The partnership will solve the challenge of the codification of colour into current for automated chemical identification through the development of an organic electronic sensor. Working with Ottawa Inner City Health, an organisation that serves this community, we will ensure that our technology puts this underserved community as a primary target for this research, putting equity, diversity, and inclusion of an overlooked population at the core of our work. We will complement our expertise in rapid, solution-based screening methods and technologies, with the significant manufacturing and technology expertise of Siemens Healthineers and work closely with fine chemical manufacturers 1-Materials. This project will develop strategies that automate color detection in a cost-effective manner that is applicable to a variety of sensing applications, while developing a specific use case for this technology in harm reduction for drug addicts, an application that has challenges in attracting resources, despite being a major issue for society in Canada and abroad.