Grant: Canada Excellence Research Chairs

A smart combination of nanotechnology, optical sensing, and biomolecular analysis into advanced hybrid systems has an enormous potential to establish the next generation of products and applications for clinical research and diagnostics as well as environmental and food sensing. Niko Hildebrandt is an internationally renowned expert in multiplexed biosensing and Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) technologies using luminescent molecules and nanomaterials. As the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Nano-Optical Biosensing and Molecular Diagnostics at McMaster University, he will build an ambitious research and technology centre to develop high-performance methods for biosensing and bioimaging. The interdisciplinary and translational research approach will range from fundamental studies and computational modelling of mechanisms related to luminescence, energy transfer, biomolecular interactions, and nanomaterials, over the development and engineering of advanced methods for versatile and multiplexed biosensing and bioimaging, to the application of energy transfer based sensors for in-vitro diagnostics, biomolecular analysis, food safety, and environmental sensing. Niko Hildebrandt and his multidisciplinary team will make McMaster University a world-leading player in the nanobio sciences, apply and commercialize break-through biosensing technologies, and translate and mobilize knowledge about luminescence and FRET biosensing in Canada and beyond. Through developing, understanding, characterising, and applying novel luminescence and energy transfer concepts, the CERC in Nano-Optical Biosensing and Molecular Diagnostics will break the current limits of sensitivity, selectivity, simplicity, and spatial and temporal resolution. The research results will significantly advance both the technology and the performance of state-of-the-art biological analysis, environmental sensing, and disease diagnosis to promote excellent research for a technologically advanced Canada and for enhancing the health and wellness of Canadians.