Grant: Alliance Grants
York University
$190,650.00
Prototyping and Deploying Air and Surface Virus Monitoring Point-of-Need Technologies to Improve Remediation Responses and Minimize Economic Losses of Viral Outbreaks
EF 2022-23
Résumé
This project expands on a partnership between York U and Sixth Wave Inc. (SIXW). It brings in new partners like Poppy Inc., BluMetric Env. Inc. (BME), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada (HC) to leverage their expertise in development and validation of environmental biosensors. Goals: 1) develop two low-cost biosensors for sensitive virus monitoring in air and on surfaces; 2) deploy the biosensors to end-user labs; and 3) assess technology adoption and economical benefits by partners. Project objectives are to partner with SIXW and Poppy to prototype a portable fluorometric (Obj. 1) and an electric (Obj. 2) biosensor for air and surface virus detection (Goal 1) by pursuing these Activities: 1) Package the biosensors with portable air sampler, pump, electric and microscopy modules; 2) Parametrically study and optimize the portable biosensors; 3) Determine their performance characteristics in-lab. Obj. 3 is to deploy the biosensors for virus detection in real samples, on-site (Goal 2). Activities include: 1) Transfer the two biosensors to HC, CFIA, BME, etc. and optimize them to work with real air- and surface-virus samples; 2) Train partner personnel to use the biosensors and co-perform validation studies. Obj. 4 is to understand barriers to adoption to maximize economic and societal benefits of the biosensors (Goal 3) by pursuing the following Activities: 1) Identify and quantify short- and long-term economic and societal net benefits of biosensors; 2) Identify and assess barriers to adoption.The project enables co-developers to bring two biosensors to the market after understanding user barriers to adoption, and help co-validators achieve rapid environmental monitoring to make effective remediation actions and decisions during virus spreads. New knowledge about molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and their affinity to viruses will be developed by training 6 undergraduate, 2 Master of Science, and 2 doctoral students as well as 2 postdoctoral fellows, in the biotechnology sector. They will disseminate patents and scientific articles while applying for future grants and acquiring/creating jobs to commercialize their technologies.
Programme
Alliance Grants
Bénéficiaire
Emplacement
Ontario, Canada
Type de bénéficiaire
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
Tel que publié
Application id
570473-2021
Name nom
Rezai, Pouya P
Department département
Mechanical Engineering
Organization id
38
Institution établissement
York University
Province en
Ontario
Province fr
Ontario
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2022
Competition year année de concours
2021
Award amount
190650
Program id
ALLRP
Program name en
Alliance Grants
Program name fr
Subventions Alliance
Group en
RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS
Group fr
PARTENARIATS DE RECHERCHE
Committee code
96
Committee name en
RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Committee name fr
Cté de décision interne - PPR
Area of application code
1102
Area of application group en
Health, education and social services
Area of application group fr
Santé publique, éducation et services sociaux
Area of application en
Biomedical engineering
Area of application fr
Génie biomédical
Research subject code
1901
Research subject group en
Biomedical engineering
Research subject group fr
Génie biomédical
Research subject en
Biomedical technology
Research subject fr
Technologie biomédicale
Installment
inst:2
Partie
1
Nb partie
2
Application title
Prototyping and Deploying Air and Surface Virus Monitoring Point-of-Need Technologies to Improve Remediation Responses and Minimize Economic Losses of Viral Outbreaks
Application summary
This project expands on a partnership between York U and Sixth Wave Inc. (SIXW). It brings in new partners like Poppy Inc., BluMetric Env. Inc. (BME), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada (HC) to leverage their expertise in development and validation of environmental biosensors. Goals: 1) develop two low-cost biosensors for sensitive virus monitoring in air and on surfaces; 2) deploy the biosensors to end-user labs; and 3) assess technology adoption and economical benefits by partners. Project objectives are to partner with SIXW and Poppy to prototype a portable fluorometric (Obj. 1) and an electric (Obj. 2) biosensor for air and surface virus detection (Goal 1) by pursuing these Activities: 1) Package the biosensors with portable air sampler, pump, electric and microscopy modules; 2) Parametrically study and optimize the portable biosensors; 3) Determine their performance characteristics in-lab. Obj. 3 is to deploy the biosensors for virus detection in real samples, on-site (Goal 2). Activities include: 1) Transfer the two biosensors to HC, CFIA, BME, etc. and optimize them to work with real air- and surface-virus samples; 2) Train partner personnel to use the biosensors and co-perform validation studies. Obj. 4 is to understand barriers to adoption to maximize economic and societal benefits of the biosensors (Goal 3) by pursuing the following Activities: 1) Identify and quantify short- and long-term economic and societal net benefits of biosensors; 2) Identify and assess barriers to adoption.The project enables co-developers to bring two biosensors to the market after understanding user barriers to adoption, and help co-validators achieve rapid environmental monitoring to make effective remediation actions and decisions during virus spreads. New knowledge about molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and their affinity to viruses will be developed by training 6 undergraduate, 2 Master of Science, and 2 doctoral students as well as 2 postdoctoral fellows, in the biotechnology sector. They will disseminate patents and scientific articles while applying for future grants and acquiring/creating jobs to commercialize their technologies.
