Tag Archives: Orlando Rojas

Two new Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) at the University of British Columbia (Canada) bring bioproducts and precision medicine skills

This is very fresh news. One of these chairs has not yet been listed (at the time of this writing) as a member of the institute that he will be leading. Here’s the big picture news from an
April 17, 2019 University of British Columbia (UBC) news release, Note: Links have been removed,

Two internationally recognized researchers join the University of British Columbia as Canada Excellence Research Chairs, bringing international talent in the fields of forest bioproducts and precision cancer drug design.

Orlando Rojas has accepted the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Forest Bioproducts, while Sriram Subramaniam will hold the Gobind Khorana Canada Excellence Research Chair in Precision Cancer Drug Design—named after late Nobel Prize-winning UBC biochemistry professor Har Gobind Khorana.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Rojas and Dr. Subramaniam to UBC,” said UBC President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Santa J. Ono. “Thanks to the CERC program and the generous support of our partners, including VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, we have an opportunity to continue to build on UBC’s reputation as a global leader in these vitally important research fields.”

The Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program was established by the federal government in 2008 to attract top research talent from abroad to Canada. UBC will receive up to $10 million over seven years to support each chair and their research teams. In addition, a philanthropic gift of $18 million made to VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation will support cancer drug design that will be carried out by Subramaniam in close partnership with UBC and the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH.

“VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation is honoured to announce an $18 million gift from Aqueduct Foundation on behalf of an anonymous donor that will increase capacity for discovering and testing new life-saving cancer treatments right here in B.C. This funding will specifically support the design of precise, targeted and cost-effective drugs for cancer in work led by Dr. Sriram Subramaniam in close partnership with UBC and the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH and other research centres,” says Barbara Grantham, president and CEO of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation.

Bioproducts

The April 17, 2019 UBC news release, goes on to describe the two new chairs,

Breaking new ground in forest bioproducts

Orlando Rojas comes to UBC from Aalto University [Finland], where he directs with VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, a scientific cluster to advance the Finnish materials bio-economy. A recipient of the Anselme Payen Award—one of the highest international recognitions in the area of cellulose and renewable materials—and an elected member of the American Chemical Society and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Rojas is recognized as a worldwide leader in the area of nanocelluloses.

“I’m thrilled to join an already stellar team of researchers at UBC’s BioProducts Institute,” said Rojas. “My research is aimed at uncovering solutions that can be found in nature to fulfill our material needs by using sustainably, readily available bio-resources. I hope to break new grounds to create positive societal impacts and to better our quality of life.”

As the CERC in Forest Bioproducts, Rojas will establish a world-class research program in genomics, synthetic biology, materials science and engineering. Together with his team and by applying cutting-edge nano- and biotechnologies, he will discover new strategies to isolate and transform biomass components—non-fossil organic materials derived from plants (including wood)—as well as side-streams and residuals from forestry and agriculture, oils and biomolecules. The work will lead to the generation of new bio-based precursors and advanced materials critical to the future bioeconomy. Rojas will be the scientific director of the UBC BioProducts Institute, synergizing a distinguished group of professors and researchers across campus who will conduct multi- and cross-disciplinary research that will position UBC at the forefront in the area.

As climate change continues to be the greatest threat to our world, the need to transition toward a more sustainable bio-based circular economy is critical. Rojas’ research is vital in understanding the role of forest and other plant-based resources in facilitating the transition to renewable materials and bioproducts.

As I noted earlier, Rojas has yet to be added to the UBC BioProducts Institute roster but I did find a listing of his published papers on Google Scholar and noted a number of them are focused on nanocellulose with at least one study on cellulose nanocrystals (CNC),

  • Cellulose nanocrystals: chemistry, self-assembly, and applications [by] Y Habibi, LA Lucia, OJ Rojas Chemical reviews 110 (6), 3479-3500

The University of British Columbia was the site for much of the early work in Canada and internationally on cellulose nanocrystals. After the provincial government lost interest in supporting it, the researchers at FPInnovations (I think it was a university spin-off organization) moved their main headquarters (leaving a smaller group in British Columbia) to the province of Québec where they receive significant support . In turn, FPInnovations spun-off a company, CelluForce which produces CNC from forest products.This news about Roja’s appointment would seem to make for an interesting development in Canada’s nanocellulose story.

Precision medicine with cryo-electron microscopy

Now for the second CERC appointment, from the April 17, 2019 UBC news release,

Putting Canada at the forefront of precision medicine

Sriram Subramaniam is recognized as a global leader in the emerging field of cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, a technology that has sparked a revolution in imaging of protein complexes. Subramaniam and his team demonstrated that proteins and protein-bound drugs could be visualized at atomic resolution with cryo-EM, paving the way for this technology to be used in accelerating drug discovery.

Subramaniam comes to UBC’s faculty of medicine from the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he led a research team that made seminal advances in molecular and cellular imaging using electron microscopy, including work on advancing vaccine design for viruses such as HIV. Subramaniam is also founding director of the National Cryo-EM Program at NCI, NIH.

As the Gobind Khorana Canada Excellence Research Chair in Precision Cancer Drug Design, Subramaniam will establish and direct a laboratory located at UBC, aimed at bringing about transformative discoveries in cancer, neuroscience and infectious disease. Subramaniam is appointed both in the department of urologic sciences and in biochemistry and molecular biology at UBC, and is linked to the precision cancer drug design program at the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH.

His research is supported by a philanthropic gift of $18 million made to VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. He will work in close partnership with the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH.

“We would not be able to undertake this path aimed at leveraging advances in imaging technology to improve patient outcomes if it weren’t for the generous support of the donor, the Canadian government, and VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation,” said Subramaniam. “I am proud to be part of a team of outstanding researchers here in Vancouver, and working together to harness the true potential of cryo-EM to accelerate drug design. Our work has the potential to establish VGH, UBC and Canada at the forefront of the emerging era of precision medicine.”

I was not able to find much in the way of additional information about Subramaniam—other than this (from the High Resolution Electron Microscopy Lab Members webpage),

Sriram Subramaniam received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training in the Departments of Chemistry and Biology at M.I.T. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] He is chief of the Biophysics Section in the Laboratory of Cell Biology at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute. He holds a visiting faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Welcome to both Orlando J. Rohas and Sriram Subramaniam!

TAPPI 2014 keynote speakers: Al Ward and Per Swending

I’m pretty sure I saw the keynote speakers listed on the 2014 TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology of Renewable Materials website the last time I checked it. (The conference is being held in Vancouver, Canada from June 23-26. ) Likely, the conference organizers have decided to publicize their keynote speakers, Al Ward and Per Swending, to *generate interest (from the April 23, 2014 news item on the Pulp & Paper Canada website),

Al Ward of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries and Imerys FiberLean’s Per Swending will be keynote presenters at the TAPPI nanotechnology conference in Vancouver.

The TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials, held on June 23 – 26, 2014, explores how nanotechnology can transform biomaterials into high-value products.

“The science of nanotechnology in renewable materials continues to advance rapidly and our keynote speakers will provide an exciting update on the most recent developments in commercialization and research for improving cellulose based products,” notes Orlando Rojas of North Carolina State University, co-chair of the conference.

Here’s more about Ward and Swending from the conference’s keynotes page,

The Nano Puzzle–Putting the Pieces Together
8:00, Tuesday, 25 June

Al Ward is President and COO of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Al-Pac), the newest, largest single line kraft pulp mill in North America, with production starting in 1993. Mr. Ward has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Alberta and over 30 years of experience in the forest industry in a various production, technical and senior management positions. The company utilizes some of the latest in chemical pulping technology and annually produces approximately 650,000 tonnes of northern bleached hardwood and softwood kraft pulp.  Al-Pac is known as an environmental leader, practices sustainable forest management and was third party FSC certified in 2005 and SFI dual certified in 2013. The company employs 450 full time employees and approximately 1,000 contractors and has been voted one of Canada’s “Top 100 Employers for 2014” and one of “Alberta’s Top 60 Employers for 2013” for seven years running.

Mr. Ward is the past Chairman and a current board member of FPInnovations, Canada’s  Forest and Pulp and Paper Research Institute and currently holds a board position on the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).  Over his many years in the Industry, he has served on a number of industry related technical committees with Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada (PAPTAC) and Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).  Al also was involved with the Alberta Economic Development Authority which is a business advisory board to the Premier and Cabinet of Alberta with up to 65 CEO’s and business leaders who are appointed by Ministerial Order to provide sound business advice to the Premier and Cabinet. He is currently chair of the Alberta provincial steering committee for forest sector related nano-technology research as well as a board member of Arboranano the Canadian Forest NanoProducts Network, an R&D network where nanotechnology and forest-sector expertise are committed to creating a new Canadian bio-economy founded on innovative, highly-engineered, nanotechnology-based, carbon-neutral products created from Canada’s vast forest resource.  Mr. Ward is also heavily involved in the transformation efforts of the forest sector in Canada to new bio products, fuels and chemicals.

Commercial Break-Through in MFC Processing
8:00, Wednesday, 26 June

Per [Per Swending, Commercial Director Imerys FiberLeanTM] has worked 35 years for the paper industry. After chemical engineering studies in Gothenburg Sweden he joined Eka Chemicals (today AkzoNobel) in 1979 and was part of the team that developed the first nano-particle based retention aid system, Compozil. His work at Eka Chemicals gradually progressed from R&D to wet end application and into commercial roles via a period in product management. In 1989 he joined Stora Papyrus Mölndal for a role as technical manager, coated papers. The combination of wet end and coating experience facilitated a move to English China Clays in 1994. The career in what has now become Imerys started as sales director for Scandinavia and has moved through various key account manager roles to product management and global marketing to the current role in the FiberLeanTM team. Per was one of the inventors of the FiberLeanTM process and is now heading up the commercialisation effort for this breakthrough technology. Off-duty, his favourite activities are motorcycling, skiing, kayaking and cooking.

Imerys is announcing a commercial break-through in MFC processing with over 3000 dry metric tons of MFC capacity installed in Europe and North America with one commercial and one pilot plant running.  Branded as FiberLeanTM, Imerys´ MFC offers paper makers the opportunity to become more cost competitive and to develop new differentiated products. Imerys plans to be the world leading MFC producer and is currently in discussions aimed at building several customer plants around the world.

As best I can determine, I last mentioned the 2014 TAPPI conference in Vancouver in a November 14, 2013 posting.

* April 25, 2014 at 3:33 pm PDT, Removed the word ‘get’ from the sentence as it was redundant.

Deadline for submissions to 2014 TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology of Renewable Materials in Vancouver, Canada extended

A November 12, 2013 news item on TextileWorld.com announced the new deadline, Nov. 22, 2014, (original deadline was Nov. 5, 2013) for the 2014 TAPPI (Technical Association for the Pulp, Paper, Packaging and Converting Industries) nanotechnology conference submissions,

The Norcross, Ga.-based Technical Association for the Pulp, Paper, Packaging and Converting Industries (TAPPI) has issued a call for 300-word abstracts for presentations to be given at the 2014 TAPPI International Conference on Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials, to be held June 23-26 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver in Vancouver, Canada.

… Abstracts focused on additive manufacturing, 3-D printing and other industrial manufacturing applications are preferred.

…. Deadline for submissions is November 22, 2013. …

You can find the 2014 TAPPI Nanotechnology conference website here and the PDF of the Call for Submissions here. Here’s a list of suggested topics from the Call for Submissions,

Preparation & Characterization
Renewable Nanomaterial Isolation & Separation
Cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibrils
Plant, algal, bacterial and other sources
Lignin, heteropolysaccharides, chitosan, etc.
Lab & Pilot-Scale Production
Process Optimization
New isolation & extraction methods
Drying processes
Separation processes forr enewable nanomaterials
Metrology
Sizing, mechanical,chemical, optical and surfaceproperties
Purity, molecular weight, crystallinity, etc.
Thermal, electrical and other properties
Toxicity, biocompatibility & Biodegradability
Self- and Direct-Assembly & Functionalities Nanostructured Materials by Self-assembly
Nano manufacture & self-assembly
Photonic bandgap pigments for special optical effects
Controlled delivery, immobilization, etc.
Novel Nano-enabled Functionalities
Surface modification and responsive materials
Optical effects for novel photonic applications
Inorganic materials template by cellulose nanocrystals
Novel electric, magnetic and piezoelectric effects
Sustainable polymer electronics
Carbon Fibers from Biomass
Production, characterization & uses
Membranes & Filters
New Membrane technologies
Air, water and bio filtration
Biomedical Applications
Ligament replacements, scaffolds, advanced woundtechnology
Bioactive materials
Immunoassays
Rheology and Dispersion Phenomena
Rheology behavior in aqueous and non-aqueous systems
Viscoelastic properties, etc.
Composites, Hydrogels, and Aerogels
Nanocomposites and Renewable Nanomaterials
Nano-reinforced films and fibers
Biomimetic nanocomposites
Porous materials, gels and aerogels, foams and multiphase dispersed system
Bio-derived matrix polymers
Processing
Organic/Inorganic Hybrids
Catalysts
Flexible electronics, etc.
Metal functionalization, ALD, etc,
Manufacturing Applications
Rheology and Rheological Modifiers
Industrial processing applications, e.g., food, pharma, painting, coating, oil, gas, etc.
Dispersion and flocculation
Additive Manufacturing
Raw nanomaterials
Medical applications
3D printing
Paper, Board & Packaging
Coatings & Fillers
High modulus paper coatings
Wear and scratch resistant coatings
Flexible Packaging
Barriers
Printing Technologies
Printing inks
Smart materials
Sensing technologies
Computer Modeling and Simulation
Multiscale Modeling
Solvation structure and hydrodynamics
Environmental, Health and Safety Issues
Workplace Safety & Standards
Current understanding andcritical gaps
Consumer perception and regulations
Management of risks and perceptions
Sustainability assessment, LCA

In digging about for information about the TAPPI nanotechnology conference,, I came across a reference to a meeting hosted by PAPTAC (Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada) regarding nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) or, as it’s also known, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC)  held in June 2013 in Victoria, BC (preparatory to the 17th [2013] International Symposium
on Wood, Fibre and Pulping Chemistry [ISWFPC] conference in Vancouver) I thought the CNC programme interesting enough to reproduce here,

8:05
Keynote lecture by Professor Arthur Carty, Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology
Small World, Large Impact: Driving a Materials Revolution Through Nanotechnology
9:00
Dr Clive Willis, Former Vice President of National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
Standardization of CNC: Needs and Challenges
9:45 Coffee Break
10:15
Dr Richard Berry, VP and CTO, CelluForce Inc.
CelluForce—The Journey So Far
11:00
Dr Alan Rudie, USDA Forest Products Lab
Pilot Scale Production of Cellulose Nanocrystals and Cellulose Nanofibrils:
The US Need, FPL Process and Status
11:45
Professor Derek Gray, McGill University
Preparation and Optical Properties of Films Containing Cellulose Nanocrystals
12:30 Lunch
13:30
Professor Akira Isogai, Tokyo University
Applications of TEMPO-oxidized Cellulose Nanofibres to Gas Barrier Films and Nanocomposites
14:15
Dr Laurent Heux, CERMAV
Physico-chemical and Self-assembling Properties of CNC in Water and Organic Solvents
15:00
Professor Emily Cranston, McMaster University
Surface-modified Cellulose Nanocrystals: Characterization, Purification and Applications
15:45 Coffee Break
16:15
Dr Carole Fraschini, FPInnovations
Particle Issues in the Determination of Nanocellulose Particle Size
17:00
Dr Andriy Kovalenko, National Institute of Nanotechnology (NINT-NRC)
Multi-scale Modelling of the Structure, Thermodynamics,
and Effective Interactions of CNC in Different Solutions
19:00 Dinner and Award—Host: Dr J Bouchard

Monday, June 10

8:30
Dr Wadood Hamad, FPInnovations
Cellulose Nanocrystals for Advanced Functional Nanocomposites
9:15
Professor Michael Tam, University of Waterloo [emphasis mine]
Cellulose Nanocrystals—Functionalization, Characterization and Applications in Personal Care Systems
10:00
Professor Mark MacLachlan, University of British Columbia
Cellulose Nanocrystal-derived Porous Materials… With a Twist
10:45 Coffee Break
11:15
Professor Yaman Boluk, University of Alberta
Cellulose Nanocrystals in Soft Matter and Smart Applications
12:00
Professor Orlando Rojas, North Carolina State University
Self- and Direct-assembly of Cellulose Nanocrystals at Solid, Liquid and Air Interfaces: Fundamentals and Applications
12:45 Lunch
13:45
Professor John Simonsen, Oregon State University
Atomic Layer Deposition on Cellulose Nanocrystal Aerogels
14:30
Professor Alain Dufresne, Grenoble INP—Pagora
Processing of Nanocellulose Based Polymer Nanocomposites
15:15
Professor Monique Lacroix, INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier
The Use of Cellulose Nanocrystals in Food Packaging
16:00 Coffee Break
16:30
Professor Mark Andrews, McGill University
Cellulose NanocrystalsMake Light Work
17:15
Dr David Plackett, University of British Columbia
Cellulose Nanocrystals as a Vehicle for Delivery of Antibiotics

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Michael Tam bears the same last name as Janelle Tam whose father is named Michael and both of whom lived in Waterloo when the then 16 year old Janelle Tam placed first in the 2013 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Competition (my May 11, 2012 posting).

There you have it, Good luck with your 2014 TAPPI nanotechnology conference submission.