Technologies for a Changing World
Biorefining and Renewable Energy
Integrating biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, heat, and value-added products from biomass. Click here for more information about Lakehead's Biorefining Research Institute.
Waste Management
- Water and wastewater treatment
- sludge management
- renewable energy recovery from waste streams and biomass
- membrane bioreactors
- membrane separations and membrane fouling
- the biotechnology of applied colloidal surface chemistry, particle science and technology, separations, transport phenomena, reaction engineering and their applications in pulp and paper processing and waste management engineering.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Emerging and Evolving Diseases
- Innovative imaging technologies: Hyper-polarized xenon functional MRI of the brain; of stroke and traumatic brain injury; of breast tumours; for early detection of lung cancer; and for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Photoconductive materials and technologies for radiation medical imaging, focusing on solid-state technology for organ-specific Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Positron Emmission Mammography.
- Identifying new molecular targets for therapy of pulmonary disease caused by the opportunistic pathogens.
- Synthetic cancer vaccines, the structural modification of drugs for targeted cancer therapy, design and development of biodegradable polymers for targeted drug delivery.
- Tumour model engineering, bioinformatics, and patient-targeted, non-invasive treatments
- Nanotechnology drug delivery systems
- Biological effects of medicinal herbs
New Technology for Food Security
An afternoon to explore the available technologies and approaches to solving the expected global food shortage problem.
The New Technologies for Food Security session will include a panel and facilitated discussion comparing many of the technologies and approaches (cellular agriculture, robotics, urban agriculture, vertical farming, directed evolution, GMOs, agroeconomy etc.) available to promote food security. The panel and participants will explore:
Cellular Agriculture
The New Technologies for Food Security session will include a panel and facilitated discussion comparing many of the technologies and approaches (cellular agriculture, robotics, urban agriculture, vertical farming, directed evolution, GMOs, agroeconomy etc.) available to promote food security. The panel and participants will explore:
- What role does technology play in the development of small-scale local businesses?
- Which technologies have made small-scale, local businesses more feasible?
- Where does it need to go in the future? What technology would food producers like to see developed ?
- How can existing technologies be better incorporated?
Cellular Agriculture
- Can we grow meat in petri dishes in the lab? Is this economically feasible? Can it contribute to food security?
- Is high-tech gardening more efficient? What role can small scale robotics play in food security?
- Converting lawns to food production? Growing food in unused urban spaces? Community gardens?
- Already happening in some larger cities. How is technology used? How does it contribute to food security?
- Can we breed plants to be ready for the changes in climate we are expecting. How can we use the technology we have to do this safely?
- The concept of developing solutions for food production/harvesting at the intersection of traditional ecological knowledge and technological development. For example, farmers/peasants/Indigenous peoples across the globe are doing their own research on seed saving, a great example of how technologies can be controlled and adapted by the people who use them.
Biotechnology at Lakehead University
Biotechnology is a field of study that uses living organisms or cellular and bio-molecular processes to make new products, solve problems, or provide new methods of production.
The start of the Biotechnology PhD program in 2007 strengthened Lakehead's involvement in biotechnology initiatives in Northwestern Ontario, providing opportunities for a broad range of industry partnerships. By successfully combining the focus and expertise of faculty in sciences and engineering into two interdisciplinary areas of biotechnology: Environmental Biotechnology and Medical Biotechnology, Lakehead placed itself at the forefront of cutting-edge biotechnology research in the Thunder Bay area. The Ph.D. in Biotechnology at Lakehead is a research-based, interdisciplinary graduate program focused on the professional development of scientists in theses two areas.
Scientific and technological advances have transformed biotechnology techniques, opening the door to a variety of applications in areas such as health care, the environment, forestry, and industrial processes. Lakehead is a comprehensive university with a reputation for innovative programs and relevant research.
The start of the Biotechnology PhD program in 2007 strengthened Lakehead's involvement in biotechnology initiatives in Northwestern Ontario, providing opportunities for a broad range of industry partnerships. By successfully combining the focus and expertise of faculty in sciences and engineering into two interdisciplinary areas of biotechnology: Environmental Biotechnology and Medical Biotechnology, Lakehead placed itself at the forefront of cutting-edge biotechnology research in the Thunder Bay area. The Ph.D. in Biotechnology at Lakehead is a research-based, interdisciplinary graduate program focused on the professional development of scientists in theses two areas.
Scientific and technological advances have transformed biotechnology techniques, opening the door to a variety of applications in areas such as health care, the environment, forestry, and industrial processes. Lakehead is a comprehensive university with a reputation for innovative programs and relevant research.