Lassonde Prof Wins NSERC Engage Grant for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Systems Research

Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh, has received an NSERC Engage Award for his research project CMOS Based 500 MHz NMR Probe Technology.

The NSERC Engage Grants are designed to connect innovative companies based in Canada with the knowledge, expertise and capabilities available at Canadian universities and colleges by supporting new research and development projects.

The award will sponsor a collaboration between Lassonde’s Biologically Inspired Sensors and Actuators (BioSA) Lab and the global leader of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy instruments, Bruker Ltd., to develop a novel electronically active NMR probe technology.

With a range of applications spanning chemistry, biochemistry, material science and medicine, NMR is arguably the most powerful tool when studying chemical structure, dynamics and interactions. However, conventional NMR systems are limited to only being able to analyze one sample at a time.

This new generation of NMR technology proposed by Bruker Ltd. and BioSa is a crucial stepping-stone toward a screening platform for various life science applications including toxicity studies of small organisms, cells and tissues.

“I am very confident that the outcome of this collaborative research will revolutionize the current NMR technology by introducing high throughput NMR technology that will be critically important for many life science applications,” remarks Ghafar-Zadeh.

Ghafar-Zadeh is working toward developing the first version of high throughput NMR probe and proving the concept for environmental studies in collaboration with Professor Andre Simpson at the University of Toronto.

The project will offer high-profile industry-oriented training to Lassonde students, including International graduate student Mahta Masouri and recent alumnus Qiao Owen.