www.ghbn.

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Bio-Matrix Golden Horseshoe

Biosciences Network

n Fall 2008 n volume 2 n issue 3

World-class Making the well a safer place

at your door
We have
world-class
science and
research at
academic
and hospital campuses,
government facilities, and
private-sector businesses
in Hamilton, Halton, and
Niagara regions. Many
of the players have global
reputations. In an occasional
series, Bio-Matrix will
feature these world-class
researchers who live and
work in our area. You can
read about our first featured
scientist, paleogeneticist
Hendrik Poinar, on page 5.
Inside –
n Petro Sep
cleans up
[page 2]
n Brock and
biosciences
[page 4]
Roller-coaster markets have made oil a mad commodity in the past year. Gold has benefited from market and
global instability. But water, good-quality water, remains probably the most precious commodity of all.
As demand for drinking water outruns supply in overdeveloped areas and as developing nations thirst for safe
water sources, Hamilton-Halton area is offering some answers to the problem of the shrinking well.
That’s a bittersweet irony and is the upside of years of despoliation of Hamilton Harbour and its adjacent
watershed. If you poison it, you must remedy it. That remedy effort is proving costly – involving tens of millions
of dollars – and drains reservoirs of both time and human effort.
But the remediation is producing successes. Coote’s marsh, while not exactly a paradise regained and still fighting
a problem with sediment runoff from adjacent lands, is “sort of a poster child” for restoration and for public
awareness of the value of such wetlands, says Tys Theysmeyer, aquatic ecologist at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
The restoration successes also have an international benefit: the collected expertise of area scientists, water
specialists and engineers is helping other nations deal with their contamination problems and increase potable
water supplies.
For example, academics from McMaster University are among those on operational teams helping developing
countries set up water purification and management centres. City of Hamilton officials will go to Kenya this
month to consult on drinking water in lake areas. The National Water Research Institute, at the harbour, is
helping to set up lab programs to monitor water pollution in the wider Caribbean region.
“I think in some ways the example of the bay area restoration is an interesting story to share with people in
developing nations,” says Zafar Adeel, head of the International Network on Water, Environment and Health,
based in McMaster Innovation Park. The network is an arm of United Nations University (UNU).
Now, all this expertise has led to a joint research proposal [ See following story ] by four Ontario universities,
including McMaster, as well as the UNU network, and Environment Canada. The proposal would see a water-
health centre of excellence built around the national Wastewater Technology Centre at the harbour. The private
sector would also be involved.
The centre would focus on technologies for providing safe water and sanitation, related health issues, such as water-
borne infectious diseases, and the use of renewable energy resources and energy efficiencies in water services.
The Hamilton-Halton watershed, once a glorious nature sanctuary, has been sick for many decades. The harbour
has been designated one of more than 40 “areas of concern” within the Great Lakes system. Randle Reef, in the
harbour off Wentworth Street, is an environmental dead zone.
– Continued on page 3

n Down
evolution’s
path
[page 5]
 www.ghbn.or g
Looking for
a partner in
Israel?
The Golden Horseshoe
Biosciences Network
is working on potential
partnerships, especially
for water-technology
companies, under
the Canada-Israel
Industrial Research and
Development Foundation.
The network wants
to open doors to new
markets and create
reciprocal trading
opportunities, through
foundation-linked programs
such as the Ontario-Israel
Industrial Collaborative
Research Projects.
The Ottawa-based
foundation promotes
R & D between firms in
both countries, helps
to match companies
with counterpart
research partners,
and provides funding
for research costs.
Petro Sep has several patented separation technologies
used in chemical, petrochemical, food, and wastewater-
treatment industries. Revenues – the company says
only that they are in the “several millions” of dollars

Science clean to the bottom line
Cleaner is more
profitable,
less wasteful
of resources,
and more
environment-
friendly. That sales
wisdom – a package
of ethics and enterprise
– means revenues and a growing reputation for
Petro Sep Membrane Technologies.
The Oakville company occupies a nice little
niche in cleantech, the industry sector that
improves performance and productivity, while
cutting a user’s costs, energy consumption, and
environmental waste. One estimate places the
cleantech global market at well over $200 billion
US.
Petro Sep, with roots grown at the National
Research Council in Ottawa more than a decade
ago, is small: only 14 employees at head office.
Its strategy is taking a joint venture and licensing
approach – with a focus on North America, Asia
and the Middle East – to gain a global footprint
in membrane separation technology,.
“This facility here, we would love to keep it small,
maybe 20 to 40 research people,” says president
and CEO Fakhir Baig, himself a former research
council veteran. “We will be doing joint ventures
and partnerships worldwide.”
Two principal joint ventures (JV) are in Virginia and
in Shandong Province, China. Ontario likes the North
American JV idea so much the government invested
$1 million from its Innovation Demonstration Fund.
The list of clients that employ patented Petro Sep
module separation technologies include such giants
as generic drugmaker Apotex, Dow Chemical, and
Johnson & Johnson.
– come principally from JV deals, including licensing fees,
manufacturing the membrane systems, providing technical
support, and installation of the turn-key technologies.
Petro Sep’s nanotech membrane and polymer science
is aimed at both earnings and environment. Customers
save money by reusing spent volatile organic compounds,
thereby not buying as much upfront. That keeps solvents
from waste chemical streams, cutting the cost of disposal
for such effluent.
A pharmaco, for example, could use Petro Sep module
systems to reduce its toxic waste output. Effluent from
such a plant might include water, spent chemicals,
and ethanol – bound either for incineration or landfill.
Conventional distillation is limited in handling and
separation of such streams.
Using trademarked Azeo-Sep pervaporation membranes
– to separate organic compounds from the water – the
pharmaco could filter out and upgrade the ethanol and
sell it to a third party. Purified waste chemicals could be
resold. And the wastewater is now more easily handled by
a sewer system.
The story of Petro Sep began at the research council,
where scientists led by Takeshi Matsuura, now director
of the Industrial Membrane Institute at the University
of Ottawa, pursued topline research in membrane
technologies. When NRC’s membrane division disbanded,
Matsuura protege Fakhir Baig moved the research to the
commercial sector, founding Petro Sep in 1999.
“People from all over the world have come together,
including foreign-trained professionals,” says director
of marketing Jawad Jafry. “They are uniting their skills,
their expertise, and developing a truly Canadian-made
technology.”
That science is moving to a next stage, research on
polymeric nanofibre membranes, again with the aid of
Matsuura and others. Among many potential uses for
such technology is production of potable water from
sea water, increasing the supply of a commodity more
valuable than oil. n
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Making the well a safer place

(cont’d from cover)

But the ongoing cleanup, which likely will continue Among the restoration-campaign elements:
for at least a decade, has huge health implications for
• Upgraded wastewater treatment plants and better
people living around the lake and harbour. And it has
economic payback. A 2007 York University-led study
sewage-overflow controls have led to improved-quality Bring your
estimated the rescue could result in up to $1 billion in
effluent into lake and harbour waters Sherlock to
social and economic benefits in years to come. • Metal-loading reductions into the harbour have Mohawk
lessened toxicity levels
Dealing with Randle Reef, for example – an engineering
How would Sherlock
project to entomb the contaminated sediments, with • Contaminated sediment has been removed or
both a cap and clay-liner bottom – will result in a Holmes fare with DNA
capped where necessary and organic contaminants
new pier and green space for the city. bioremediated analysis and using a
“It’s an innovative approach because you now have mass spectrometer to
• Sediment and erosion controls on development have
an end use,” says Roger Santiago, of Environment been improved find metal contamination?
Canada. He’s been been at both national and The fictional English
international conferences to talk about the complex • Sediment-disturbing carp have been restricted from
detective was a
studies behind the ongoing harbour remediation. Coote’s Paradise. n
forerunner of painstaking
logical evidence collection,
A Healthy Future the basis of the forensic
science popularized in the
n Taking clean water to market Such transfers would increase integration among CSI television shows.
industry, government, and academia.
McMaster University is leading a If you want to learn about
The idea is that this integration will lead to
joint academic-government-industry the real CSI deal, come
economic spinoffs, technology transfers that can
plan to set up a research centre to an Innovation Cafe
go to market. As the McMaster proposal notes,
of excellence dealing with water
“slow diffusion of science and technology from discussion forum featuring
and sanitation issues. The core of
universities to industry is a major hindrance to Dr. Jon Millman, a forensic
the economic and technology cluster
development.”
would be built around the Wastewater scientist and assistant
Technology Centre (WTC), an Environment Canada The cluster would be based on the research biology section head with
laboratory at the harbour. strengths of McMaster University, the University the Centre of Forensic
of Waterloo, the University of Guelph and the
The plan is to set up “a world-class initiative” in water- Sciences (CFS) in
University of Ontario Institute of Technology – as
management issues, ranging from identification of Toronto.
well as those of Environment Canada. Also in the
challenges to understanding how to implement solutions.
consortium is the international network on water,
An independent panel of experts set up by the Harper environment and health, part of United Nations Jon will be reviewing
government saw the proposal as one of five science University, based at McMaster Innovation Park. the latest innovations
and technology centres “identified unanimously for in forensics research
The plan envisions a not-for-profit collaboration, with
recommendation as early candidates for transfer.” from 6 to 8 p.m. at
its own management board as a stand-alone water
Harper government MP Mike Wallace, from Burlington, and wastewater research and development facility. Mohawk College,
sees the plan as “an opportunity where we have the north cafeteria, on
Research and development would look at three broad
infrastructure in place (with) very little investment from the
research areas: urban and rural water, water and Sept. 24, 2008,
federal government.”
health, and energy and water. R and D would focus on during National
Some background here: Ottawa plans to transfer non- “technologies for providing safe water and sanitation, Biotechnology
regulatory labs dealing with science and technology – those related health issues and the use of renewable energy
resources and energy efficiency in provision of safe water,” Week.
that do not enforce legal, safety, and other standards – from
the government to universities and the private sector. according to the proposal. n


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Brock unveils ‘green’ bioscience complex

Brock University Research and Innovation Centre, and Brock’s own Cool
is ready to add Climate Oenology and Viticulture institute.
its own mind-
Biotech takes power centre ‘Green’ bioscience and chemistry is a broad term referring
it to the street to the research- to more nature-oriented research, such as biosynthesizing
into-revenues compounds created by plants, or working with plant
Biotechnology is getting movement at genomes and hybrids, to create new drugs and chemicals.
Canadian schools. For example, Brock’s Vince DeLuca is working with a
down at the street at
U.S. company to develop anti-cancer drugs from such
Gore Park in Hamilton The St. Catharines university has a $90-million compounds as vincristine and vinblastine, developed from
on Sept. 25 during health and biosciences research complex on the Madagascar periwinkle.
National Biotechnology drawing board, a centre that will provide both
education and research space when completed in Among Brock research specialties are such diverse
Week. Buskers, dancers, four years. Brock is about halfway in the drive to health areas as metabolism, infectious diseases, spinal
urban poets and all sorts fund the complex, said associate vice-president cord injuries, and diabetes. In keeping with those areas,
of cultural activities are of research Ian Brindle. research labs would centre on genomics and proteomics,
on advanced instrumentation and imaging, on drug
planned to celebrate the
“We are currently at capacity in terms of our discovery and synthesis.
Sept. 19-26 week. ability to take on additional graduate students
or new research,” said Dr. Brindle. “I think Brock In the biosciences / plants arena, the lab space would
Designed to showcase University is probably the most space-challenged include greenhouse-phytotron space. A phytotron is a
biotech companies university in Ontario.” lab in which plants can be grown and studied under
and their technology individually controlled conditions.
Addition of the five-storey complex will mean
strengths, the week
more lab and greenhouse space for both health Brock hopes to develop value-added technologies in green
includes career fairs, and plant sciences as well as more teaching chemistry, viticulture, drug development and other areas.
company tours, and and office space. It should also result in more For example, using genetic manipulation, scientists might
patentable research – “relatively modest modify tobacco plants to produce drugs and nutraceuticals
activities that promote
until recently” – and collaboration with other – thus creating new economic opportunities for tobacco
biotech excellence top-flight universities, biosciences centres, and farmers and making tobacco “good for you”, jokes Dr.
in Canada. Similar private-sectors partners. Brindle. Scientists also hope to develop anti-cancer and
activities are scheduled anti-viral compounds, and arrive at novel syntheses of
Plans call for a centre for innovation in analgesic compounds to treat pain.
the next day at
biomanufacturing at the 44-year-old school.
Toronto’s Metro Hall Dr. Brindle said Brock expects to take a stake Since Brock is within the heart of the Niagara wine
Square, all under the in an enterprise company that will develop the industry, the biosciences complex would also co-operate
title of Dance ’N intellectual property from such research. with other scientists in looking at the human health
benefits of wine. Red wine, in particular, contains anti-
Action in the park. He said a U.S. associate and friend, Paul Anastas, oxidants, such as resveratrol, that have shown efficacy in
director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green treating some cancers and acting as an anti-atherogenic
Engineering at Yale University, “has voiced a great agent.
deal of enthusiasm” about partnering with Brock in
‘green’ research initiatives. The Brock complex may also house an industry-led
incubator/accelerator to attract bioscience and health
The Brock complex would fit in nicely with other human enterprises. A feasibility study will look at potential for
and plant biosciences ventures in Niagara, such as an incubator, perhaps a counterpart to one planned for
the Niagara Regional Hospital Initiative, the Vineland McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton. n


 www.ghbn.or g

In the lab, professor

Hendrik Poinar
(centre) and his team
examine an ancient
P R O F I L E S I N bone sample.

E X C E L L E N C E

Niagara as
bioproducts
Taking a walk down the path of evolution hotbed
Hendrik Poinar has picked up dozens of marvelous They can compare the genomic codes of long-gone Niagara is ready
souvenirs from his many walks down the path of evolution. animals with those of today’s likely successors.
to sell itself as a
Such comparisons can shine a spotlight on the
Here’s a jawbone from a long-extinct Siberian woolly timelines of extinction and maybe why some bioproducts hotbed,
mammoth. How about skulls from victims of the Black animals disappeared. an area keen to attract
Death or maybe coprolites (fossilized feces) from cave- bioindustry companies and
dwelling AmerIndians? (Poinar was involved from the start in an
investment. The region
international effort to decode the genome of
And, of course, there’s amber – impossibly old chunks of the Siberian mammoth but difficulty in scoring has hired a consultant
forest resin that contain imprisoned insects. Poinar and his research monies and other factors later meant that to assess existing
father, George, inspired author Michael Crichton and film American collaborators carried on with the work.) development strengths
director Steven Spielberg to bring dinosaurs back to life
and opportunities and to
in the book and movie, Jurassic Park. The idea was that By studying the DNA of flora and fauna,
insects that sucked dino blood millions of years ago might scientists can draw out past climatic patterns assess that base against
contain dinosaur DNA. and the migration patterns of birds, animals generic factors that define
and humans. By peering into poop, molecular successful bioproducts
Hendrik Poinar is an expert at teasing out viable DNA evolutionary specialists can determine the
clusters.
where others could not find it. He believes DNA that is 1 genetic “relatedness” of Archaic humans and
million years old might be recoverable – under the right Neanderthals. They can pinpoint the health and
Consultant Amy Lemay,
conditions. He and others think it might even be possible diets of Paleoamerindians.
– setting aside the question of ethics – to clone an extinct of Vista Science and
animal, such as the Pleistocene-era mammoth. They can also plot the vectors of disease Technology, said the
pathogens over time. This involves molecular study will look at
“The only thing that limits us is the preservation state ... anthropologists working with other scientists
bioproducts, functional
and this is really linked to the local environment in which it in learning how disease organisms evolved
was preserved,” the renowned paleogeneticist says in his and survived. The detective work can help foods and nutraceuticals,
modest McMaster University office. basic science to develop vaccines and other biopharmaceuticals,
treatments. Poinar is particularly interested in the enviro-products, and
Hot and dry is good. So is cold and dry, as in permafrost- many strains of the human immunodeficiency
other industry elements.
ridden regions. In those environments, DNA tends to virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, its transmissibility
remain more stable, sometimes remaining intact for pathways, and why some areas of the world are
The bioproducts-cluster
hundreds of thousands of years. The DNA from the Siberian less devastated than others.
mammoth is estimated to be about 30,000 years old. study, expected to be
For example, some European populations have ready by December,
But why study ancient bones and dessicated feces? What been able to resist HIV infection. They may well is eligible for funding
can organisms or animals with centuries of lineage possibly be descendants of people who survived the Great
under the Canadian
tell us? Turns out quite a bit. Plague and bear the mutated CCR5 gene, delta 32.
Many scientists believe the delta 32 resistance was Investment
The technology window into the deep past – McMaster’s a key to surviving the Plague, whether it was caused Strategies
Ancient DNA Centre uses $1 million in ultra-high by a bacterium or a a viral hemorrhagic fever. And they Program.
throughput DNA sequencing equipment – allows scientists believe the same delta 32 prevents HIV-1 from binding
to see “evolution in action.” to the immune system’s white blood cells.


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Innovation Café Series Innovation Night: Share your Passion

Silent witness: Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Identity through DNA detection Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Location: Slainte Irish Pub
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.  City: Hamilton
Location: Mohawk College, North Cafeteria For more information: visit

Events listing
An expert in City: Hamilton, Fennell Campus www.innovationnight.ca
For more information: visit www.ghbn.org
the house Future dates: October 29, November 26, 2008 Research to Receptor Series
Food and Health Innovation
Looking for that expert in the Local Market
National Biotech Week
in your corner to help Date: October 8, 15, 21, 23, 2008
Dance ‘N Action in the Park City: London, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston
grow the business?
Date: September 25-26, 2008  For more information: visit www.ghbn.org
We’ll have an extra edge Location/city: Gore Park, Hamilton
to assist your innovative Location/city: Metro Square, Toronto eHealth Technology Showcase
For more information: visit www.ghbn.org Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
company when the Golden
Location: Burlington Art Centre
Horseshoe Biosciences City: 1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington
Network begins our For more information: visit www.ghbn.org
entrepreneur-in-residence or, www.bitnet.ca
program.

Our mentor will be

available to help with
n AllerGen leads $12-million study n The ‘other’ oil in the news
business plans, help
develop strategies and line McMaster University scientists are among top While oil at the pumps has gained world
researchers in a $12-million study to investigate headlines, it is vegetable and seed oils that
up capital, as well as work
the genetic and environmental factors behind have made the news at Bunge Canada’s new
on pitches and partnership asthma and allergies in children. $60-million refinery. The nation’s largest oilseed
opportunities. processor and largest manufacturer of edible
In the news

Co-funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health

oil products opened its Hamilton plant earlier
Part of the Business Research (CIHR) and AllerGen NCE Inc., the
this summer.
CHILD study will follow 5,000 Canadian children
Mentorship and from pregnancy through early childhood. It Bunge Canada, part of a huge multinational
Entrepreneurship will look at indoor and outdoor environmental operation with more than 20,000 employees,
Program, this free exposure factors, infections, nutrition and turns out salad oils, margarines, shortenings
genetics in the development of asthma and oils, and meal for animal food.
service is designed
and allergies.
to meet the needs Sited at the former CanAmera complex on
Study researchers hope to help innovate new Burlington Street East, the Hamilton operation
and develop the
therapies and medications as well as prevention takes in canola seeds and soybeans, among other
skills of start-up and and management strategies to control the products, and refines and blends the oils. n
early-stage science chronic illnesses. n
and technology
companies.

Contact Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network

McMaster University, Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery

5105-1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA L8N 3Z5
n Ana Paredes Office Administrator/Incubator Assistant – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26602 Fax: 905-528-3999
n Darlene Homonko Executive Director – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26609 Web: www.ghbn.org

GHBN News is a quarterly newsletter published by GHBN. Director and editor: Darlene Homonko

Writer: Mike Pettapiece Graphic Design: Nadia DiTraglia