Stories of impact

A “smart” solution

A McMaster team has created a new coating to prevent clotting and infection in synthetic vascular grafts, while also accelerating the body’s own process for integrating the grafted vessels. Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Zeinab Hosseini-Doust tested the new material in lab experiments using human tissue.

Small materials for big problems

Charles de Lannoy, chemical engineering assistant professor, works with nanomaterials to search for solutions to environmental challenges. He’s part of an interdisciplinary group of McMaster researchers co-developing solutions to the ongoing issues of water quality at Six Nations of the Grand River.

Is your food safe to eat?

McMaster chemical engineers collaborated with mechanical engineers and biochemists to develop a transparent test patch, printed with harmless molecules, that can signal contamination as it happens.

A different kind of anti-bacterial gel

Chemical engineer, Zeinab Hosseini-Doust and her team of researchers have found a way to use friendly viruses to make an anti-bacterial gel that can heal itself and you. The gel, which can be targeted to attack specic forms of bacteria, holds promise for numerous benecial applications in medicine and environmental protection. Among many possibilities, it could be used as an antibacterial coating for implants and articial joints, as a sterile growth scaffold for human tissue, or in environmental cleanup operations.

A special delivery

McMaster chemical engineers, working with mechanical-biomedical engineers and biochemists, have invented a new storage method that can transport life-saving vaccines to previously inaccessible parts of the world. They invented a stable, affordable way to store fragile vaccines for weeks at a time at temperatures up to 40C, opening the way for life-saving anti-viral vaccines to reach remote and impoverished regions of the world.

A Vanier Scholar dives into water research

Ryan LaRue, a Vanier Scholar and PhD student in the chemical engineering, is pursuing research in water and wastewater treatment, creating novel membrane technologies for areas where water is hard to treat. LaRue is working to develop membranes to remove toxins such as heavy metals that could be discharged into water and consumed.