NOVONIX Future Innovators

Dr. Alan Doucette  -  Doucette Lab Website
alan.doucette@dal.ca
Professor of Chemistry

Protein purification, separation and analysis by mass spectrometry
Proteins are an essential component of all living systems. Consider these examples: Enzymes catalyze important reactions, antibodies make up our body’s immune system to defend against disease; signal proteins allow cells in our body to communicate; transport proteins carry oxy-gen, electrolytes or other chemicals throughout the body. Last year, over half of all new drugs approved by the FDA were protein-based (antibodies or peptide therapies). Our body has tens of thousands of different proteins.  A change in just one of these proteins could have significant effects on maintaining a healthy body.

We are analytical chemists. Our lab uses advanced chemical instrumentation to characterize biological systems.  We therefore work in a field called proteomics. Our goal is to create new tools and technologies to better understand how all the proteins in our body work to maintain a healthy system.  We have invented commercial devices used by labs around the world to im-prove their ability to study proteins. The most important tool we work with is an instrument called mass spectrometry, which can ‘weigh’ individual protein molecules to determine their composition.

We actually have several potential projects related to the analysis of proteins by mass spectrometry, depending on your interests. One thing we’re really excited about at the moment is interfacing a mass spectrometer to a brand new form of separation, called droplet microfluidics. Imagine if you try to mix oil and water – the water forms into tiny bubbles that are carried down a tiny capillary in a stream of oil. Each of these tiny water bubbles can hold different proteins, which the mass spectrometer can detect. It’s never been done before, so this new tool could change the way we study proteins.   

The successful student will gain skills in:
Bioanalytical Chemistry / Proteomics / Mass Spectrometry / Instrument Design/ Engineering / Data Analytics and Computation / Research Communication.  Don’t worry if you don’t have experience.  You’ll have lots of help, and the whole point of this project is to learn new skills.

Dr. Mark Obrovac  -  Obrovac Lab Website
mobrovac@dal.ca
Professor of Chemistry - Cross-appointed with Physics

Metal-Ion Battery Materials Chemistry
The Obrovac lab designs and synthesizes highly engineered materials (nanostructured materials, core/shell particles, metallic glasses, etc.) for lithium-ion, sodium-ion and multivalent metal batteries for use in grid storage and electric vehicles. New metal-ion battery chemistries have the potential to store significantly more energy than conventional lithium-ion battery materials, at similar or even lower cost.

The successful student will gain skills in:
Materials design, nanostructured materials synthesis, mechanochemical synthesis, mechanofusion, topotactic reactions, electron microscopy, x-ray diffractometry, Mössbauer spectroscopy, electrochemical methods, battery assembly and testing, electrolyte characterization.

Dr. Laura Turculet - Turculet Lab Website
laura.turculet@dal.ca
Professor of Chemistry

Transition metal catalysts play a key role in facilitating chemical processes that convert abundant raw material resources into value-added products (pharmaceuticals, flavors, fragrances, etc.) in an efficient, selective manner. Chemists have long focused on developing homogeneous catalysts that utilize scarce precious metals such as Pd, Pt, Rh, and Ru. Despite their efficacy, such catalysts are limited by their decreasing availability, and associated high cost. Mining and processing of ores containing such metals is also highly energy intensive, generating large CO2 emissions. Faced with the pressing need to develop increasingly sustainable synthetic processes, interest in the reactivity of Earth abundant metals, such as Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni has grown significantly, with the goal of discovering new, effective catalysts to complement, and possibly supplant, precious metal based technology. While nature has utilized Earth abundant metals such as Fe almost exclusively for catalyzing chemical reactivity, harnessing this reactivity has proven challenging in the laboratory. In this regard, research in the Turculet lab targets the development of new classes of broadly useful, sustainable metal catalysts for atom economical alkene and alkyne hydrofunctionalization, a class of widely used reactions for converting such feedstocks into consumer products.