Dr. Gregory De Crescenzo from École Polytechnique de Montréal received a $1.65 million CREATE Grant. The proposal team consisted of experts from Polytechnique, McGill, University of Montreal, University of Quebec (INRS), and the University of Waterloo. From the University of Waterloo, CBB member's Marc Aucoin and Frank Gu were co-applicants on this proposal.
The grant will be used to develop the PrEEmiuM Training Program. Waterloo Students trained under this grant will be awarded a degree in ChE or Pharmacy depending on the degree program in which they are registered.
PrEEmiuM will provide the tools, know-how and first generations of HQPs for the industry to exploit nano-medicines to their full potential. By breaking-down the walls of the design-production-commercialization silos, PrEEmiuM will allow the Canadian Pharmaceutical industry to maintain its rightful place as a global leader, providing it with the vital bench-to-bedside continuum strategy for 21st century drug development. PrEEmiuM breaks down (scientific) cultural silos and provides a co-creating environment to the highly multidisciplinary ecosystem that is the Pharmaceutical industry. In the long-term, PrEEmiuM constructivist-training template will be transferred to other fields where widely diverse expertise need to converge.
In its first implementation, graduate students with different backgrounds (engineering, pharmacy) will be paired and trained so that the engineering student becomes versed in pharmaceutical sciences and the pharmacy student becomes versed in pharmaceutical engineering. At Waterloo, this will create a rapprochement between faculty in engineering and the school of pharmacy, leading to the development of robust therapeutics that can be readily made.