News

A biotechnology company co-founded by a Waterloo Engineering alumnus has been awarded almost $300,000 in government funding to develop a portable diagnostic test for COVID-19.

Nicoya, a Kitchener-based provider of advanced analytical instruments for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, grew out of a Capstone Design project by nanotechnology engineering student Ryan Denomme (BASc ’10, MASc ’12).

The funding is part of a challenge issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the National Research Council of Canada.

Serapis Labs develops prototype for a testing kit that is simple enough for anyone to use

By Alana Rigby and Brian Caldwell University of Waterloo

Monica Hoang had no idea earlier this year that she’d be spending the last few months of her PhD working on the design of a COVID-19 testing kit.

The School of Pharmacy student moved back to her hometown when the University of Waterloo decided to go online for the spring term and planned to do her PhD defence digitally.

Canadian provinces such as Ontario and Quebec should wait several more months before lifting social distancing restrictions, according to the findings of a new mathematical model developed by University of Waterloo researchers.

The new model, called Distancing-SEIRD, indicates that continuing social distancing at the current levels in Ontario and Quebec for six months (until mid-September), could save close to 100,000 lives.

The machine learning-enabled model was recently the subject of a study that is pending peer review.

In a world where just about everyone has a smartphone it also means that almost everyone has become an amateur photographer. In 2019, more than 657 billion smartphone photographs were taken – and many of them blurry. But help is on the way. A promising new student venture, Scope, is hoping their invention of a new type of optical zoom lens system with electronically tunable optical power will help people take better photos while reducing the battery use, costs, and processing power of smartphones.

Today, two prominent Waterloo scientists were among the 60 exceptional scientists selected to be Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences. 

Chemist Linda Nazar, a WIN member, and Physicist Donna Strickland were both elected for their outstanding contributions to their field and scientific understanding.

Three Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology members are developing a DNA-based vaccine that can be delivered through a nasal spray.

The vaccine will work by using bacteriophage, a process that will allow the vaccine to replicate within bacteria already in the body and is being designed to target tissues in the nasal cavity and lower respiratory tract.

Innovative solutions to serious medical problems took four of six $10,000 prizes up for grabs when student teams competed via video this month in an annual pitch competition for startup companies. Three of the six winning teams consisted of nanotechnology students.

The new format, which replaced in-person presentations at the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design due to the coronavirus crisis, gave graduating students five minutes to explain their projects instead of the usual three minutes, followed by questions.

At the Concept $5K Finals - formerly the Velocity Fund Finals - teams featuring nanotechnology engineering students took one of four $5,000 awards, plus the $500 People’s Champ prize, for students with business ideas.

Twenty-nine University of Waterloo researchers, including 4 science recipients, 3 of which are members of WIN, will receive $3.4 million from the provincial government to further research innovation in Ontario.