Contacts

Expertise:

• Remediation technologies using chemical and photochemical techniques
• Wastewater and air treatment using advanced oxidation processes
• Infection and pathogen control, including rapid detection methods for bacterial contamination of water, automated UV disinfection systems, ultrasonic disinfection, and novel antimicrobial materials for use in clinical applications
   

Expertise:

• Complex biologics (products derived from living organisms or the organisms themselves)
• Baculovirus expression systems of complex biologics, including glycosylation and myritoylation post-translational modifications
• Cell culture monitoring, modeling and simulation – from metabolomics to on-line spectroscopy
• Monoclonal antibody production and modification, including enhancing monodispersity of the product
   

Expertise:

• Protein structure and function
• Understanding of enzyme catalytic mechanisms including in methionine biochemistry and glyoxalase metalloenzymes
• Bio-nanotechnology including nanosized proteins as drug carriers and molecular foundations for nanodevices
• Bacteriophages to produce building blocks used in advanced biomaterials
• Interactions between biomolecules and nanomaterials
   

Expertise:

• Applications of systems and control theory to systems biology
• Design and construction of gene regulatory networks from forward-engineering of biological systems (synthetic biology)
• Modelling intracellular networks and heterogeneous cellular communities
   

Expertise:

• Synthetic biology, including utilizing bacteria for production of chemical precurors and biofuels as well as environmental cleanup
• Biomining using iron/sulphur oxidizing bacteria
• Genetic analysis of new bacterial strains for applications in technology and the environment
• Improvements in PCR technology
• Bio-upcycling to transform waste via bacterial biosynthesis, with a focus on succinic acid

Expertise:

• Hyperthermophilic microorganisms growing at 80°C and above
• Microbial physiology and enzymology
• Alcohol and H₂ fermentation using novel enzymes that work at high temperatures
• Biocatalysis using thermostable enzymes for the production of chiral compounds
• High temperature biochemistry and protein engineering
   

Expertise:

• Proteomics analysis, that is, identifying and quantifying the proteins active within a biological system
• Computational and bioinformatics approaches for investigating protein function
• Quantification of cell cycle proteins in yeast, recombinant protein production in mammalian cell lines, and identification of proteins mediating plant-bacterial interactions
• Structural pattern recognition algorithms to predict protein functions such as carbohydrate binding and antifreeze activity
• Evolution of protein function within homologous protein groups
   

Expertise:

• Microbial fertilizers to enhance crop productivity and improve environmental footprint
• Bioplastics synthesized by microbes to reduce the negative environmental effects of conventional plastics
• Utilizing nanomaterials (polymers containing nanoparticles) as antimicrobial agents, with applications in healthcare, food processes and packaging, water disinfection, and antimicrobial coatings
• Biodegradable plastic synthesis, including altering bioplastics using byproducts of soymeal fermentation

Expertise:

• Membrane fouling and optimization of membrane filtration processes
• Diffusion transport in materials (e.g. biomaterials and polymeric films). Diffusing components - material interactions are analyzed through an experimental and theoretical study of model systems
• Enzyme reaction engineering - applications include foods, soil bioremediation, wastewater processes and biomaterial degradation phenomena
• Integrated extraction/purification processes for the recovery of proteins from plant materials (e.g. antifreeze proteins and soy proteins)
   

Expertise:

• Anaerobic membrane bioreactors for wastewater and sludge treatment
• Fate of emerging contaminants in wastewater systems
• Pretreatment of sludges for enhanced digestion
• Advanced sludge digestion processes
• Nutrient recovery from wastewater
• Modelling of wastewater treatment and sludge handling processes
   

Expertise:

• Bioresource engineering and biorefining
• Microalgae, metabolic engineering
• Ionic liquid based separations in biological systems
• Catalysis of wet biomass to biodiesel
• Isoprenoid production

Publications:

Valerie Ward's Publications