THE GREAT MONTREAL REBUILD

From lab to market: Investing in Montreal’s scientific sectors

Government investment gives researchers time to do their work properly. ‘ It gives us enough time to put things in motion, and to build a research program that’ll have a genuine impact.’

Montreal has consistently made its mark in creative industries like art, textiles, film and TV production, and video games. But certain scientific sectors have gained considerable ground over the years, and researchers in aerospace technology and synthetic biology believe their work will continue to help these areas of our economy grow.

INTERDISCIPLINARY

BENEFITS

Dr. Christian Moreau, Canada Research Chair in Thermal Spray and Surface Engineering and a professor in Concordia’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering, knows fi rsthand that the fruits of aerospace research are reaped in several outlying fields.

Moreau has recently been awarded a Tier 1 Canada research chair, which means he will receive $ 1.4 million over a period of seven years to fund his research in new energy- efficient coating and functional surface solutions for the aerospace industry. On the market, though, these coatings can be used in several industries.

“The aerospace industry has always needed the most robust and reliable technology,” Moreau said. “These t echnologies and materials impact all of Canada’s industrial sectors, like automotive, forestry and energy.”

The new thermal barrier coating Moreau is working on will help improve engine fuel efficiency, thereby decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. The temperatures inside jet engines are extremely hot, and this heat- resistant coating protects the internal components from damage, boosting the engine’s overall performance.

Moreau’s work necessarily creates offshoots in other fields. For example, his team is also working on anti- corrosive, ice- and waterresistant coatings, which could be used underwater, on aircrafts, wind turbines, or any place that’s exposed to the elements. They ’re also working with a f actory i n Boucherville to develop thermal coating for high- efficiency heating applications.

For Moreau, the real upshot of the $ 1.4 million i nvestment is that it gives him and his team the time to do the work properly. “It’ll allow our team to push the research f urther,” he said. “It gives us enough time to put things in motion, and to build a research program that’ll have a genuine impact.”

ADVANCING THE INDUSTRY

Investing in research is crucial to making sure Canada remains one of the top five l eading countries i n aerospace. According to Aéro Montréal, most of Quebec’s 43,500 aerospace j obs are in Greater Montreal, making the city the second world capital i n terms of aerospace j ob density.

For Dr. Nadia Bhuiyan, professor in Concordia’s department of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the Concordia Institute for Aeros pace Design and Innovation, staying on top means keeping it lean. More specifically, it means increasing a company ’s value by eliminating wasteful business processes.

“To sustain long- term competitiveness in the 21st century, aerospace companies in Montreal must be leaders at designing and developing innovative, high- quality products at a low cost and reduced t i me t o market,” she said. “The implementation of l ean principles i s critical in achieving significant and sustainable i mprovements.”

Bhuiyan said a large number of inefficient and redundant activities occur in the time between a product being designed and when it eventually makes it t o market. “Lead times can be reduced considerably if these types of waste can be minimized or eliminated,” she explained.

Bhuiyan r ecently r eceived a $ 1 . 3 million grant t oward her project, called Lean Aerospace Value Streams, which will ultimately help companies implement those lean principles to product development, production, and product support or services. The program will also train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in l ean principles, and undergraduates will be hired to collect data, and implement and test tools.

“The lack of students trained in l ean principles has been expressed by the aerospace industry, and the need is considerable,” Bhuiyan said. “So t he project will help to fulfil this need to a certain degree.”

IN SYNTH

When applied to biology, the same principles that go into engineering have produced powerful medicines, digestive enzymes for animal feed, and pest- resistant trees. All of these results were produced by synthetic biology, a field that’s on the rise in Montreal, due in no small part to the presence of Dr. Vincent Martin, a professor at Concordia’s department of biology, co- director of its Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology ( CASB), and Canada Research Chair i n Microbial Genomics and Engineering.

Martin was involved with the biotechnology firm Amyris when — through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — it engineered artemisinin, an antimalarial compound that will lead to effective treatment of the disease. To Martin, synthetic biology isn’t just boundless in its potential, it’s also going to become a necessity in the near future.

“In 10 and 20 years, we’ll be living in an economy that’s much more bio- oriented,” he said. “The way we live — our energy, the way we grow our food — we’re going to hit a wall soon, and to me and many others, synthetic biology has become a top priority.”

This branch is crucial in developing more effective treatments for different ill nesses. A r esearch team at the CASB is notably developing synthetic alternatives to opiates for painkillers to offset our dependence on foreign- grown poppies. This breakthrough could have a significant impact on the pharmaceutical industry.

Another ongoing project at the CASB involves harvesting sulfite l i quor, a toxic by- product of pulping wood, and transforming it into biofuel. This means pulp and paper mills could operate as biorefineries and benefit from a new stream of i ncome, all while neutralizing their negative environmental i mpact.

“There are many ecological benefits to this technology, but my favourites are any that reduce our dependence on traditional, nonrenewable industrial processes,” Martin said, citing examples like creating plants that get their nitrogen from the atmosphere ( air is 78 per cent nitrogen) rather than from highly polluting fertilizer, or using plants instead of natural oil or gas to manufacture rubber and plastic.

The inherent sustainability of synthetic biology is a draw for researchers, but the potential for industrial applications in a variety of fields is attracting increased global attention as a number of countries move t o position themselves as leaders.

While Genome Canada and Genome Québec are i nstrumental i n ensuring synthetic biology ’s progress, Martin believes dif - ferent communities — from scientists to media, entrepreneurs and i nvestors — need to collaborate to guarantee i ts continued growth here.

“At t he moment, visionaries and political will are desperately needed,” Martin said. “Those that hold the purse strings need to see and understand the value that this technology can bring across many sectors.”