Two Laurentian University professors were granted $150,000 in funding Tuesday to conduct research in complicated scientific experiments.
Sabine Montaut, an assistant professor in Laurentian's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been granted $74,000 to purchase a mass spectrometer used to identify bioactive natural products. The research will have implications in cancer research.
Redhouane Henda, an associate professor in the School of Engineering, has been given a research grant of $78,000 to purchase a pulsed electron deposition facility used to investigate value-added advanced materials processing, specifically testing high temperatures on ceramics used with applications in the mining and space science industries.
Henda's research team will be developing a pulsed electron facility to assist in research of value-added advanced materials processing. This facility will be the first of its type in Canada. Henda is conducting research in materials and processing. The pulsed electron facility will be used exclusively to support research activities along with the training of highly qualified personnel.
Montaut, along with her team of eight researchers, will use this funding to purchase a mass spectrometer for the identification of bioactive natural products. The infrastructure will be used for natural product structure determination and plant screening for bioactive compounds. Montaut’s research focuses on the screening of wild, widespread Canadian plant-life for their cancer chemo-preventive potential.
Under the Ontario Research Fund, the provincial government is investing $550 million to provide Ontario's researchers with operating, overhead and capital funding to support leading-edge research and development in universities, colleges and hospitals.
Through the Research Infrastructure component of the ORF, this round of funding will provide close to $11 million to support 68 innovative projects in communities across Ontario.
The 68 projects are being developed at 15 institutions across the province.
Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci said research and innovation are crucial to strengthening this province's economy and for finding answers and solutions to many problems affecting millions of Ontarians.
"We want to make Ontario the place to be to do research and innovation or be the place to come to to do this leading-edge research and innovation," he said.
