Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Suresh S. Narine
Trent University, Canada
Keynote: Superior thermoplastics prepared entirely from lipids: synthesis, structure and properties
Time : 09:05-09:30
Biography:
Suresh Narine, named in 2011 as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Leaders, is Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Chemistry at Trent University; he also is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Lipid Derived Biomaterials, the Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering and the Director of the Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research. His work focuses on the creation of petrochemical replacements for pharmaceuticals, lubricants, polymers, adhesives, and high-value materials from vegetable oils. He is the author of nearly 200 peer reviewed publications and more than 60 patents.
Abstract:
Functional thermoplastics are much sought after because of their reprocessibility and wide applicability. They are used in a wide variety of applications ranging from automotive parts and building construction to footwear, wire and cable insulation jackets, biomedical devices, etc. Polyesters, polyesteramides and polyesterurethanes present a versatile combination of chemical and physical properties such as biodegradability, flexibility, resistance to dilute acids and alkalis, thermal stability and mechanical strength. There is a desire to utilize renewable feedstock such as vegetable oils to synthesize these materials and therefore reduce their carbon footprint. This talk will detail a careful structure-function approach to the optimization of monomeric structure, polymerization protocol and polymer structure so as to produce lipid-based thermoplastics which are equivalent to or even more functional than current thermoplastics used in the industry. The talk will focus on the synthesis of the monomers, the variation of polymerization protocol, and the relationship of structure to mechanical, thermal and degradation properties.
Keynote Forum
Yi Pang
The University of Akron, USA
Keynote: Developing environment-sensitive molecular probes for target binding-activated fluorescence imaging
Time : 09:30-09:55
Biography:
Yi Pang received his PhD in 1990 from Iowa State University, USA. He was a Post-doctoral fellow at US DOE Ames Laboratory during 1991-1993. He is currently a Professor at The University of Akron. He has published more than 135 research papers in reputed journals. His current research interests include synthesis of luminescent polymers, and development of fluorescent molecular probes for recognition of biologically important species.
Abstract:
Recognition of specific biomolecules such as a unique proteins in biological cells is critical for basic biomedical research and the development of novel clinical diagnostics. Considerable interests exist in searching for the novel fluorescent probes that can target specific biological tissues/molecules to meet the need for advanced bioimaging. For in vivo tracking of a specific type of biomolecule or tissue, the probes are also required to be non-toxic, and their presence should not disturb the normal biological development process. In the presentation, we discuss a new class of fluorescent imaging dyes, which are typically non-fluorescent in an aqueous environment. The probes, however become highly fluorescent upon binding to biomolecules such as proteins. The binding-activated fluorescence on biomolecules can be further developed to give wash-free imaging reagents, as those free probes are nearly non-fluorescent in the surrounding aqueous environments. Further extending this concept has led to advanced imaging reagents, which selectively targets the biomolecules in the subunits of biological cells, e.g. organelles, to give fluorescence turn on.