MALCOLM vice-president (research): Welcome, everyone, to University of Guelph’s Innovation of the Year Award, the 2020 edition.
At University of Guelph, we have a long-standing tradition of innovation, one that extends back almost 150 years to our founding colleges. This tradition has led our researchers to take their fundamental discoveries and convert them into real-world innovations that have an impact on everyday people’s lives. This year we have not one, but two, Innovation of the Year awards. I’m absolutely delighted to be meeting together with inventors of one of those two inventions and that is Keith Warriner and Mahdiyeh Hasani.
Keith, I was wondering if you could share with us the nature of your innovation and the impact that it’s had?
WARRINER: Well, the actual innovation is a surface decontamination method that essentially produces something called hydroxy radicals. And what we’ve done is harnessed the oxidative, or decontamination capacity, of that and put it into a small reactor which can be used to decontaminate a wide range of different items, from fresh produce, right through to N95 masks. And it does this very quickly -within a few seconds, and also doesn’t alter the function or the quality of the actual item being decontaminated.
CAMPBELL: So you’ve been using it, Mahdiyeh, for two purposes: one for sterilizing fruit and veg and in the other hand — and very timely — to be sterilizing personal protective equipment.
HASANI: Actually, we started this project for the decontamination of fresh produce in 2019, and it was a successful project, as we could decontaminate apples, lemons, and many other different fresh produce. And after that, in the beginning of the pandemic, we were thinking about this and how we can use this technology for the decontamination of N95 masks to help people.
CAMPBELL: Keith, you’ve had long-standing partnerships with a wide variety of different collaborators. What were the important collaborations that you had for this particular innovation?
WARRINER: Oh right, yes, so essentially this research started back in 2006. Well, it was only in 2015 when an apple producer came to me and asked me for a decontamination method. He was going to use washing, and I said to him, ‘We have this sort of research we did years ago based on using UV light, hydrogen peroxide and ozone produced hydroxy radicals.’ And he took that and he applied it to his process. And it was so successful, he actually formed a new company called Clean Works with the sort of collaboration between Moyers Apples and Court Holdings.
And then last March, when the pandemic struck, Health Canada sent out an issue saying, ‘Can we have a method for decontaminating N95 masks , you know, to extend the use to recycle them. And it was really amazing how the partnership took off. They were really motivated to answer the call from the Canadian government and we were happy to contribute. Certainly, Maddie optimized the process and they put into place. And the cooperation we got from the government in terms of facilitating approvals and the National Research Council, which really pointed in the right directions — it was an amazing sort of collaboration to get to that point.
CAMPBELL: How did you get involved in this project? What brought you to working on this particular innovation?
HASANI: Actually I came here in 2007 as a visiting researcher. And I started my work with Dr. Warriner about developing a novel technology for the decontamination of fresh produce, which was called advanced oxidation process. And after that, I [went] back to my country and defended my thesis and again, came back here as a postdoctoral fellow with Mitacs and University of Guelph, and actually continued my work on the decontamination of fresh produce.
CAMPBELL: Keith, this is an absolutely fabulous innovation. It’s working to ensure that our food supply is healthy and safe and nutritious on the one hand, and on the other, you’re using the technology in a very timely fashion to ensure that we have the personal protective equipment sterilized in the way that we need it sterilized in order to grapple with some of the challenges associated with this pandemic.
What would be your advice to to innovators that are out there, to researchers like yourself, to achieve such great success as they look to convert their discoveries into
innovations.
WARRINER: Well, one thing I learned in the pandemic is how important is to pull from the market so that’s because what we really need are pullers in the market, people like Clean Works, who can see the potential and pull the technology to the market. As academics, I think we can showcase a technology that’s half a story, but certainly, motivation from industry to pull from industry, and involvement of government is a key factor, I find.
CAMPBELL: So Mahdiyeh, as an early career researcher yourself, and a recipient of the Innovation of the Year Award, what advice would you provide to fellow early career researchers?
HASANI: So it’s very important to use all of our knowledge to innovate something and also we have you should have enough patience, and every day, try to learn a new thing.
CAMPBELL: Mahdiyeh, where do you see this research going in the in the future?
HASANI: Actually, this technology was very successful in fresh produce all of the fresh produce and in N95 mass. So, for the future, we can work on the decontamination of other PPE, and even for other equipment or tool, such as bags or baggage, or toys for children. And among food science, we can work on meat and breast chicken.
CAMPBELL: That’s fantastic. Keith, obviously this is a product of your particular laboratory — the fruit of your labour after what is it now 14 years. How do you see things going in the future?
WARRINER: Yes so, the thing about this technology is it’s very generic. It’s basically you can decontaminate surfaces without altering the surface, because a lot of the times, you can decontaminate something, but you alter the quality, which is unacceptable. So we can see a lot of potential applications for this again.
CAMPBELL: Mahdiyeh, Keith, amazing work, absolutely tremendous, really making a difference today and as far as we can tell, well into the future. Congratulations to you both and thanks so much for the great work that you’re doing.