James Dou/HIV hand-held analyzer

The technology James Dou is developing has many applications, but testing blood samples from HIV patients in developing nations is one that strikes him as particularly urgent. Dou and two partners are developing a hand-held device that, in its first iteration, will immediately determine when health-care workers can begin administering antiretroviral treatment, and monitor the progress. “We’re mimicking a complete chemical lab and putting it on a microchip,” says Dou, explaining the technology, known colloquially as “lab-on-a-chip.”

The 30-year-old University of Toronto PhD student, who is involved in microfluidics — shrinking chemical processes in order to conduct faster, cheaper and more efficient testing of everything from infectious disease to environmental science — and his team have built a microchip (roughly 30 mm by 40 mm) where chemical reactions can take place. The challenge is to install it in a portable device and build an interface to make sense of the results, which is where Dou says an engineering firm such as Nytric could help. “We’re starting to work on the integration of the whole system,” he says. “We still have a long way to go.”

They’ve already come a long way. Dou was unclear about an application before talking to medical professionals. Rakesh Nayyar, a flow cytometry specialist in Toronto and now a partner, told him about the need for HIV diagnostic equipment. Typically, the number of CD4 cells (which help the immune system) are counted in a blood sample to determine when HIV becomes AIDS. HIV becomes active when the number of functioning cells dips below a certain level. Only at that point can treatment begin, so HIV patients must be constantly monitored. But existing technology is cumbersome and requires specially trained personnel to operate. Results can take days, even weeks, if samples are taken to a central lab for processing.

Dou’s hand-held device will be simpler to use (think of a glucose meter for diabetics) and produce results within 10 to 20 minutes. Even better, it may incorporate wireless technology to transmit results to a database, so individual patients and infection patterns can be tracked in greater detail. Dou hopes to have a working prototype by the end of the year, and his team, which also includes U of T professor Stewart Aitchison, is working with the Innovations Group at U of T to help commercialize the idea. They’re also in the process of incorporating a company, Chip Care Corp., and hope to recruit a CEO soon to help raise funds.

Once developed, only minor modifications will be needed to test for other infectious diseases. Such multiplicity is one reason Dou’s entry stood out to the judges. “We felt this could be a huge technology if it could be brought to the market,” says Anthony Gussin, director of business development at Nytric in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s got huge benefits beyond the HIV fight.” - Joe Castaldo

Darren Kraemer and Michael Cowan/APL-500/Picosecond laser

The term “nanosecond” is often used to express brevity. Yet everything is relative — and for Darren Kraemer and Michael Cowan, a billionth of a second is an eternity.

The two men share an interest in optics, and about five years ago were exploring the molecular dynamics of water using ultrafast lasers. By ultrafast, we’re talking pulses measured in femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of a second. Eager to apply their knowledge about lasers and how they interact with materials, they founded Toronto-based Attodyne Inc. three years ago.

Kraemer and Cowan originally wanted to develop medical lasers. Nanosecond lasers have long been used for surgical procedures, but have drawbacks. Simply put, each pulse contains too much energy, which can damage tissues surrounding the target and delay healing. “They basically barbecue everything in sight,” explains Kraemer. But femtosecond lasers weren’t perfect, either.

That’s why they began tinkering with lasers that pulse in picoseconds (a trillionth of a second), which has become something of a Goldilocks moment. Because picosecond lasers are slower than femtosecond ones and are no longer considered cutting-edge, they ceased to excite most researchers decades ago. Yet their pulses are sufficiently fast that heat transfer is minimal. And, to boot, they’re a lot simpler to build than femtosecond lasers.