UBC researchers leading 12 projects awarded $3 million through New Frontiers in Research Fund Exploration competition

There is an urgent need to both reduce CO₂ production and capture existing emissions. The world releases 35 to 40 gigatonnes (Gt) of anthropogenic CO₂ into the atmosphere every year, yet globally, we are currently capturing only about 0.1% of that, which is a mere fraction compared to the 10 Gt per year of removal necessary to keep global warming below 1.5°C by 2050. To return to a relatively “safe” atmospheric CO₂ level of around 350 ppm, we need to remove approximately one trillion tonnes of legacy CO₂, a goal that remains far out of reach for society. Additionally, effective carbon management is crucial for addressing emissions from some of the toughest-to-abate sectors, such as heavy industries like steel and cement production. It’s clear that, in parallel with transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables, we must also advance carbon capture technologies.

However, this development is not just a technological or engineering challenge; it demands an integrated approach that considers social, political, sustainability, and economic dimensions. For instance, from a sustainability perspective, what happens if the carbon capture technology uses materials whose production results in significant emissions? From a social perspectives, how can governance models be designed to prevent this technology from being used as a “greenwashing” tool by industries that delay meaningful emissions reductions while only capturing a small fraction of their CO₂ output? Economically, if the process isn’t viable, it may never be widely adopted by industry, regardless of its actual effectiveness. These complexities highlight the necessity of a truly holistic approach.

This project ambitiously aims to tackle these intertwined challenges by combining engineering, social, sustainability, and economic expertise focused on developing a promising carbon capture technology based on an electrochemical, organic-based system that operates at room temperature and ambient pressure and can be integrated with renewable energy sources. The goal is to create a technology that not only meets technical challenges but is also sustainable (biomass-derived), economically viable, and positioned in a way to avoid becoming a justification for continued reliance on fossil fuels. While this is a high-risk and ambitious endeavor, the potential reward is significant: tackling the greatest challenge of our time by reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change.

We are a transdisciplinary team of designers, clinicians, patient partners and researchers. Our objectives are to: 1) evaluate how the Canadian health system is currently delivering back pain care, and 2) explore how care could be better delivered in the future. For feasibility, we focus on emergency departments (EDs) in British Columbia (BC).

APPROACH

Our 2-part project catalyses service design and data science methods to generate data and insights, which we will examine through ecological analysis and Akrich’s sociotechnical “scripting”—how designers anticipate interests, motives, skills, behaviours of future users and “inscribe” them into new services. Our mixed methods approach examines how back pain is constructed within and across healthcare scenarios (“scripts”). Our scripting analysis will consider ways of 're-writing' the scripts clinicians follow, to produce new scripts that better incorporate musculoskeletal specialists' skills.

In Part 1, we identify areas of greatest need for care. Using ecosystem-mapping, we will describe current back pain services and information sources. We will analyse linked health administrative data from all adults who visited an ED in BC for back pain from 2019-2023, quantifying prevalence of visits and characteristics of patients. Patients, clinicians and administrators will use the ecosystem map to trace system “touchpoints” and information transfer they have encountered in ED contexts for back pain (current-state journey-maps).

In Part 2, we co-produce new solutions for better back pain care. We will describe the sociotechnical characteristics of current ED-based musculoskeletal care models; a scoping review will identify care models. We will analyse de-identified health record data from >50,000 patients seen by a musculoskeletal specialist in the ED from 2015-2025, to characterise patients’ demographic, geographic, socioeconomic, clinical and discharge features. Using service design activities to co-produce future-state journey-maps with patients, clinicians and administrators, we will ideate and analyse solutions for what back pain care could look like.

NOVELTY & SIGNIFICANCE

The ED was designed for emergencies—not for patients who lack primary care options and have nowhere else to turn when in pain. The current "care pathway" is neither a caring nor a rational pathway. In CARE4BACKS, we apply transdisciplinary thinking and novel ways of collaborating, toward delivering a better state of back care in the future.

Canada’s agri-food activities are essential parts of its economy, contributing approximately 7% of Canada's GDP and $149.2 billion in activities in 2024. This sector faces multiple, overlapping risks due to climate change, market instability and extreme weather events. Increased fire activity in recent years is reshaping the future of the Okanagan Valley's wine terroir—comprised of natural regional characteristics such as climate, soil, and topography moulded by human craftsmanship. Geographically indicated terroir is equated with quality in wine-producing regions which is crucial to commercial success in the highly competitive market. Okanagan appellations contain 86% of BC’s vineyard acreage, making it the dominant part of BC’s $3.75 billion annual wine industry.

We propose to study how the Okanagan Valley terroir is perceived and understood by the market in the context of a now persistent problem in the wine industry: smoke-taint. An interdisciplinary approach will intertwine consideration for the terroir with conceptually novel ways of photochemically manipulating the aroma/flavor of wine. In the Okanagan Valley, the marketing of terroir is rooted in the natural surrounding plants. The Okanagan is a nascent new world wine region, distinguished from old world wines that have been prepared traditionally for generations. A risk trade off introduces the primary research question: is it is possible for a new world wine region built on biodiverse nature to compete in an international market imbedded in tradition, by using high-tech processing to sustain or even redefine terroir? Would high-tech processes save the Okanagan wine industry, or mask its true terroir?

Bio-based interventions have gained acceptance in the wine industry, yet questions remain about the acceptance of high-tech chemical processing. Smoke-taint in wine is caused by molecules called volatile phenols (VPs), pungent compounds produced by wildfires. Affected grapes don’t have unpleasant smoke-taint aromas until they are fermented and these VPs are released, lowering the value of the produced wine. This project will explore the use of carbon nitride, an organic semiconductor, as a solid material photocatalyst that harnesses sunlight to chemically degrade VPs and remove the unwanted flavors. In developing novel avenues for manipulating wine chemistry and hence aroma, we will explore the concept of terroir with respect to quality of the air and high-tech interventions in wine-making.

Continuous capture and conversion of waste CO₂ from large-scale chemical processes into value-added chemicals and fuels presents significant opportunities for process optimization, chemical circularity, and environmental remediation. Reactive carbon capture (RCC) is an emerging technology that integrates CO₂ capture and conversion into high-value chemicals (e.g. methanol, CO, and C1+ hydrocarbons), offering scalability, cost-effectiveness, and the potential for net-zero CO₂-to-fuel cycles. However, current RCC technologies face critical barriers related to material costs, poor durability of sorbents and catalysts, and the energy-intensive conditions required for operation.

This interdisciplinary project proposes a high-risk, high-reward approach to overcome these limitations by developing the first light- and microwave-activated hybrid porous organic nanomaterials (HPONs) for RCC. By uniting expertise from materials science, photochemistry, microwave engineering, renewable energy, and artificial intelligence (AI), this project will pioneer an entirely new RCC platform powered by renewable energy and non-thermal mechanisms. HPONs will encapsulate CO₂-selective polymers and advanced plasmonic photocatalysts within transparent, porous beads. The polymers will capture and concentrate CO₂, releasing it in response to targeted microwave energy, while the embedded plasmonic nanoparticle catalysts will convert CO₂ into fuels under UV-visible light through non-thermal charge carrier generation.

This unconventional integration of light-and microwave-activated materials for CO₂ capture and conversion has never been explored and represents a clear departure from conventional RCC methods. The project's high-risk elements lie in its novel, untested materials platform, the challenge of coupling multiple non-thermal energy inputs, and the ambitious goal of integrated, energy-efficient CO₂ conversion.

The potential high reward includes a paradigm-shifting technology capable of significantly reducing the energy and material costs of RCC, enabling scalable deployment, and accelerating Canada's decarbonization efforts. Crucially, the use of AI/ML for accelerated materials discovery and system optimization introduces an unprecedented opportunity to radically enhance the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of RCC innovation; further amplifying the project's transformative impact. This work advances materials chemistry and renewable energy integration in Canadian economy.

Canada lacks a Made‑in‑Canada lifecourse policy simulator that links nutrition as the exposure in childhood to adult chronic disease, health equity, and public‑payer healthcare costs. LIFE‑Canada (LIFEcourse Impact & Equity Evaluation Engine) will provide local, decision‑grade estimates calibrated to Canadian demography.

Objectives: (1) design a child‑first lifecourse architecture and population engine; (2) build and validate paediatric‑to‑adult disease and cost kernels; (3) quantify structural uncertainty and equity impacts for priority nutrition policies; and (4) deliver a policy‑mix optimiser and public dashboard for rapid scenario testing.

Approach: This inherently interdisciplinary project integrates public/population health, nutritional epidemiology, health policy and economics, biostatistics and demography, and computer and information sciences (reinforcement‑learning). We will develop a modular, open‑source microsimulation with a demographic foundation aligned to national projections and a child state vector that moves beyond body mass index (including diet quality, adiposity, physical activity). Calibration and validation will use Canadian population surveys and existing health–administrative linkages. Policy analyses will employ constrained reinforcement learning (RL) with a reward that combines net health benefit (health‑adjusted life‑years), public‑payer healthcare costs, and an equity‑shortfall penalty. Where point identification is unjustified, unit‑selection bounds will rank jurisdictions and equity strata transparently. All code and synthetic data will be open.

Novelty and significance: LIFE‑Canada will be the first Made‑in‑Canada, child‑first lifecourse nutrition‑policy simulator with explicit equity constraints and demographic anchoring. By producing credible, local estimates of health gains, healthcare costs, and distributional effects, it enables federal and provincial decision‑makers to compare alternative policy bundles (e.g., child‑directed marketing restrictions, front‑of‑package symbols, and sugary‑drink taxes) and choose options that maximise health‑adjusted life‑years, reduce public‑payer costs, and narrow equity gaps. The platform generalises to other risk factors and establishes a durable national capability for transparent, evidence‑based policy evaluation.

Many modern, high-value pharmaceuticals originate from Indigenous Knowledge (IK), yet Indigenous Peoples are often excluded from development processes and benefits, particularly in genomics and biotechnology. Canada's lack of regulations leaves communities vulnerable to biopiracy, while researchers lack ethical guidance. This interdisciplinary project examines barriers and opportunities for meaningful Indigenous engagement in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical development derived from IK. We will review and develop frameworks for Indigenous participation across the value chain—from IK recognition to biotechnological production and commercialization. As a case study, we will use montbretin-A (MbA), a natural product in Phase-1 clinical trials for type 2 diabetes originating from a plant native to Southern Africa. This will be Canada's first comprehensive study of Indigenous engagement in pharmaceutical development, combining Indigenous methodologies with genomics and biotechnology. Our participatory approach addresses critical ethics gaps, while fostering equitable, reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities in Canada and South Africa.

Over two years, we will: (1) review international best practices in Access and Benefit Sharing, including Nagoya Protocol implementation, and current Canadian legal frameworks; (2) conduct an environmental scan of community-based enterprises in Canada focused on IK-derived therapeutics; (3) build relationships with Indigenous communities, including cross-cultural knowledge sharing with traditional medicine practitioners to understand historical experiences and engagement preferences; (4) hold key informant interviews with community leaders, researchers, knowledge holders, and industry; (5) analyze the MbA case to identify traditional plant use and engagement opportunities in cultivation, biotechnology, clinical trials, and commercialization; (6) develop engagement frameworks, guidelines, and toolkits for researchers and industry; (7) establish relationships with international scholars.

This project tackles biopiracy concerns while creating pathways for Indigenous benefits from IK-derived medicines through knowledge reciprocity protocols. Outcomes include engagement frameworks and guidelines, stronger global relationships with academics and traditional knowledge holders, enhanced transdisciplinary research ties, and models for ethical cross-cultural knowledge exchange to inform future national regulatory frameworks.

Background

Organ transplantation depends on rapid transfer from donor to recipient, as prolonged cold ischemia causes irreversible injury. Livers can be preserved in static cold storage for only 6–8 hours, kidneys slightly longer. Machine perfusion systems can extend this window but are bulky, complex, and expensive.

The key barrier to longer static preservation is the inability to store organs below 0 °C without ice crystal formation, which damages cell membranes. While osmotic cryoprotectants prevent crystallization in cell suspensions, they are toxic to whole organs. High-pressure cooling can also suppress ice formation, but existing systems require active pumping and are unsuitable for transport.

Preliminary Data

We have developed a passive isochoric chamber that maintains water in a liquid state at subzero temperatures through constant-volume, high-pressure conditions—without active pumping. Our prototype withstands up to 30,000 PSI (liquid water at –21 °C) and is constructed from stainless steel with an industrial high-pressure seal. In pilot studies, rat livers stored at –21 °C (30,000 PSI) for 48 h were damaged, but storage at –5 °C (~9,000 PSI) preserved viability, with function restored during subsequent normothermic perfusion.

Proposed Project

Proposed research will systematically test temperature/pressure combinations to determine the boundaries of passive isochoric subzero preservation. We will design a lighter chamber operating at lower pressures, with integrated sensors and an embedded camera for real-time observation, and capacity for multiple rodent organs to increase throughput. The chamber will be built using a combination of additive manufacturing and CNC machining.

Impact

This work will establish the feasibility of a simple, low-cost, portable method to store transplantable organs for multiple days—overcoming current time and distance barriers in organ allocation and enabling long-range transport for life-saving transplants.

Batteries are the pinnacle of a zero-emissions future, enabling electrified transportation and large-scale storage of intermittent renewable energy sources. As demand for ultrafast charging grows—with the proliferation of electric vehicles, portable electronics, and grid-scale energy infrastructure—a persistent bottleneck remains: the sluggish transport of lithium ions (Li⁺) across the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This nanometric interface, formed between the anode and electrolyte, often comprises low-conductivity inorganic compounds such as LiF, Li₂CO₃, and Li₂O, which impose high activation barriers (0.3–0.7 eV) to Li⁺ migration. Despite decades of research on tuning SEI composition and morphology, a fundamental shift in how we approach interfacial ion transport is needed to achieve step-change improvements in charging speed.

This exploratory proposal introduces the concept of Quantum Tunneling Interfaces (QTIs): engineered layers that leverage quantum mechanical tunneling under electric field modulation to enhance Li⁺ transport across interfacial barriers. Unlike conventional SEI engineering strategies that focus on lowering diffusion barriers through bulk phase optimization, QTIs are envisioned as nanoscale structures with tailored roughness, electrostatic potential gradients, and microstructural heterogeneity designed to activate and direct Li⁺ tunneling. These interfaces may serve as dynamic ion injection reservoirs, accelerating the transition of Li⁺ from the electrolyte into the anode, potentially bypassing rate-limiting desolvation during battery charging.

The research will combine computational and experimental approaches to validate the QTI hypothesis. Quantum transport modeling (e.g., Non-equilibrium Green's function density functional theory (NEGF-DFT)) will be used to simulate tunneling conditions under applied fields. Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) and DFT calculations will assess interfacial stability and field effects. Experimentally, QTI prototypes will be fabricated and characterized using in situ spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques to measure ionic conductivity and charging dynamics.

If successful, this project could fundamentally redefine the role of the SEI, enabling batteries that charge in minutes rather than hours. It also opens a new frontier at the intersection of quantum mechanics, electrochemistry, and materials science—representing the kind of high-risk, high-reward research envisioned by this program.

Plant diseases cause over US$220 billion in crop losses annually, posing a significant and growing threat to Canadian agriculture and food security. Current diagnostic approaches focus on identifying individual pathogens, but this fails to address the unpredictable variation in disease phenotypes. For virus diseases, the same virus can cause severe or mild symptoms for reasons that are poorly understood. We propose a paradigm shift, moving beyond cataloguing viruses, towards understanding complex social interactions within the entire community of viruses in a host or ecosystem, known as the virome.

Our project introduces a novel, interdisciplinary framework that merges applied field work (plant pathology) with theory (social evolution) to test a high-risk, high-reward hypothesis: that the severity of crop disease is driven by the balance of cooperation and cheating within the virome. Viruses are social entities. Many viral infections consist of a mix of complete 'cooperative' genomes and defective 'cheater' genomes that rely on cooperators to spread. We predict that the relative abundance of these cheaters is a key determinant of disease development and phenotype.

Our objectives are:

1) to develop a sequencing workflow to efficiently uncover viromes of Rosaceae and Musaceae plants;

2) to develop bioinformatics pipelines to quantify the composition of cooperator and cheater sequences in our virome datasets; and

3) to develop mathematical models to examine how virome structure and interactions between cooperators and cheaters could correlate with disease phenotypes.

We will focus on Rosaceae species such as apples (Malus spp.) and pears (Pyrus spp.), which contribute almost 2,500 jobs and over CA$160 million to British Columbia’s economy. We will leverage our extensive longitudinal collection (>1000) of diseased Philippine Musaceae species (banana (Musa spp.), abaca (Musa textilis)), which are the country's top exports, contributing over US$1.3 billion to the country's economy.

If successful, this research would represent the first empirical testing of social evolution theory in a natural tropical and temperate plant-virus system. It would provide a new way to predict disease risks. It may result in groundbreaking solutions, such as using 'cheater' virus genomes or particles as a form of 'virome therapy' to manipulate disease outcomes. This method would help protect crops from disease outbreaks and maintain agricultural productivity and food security.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most common yet underdiagnosed sleep disorders, affecting millions of Canadians. Left untreated, OSA increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and reduced quality of life. Current diagnostic methods rely on resource-intensive sleep studies, which are inaccessible for many, especially those in rural and underserved communities. At the same time, genetic factors play a major role in OSA, but are rarely incorporated into clinical care. Our project tackles this gap by integrating genomic risk information with wearable sensor data, enabling new ways to detect, monitor, and manage OSA outside of hospital settings.

The objectives of this project are threefold: (1) to develop and validate a genetic risk panel for OSA using recent discoveries from large-scale genomic studies; (2) to combine this panel with real-world wearable data to create an integrated tool for early risk stratification; and (3) to design an ethical, artificial intelligence–driven framework that can guide diagnosis and follow-up care while safeguarding privacy and equity.

Our approach is deliberately high risk. Combining genomics, wearable technologies, and AI poses major scientific and ethical challenges, including the integration of complex datasets, ensuring interoperability across platforms, and addressing concerns about consent, bias, and re-identification. However, the potential rewards are transformative. If successful, this work will establish a new model for precision sleep health that is scalable, cost-effective, and accessible. By embedding ethics directly into system design, we aim to ensure that the resulting innovations benefit diverse populations equitably.

This two-year multidisciplinary collaboration between medicine, data science, and information systems will generate tools and frameworks that can inform future large-scale clinical studies and health policies. Ultimately, our project seeks to move beyond the walls of the sleep laboratory, offering a pathway to earlier detection, personalized care, and healthier lives for people living with OSA.

This interdisciplinary research project addresses an urgent and underexplored question: how might emerging deep-sea mining (DSM) operations jeopardize the profitability, market stability, and long-term viability of Pacific fisheries by introducing contamination risks to high-value seafood products? As industrial interest in DSM grows, particularly in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a 4.5-million-km² region with over 18 exploration contracts, concerns have mounted over the dispersal of toxic metals such as cadmium, cobalt, and nickel. These contaminants could bioaccumulate in marine food webs, undermining seafood safety and fisheries sustainability. This project pursues three integrated objectives: (1) to estimate seafood contamination risks by modeling metal exposure pathways and bioaccumulation in key commercial species (e.g., tuna, shrimp, and benthopelagic fish) under varying DSM intensity scenarios; (2) to evaluate economic losses to fisheries, including revenue and profit reductions, public health costs, and the erosion of consumer confidence in seafood safety; and (3) to develop spatial seafood risk maps that integrate biological contamination modeling with economic vulnerability indicators, supporting evidence-based decision-making for ocean resource governance.

Our research approach combines ecosystem modeling (Ecopath with Ecosim, Ecotracer module), environmental toxicology, and economic loss simulation. Contaminant input data will be sourced from DSM contractor environmental assessments (e.g., NORI-D), and seafood tissue concentrations will be estimated using published bioaccumulation factors. These will be compared to international food safety thresholds (e.g., Codex). Economic impact will be assessed by applying modeled contamination risk to regional fish catch data and public health burden estimates, incorporating a sensitivity analysis to simulate 50%, 80%, and 100% contamination scenarios. GIS tools with Spatiotemporal Bayesian analysis and probabilistic Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) will be used to create spatial risk maps identifying ecological and economic vulnerability hotspots across the CCZ.

This high-risk project uses novel modeling in uncharted deep-sea ecosystems, combining toxicology, economics, and spatial analysis to deliver the first integrated tool for assessing fisheries impacts from deep-sea mining—supporting global ocean governance.

The proposed research directly addresses the aspirations for culturally grounded, community-led approaches to improving the wholistic wellness of Indigenous youth. By centring traditional carving practices and intergenerational teachings, this project operates at the intersection of cultural resurgence, youth empowerment, and wholistic health and wellness promotion. The program embraces a strengths-based, transdisciplinary framework that integrates Indigenous knowledge systems and community leadership with evidence-informed methodologies. This aligns with national calls for culturally safe, inclusive, and sustainable health and wellness initiatives that are shaped by and for Indigenous communities.

Through experiential learning guided by Elders and Knowledge Keepers, the research will explore how reconnecting with traditional practices contributes to youth mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. It also addresses knowledge gaps in how culturally embedded activities foster resilience, identity formation, and intergenerational healing. Furthermore, this research responds to ongoing concerns around systemic barriers in healthcare and education by creating a culturally relevant space that uplifts Indigenous voices and ways of knowing, being, and doing. The findings will inform policy, practice, and program development aimed at supporting Indigenous youth through culturally meaningful, land- and art-based wellness initiatives.