A Lakehead University team looks to improve medical inhalers

THUNDER BAY —  A Lakehead University research team is beginning a five-year project that could lead to improvements in the design of medical inhalers.

Leila Pakzad, associate professor in chemical engineering, has received $140,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council to lead this work.

Despite advances in inhaler device technology, the efficiency of drugs administered through inhalers is currently only 10 to 50 per cent.

Pakzad said the long-term goal of the research project is to link drug deposition in the lungs to inhaler design and operation, and ultimately drug deposition efficiency.

According to a statement from the university, the project will also provide important training, leading to the development of highly qualified personnel in areas including drug delivery systems and advanced computational techniques, thereby supporting future economic development in Canada.

Another  faculty member at Lakehead will use an NSERC grant of $235,000 to study how species' ecological limits are being affected by rapid climate change and land-use change.

Over the next five years, Adam Algar and his team will use lab experiments, field studies, remote sensing and data modelling to explore what prevents species from spreading outwards to all environments.

A statement from the university notes that understanding what limits – or promotes – species' geographical spread can have considerable conservation, economic and health implications through effects on at-risk species, the spread of invasive species and even infectious disease risk.

"This research will shed new light on the mechanisms underlying species' range limits and improve our ability to predict species' geographical fates as rapid environmental change reshuffles global biodiversity," Algar said.

Noah Phillips, assistant professor in geology, got about $143,000 to lead a five-year study to study the strength of Earth's plate-boundary fault systems, where tectonic plates slide past one another.

Fault systems are where the largest earthquakes occur.

Phillips and his group will investigate the strengths of rocks deforming under elevated pressure and temperatures in the crust at depths of 10 to 30 kilometres.

"These rocks slowly creep past one another at a relatively consistent rate to accommodate the motion of tectonic plates," he said. "Understanding their strengths is important as this slow creep loads the locked portion of tectonic plates at shallower depths, which deform suddenly to produce earthquakes."

Phillips said understanding how rocks and minerals deform is critical because this impacts society not only by producing earthquakes but also by modifying landscapes and forming/trapping mineral and water resources.

The three grants are among $2.4 million awarded to Lakehead University researchers by NSERC under its Discovery Grant program and Research Tools and Instruments program.