Radhakrishnan Mahadevan

Key Research Areas
Associated Researchers
Associated Organizations

Recent Research Projects

NSERC Industrial Biocatalysis Network

2014/15-2018/19 • $5,150,000 • PI,CO
Oil and gas are converted to plastics, chemicals, and other industrial and consumer products through energy-intensive manufacturing processes. These products would be more environmentally sustainable if they were made from renewable resources, such as agricultural and forestry waste, and if they...

NSERC CREATE in Manufacturing, Materials and Mimetics (M3)

2013/14-2018/19 • $1,650,000 • PI,CO
The NSERC CREATE industrial stream training program in Manufacturing, Materials and Mimetics (M3) will provide graduate students with the breadth and depth of expertise required for success in industry. Specifically, M3 will provide a streamlined training environment for the advancement of...

Engineering a novel biocatalyst for the production of bio-diluents

2018/19 • $94,857 • PI,CO
In 2015, GHG emissions totaled 20.5 million tonnes across all their facilities. More broadly, CO2 emissions from Canadian oil and sands account for 9.3 per cent of Canada's GHG emissions. Suncor is motivated to reduce the GHG footprint of their oil sands products in order to achieve their...

Genome-based Modeling and Design of Microbial Communities

2017/18-2018/19 • $74,000 • PI
Metabolism is the source of energy required for powering cellular processes in all living things. Understanding metabolism in an integrated way allows the opportunity to harness the power of natural metabolic networks for several applications including the manufacture of renewable fuels and...

High-throughput Platform for Enzyme Discovery and Engineering, Metabolic Engineering and Biosensor Design for Diagnostic Applications

2017/18 • $149,908 • PI,CO
The overall goal of this proposal is the set-up of a high-throughput synthetic biology and bioprocessoptimization platform to rapidly synthesize genes and create gene and strain libraries, and use themfor applications ranging from 1) metabolic engineering, 2) enzyme discovery via...

Operations and Maintenance Support for the BioZone MS Facility

2016/17 • $150,000 • PI,CO
The BioZone mass spectrometry facility (BMSF) is associated with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto and is part of the BioZone Centre for Bioengineering. The BMSF provides services and training to internal and external researchers and...

Model-based Engineering of Metabolism in Microbial Cells and Communities

2016/17 • $33,000 • PI
Metabolism is the source of energy required for powering cellular processes in all living things. Understanding metabolism in an integrated way allows the opportunity to harness the power of natural metabolic networks for several applications including the manufacture of renewable fuels and...

Multi-scale genome-based modeling of human metabolism for diagnostic and therapeutic applications

2011/12-2015/16 • $200,000 • PI
Ever since the human genome sequence was completed, it has been anticipated that such sequence information could be mapped to cellular functions. The initial sequencing effort has been complemented by several advances including large-scale efforts to map sequence and copy number variation among...

Radioisotope facility to track chemical & biochemical processes

2015/16 • $150,000 • PI,CO
Radiolabeling techniques have allowed exceptional discoveries that dramatically improved human and ecosystem health. Tracking of radio-labeled chemicals enables the study of transformation of drugs and endogenous compounds in the body, and that of agricultural and industrial contaminants in the...

Bio-based 1, 3-butanediol as a specialty chemical in North America

2015/16 • $15,000 • PI
The project focuses on conducting a market assessment study of bio-based 1,3-Butanediol in the USA, Canada, and India. This project relates to a patent-pending technology, developed by the research team from the Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry department at the University of Toronto,...

Bioprocessing of nickeliferous sulphidic wastes from mining activities

2013/14-2014/15 • $140,000 • PI,CO
We propose to investigate the amenability to bio-processing of a metallurgical waste stream produced by the Xstrata Nickel smelting operations in Sudbury, Ontario, namely nickeliferous pyrrhotite concentrate. This is an iron-sulphur mineral (approx. stoichiometry Fe1-xS) that is rejected because...

NSERC Bioconversion Network

2010/11-2013/14 • $4,363,700 • PI,CO
No summary

Bio-leaching of nickeliferous pyrrhotite and ultramafic concentrates

2011/12-2013/14 • $300,000 • PI,CO
No summary

Multi-scale genome-based modeling of human metabolism for diagnostic and therapeutic applications

2011/12-2013/14 • $120,000 • PI
No summary

Rational design of microbial strains for novel biochemical products

2010/11-2012/13 • $438,000 • PI,CO
Increased volatility in the petrochemical feedstocks has necessitated a paradigm shift towards the use of biomass based feedstocks for the synthesis of transportation fuels. In contrast, there have been very few instances of microbial strain engineering for large-scale commodity chemicals with...

Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES)

2011/12 • $127,727 • PI,CO
The requested equipment is an Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES), as the most reliable and sensitive method used for the rapid, simultaneous multi-element determinations at the ultra-trace level. The advanced analytical capabilities of the ICP-OES allow for high...

High throughput culturing system for evolutionary engineering

2010/11 • $126,760 • PI,CO
The genomics revolution has provided an unprecedented opportunity to apply biotechnology for the solution of a range of practical problems including 1) efficient extraction of metals from sulfide minerals with minimal environmental impact, 2) identification and characterization of novel enzymes...

Tool kit for quantifying gene expression

2010/11 • $81,233 • PI,CO
Engineering specific cellular behaviour is a common objective for a range of important environmental and health biotechnology problems such as tissue engineering, bioremediation, enzyme applications for plant fibre engineering and conversion to fermentable sugars and metabolic engineering. Cell...

Systems biology approach for analyzing and engineering metabolism in microbial communities

2010/11 • $26,680 • PI
Advances in sequencing technologies has enabled the genomic analysis of complex biological systems. Entire microbial communities in several environments including oceans, sub-surface aquifers and human gut have been sequenced leading to the availability of metagenomic information. This explosion...

Patents

MICROORGANISMS AND METHODS FOR BIOSYNTHESIS OF ADIPIC ACID

A method for biosynthesis of adipic acid from six-carbon dicarboxylic acids having .alpha., .beta.-enoate reductase activity by treatment with an enzyme is provided. Also provided are genetically engineered microorganisms for use in the biosynthetic processes.
Related applications: CA20162991074, EP20160820600, WO2016CA50781, CA20152897454

METHODS AND MICROORGANISMS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF 1,3-BUTANEDIOL

A non-naturally occurring microorganism having a 1,3-BDO pathway is provided. The microorganism expresses at least one of the following 1,3-BDO pathway enzymes: an aldolase that catalyzes condensation of two acetaldehydes to produce 3-hydroxybutanal; and an aldo- ketoreductase, oxidoreductase, aldehyde reductase or alcohol dehydrogenase that reduces 3- hydroxybutanal to 1,3-BDO. The organism may further express one or more enzymes for producing acetaldehyde. A biosynthetic process involves...
Related applications: WO2016CA50858, CA20162992794, EP20160826969

PRODUCTION OF GLYCOLATE FROM ETHYLENE GLYCOL AND RELATED MICROBIAL ENGINEERING

Processes, systems and microorganisms are described herein for producing glycolate from ethylene glycol. The processes generally comprise supplying a fermentation broth into a fermentation vessel, wherein the fermentation broth comprises ethylene glycol and a microorganism having a functional metabolic pathway for utilizing ethylene glycol as a carbon source. In a growth phase, an oxygen-containing gas is injected into the fermentation broth to provide oxygen bio-availability conditions to...
Related applications: EP20180854006, WO2018CA51081