BioZone’s newly renovated and expanded space was officially opened December 4 with speeches, guided tours and a uniquely biochemical ribbon-cutting.

Close to 100 faculty, students, alumni and other guests were on hand for the event and to help celebrate the research facility, a multidisciplinary centre for collaborative bioengineering research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. BioZone provides a nexus where the best minds from relevant engineering disciplines work together using state-of-the-art equipment to develop innovative biotechnology to protect our environment and our health.

U of T Engineering Dean Cristina Amon, helped by BioZone Director Elizabeth Edwards and ChemE Chair Grant Allen, cut the DNA-shaped ribbon, to open the space. BioZone has been in operation since 2010, but the December 4 event marked the expansion of the facility into additional space on the fourth floor of the Wallberg building.

The research conducted in the new centre focuses on providing viable solutions to urgent societal needs in energy, the environment and health. The centre is home to nine principal investigators and includes around 90 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates. In addition, the centre facilitates collaboration with researchers in a variety of fields and institutions. Research at BioZone includes anaerobic treatment of soil and groundwater contaminants, engineering cell organization and growth and economic, life cycle and policy analysis of bioproducts and biofuels.

In her opening remarks, Dean Amon noted that BioZone represents a new kind of engineering, taking advantage of recent advances in molecular biology and genomics from the field of medicine, and applies those advances to engineering challenges.

“BioZone’s goal is to have a lasting and positive impact on our environment and society, which is a goal shared by all of us at U of T Engineering,” she said.

For more information, visit the BioZone site at http://www.biozone.utoronto.ca