As Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry, Dr. Brennan will use a highly interdisciplinary approach to enable him to achieve his research goals of: developing new matrixes for the immobilization of functional biomolecules; the development of improved analytical devices based on sol-gel immobilized biomolecules, and; the extension of the range of biomolecules that can be used for sensing and screening purposes. Advances in these areas have the potential to spin out new commercial products and new companies, to lead to improved point-of-care diagnostic devices, and to revolutionize drug-screening technologies. Dr. Brennan is already negotiating licensing agreements with Canadian companies for sol-gel based assay methods.

Dr. Brennan's research is backed by the world-class Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) at McMaster University. The institute, along with the university's initiative in developing a new graduate program in Chemical Biology, will put Dr. Brennan and his colleagues in a position to make the required leaps forward in sensor development and drug discovery that are not likely to occur anywhere else in Canada, and at only a handful of highly funded laboratories in the U.S.