Bernie Kraatz

Bernie Kraatz
Professor
Telephone number
416-287-7197
Building EV 552

Research Interests

Bioinorganic and Biological Chemistry, Electrochemistry, Bioanalytical Chemistry, & Water Contamination.

Our group's research focuses on the design of useful biomaterials and nano-biomaterials. These biomaterials are synthesized in our lab from simple building blocks, including amino acids, nucleotides, and peptide nucleic acids, and are generally conjugated to probe molecules that enable us to monitor the properties of these materials by spectroscopic or electrochemical techniques. We have significant expertise in modifying surfaces with our bioconjugates in an effort to obtain functional devices. Gold surfaces are particularly useful in this regard and can be readily patterned to create electrochemical sensor microarrays.

In our research, we have three major objectives:

  1. the development of biosensors (protein, DNA, and chemical detection)
  2. the development of nano-structured peptide materials and new peptide devices
  3. the discovery of new organometallic bioconjugates

Awards and Grants

  • Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada (2019)
  • UTSC Principal’s Research Award (2015)
  • Visiting Professor, University of Bochum, Germany (2010)
  • Faculty Scholar, UWO (2010)
  • Distinguished Research Professor, UWO (2010)
  • Florence Bucke Science Prize, UWO (2009)
  • Guest Professor at Central South University, Changsha, China (2006)
  • CSC Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry (2006)
  • Senior Gledden Fellowship, U Western Australia (2004)
  • Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials (2002)
  • PetroCanada Young Innovator Award (2001)
  • CNC/IUPAC Travel Award (2000)

Publications

  For more publications see: Google Scholar at http://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=vtD_a3cAAAAJ&hl=en