Research 2009 - 2011
Tiny Solutions for Big Problems
Charles Wong, Ph.D.
Canadian Research Chair in Environmental Toxicology
Associate Professor, Chemistry and Environmental Studies
Every day, we use personal care products and take medicines for what ails us. Our belongings are protected with flame-retardants. We cook on Teflon and use myriad other materials present in a microscopic form known as nanomaterials.
Little is known about how such substances accumulate in the environment and what their long-term effects might be. However, when materials are reduced to nanoscale, they can exhibit radically different behaviours than in their usual, larger form. A simple analogy might be sand on a beach, which behaves in certain expected ways. But a single grain in an oyster can produce a pearl: completely different. Likewise, as we wash off or excrete the residues of the chemicals and pharmaceuticals we use, they enter our water systems, and ultimately the ecosystem. And we know little of how . chemicals act once there. This is the world of emerging pollutants – the world of Dr. Charles Wong.
Dr. Wong seeks to develop better methods for measuring chemicals at very low concentrations, to determine at what point they may become harmful, and to characterize these chemicals’ effects once released into the environment. “Understanding how to measure these chemicals, and how they behave in the environment, will lead to better ways for assessing human and ecosystem chemical . exposure, and ultimately better means for guarding human and ecosystem health.”
Related to this research, Dr. Wong is pursuing the behaviour of chiral chemicals: molecules that are pairs of non-superimposable mirror images like your right and left hands. While each has similar chemical and physical properties, they may interact with other matter differently, with significant result: some common over-the-counter pain relievers are chiral chemicals, but so is thalidomide, the infamous morning sickness drug that caused thousands of birth defects. By using classic analytical chemistry and applying better measurement methods both in the lab and the field, Dr. Wong is also exploring the dynamics of chemical degradation in the body, the role enzymes play, how by-products are created, and why these metabolites are sometimes worse than the parent compound. “It’s exciting to find creative, innovative, and practical interdisciplinary solutions to environmental issues.”