TECH OFFERS

This technology offer helps to address the problems of global warming, food security crisis and energy crisis. With the increase in human population and rapid urbanisation, the change in weather patterns and increase in food demand has been inevitable. One of the major concerns faced in Singapore, due to global warming, is the urban heat island effect. This occurs when urban areas in cities have a higher air, surface and soil temperature than rural areas. Initiatives for high-rise greenery has been put in place to help solve the problem. However, there has been problems with limited space and high maintenance cost for these greeneries. Rooftop hydroponics farming is a possible solution to offset the running costs of rooftop greeneries or even generate profits for rooftop greeneries as it produces fresh produce, while simultaneously reducing the urban heat island effect. The reduction in urban heat island is due to a combination of green and blue body acting as a thermal buffer and contributing to the building sustainability (due to reducing in cooling costs). This initiative addresses the constraints of limited land, as solar energy generators require large areas for photovoltaic panels to be laid. This technology offer aims to provide an integrated solution to this economic challenge for environmentally sustainable urban planning. This Technology Offer is a luminescent solar concentrator that enables both power generation by photovoltaic modules, as well as efficient urban rooftop farming.

This Technology Offer is an Internet of Things ( IoT) based platform designed to assist the modern-day farmers in monitoring the entire farm seamlessly. It can be customized to suit each farm depending on the type of sensors, machine vision camera, cloud storage, etc., and is equipped with detailed data tracking and analytics to provide the most accurate growth process from start to finish. The software architecture used in this technology offer addresses a decentralized framework to provide the ability to exchange data between IoT devices autonomously without any centralized server. In recent years, the development of IoT applications has become increasingly complex. Thus, this technology addresses this problem by providing the ability to simplify the streaming of data to the IoT platforms over the web. This design can be customized for other applications.

The Dilution Air Processing Unit (DAPU) is an ideal solution for small and medium businesses to prepare themselves for the Covid-19 new normal by employing an enhanced air ventilation technique. The DAPU system allows the creation of zones (e.g. sickbays, waiting rooms, etc.) within workplaces with no recirculation of air. This prevents cross-contamination of unclean air in between the zones. This solution is suitable for hotels and other premises to be used for quarantine purposes. The DAPU consists of the following key features: Provides 100% fresh air supply with no recirculation Reduces airborne particles exposure by greater than 60% Achieves 25% energy efficiency in providing 100% fresh air supply as compared to conventional systems Uses fully portable modular approach Can be easily retrofitted to any existing air-conditioning system resulting in lower implementation cost The DAPU can also be deployed in any area without an existing air-conditioning system making it highly versatile.

Spent coffee grounds are one of the major food waste produced globally with several million tonnes being discarded annually. It has been reported that only 6% of the original coffee cherry can be used to make a cup of coffee and the remaining balance are inedible and has no value to the industry. As such, a large amount of residue is currently generated from the coffee industry and disposed of at incineration plants or landfills.   This technology features a cost-effective and scalable thermochemical process to transform spent coffee grounds into carbon-rich solid materials, known as hydrochar, as a form of low-cost solid adsorbents for industrial wastewater treatment. Thermochemical processes are well suited for wet biomass such as spent coffee grounds and utilises mild temperature profiles under relatively low pressures. The process also has the potential to convert other kinds of food waste, such as durian husks, coconut husks, fruit peels etc, into hydrochar.This presents a sustainable solution for creating a circular economy and minimising negative impact on the environment by converting non-edible and no value food waste into a value-added product for food and water industries.

Food tracking and traceability systems can utilize Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Internet-of-Thing (IoT) sensors to streamline the workflow of food supply chain management. Such a traceability system mitigates the complex business processes and speeds up the workflow of working through multiple business owners along the nodes in the value chain. This Technology Offer is a DLT application that can be used to manage the food supply chain. The technology aims to obtain transparency, ease of transactions and speed of delivery, synchronization, tracking and security. As an example, IoT sensors can be attached to livestock to obtain information about them from the source, and is uploaded to the ledger data of the node. When the livestock is shipped to the manufacturer, shipment tracking data can be uploaded. The transport is thus done with trackable ownership, possession and telemetry parameters such as location, temperature, humidity and activity. The manufacturer then processes the livestock, weighs the meat, packs and labels them. The label has a unique cryptographic QR code or NFC tag that links to the data citing the origins of the meat. The packaged meat is then shipped to the distributors, and eventually reaches the buyer. The final buyer can access a complete record of information and trust that the information is accurate and complete.

EBV is a ubiquitous human herpes virus, which spreads through saliva. EBV infects over 90% of the human population and can establish life-long persistence in the host. Most people get EBV when they are young, but they will not experience any symptoms until they get older. There are about 200,000 EBV-associated cancer new cases per year. Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is one of EBV associated cancers which is endemic in a few areas including Southern China, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Arctic. The highest NPC incidence rate is found in Southern China including Hong Kong. The association of NPC and EBV is nearly 100% in endemic areas. Unfortunately, more than 80% of the new NPC cases are diagnosed in stage III or IV, while the survival rate of stage IV NPC is only 38%. Early detection and treatment would help to increase survival rate. This invention is a new EBV-specific targeted agent which selectively kills cancer cells without affecting any normal cells. The uptake of this drug can also be traced by the fluorescent signal that can be used for cancer cells imaging. Currently, there is no single agent that can both image and kill NPC cancer cells at the same time.

According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. Chance of survival is greater if tumour is diagnosed when it’s still confined to the organ of origin (stage I). Survival rates decline when tumours are getting larger and spreading regionally (stages II, III) or even distantly (stage IV). For example, 93% of colon cancer patients are alive five years after the disease is diagnosed, but this number drops to only 11% if the cancer is diagnosed late and has spread to other organs. Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) are cancer cells shed from primary tumours into the bloodstream. They can be considered as an indicator of the presence of tumours during early cancer stage. However, the blood-based or liquid biopsy detection of cancer has always been challenging due to the heterogeneity and small size of CTCs. There is an urgent clinical demand for a more efficient cancer-detecting method.  Our technology offers early cancer detection for patients, tracking cancer metastasis, cancer relapse, and giving prognostic information by making use of our patented nanoparticles for CTC catching. This technology enables surgeons to identify the cancer cells location precisely and navigate the whole isolation process in real-time under magnetic manipulation. Besides, combining our technology with the current commercially available CTC detection kit, the sensitivity of cancer detection could be significantly improved by 20 folds when compared with the existing technology. 

As an increase in people’s awareness of health, traditional Chinese medicine becomes more and more popular. Among many of the Chinese medicines, Tiepi Shihu (i.e. one of the types of Dendrobium) and Cordyceps sinensis are two of the most expensive products. Dendrobium is one of the largest genera in the plant family Orchidaceae, and more than 1,100 species of Dendrobium have been identified. Among them, Tiepi Shihu is traditionally recognised as the best Shihu for tonic purposes, such as nourishing the stomach, protecting the throat and eyes. The uncharacteristic appearance and high price of Tiepi Shihu could lead to the occurrence of adulterants, confusion of species and counterfeits. Therefore, authentication and quality analysis of Tiepi Shihu is crucial for ensuring safety and efficacy. One of the conventional authentication methods greatly depends on the experience of botanical experts and subjective judgement; and the other is based on DNA bio-coding, which is very expensive and time-consuming. These existing methodologies are extremely intricate, difficult and time-consuming, and therefore they are not suitable for routine quality control. This patented technology aims to target some unique polysaccharide markers which can be successfully applied to the authentication of Tiepi Shihu and Cordyceps products. We have identified that only Tiepi Shihu or Cordyceps sample shows its unique peak in the high molecular size range by using high-performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC). Apart from authentication, this method can assess the herb’s quality by distinguishing the quantity of the polysaccharide.  

The cause of caries (tooth decay) is a formation of biofilm lying on the teeth and subsequently becoming mature. The acid created by specific bacteria (S. mutans) dissolves the hard tissues of the teeth (enamel), which can result in pain and difficulty with eating or even tooth loss and infection.  Severe dental caries can impair quality of life but is preventable by maintaining good oral hygiene such as using fluoride toothpaste with brush and dental floss or toothpick to clean between the teeth. However, small children, older adults or people with severe disabilities may find it hard to apply.  Besides, Fluorosis may be resulted if there is overexposure to fluoride. People with Fluorosis will develop white opaques on their tooth surface, which affect the appearance. In addition, some mouthwash products contain chemicals like alcohol and chlorhexidine to help kill bacteria. The use of these chemicals has some potential drawbacks like altered taste sensation and staining of teeth. Our new compounds, dihydro-resveratrol or its derivatives can be used for preventing the formation of biofilm and inhibit the growth of bacteria which are cost-effective and very safe to use as they are herbal extracts, which have fewer harmful effects in comparison with those chemical‐based products.