advance magazine - winter 2005/2006

O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E A DVA N C E D F O O D S A N D M AT E R I A L S N E T W O R KVolume II Number 1 Winter 2005/06

Tania Bubela and Tim Caulfied(front), along with Ubaka Ogbogu,Megan Koper, Thomas Moran andKanchana Fernando, are researchinghow the media represent foodbiotechnology.

Reading into research reports... page 12

2 AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 06 3AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 06

Welcome to our second annual edition ofAdvance, the official publication of the AdvancedFood and Materials Network (AFMNet).

AFMnet investigators inspire positive changefrom the ground up, in a multidisciplinary way.Innovative and creative research is both the catalyst andthe enabler for change, growth and understanding. Inaddition, AFMNet understands that communicatingour research and disseminating new knowledge willonly have currency if that communication enduresthe same rigour as the research itself and is shared

with government, academic and public sectors both in Canada andaround the world.

AFMNet taps into some of the brightest minds in Canada with agoal of creating a new understanding, from atoms to applications, fromfarms to consumers, from the minds of Canadian food-processing expertsto tables around the world — and in totally new, non-food applications.

In this issue of Advance, you’ll read about 15 exciting research projects involving researchers from different disciplines and from acrossthe country. They’re working together on projects that range from thehealth attributes of fish oils and the antioxidants found in common plant materials to issues in food safety.

I welcome your feedback, your interest and your input. I hope ourwork inspires new ideas and new opportunities to partner for change.Most of all, I trust this glimpse of the future in Canadian food and relatedmaterials research is only the beginning of what we can do together.

Rickey YadaScientific Director

The collective intent of AFMNet is to boostCanada's global place in agribusiness products andnew ideas that go well beyond the usual commodities.While collaborative research is what we do, applicationsand private-sector partnering are increasingly the focusof AFMNet.

We are developing a community of skills that will be the envy of the world. The AFMNet HighlyQualified Personnel team is leading our efforts in thatarea. We are also working with government organiza-tions to ensure good science is available for sound

regulatory and policy decisions.

Connecting science, inspiring new scientists, making knowledge available — what happens next is the transfer of these skills and ideas to themarketplace. Our focus on partnering will produce results in processing labsand on the street, where the Canadian economy is looking for new ideas aswell as in new applications for renewable agri-resources. That is our ultimategoal. We’re excited about communicating our activities and achievementswith you through this edition of Advance.

Murray McLaughlinChair of the Board of Directors, AFMNet

Volume II Number 1 Winter 2005/06

The official publication of the Advanced Foodsand Materials Network

A publication to promote dialogue and understanding about sophisticated foods and materials research across Canada.

Executive EditorsRickey Yada

Allan Paulson

EditorOwen Roberts

Associate EditorsMitch Ritter

Marianne Clark

Project Co-ordinatorsKate Roberts

Co-ordination AssistantRobert Fieldhouse

Copy EditorBarbara Chance

DesignJnD Marketing

Financial ManagerJan Smith

Address correspondence to:Tania Framst, Network Co-ordinator

150 Research Lane, Suite 215Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 4T2

Email: [email protected]

Visit the AFMNet website:www.afmnet.ca

This publication was written by students in the SPARK program — an acronym for StudentsPromoting Awareness of Research Knowledge —at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

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5AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 06

As a biophysics master’s student in the University of Guelph’s Department ofMolecular and Cellular Biology, Robert Fieldhouse is combining computer powerand laboratory science to identify and characterize new bacterial toxins. In his sparetime, he enjoys salsa dancing and keeps fit through weight training. During his second year as a SPARK writer, he helped co-ordinate this issue of Advance.Turn topage 20 to read his story on DNA biosensors.

Spending her summer interning at the Networks of Centres of ExcellenceSecretariat in Ottawa, Kate Roberts learned even more about how to communicate science. In her third year of marketing, she also helped co-ordinateand write for this issue of Advance. Outside of school and work, Kate enjoys playing various sports from soccer to basketball to volleyball. This year, she expanded her nutraceuticals know-how by writing stories on fish oils, beta-glucanand omega-3s (page 8).

An avid reader and theatre fan, third-year drama student Alicia Roberts has enjoyedexpanding her cultural experience and knowledge of research in school and in theworkplace. Participating in the SPARK program at the University of Guelph hasallowed her to write about a breadth of research activities, including antioxidant-rich berries, diffusion mathematics, food labeling processes and evennewspaper articles themselves. See her story on media representation of researchon page 13.

In addition to canoeing, hiking and bicycling, recent mathematics graduateHeather Filby enjoys spending her time reading and writing. Newly married, Heather and her husband are aficionados of the piano, violin, flute andclassical guitar. Now employed at GJA Communications in Guelph, she wroteher last SPARK story on consumer acceptability of functional foods (page 12).

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4 AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 06

C O N T E N T S

Foods and Health

Extracting the essentials 6

Plant protection for people 7

There’s something fishy about this food 8

The truth about oats: It’s in the muffins 10

Spontaneous spheres? Think fettuccine 11

Consumer and Ethical Issues

Reading into research reports 12

Fear factor 14

The writing is on the label 15

Advanced safety for advanced foods 16

Growing pains 18

Materials

Flipping the molecular switch for food safety 20

Fish-ola 21

MRIs for fries 22

Remodeling math 23

SANS:The battleground for unwanted bacteria 24

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Cover photo by Richard Siemens

Plant protectionfor peopleNature’s best defencecompounds apply tohumans, tooby Robert Fieldhouse

Plants routinely defend themselves against a barrage of attacksfrom pathogens. Now AFMNet researchers are discovering — andcommercializing — some of the best defence compounds fromplants to benefit all Canadians, from growers to consumers.

Prof. Patrick von Aderkas and Dr. Brett Poulis of theDepartment of Biology at the University of Victoria are studyingcompounds found in conifers such as the Douglas fir. They’re particularly interested in the trees’ ovular secretions, which are filledwith proteins and low-molecular-weight compounds. Some of thesemolecules are antimicrobial and are present during reproduction todefend against foreign invaders such as bacteria and fungi.

It turns out these compounds can also be used by humans tocreate new antimicrobial medical and agricultural products. So, vonAderkas and Poulis are collecting these secretions, screening themfor promising compounds and working to bring these compoundsto the antimicrobial market, already valued at $30 billion USworldwide.

“There’s a huge demand for new antibiotics and antifungals inagriculture, forestry, food science and medicine,” says von Aderkas.“What we’re doing is borrowing from nature because it has a veryold and successful defence strategy.”

Here’s how it works. During conifer reproduction, pollenblows through the air before it lands on the ovule prior to fertiliz-ing it. But if the ovule is open to pollen, it’s also open to invadingairborne pathogens. So conifers produce a liquid secretion withinthe ovule tip where pollen is collected. This secretion is the plants’first line of defence against the outside world, providing protectionfrom pathogens that blow in with the pollen.

Previously, researchers didn’t collect these secretions becausethe droplets were too tiny, ranging from 10 to 50 nanolitres (aboutone-hundredth to one-twentieth the size of a pinhead). But now,researchers have more efficient collection techniques, as well asaccess to new instruments that make analysis possible on far lessmaterial. In fact, one millilitre of secretion is enough to supplyresearchers for a year.

Von Aderkas and Poulis discovered an array of conifer defencecompounds by probing these secretions. The antifungal and anti-bacterial components they found are mainly pathogenesis-related(disease-causing) proteins and a host of low-molecularweight

antimicrobial compounds, such as a weak organic acid that canharm microbes and perhaps even help in signalling further defenceresponses.

Conifers use all these compounds to protect themselves, saysvon Aderkas. They create a sophisticated multi-layered defence system. It’s difficult for pathogens to penetrate this system becausestaying safe doesn’t depend on just one protective compound.

Using advanced biochemical tools, von Aderkas and Poulis separate, identify and purify the protective compounds. They’re alsotesting the function of the most interesting compounds, keepingcommercial potential in mind.

They expect to have a company established by year’s end. Itwill produce defence compounds in tobacco plants on a large, commercially useful scale. Harvesting compounds from the hugetobacco leaves will yield a motherlode for the researchers, who planto supply the agricultural and medical industries with productssuch as seed encapsulations that could help the forestry industrytackle fungi contamination, non-allergenic artificial skins, and topical antibacterial or antifungal creams.

This research, which started in 1999, was conducted in part atthe University of Victoria-Genome British Columbia ProteomicsCentre. Other contributors to this project are Dr. Stephen O’Learyof NERP Technologies, Prof. Robert Thornburg of Iowa StateUniversity and numerous students. Von Aderkas says the AFMNetboard — particularly Larry Milligan, Rickey Yada, Jeffrey Turnerand Murray McLaughlin — has greatly supported the team in setting up the company.

This research is sponsored by the Advanced Foods and Materials Network and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. �


The liquid dropletsemitted from coniferseeds, called ovularsecretions, shown here,help protect plantsfrom invaders like bacteria and fungi andmay soon be used asantibiotics for humans.

Dr.Stephen O

’Leary

dants come in — they help cells deal with thestress brought on by these toxins.

Kitts is looking at two specific chemicalswith high-antioxidant behaviours: anthocyanin,a pigment found in plants called a flavonoid;and a mixture of ginsenocides, representingbioactive agents in the ginseng plant.Specifically, he’s looking at how the chemicalsneutralize free radicals (unstable atoms) andproducts of oxidation. He’s also studyingwhether these activities carry over to people whohave consumed these modified extracts. Studiesare being conducted on both chemicals.

Anthocyanins are associated with soft rootfruits like blackberries, strawberries and blue-berries, giving the fruits colour. They contain aprotective mechanism against light and autoxi-dation (oxidation by air at ordinary tempera-tures) lipid reactions. Kitts wants to know howdifferent cells tolerate oxidative stress and theefficiency of these phytochemicals in reducingoxidative stress.

Ginsenocides in North American ginsengdiffer from Asian ginsenocides in composition.He and his team are studying ways to provide aprocess that may tailor or modify ginsenocidecontent from the standpoint of bioactive prop-erties that will reduce cell stress and enhance tol-erance and management of oxidative stressthrough designated avenues of cell communica-tion.

With this information, the team can createa nutritional extract for functional foods. Usinghigh-pressure liquid chromatography and cellculture techniques, Kitts is bringing togetheranalytical quantitative composition informationto blend with specific biological responses. Thiswill help in designing a fingerprint for eachstandardized extract of each herb.

“It’s very important that we understand theprinciples underlying the bioactive properties ofthese components,” he says. “Once we under-stand these many different and diverse activities,we may be able to predict with confidence howthese bioactive properties will function in for-mulated food systems that contain them.”

Other researchers involved in this projectare Profs. Tim Durance of UBC, Tito Scaiano of the University of Ottawa and Feral Temelli of the University of Alberta.

This research is funded by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network. �

Extracting the essentialsResearchers look at creatingextracts fromantioxidant nutrientsby Alicia Roberts

Antioxidants have been shown to haveimmense human health benefits, particularlyagainst carcinogens. But can they be used totheir full potential?

Dr. David Kitts of the University of BritishColumbia and his team of researchers are look-ing at the benefits of antioxidants — specifical-ly, phytochemicals, the plant-produced chemi-cals believed to provide health benefits — to seehow effective they are in triggering reactionsand tolerance to oxidative stress. Kitts believesthey could be modified into an extract for func-tional foods.

“Although the phytochemicals we’re look-ing at aren’t considered nutrients on

their own, we want to under-stand the health and wellnessthey may actually provide to aconsumer,” he says.

“Researchers have extractedextra-nutritional value from many

fruits and herbs that represent con-stituents for formulated functionalfoods, which is where our collaboration

with AFMNet is so helpful. We canwork with them, and they can

work with us.”Oxidation is a nor-

mal and vital metabolicprocess in cells, but it has

potentially toxic byprod-ucts if not removed. Cells dif-

fer in their relative ability to tolerate orremove those byproducts. That’s where antioxi-


Foods and Health

Using antioxidants as extractsfrom fruits such as blueberriescan add extra-nutritional value to foods.

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It takes two,babyAside from helping to stave

off heart disease, omega-3s areimportant during pregnancy. Inparticular, the omega-3 calledDHA (docosahexaenoic acid)improves brain function, cognitiveperformance (learning andspelling ability) and visual performance.

But pregnant women allover the world aren’t consumingenough DHA, says Dr. BruceHolub.The optimal level is about300 mg a day, but the averagepregnant woman in Canada takesin only 80 mg. If omega-3-enriched eggs are found to givethe same benefits as eating fish,Holub says eating two of them —which contain about 80 mg ofDHA each — added to the dailyaverage consumption of omega-3s found in other foods, wouldbring the total close to 300 mg.

After the baby’s born, DHAfinds its way to the infant throughbreast milk. Holub says omega-3sshould make up about 0.3 percent of the milk fat, but the average Canadian mother hasonly half that amount in her milk.He says adding two omega-3 eggsto lactating mothers’ diets would probably increase the milk percentage to the recommended level.


Testing the benefits of omega-3-enriched eggs against conventionalomega-3-rich commodities will tellresearcher Bruce Holub if theseenhanced foods are viable alternatives for heart-healthy consumers.

Eating two omega-3 eggs a day may help pregnant women andbreast-feeding mothers improve thebrain and visual functioning of theirchildren.

Alicia Roberts


Certain fatty acids in fish reduce heart dis-ease mortality and improve brain functioningand visual and cognitive performance. For con-venience’s sake — and because some people justdon’t like to eat fish — products containing fishfatty acids are being developed. But AFMNetresearchers wonder if these alternative forms aretruly as effective as the real thing.

Dr. Bruce Holub, Department of HumanHealth and Nutritional Sciences at theUniversity of Guelph, and Dr. Peter Jones,School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition atMcGill University, are planning to use clinicaltrials to test products that have been enhancedwith omega-3s to see if they’re giving consumersthe same amount of omega-3s — and the samehealth benefits — that fish does.

Research has shown that fish oil can lowera blood fat called triglyceride, a risk factor forheart attacks, says Holub. “If we can show thatthe fish oils in alternative forms are just as effec-tive as natural fish oils in lowering triglycerides,people can get the benefits without actually hav-ing to eat fish.”

Most North Americans don’t get enoughomega-3s, but scientists have figured out waysto get the fatty acids into well-liked foods suchas eggs, milk and bread.

Omega-3s can be added to some foods nat-urally, such as feeding cows and chickens anomega-3 diet that they pass on through theirmilk and eggs.

For baked goods, fish oil can be added inmicroencapsulated form (surrounded by astarchy coating). This makes a fine powder, like

flour, that can be used in a highly stable, heat-resistant form as an ingredient in baked prod-ucts. This microencapsulated form can also beadded to beverages.

Other strategies for boosting omega-3 con-sumption include adding high-quality fish oil toproducts such as ready-to-use scrambled eggmixes.

If the alternate forms are found to be effec-tive, Holub says doctors could suggest that theirpatients eat certain omega-3-enriched foods,which could ultimately prevent them from hav-ing to take triglyceride drugs by the time they’re50. It could also prevent early heart disease andheart attacks.

“If the health-care system can becomeinvolved, we can have foods that reduce risk fac-tors for heart disease and introduce them topeople in their 20s, so they can avoid having aheart attack 30 years down the road,” he says.“This will dramatically reduce health-carecosts.”

This project was funded by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network, the Heart andStroke Foundation of Ontario and BurnbraeFarms. �

There’s something fishy about this foodAre the omega-3s incorporated into eggs, milk and bread as heart-healthy as the real thing?by Kate Roberts

Foods and Health

Kate

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Spontaneousspheres? Think fettuccineThese uniquely shapedmembranes could playrole in drug deliveryby Kate Roberts

Discoveries come in many forms, and for Dr. John Katsaras,senior research officer at the National Research Council’s (NRC)Canadian Neutron Beam Centre, and his team of researchers, theirdiscovery came in the shape of hollow spheres. And not just anyhollow spheres, but ones that form spontaneously, with the poten-tial to encapsulate and deliver drugs to targeted parts of the body.

Over the last few years, Katsaras and his colleagues have beenlooking at “bicellar” (bilayered micelle) mixtures of long- and short-chain lipids, which are used extensively in nuclear magnetic reso-nance (NMR)-assisted research to reveal the three-dimensionalstructure of membrane-associated proteins.

While doing so, the team was able to alter the mixtures to pro-duce uniformly shaped and stable spheres called liposomes, madeentirely of phospholipids (the molecules found in all cell mem-branes).

It’s commonly thought that, in NMR experiments, these lipidmixtures form small disc-shaped, membrane-like pieces calledbicelles. These bicelles help align proteins in the NMR magneticfield.

But Katsaras and his AFMNet colleagues were skeptical of thebicelle model. By using advanced scattering techniques such as neu-tron scattering (performed at AECL’s National Research Universalreactor at Chalk River, Ont.), X-ray and light scattering, they foundthat many different shapes are formed by the bicellar lipid mixturesand that their phase behaviour is more complex than previouslythought.

Along with Mu-Ping Nieh of NRC and Thad Harroun of theUniversity of Guelph, the research team was able to disprove thewidely held belief that bicelles were the type of membrane environ-ment found during NMR-assisted studies.

“We’re trying to change scientists’ conceptions of what themembrane environment is for NMR experiments, away from thesimple bilayered discs,” says Katsaras. “The assembly of lipids thatorient in the presence of a magnetic field actually look more likeribbons or fettuccine.”

This discovery led the team to create the first comprehensivephase diagrams — basically a road map that tells what morpholo-

gies are formed at what temperature, charge and concentration. “The strong magnetic field in NMR is usually not present

when altering these properties,” says Harroun. “We now want toknow what difference this might make.”

In the course of this research, Nieh discovered that by addingthe right amount of charge, he could alter the lipid’s behaviour,leading to the spontaneous appearance of liposomes. These lipo-somes have the potential to deliver new therapies (such as gene ther-apy and DNA vaccines) and to reduce the toxicity of existing drugswhile increasing their efficacy. These liposomes are also stable anduniform, making them ideal candidates for encapsulating drugs fordrug delivery.

And that’s significant. For years, the pharmaceutical industryhas been testing liposomes to help target drugs to specific parts ofthe body, as well as to hide the drug from the body’s immune sys-tem to improve circulation times. The first liposome-based drugsmade it to market in the 1990s; now, a number of liposomal orlipid-based therapies are approved by the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration and in Europe.

But the liposomes being formed in this project are even moreadvanced because they’re stable and form spontaneously. That’sunlike current liposome technology, which requires the input ofmechanical energy to form them and results in inherently unstablepreparations.

Says Harroun: “By understanding the conditions that causeour bicelles to form and remain stable, we hope to engineer theirsize and their ability to carry various pharmaceuticals.”

Others members of this research team include the NaturalSciences and Engineering Research Council visiting fellow JeremyPencer and undergraduate summer students Martin Koslowski(Queen’s University), Charles de Lannoy (McGill University) andChristine Desrochers (University of Guelph), who joined the NRCgroup as Deep River Science Academy tutors.

Katsaras plans to collaborate with other AFMNet researcherswho are interested in testing specific drugs with these new sponta-neously forming liposomes. �


Think fettuccine— one of theshapes in thenew recipe fordrug deliveryformulated byA F M n e tresearchers.

Brian Fray

when it was incorporated into foods. So usingwhat he thinks is a better indicator for evaluat-ing beta-glucan’s effectiveness, he will study theglycemic response (the presence of glucose inblood) and then the cholesterol level in humanswho have consumed beta-glucan-infused food.

“This is the first time those properties ofbeta-glucan have been examined,” says Wolever,“and it’s necessary to have a comprehensive eval-uation of it.”

Oats are one of the best sources of beta-glu-can. It was believed that beta-glucan’s effect oncholesterol was related to how viscous (or thick)it was. But that relationship has not beendemonstrated in humans. Dr. Peter Wood ofAgriculture and Agri-Food Canada has broughthis expertise in the chemistry and physico-chemical properties of dietary fibre to assessbeta-glucan’s concentration and molecularweight, two properties Wolever believes arecausing cholesterol to lower. Past research didn’thave consistent measures of those properties,which is why Canada has yet to match the U.S.Food and Drug Administration’s claim thatproducts containing oats may reduce the risk ofheart disease.

Another reason Wolever thinks past studiesgave inconsistent results is the variety of process-ing and storage methods.

“Changing temperature, baking time,freezing, storage and contact with other ingredi-ents can change the fibre so that it no longerbenefits the human body,” he says.

Previous studies have shown that whenbeta-glucan is incorporated into bread, theenzymes in the flour break the fibre down andshorten the chain lengths. And when bread isfrozen, beta-glucan solubility falls. So the teamwill first examine samples of the beta-glucangum with variable molecular weight and chem-ical structure, then mix different beta-glucanconcentrations into muffin batter. The muffinswill then go through various freeze-thaw cyclesto test the beta-glucan’s solubility.

The researchers theorize that the more themuffins are frozen and thawed, the less solublethe fibre will be and the less impact it will haveon blood glucose.

“It will be a great achievement to giveadded value to products by simply altering theirprocessing stage,” Wolever says. �

The truthabout oats:It’s in themuffinsOats’ allegedheart-healthydietary fibre,beta-glucan, is getting a freshlook from thisresearch team by Kate Roberts

Is beta-glucan, that strange-sounding fibrefound in oats, really good for reducing choles-terol? At one time, it was all the rage. Thenother research debunked its heralded heart-healthy standing. Now, a team of AFMNet

researchers has designed a project thattests oats’ processing and storing

methods, to try to reach adefinitive answer about thisfibre’s ability to lower serumcholesterol, the level of cho-lesterol in the bloodstream.

Project leader Dr.Thomas Wolever of

the University ofT o r o n t o

believes paststudies wereinconsistentin the con-

centra t ion,m o l e c u l a r

weight andchemical struc-

ture of beta-glucan


Foods and HealthM

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13AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 0612 AFMNet – ADVANCE / 2005

Specifically, the team members are trying todetermine if the main claims made in news arti-cles accurately reflect research findings. Theywill compare the articles to see if there are dis-crepancies in the descriptions of the research,risks or benefits that could result in confusion.

“We’ve found in the area of gene discover-ies that the media have been surprisingly accu-rate in their reflections of research reporting,”says Bubela. “With the herbal remedies, though,it seems that there is a significantly more nega-tive tone and a real lack of investigative journal-ism.”

Early results show that news articles aresimplified from scientific journals almost to thepoint of inaccuracy, but rarely is somethingcompletely wrong. The most striking finding isthe complete lack of newspaper coverage of riskssuch as increased side effects and the overreport-ing of trials with negative results.

On the other hand, benefits are well cov-ered in both newspaper and research articles.

Researchers have long been concerned thatmainstream media communicate informationincorrectly. But Bubela says the researchersthemselves should be careful with their wordsbecause anything said during an interview witha reporter is considered fair game, and com-ments made outside the research results can beused in an article whether they deal with theresearch or not.

Bubela presented preliminary results fromthis study, which began in 2004, at theAFMNet HQP Conference in Montreal inOctober. Full publication of the results isexpected early in the new year.

University of Alberta students involved inthis project are Megan Koper, Science andPharmacology, and Thomas Moran, English.Also participating is Heather Boon of theUniversity of Toronto.

This research is funded by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network. �

Reading intoresearchreportsResearchers lookat how — andhow accurately —media representresearchby Alicia Roberts

The media — Internet, television, newspa-pers, radio — are the main source of news andinformation for millions of people. But when itcomes to science, are journalists getting it right?

University of Alberta professors TimothyCaulfield, Faculty of Law, and Tania Bubela,School of Business, are looking at how themainstream media portray research findings.With help from Bubela’s students, the team isreading up on peer-review journals and newsarticles that may be contradictory to each other.

“We’re trying to get a sense of the accuracyand tone of news coverage,” says Caulfield.“Then we can get a sense of the impact of mediarepresentations on policy development. In fact,this is some research we would like to do furtherdown the road.”

The researchers are looking at news articlesfrom Canada, the United States and the UnitedKingdom based on the results of clinical trialspublished in scientific journals and peer reviews.The trials deal with complementary and alterna-tive medicine, including herbal remedies,nutraceuticals and some food biotechnologyproducts.

Rating thenews

Comparing newspaper articles and journal articlesrequires a consistent frameworkfor judging content. Prof. TaniaBubela and her students havedetermined such criteria to helpstudy media representation ofherbal remedy clinical trials.

1. Trial run. The publishedjournal articles were examinedfor data such as who conductedthe research, where the researchwas published, if it was framed asa controversy, benefits and risks,conflict of interest and trial funding. These trials were published in peer-reviewed med-ical and specialist complementaryand alternative medicine journals.

2. Generic trial search. Thissearch of large newspaper databases was conducted to findon-topic articles. Then, a morespecific keyword search was performed in both PUBMED andthe newspaper databases to pickup the trial itself and all newspa-per coverage it generated. Theteam used the coding frame to compare the newspaper articleswith the clinical trial, asking questions dealing with technical accuracy of coverage andwhether the main claims andresults were accurately reflected.The method was robust enoughto detect errors of omission,such as whether the newspaperarticle reported on things such as randomization and the use ofplacebos.

With this coding frame, it’seasier to judge whether the articles are consistent with theresearch results and whetherthey have a negative impact onhow the public perceives theresearch.

Studying newspaper and journal articles will helpAFMNet researchers determine if the mediaaccurately reflects scientific findings.

Paula Bialski



as X-rays, nuclear power, cell phones, computersand aircraft. The survey then asks participantsto indicate, in their own words, which technolo-gies concern them and why.

Henson says the survey results will helpdetermine what values drive consumer choices,which in turn can help industries and the gov-ernment promote their products in a way thatmaximizes consumer acceptance. That couldboost companies’ sales and give them a compet-itive edge in national and international markets,while addressing consumer concerns about newfood technologies.

In the future, Henson and his researchgroup will conduct in-depth case studies on spe-cific food technologies and see how the foodindustry manages consumer concerns. By theend of the summer, he also hopes to create a toolto predict how a new food technology will beperceived by consumers.

“Industries have to buildup consumer acceptance of aproduct right from the start,not when it’s about to hit themarket,” he says.

U of G members of hisinterdisciplinary research teamare Profs. John Cranfield andDavid Sparling and post-doc-toral researchers MamaneAnnou and DeepanandaHerath, Department ofAgricultural Economics andBusiness; Prof. Rickey Yada,Department of Food Science;and Prof. Valerie Davidson,School of Engineering. Also onthe team are University ofSaskatchewan agricultural eco-nomics professor Jill Hobbsand Timothy Beattie, a post-doctoral researcher at theUniversity of BritishColumbia.

This research is sponsoredby the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and theAdvanced Foods and Materials Network. �

Fear FactorWhy are sometechnologies welcomed andothers shunned?by Heather Filby

Most consumers don’t think twice aboutbuying milk that’s been pasteurized. But othertechnologies — such as genetic modification —often raise red flags. University of Guelphresearchers are leading a multidisciplinary study to determine why some food technologiesare more acceptable than others, and what theagriculture and food industry can do to boostconsumer acceptance.

Prof. Spencer Henson, Department ofAgricultural Economics and Business, says pre-liminary results suggest the trade-off betweenperceived risks and benefits is one of the mostimportant influences on how consumers receivenew food technologies.

“Consumers are willing to take a risk if theyreceive greater benefits such as improved health,better quality or lower price,” says Henson. “Ifthe benefits outweigh the perceived risks, con-sumers are more likely to buy into the product.”

Consumers are influenced by what he calls“the dread factor.” For example, cancer is such afeared disease that consumers won’t accept anyfood technology that’s been associated with it,no matter how tenuous the connection.

Other significant factors, says Henson,include whether consumers believe they cancontrol exposure to the new technology, howwell they themselves understand the technologyand whether they think the technology is under-stood by scientists.

His research team is using a unique respon-dent-designed survey that allows consumers toarticulate their food technology concerns intheir own words. Participants are presented withexisting food technologies such as food addi-tives, genetic modification, irradiation, vacuumpacking, pasteurization, microwave ovens andcanning, as well as non-food technologies such



Consumers weigh the per-ceived risks and rewards ofcertain food technologies —such as genetic modification,irradiation and additives —before buying the affectedfood products, according to aUniversity of Guelph survey.

Martin Schw

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The writing is on the labelLess could be more when it comes to labelling genetically modified foodsby Alicia Roberts

Canadian consumers are curious customers, but how muchinformation do they really want?

That’s the question philosophy professor David Castle of theUniversity of Guelph is trying to answer. He’s leading a studythat’s investigating whether or not food labels should includeinformation about genetically modified (GM) foods.

“Genetic modification means different things to differentpeople,” says Castle. “We’re investigating from an ethical standpoint and trying to determine more than just whether or notpeople want the information, but also why they want the informa-tion and how they can use it. We ultimately want answers to thesequestions so we can develop recommendations for labelling policies that accurately reflect Canadian values.”

When asked, a majority of Canadians say they would preferto have labels on GM foods and would like more information asopposed to less.

But consumers don’t specify what type of information theywould prefer and, more important, why they want that informa-tion. This makes it difficult to determine what and how muchinformation is appropriate. And currently, the Canadian GeneralStandards Board says labelling is a voluntary standard, whichmeans the industry creating the product can decide to use labelsor not.

Castle is working with Prof. Conrad Brunk of the Universityof Victoria’s Department of Philosophy, Prof. Karen Finlay andVinay Kanetkar of Guelph’s Department of Marketing andConsumer Studies and Guelph graduate students Chris Normanand Anthony Vander Schaaf. The team is analyzing existing stud-ies and conducting focus-group exercises to help determinewhether labelling GM foods would be useful to consumers andwhat motivates them to buy GM or non-GM products.

“The scope of what people worry about with genetic modifi-cation is wide, and it always will be,” says Castle. “The cause forconcern might arise from a different background of informationthan what industries expect, so we need to know why the information is needed and how it will help the consumer.”

This is a two-year study. The first year will focus on the consumer surveys and data collection; the second year will focuson the development of a policy statement. �

From left David Castle, Anthony VanderSchaaf, Vinay Kanetkar, Chris Normanand Karen Finlay are looking at theprocesses that go into food labeling.


Consumer concerns about genetically modifiedfoods are prompting the development of new analysistechniques. These techniques, involving minute profilesand comparisons of genetically modified and convention-al varieties of food, will help regulators make sound sci-ence-based decisions about food safety for new foodproducts.

Prof. Marc Fortin of the Department of PlantScience at McGill University and Prof. Cecil Forsberg ofthe Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at theUniversity of Guelph are creating and comparing gene,protein, lipid and metabolite profiles of both transgenicand non-transgenic foods.

“Our results will allow regulators to move to a high-er level when it comes to safety assessment,” says Fortin.

So far, genetic modification in plants has focused onthe addition of new proteins that aren’t part of an organ-ism’s metabolism and don’t affect basic cell properties.

But the next generation of genetically modifiedplants and animals will be different. Components fromnatural cellular metabolism are starting to be altered,prompting scientists to watch for unintended effects suchas increased or decreased gene expression.

“Currently, scientists add new proteins to an organ-ism just like hood ornaments are added to cars,” saysFortin. “But with the new generation of genetic modifi-cations, scientists are changing the core of the machine.”

The current approach to ensuring the safety of newfoods is what Fortin refers to as “substantial equivalence,”meaning that transgenic foods are safe if they’re identical(except for the intentionally introduced trait) to theirnon-transgenic food counterparts.

Previously, equivalence was assessed using a fewdozen cellular components. But now, the researchers aredocumenting these components by the thousands, ensur-ing a greater degree of accuracy. Their focus will be oncomparing gene expression profiles of 36,000 soybeangenes and 13,000 pig genes.

They’re also studying protein profiles. For example,Forsberg’s team will isolate pig proteins and separatethem into protein fragments. Using advanced biochemical

tools, they’ll label, separate and quantify these fragmentsto look for protein profile changes from genetic modifi-cation. Fortin and Forsberg are also following changes in25 cell membrane lipids (fatty acids), more than 100 cellular metabolites and as many individual proteins in major food tissues.

All these steps add up to a comprehensive safety-assessment strategy, says Forsberg.

Fortin notes that Canada “has the potential to be a strong leader internationally for developing newmethodologies that reinforce a science-based approach toassessing food safety and establishing a regulatory framework. That step is absolutely mandatory to gainconsumer support.”

Other researchers involved in this project at McGillUniversity include graduate students Julie Beaulieu,Geneviève Morin and Kei Chin Cheng, post-doctoral fel-low Dan Kiambi and research assistants Victoria Muiseand Christine Ide of the Department of Plant Science.Participants at Guelph include Prof. Serguei Golovan andgraduate student Chris Verschoor, Department of Animaland Poultry Science; and post-doctoral fellow TomWright and research associate Sandra Walters,Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Thestudy also involves specialists at Health Canada andENTRANSFOOD in Europe.

This research is sponsored by the Advanced Foods and Materials Network, industry partners and le Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies. �

Advanced safety for advanced foodsResearchers address consumer concerns about genetic modificationby Robert Fieldhouse

New safety tools willhelp reveal whetherpig proteins havebeen altered fromgenetic modification. Jn

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Her results suggest that all companies familiar with the regula-tions are making an effort to comply. Large firms believe compli-ance is socially and strategically beneficial, and they tend to havethe financial and human resources needed to meet the regulations.

Smaller companies tend to feel obligated to comply whenthey’re aware of the regulations, says Laeeque, but some of them areuninformed. She says the cost and time demands associated withcompliance (including learning about the regulations) may presentsignificant challenges to smaller companies, making it difficult forthem to comply and eventually causing them to close.

Fear of bad publicity and government penalties seemed tomotivate compliance among large and small companies alike. Theyalso share the opinion that Health Canada was too slow when itcame to helping companies adhere to the regulations. For example,companies complained that it takes many months for HealthCanada to provide feedback on their product licence applications.

“People thought the regulations were a good idea and weregenerally willing to comply,” says Boon. “But the interviewsrevealed that working with Health Canada to comply with regula-

tions was frustratingly slow for many.”For another segment of this research, graduate student Karen

Moss interviewed Ontario practitioners of traditional Chinese med-icine and homeopathic, naturopathic and herbal medicine who cur-rently give natural health products to their patients.

She found some practitioners were concerned that regulationswould empower people to self-medicate and that such self-medica-tion may not always be appropriate. But, she adds, it’s difficult toknow whether this concern arises from feared income loss or gen-uine worry about the safety of consumers who lack practitioners’expertise.

Next, Boon plans to interview pharmacists, dietitians andother industry stakeholders and look into changing public percep-tions.

University of Toronto research associate Natasha Kachan andProf. Tim Caulfield of the University of Alberta contributed to thisproject. Future collaborations will include Prof. Spencer Henson ofthe University of Guelph. This research is sponsored by theAdvanced Foods and Materials Network. �


ers’ knowledge and perceptions of the regula-tions as well as their adherence to them.

“We want to know how the regulations areaffecting these people, if they have met compli-ance deadlines and whether or not it was diffi-cult to comply,” she says.

The regulations will be phased in over sixyears. They specify that manufacturers mustnow provide evidence of effectiveness and safetyand must label those products that make specif-ic health claims. The labels must also list poten-tial adverse reactions. All new products must beapproved by the federal government before hit-ting shelves.

Graduate student Hina Laeeque inter-viewed representatives from companies acrossCanada, focusing on those producing glu-cosamine and chondroitin (compounds oftenused together to ease arthritis and joint discomfort).

Natural health products have long been onCanadians’ radar screen — even more so now asthe aging population looks for ways to maintainits well-being. And that means the need to guar-antee consumer safety is growing, too. Inresponse, the federal government has developedand is implementing natural health product reg-ulations, which are being met with varyingdegrees of enthusiasm by industry and practi-tioners. An AFMNet research team is looking at

how the new regulations areaffecting stakeholders.

Prof. Heather Boon ofthe Leslie Dan Faculty ofPharmacy at the University ofToronto is examining theimpact of the new HealthCanada regulations on alter-native medicine practitionersand companies that manufac-ture, import or sell naturalhealth products. Her studyincludes analyzing over-the-counter items such as herbaland homeopathic remedies,vitamins, minerals and essen-tial fatty acids.

Boon and her researchteam interviewed companiesand practitioners to learnabout their experiences withthe new regulations, whichwere adopted in 2004.They’re looking at stakehold-



GrowingpainsStruggles begin with Ottawa’s new natural health product regulationsby Robert Fieldhouse

Natural health product regu-lations help protect consumers, but AFMNetresearchers such as HeatherBoon (below) want to knowwhat implications these regulations have for the com-panies and practitioners that distribute them.

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studied over the years by geneticists interested inthe effects of inheritance and has now beencompletely sequenced, which makes canolagenetics easier to understand.

In 2004, Smith, Fortin and Jones began tolook deeper into the process of incorporatingPUFA production genes into canola.

“Canada certainly has the land available forthis plant,” says Smith. “It’s a high-value oilseedcrop and will generate good revenues for thosewho produce it.”

Researchers in Manitoba have alreadydeveloped a plant with long-chain unsaturatedoils, but Smith needed polyunsaturated oil, sohe decided to use an organism that would injectPUFA genes into the plant to alter the oil’sexpression, making it polyunsaturated. Hefound that this technique worked to change theoil profile in the plant.

“The next step is to incorporate PUFA oilsinto canola seeds so we can obtain the value-added oil and so the trait can be moved intoother canola plants,” he says. �

Fish-olaScientists tryincorporatinghealthy gene into distinctlyCanadian cropby Kate Roberts

Most people who don’t eat fish are drivenby personal choice, not availability. But thatcould change because availability is beingthreatened by the fish shortage in Canadianwaters. North Atlantic stocks of cod, salmon,haddock, flounder and hake have all fallen bymore than 50 per cent in the past five decades.That’s driving up prices and making it difficultfor people to consume enough long-chainpolyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) oils.

With threatened species in mind, McGillUniversity plant scientist Dr. Don Smith andtwo colleagues — Drs. Peter Jones and MarcFortin — are looking at a new way to renderhealthy products from one of Canada’s mostwidely grown crops: canola.

“We’re incorporating genes for the produc-tion of long-chain PUFA into canola plants, inhopes that the plants will then produce canolaoil with value-added benefits from PUFA,” saysSmith.

PUFA oils help in the production of certainhuman hormones, affecting blood pressure,lung airways (involved in asthma), blood vesselsand inflammatory responses, to name a few.

Smith calls himself a “plant guy,” and assuch, he wanted to find a way to incorporatePUFA oils into plants that can be consumed byhumans. Knowing that some plants producehigh concentrations of oil from their seeds, hethought if he added the appropriate sorts oflong-chain PUFA oils to the seed oils of plants,it would help alleviate some of the loomingPUFA shortage.

That’s where canola comes in. It has seedoil concentrations in the 40- to 50-per-centrange and is also related to the genetically well-characterized Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis has been


Researcher Don Smith is workingto incorporate a healthy fatty acidinto canola seeds.

Maryse Bourgault

Bechhoefer is using this feature to hisadvantage. The pockets he envisions have a par-ticular shape and size that depend on the DNAstrand’s length and composition. And they’llconduct electricity only when a target moleculebinds and flips the DNA switch.

But this switch isn’t very useful if it’s justDNA in solution, he says, because such switch-es aren’t usually part of physiologically impor-tant electrical circuits. So he’s using the DNA asif it were a wire. By surrounding DNA with asurface of insulating molecules, he hopes to con-duct electricity between two gold particles(introduced by researchers in test situations)connected by DNA.

Bechhoefer anticipates certain advantagesto using DNA sensors. Besides being highly sen-sitive and accurate, they’re economical becausethere’s no need for expensive cameras to observethem and no risk of molecules losing their fluo-rescence. They’re also desirable because there areno radioactive byproducts to worry about, as isthe case with some sensors.

He expects he’ll soon have DNA strandswith switches that are always turned on andones that are always turned off, giving valuablebaseline information for observing DNA con-ductivity.

Simon Fraser University researchers on thisproject include Prof. Dipankar Sen,Department of Molecular Biology andBiochemistry/Chemistry; Prof. Hogan Yu andgraduate student Marcus Kuikka, Departmentof Chemistry; and Drs. Connie Roth andYuekan Jiao and graduate student Shun Lu,Department of Physics. Other researchers areProf. Nicholas Low, Department of AppliedMicrobiology and Food Science at theUniversity of Saskatchewan; Prof. Tito Scaiano,Department of Chemistry at the University ofOttawa; and Prof. Peter Williams and under-graduate student Stefan Murphy, Departmentof Physics at Acadia University.

This research is sponsored by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network and the NaturalSciences and Engineering Research Council. �

Flipping themolecularswitch forfood safetyDNA plays key role in developingadvanced biosensorsby Robert Fieldhouse

Biosensors — tiny devices that can detectbiological molecules — built with speciallyengineered DNA strands may one day advancescientists’ ability to detect a wide variety ofunwanted components, including metabolites,toxins and food contaminants.

Prof. John Bechhoefer of the Departmentof Physics at Simon Fraser University is workingon a collaborative project to develop newbiosensors that use biological materials to col-lect information — often about the presence ofother biological materials — and transmit itthrough electrical signals.

These new biosensors will bebased on DNA aptamers (short

DNA strands that form pockets tobind target molecules) that act like elec-

trical switches, activated by a particularmolecule’s presence.

Normal switches are gaps in wires thatdisrupt the flow of an electrical transmission,

but biosensor electrical switches are shaped likepockets. Whether or not they conduct electrici-ty depends on the pocket’s conformation.

“We’re developing DNA pockets with spe-cific angles that will trap specific target molecules,” says Bechhoefer. “As the tar-get binds, it will restore the electrical conductiv-ity in the pocket, acting as a switch.”

Biophysicists have previously shown thatDNA conducts electricity. But unlike tradition-al conductors such as copper, DNA’s conductiv-ity changes depending on what it’s bound toand what surrounds it.


Materials

DNA consists of four basepairs, made up of nitrogen-rich molecules which code forspecific traits. Normally, thebases adenine (A) andthymine (T) pair up, whilecytosine (C) and guanine (G)attract one another. In thissimplified illustration of artifi-cially created DNA, threepairs of bases opposite oneanother do not match upproperly, forming a pocketwhich then binds a target mol-ecule, creating an electriccharge.

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the rate of diffusion and the velocity of mole-cules moving in a fluid. With that knowledge,the researchers tailored the formula to calculatethe diffusion coefficient of any type of moleculemoving in any type of porous media.

With other technical details, the formula isthen entered into a computer, which performs along and multi-layered process to find theanswer — the biggest and most memory-con-suming part of the mathematical approachinvented by AFMNet researchers.

“The biggest challenge with this wholeprocess is that it uses a lot of computer memo-ry,” says Slater. “Ten years ago, this projectcouldn’t have been possible because memorywas so expensive. Now we can buy and use morememory for each new problem.”

A computer program is being written tohelp design special systems. Ultimately, it willbe presented to product developers for feedbackabout gel structures, pill structures and drugdelivery systems.

“The hardest part is trying to create systemsthat can be used in the near future,” says Slater.“We’re building very fundamental structuresthat can have applications in all disciplineswhere molecular movements are key. What’sgreat about AFMNetis that we can usethis application inp h a r m a c e u t i c a l ,food and biomateri-al areas.”

At Ottawa, he’sworking with under-graduate studentsOwen Hickey andPierre Sarazin, grad-uate studentsSébastien Casaultand Francis Torres,and research associ-ate SmaineBekhechi. Otherproject participantsare Drs. DérickRousseau of RyersonUniversity, AllanPaulson of DalhousieUniversity, Wankei Wan of theUniversity of Western Ontarioand John Dutcher of theUniversity of Guelph. �

Remodelling math Researchers refine formula for controlled diffusionby Alicia Roberts

Molecules can diffuse through all kinds ofmaterials, but that diffusion is generally uncon-trolled. The solution? Math.

Dr. Gary Slater of the Department ofPhysics at the University of Ottawa is workingwith a team of researchers to develop a mathe-matical approach to the diffusion process. Theultimate goal is to design materials that can con-trol how molecules diffuse through them. Thesematerials would include porous media such aspaper, gelatine and most permeable textiles.

For example, a manufacturer might want tohave a constant release rate for a drug diffusingout a gel-like pill. With a constant rate of diffu-sion, there’s no sudden release followed by aslow completion. Instead, there’s a steady, equalflow of the drug being passed to the patient.

“For this to work, we need to understandthe basics of it all first,” says Slater. “We need tobe confident in what we’re trying to build, so weneed to understand the fundamentals.”

He and his team are looking at how pro-teins, DNA and smaller molecules move incomplicated gel structures and porous materials,like structures with dead ends, mazes and chan-nels. For answers, they’re turning to a true orig-inal: Albert Einstein.

A century ago, Einstein theorized about therelationship between the random motion of par-ticles in liquids (called “Brownian motion”) andthe velocity those particles could achieve ifdrawn by a mechanical force. He discovered aformula that showed how viscosity links thevelocity of the particle and its diffusion proper-ties. Viscosity affects microscopic objects thesame way friction slows down the motion oflarge objects sliding on a surface: it can affect


Brandon Denard

Other researchers involved in this projectfrom UNB’s Physics Department are Profs.Bruce Balcom and Igor Mastikhin, graduatestudent Kumud Deka, undergraduate studentsHeather Hickey and Andrew King, and researchassociate Bryce MacMillan. Other participantsare Prof. Hermann Eberl, University of GuelphDepartment of Mathematics and Statistics, andProf. Heidi Schraft, Lakehead UniversityDepartment of Biology.

This research is sponsored by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network, the NaturalSciences and Engineering Research Council andMcCain Foods Ltd. �

MRIs for friesThis technologylets researcherslook inside foodwhile it’s intact by Robert Fieldhouse

Crowd-pleasing foods such as french friescould soon be made even more palatable withnew technology that helps scientists understandfluid distribution and movement in foods.

Prof. Benedict Newling of the University ofNew Brunswick’s Physics Department is leadinga collaborative project that uses magnetic reso-nance imaging (MRI) to investigate food mate-rials non-invasively.

He’s particularly interested in water and oildistribution and movement in foods, which hasimportant implications in food manufacturing,storage and preparation. Foods change as they’reprepared. Newling says MRI technology couldbe useful in quality-control situations for fastand accurate measurements that ensure friedcoatings have the right thickness and the opti-mal oil and moisture content.

“Manufacturers care about the final prod-uct, but they also need to understand theprocesses required to get there, to improve thetexture and taste of their products. So we’re run-ning an MRI lab, but instead of imaging people,we’re imaging food materials.”

Watching food components move insideintact food isn’t easy. Some visualization tech-niques, including X-ray methods, preventresearchers from repeatedly viewing and track-ing changes in food samples. But MRI is non-invasive, so the same sample can be tested againand again, allowing Newling and his team tofollow changes in foods through time withoutcausing any damage that may distort results.

MRI is usually used for medical reasons toimage soft materials such as human tissue. It isn’tas easy to image dry materials, including manyfoods, because the MRI signals are short-livedand hard to detect. But the University of NewBrunswick’s MRI Centre has developed newtechniques and hardware to detect these signals.

A checkup for chocolateby Robert Fieldhouse

AFMNet researchers at theUniversity of New Brunswick’sMRI Centre and University ofGuelph food science professorAlejandro Marangoni are usingMRI in another non-medical useto study the structure of choco-late to help manufacturerslengthen its shelf life. Over time,chocolate undergoes cosmeticdegradation, with a white fatcrystal layer forming on the surface. MRI investigations arebeing conducted to gather information about how fat move-ment toward the surface duringstorage influences chocolate’sappearance, taste and texture.


Materials

Researchers are finding the optimal oil and moisture content infrench fries using popular humantechnology.

Kate Roberts

sodium chloride, which already exist in mostsolutions, to get the information they wantedand to find out how these salts affect the LPSlayer. Pink and Quinn are working to model thenew versions of these interactions.

Adams describes SANS as a “Cadillac”analysis method because it’s sensitive to smallstructures from 0.5 nanometres to 400 nanome-tres. It doesn’t damage the sample because itinteracts weakly with chemical bonds (unlike X-rays), and it can measure the thickness of differ-ent layers within the sample. In addition, unlikewith most electron microscopes, SANS samplesdon’t have to be frozen, dried or sliced up.

He says this project is exciting because noone has used this method to study bacterial sur-faces before.

“With SANS, we can see the moleculesorganizing into LPS vesicles and the differentlayers involved, but analyzing the data is tricky.The theory had focused on the hydrophilicparts of the layer being affected, but not asmuch has been said about the thickness of thehydrophobic layer. A meaningful analysis of ourdata will force us to think about both regions.”

Once Adams’ team has finished analyzingthe results with simple chemicals, they will gettogether with antimicrobial peptide expert BobHancock from UBC to investigate CAPs thatcould be candidates for powerful antimicrobialdrugs. Knowledge gained from this research,coupled with a global theory, could be used todesign new potent CAPs that would specificallytarget bacterial defence mechanisms that areresistant to current antibiotics.

This project is funded by the AdvancedFoods and Materials Network. �

The hydrophilic segments of the LPS mol-ecules stick out from the bacteria and interactwith the environment, acting as a first line ofdefence against incoming chemicals.

Before using the neutron-scattering beam,the team had to understand certain bacteriacharacteristics. For example, Beveridge andSchooling had to spend many months gettingthe LPS molecules out of the bacterium. Then,Adams, Katsaras and Pencer had to put the mol-ecules into water and form sub-bacteria-sized“vesicles” — sub-microscopic-sized objectscomposed only of the LPS molecules. The teamthen placed a vial of the vesicles into the neu-tron beam with salts like calcium chloride and


Bacteria such as these — and their interac-tions with antimicrobial compounds — arebeing examined by an AFMNet research team.

Working with University of Guelph micro-biologists Dr. Terry Beveridge and Dr. SarahSchooling, SANS experts Dr. John Katsaras andDr. Jeremy Pencer at the National ResearchCouncil, and Dr. David Pink and seniorresearch associate Bonnie Quinn of theDepartment of Physics at St. Francis Xavier,Adams had to first understand the structure ofcertain bacteria.

Current knowledge says that the outer layerof gram-negative bacteria is composed oflipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are two-partmolecules — one part hydrophobic (“water-hat-ing”) on the inside of the layer and one parthydrophilic (“water-loving”) on the outside.

Bacterial contamination in food poses aserious health risk for Canadians. So incorporat-ing antimicrobial compounds into food toattack unwanted bacteria — and learning moreabout how these compounds work — would behighly beneficial. In the past, many physicistsdeveloped models and theories of what happenswhen antimicrobial compounds and bacteriainteract. But now, a top-of-the-line researchmethod — small-angle neutron scattering(SANS) — is looking more deeply into the sit-uation.

Dr. Carl Adams of the Department ofPhysics at St. Francis Xavier University beganhis AFMNet research by wanting to obtain real-world measurements of bacteria structure inter-acting with chemicals such as calcium, magne-sium and sodium. This preliminary work wouldthen lead into similar investigations of antimi-crobial compounds such as antibiotics or highlycharged cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs).

Adams says the dynamic structural modelsused in the past to describe the interactions weredeveloped strictly from theoretical physics, andthey have been largely consistent with theknown biology and chemistry. “But SANSallows us to go a crucial extra step in observingthe structure and to see how well it agrees withthe models,” he says.


Materials

SANS:Thebattlegroundfor unwantedbacteria Neutron-scattering device investigates bacteria structure in new wayby Kate Roberts

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27AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 0626 AFMNet – ADVANCE 2005/ 06

AFMNet is proud to be in partnership with these

forward-thinking companies and organizations:

3M Canada

A.M.Todd Company

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Bowater Canadian Forest Products Inc.,Thunder Bay Operations

Canadian Food Information Council

Canadian Health Food Association

Canadian International Grains Institute

Colorado State University

Dalhousie University

Danone Vitapole

Department of Energy (USA) — Advanced Light Source

Environment Canada

Foragen Technologies Management Inc.

FQRNT

Government of Manitoba

Health Canada

Health Canada, Natural Health Product Directorate

Institute of Biomathematics and Biometry,GSF National Research Centre for Environment and Health

Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Lakehead University

Life Science Advisors

Lipid Nutrition North America

Loblaw Brands Limited

Lochend Luing Ranches

MaRS Landing

McCain

McGill University

McLaughlin Consultants Inc.

McMaster University

Memorial University of Newfoundland

National Research Council Canada

Nestlé USA

Networks of Centres of Excellence

Nexia Biotechnologies Inc.

Nutri-sense Consulting

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,Food and Rural Affairs

Parmalat Canada

Parrheim Foods

Ryerson Polytechnic University

Ryerson University

Senomyx, Inc.

Simon Fraser University

Specialty Biopolymers

St. Francis Xavier University

SUN Microsystems

Taiyo Kagaku Co., Ltd.

Université de Moncton

Université de Montréal

Université de Sherbrooke

Université Laval

University of Alberta

University of British Columbia

University of Calgary

University of California

University of Guelph

University of Manitoba

University of New Brunswick

University of Ottawa

University of Saskatchewan

University of Toronto

University of Victoria

University of Waterloo

University of Western Ontario

USDA

Wageningen University

Yulex Inc.

T h i s p u b l i c a t i o n i s s p o n s o r e d b y :

Who should attend:

Anyone interested in solutionsfor better health and nutrition,innovative commercial mate-rials, and more sustainableindustrial processes

Researchers - natural scientists, engineers, healthresearchers, social scientists,and lawyers

Students and AFMNet HQP

Regulators and policy makers

Food and biomaterials producers and manufacturers

Health professionals

Health and life science business leaders

Consumer advocacy groups

Trade organizations

ObjectivesTo provide an opportunity for networking and informationsharing across themes, disciplines and sectors

To educate and train AFMNet researchers and HQP in areas such as commercialization, communication, IP management and building partnerships

To promote our message of value in collaboration, partnership and research excellence to industry, regulators and other research institutions

To identify specific target areas to focus key research investments to improve health, the economy and continue to be a distinct leader in advanced foods and materials research

AFMNet Second Annual Scientific ConferenceApril 30 – May 2, 2006

Westin Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

Research, Results, Rewards:The Science and Beyond

C h e c k t h e A F M N e t w e b s i t e f o r u p d a t e d i n f o r m a t i o n : w w w . a f m n e t . c a

VenueThe Westin | Calgary320 Fourth Avenue SWCalgary, AlbertaCANADA T2P 2S6www.westin.com/calgary

Sponsor InquiriesTania Framst, NetworkManagerT: 519-822-6253Email: [email protected]

advance magazine - winter 2005/2006

Documents

afmnet advance

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new understanding

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