The projects are to be funded through Genome Canada’s  Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP), which partners academic researchers with users of genomics to address problems identified by the user. They will be funded over a maximum of three years.

“I congratulate the successful teams whose projects will address real world challenges and opportunities,” said Minister Duncan. “The federal government is pleased to support these applied genomics research projects where the science has potential to spur innovation and give Canadian companies a competitive edge in global markets, thereby creating jobs and economic growth to help the middle class.”

The first project will see the University of Alberta working with DowAgroSciences to enhance the commercial use of canola oil and meal, while the second has the University of Manitoba partnering with Winnipeg-based Composites Innovation Centre to develop and test a vehicle prototype using a novel biocomposite made of flax fibre and binding resin. The University of Toronto will work with Trillium Therapeutics Inc. to develop novel therapeutics that fight cancer in the third project, and finally, the Université Laval is partnering with GenePOC Inc. to develop a new instrument that can rapidly diagnose infections at the point-of-care in the fourth.

“We are thrilled to add these new projects to a growing roster of genomic application partnerships between scientists and organizations that have a clear use for genomics,” said Marc LePage, president and CEO, Genome Canada. “It is fascinating to see how rapidly genomics is maturing to the point where it is being incorporated across such a diverse range of industries that benefit many regions and many sectors of Canada’s economy.”

For a full BACKGROUNDER of Genomic Applications Partnership Program Funded  Projects in this round (Round 3 and 4 ) click here.

“Canola oil has a unique blend of fats that offers nutritional benefits for everyday consumers, as well as people at risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases,” says Janice Tranberg, executive director with SaskCanola. “We are confident that our investment in the Food Centre will continue to support and elevate canola oil utilization in food product development.”

The new 35,000 square foot facility will advance Saskatchewan’s food ingredient processing sector through new food development and analytical laboratories, innovation suite for piloting and prototyping new technologies, increased interim processing capacity for pulse and cereals and more.

“SaskCanola’s contribution will expand the Food Centre’s capabilities to utilize canola in a variety of innovative food products and ingredient applications for local and export markets,” explains Dan Prefontaine, president of the Food Centre. “Their support will strengthen our resources and support commercialization of new agricultural products for both food and non-food usage.”

SaskCanola is a producer led organization, established in 1991 and supported by some 26,000 levy-paying Saskatchewan canola producers.

The  announcement was made by Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains, alongside Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Lawrence MacAulay and Prince Edward Island Premier Wade MacLauchlan.

In Charlottetown, the Natural Products Canada (NPC) will receive $14 million over five years, in support of its work to establish Canada as a global leader in the development and marketing of natural products.

In Montréal, the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy (C3i) will receive funding of $15 million over five years to develop, translate and commercialize cancer immunotherapy.

“Today’s CECR recipients reflect the impressive depth and quality of research conducted here in Canada in two vital areas: innovative cancer therapies and ground-breaking natural alternatives to products already on the market,” said Bains. “The Government of Canada is proud to support this important stage on the research spectrum: getting products out of the lab and into the market, so that they can begin to improve the lives of Canadians.”

The two recipients were chosen from the most recent competition in the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program. The CECRs match clusters of research expertise with the business community, facilitating the development of products and technologies at a stage in the commercialization process where it is otherwise difficult to attract private-sector investment.

“Our research ecosystem needs to be balanced in a way that supports the constant interchange between discovery and innovation,” said B. Mario Pinto, president, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and chair, Networks of Centres of Excellence Steering Committee. “Commercialization centres satisfy a very specific need, by providing a solid connection between the ideas generated by foundational research and the expertise that can take the most promising ideas towards commercialization.”

The NPC, headquartered in Charlottetown, includes key partners in PEI (PEI BioAlliance as NPC Atlantic), Saskatchewan (AgWest Bio as NPC West), Ontario (Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization as NPC Ontario), and Quebec (Institute for Nutrition and Functional Foods as NPC Quebec). The federal contribution will be matched by over $10 million from industry and other sources, for total funding of over $24 million over the next five years.

Rory Francis, executive director of the PEI BioAlliance, expressed his gratitude to the federal government for seizing the opportunity to bring together a unique national team to help academic centres and early stage companies develop and commercialize new products for global markets.

“Natural Products Canada will align the existing expertise of universities, scientific research organizations, small and medium sized enterprises, multi-nationals, the investor community, and government partners in accelerating time to market for promising early stage technologies,” said Francis. “This is an amazing opportunity for the Canadian bioscience sector and a very exciting platform for the next stage of growth of the PEI Bioscience Cluster, ” he said.

The Prince Edward Island Bioscience Cluster has had a strong focus on natural products for health applications for over a decade. Of the 44 companies in the PEI Cluster, more than 30 work on natural product-related technologies. Revenue earned by PEI bioscience companies surpassed $200 million in 2015.

C3i, which is based in Montréal, will accelerate access to innovative cancer immunotherapies for patients. Operating out of the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont’s Research Centre, C3i will be a one-stop shop for the development, translation and commercialization of ground-breaking cancer treatments.

The CECR program currently funds 23 centres, working in areas that include information and communications technologies, health, natural resources and energy. Created in 2007, the program invests $30 million per year in Canadian innovation.

“When glucose is abnormally elevated in the body, glucose-derived glycerol-3 phosphate reaches excessive levels in cells, and exaggerated glycerol 3 phosphate metabolism can damage various tissues,” explains Marc Prentki, a principal investigator at the CRCHUM and a professor at the University of Montreal. “We found that G3PP is able to breakdown a great proportion of this excess glycerol phosphate to glycerol and divert it outside the cell, thus protecting the insulin producing beta cells of pancreas and various organs from toxic effects of high glucose levels.”

Mammalian cells use glucose and fatty acids as the main nutrients. Their utilization inside cells governs many physiological processes such as insulin secretion by beta cells, production of glucose in liver, storage of fat in adipose tissue and breakdown of nutrients for energy production. Derangement of these processes leads to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The beta cells sense changes in blood glucose levels and produce insulin according to body demand. Insulin is an important hormone for controlling glucose and fat utilization. However, when beta cells are presented with excess glucose and fatty acids, the same nutrients become toxic and damage them, leading to their dysfunction and diabetes. When glucose is being used in cells, glycerol-3-phosphate is formed, and this molecule is central to metabolism, since it is needed for both energy production and fat formation.

“By diverting glucose as glycerol, G3PP prevents excessive formation and storage of fat and it also lowers excessive production of glucose in liver, a major problem in diabetes,” says Murthy Madiraju, a scientist at CRCHUM.

How significant are the findings?

“It is extremely rare since the 1960s that a novel enzyme is discovered at the heart of metabolism of nutrients in all mammalian tissues, and likely this enzyme will be incorporated in biochemistry textbooks,” professor Prentki said.

“We identified the enzyme while looking for mechanisms enabling beta cells to get rid of excess glucose as glycerol,” adds Murthy Madiraju. “This mechanism has also been found to be operating in liver cells, and this enzyme is present in all body tissues.”

The work offers a new therapeutic target for obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The research team is currently in the process of discovering “small molecule activators of G3PP” to treat cardiometabolic disorders. These drugs will be unique in their mode of action and first of their kind in this class of drugs. The treatment will first have to be confirmed in several animal models before drugs for human use can be developed.

“The lentil genome assembly will provide important information to help us better understand this crop,” said Kirstin Bett, U of S professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and project lead of the international lentil sequencing effort. “More importantly, it will lead to development of genomic tools that will help improve breeding practices and accelerate varietal development.”

The development of genomic tools will allow breeders to track multiple, complex traits during their cross-breeding, which will help them develop high quality and high-yielding lentils in a shorter period of time. Improved speed, precision and breadth offered by these genomic tools have proven to be complementary to classical field and phenotype-based breeding practice.

This international sequencing effort is unique as the research is farmer-driven and industry-supported. Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG) has been a strong supporter of pulse crop research and development at the U of S. SPG first partnered with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in 2011 to provide approximately $1-million for initial lentil genomic research. In 2013, SPG provided more than $1.4-million to kick-start this sequencing initiative.

“Many international partners came on board once SPG made the investment,” said Bett. “The sequencing work quickly gained momentum and that’s why we were able to complete the sequencing in less than three years.”

“The sequencing of the lentil genome will provide breeders with tools to bring improved lentil varieties to growers faster,” said Carl Potts, executive director with Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. “The University of Saskatchewan is the world leader in lentil genetic development. This investment will help ensure Canadian growers remain globally competitive and that lentils can continue to be an economically strong performing crop for Canadian farmers.”

The reference lentil genome is based on CDC Redberry, a well-known small red lentil variety developed by Bert Vandenberg, U of S plant sciences professor and lentil breeder.

“With the lentil genome release, we can confidently say that this crop has finally entered the 21st century of plant breeding,” said Bett. “We can now develop molecular markers that will help breeders to incorporate desirable traits in their crosses in a much more logical way.”

Canada has been the world’s largest producer and exporter of lentils since 2008. It is a very important field crop for the Canadian economy and plays a significant role in supporting environmentally sustainable agriculture. The lentil genome release will help increase the competitiveness of the Canadian lentil industry and further maintain Canada’s position as the leading lentil breeder, producer and exporter in the world.

The sequencing effort includes researchers at University of California-Davis, National Research Council Canada, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington State University, International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Victoria State Government, African Orphan Crop Consortium, University of Western Australia and the Institute of Experimental Botany in the Czech Republic.

“This new wheat genome sequence is an important contribution to understanding the genetic blueprint of one of the world’s most important crops,” said Curtis Pozniak, a plant scientist with the U of S Crop Development Centre in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources. “It will provide wheat researchers with an exciting new resource to identify the most influential genes for wheat adaptation, stress response, pest resistance and improved yield.”

A combination of advanced software, computer programming and bioinformatics tools enabled the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) to use existing sequencing technologies to look at virtually the entire wheat genome. This will complement existing IWGSC strategies that are studying one chromosome at a time.

The consortium expects to have the complete picture of the wheat genome puzzle (17 billion base pairs)—with a clear idea of how the genes are ordered—within two years’ time. Given that the wheat genome is five times the size of the human genome, previous estimates suggested this work would take four or five more years.

“The computational tools developed by NRGene, which use Illumina’s sequence data, combined with the sequencing expertise of IWGSC has generated a version of the wheat genome sequence that is better ordered than anything we have seen to date. We are starting to get a better idea of the complex puzzle that is the wheat genome,” said Pozniak.

The result will be much greater precision in the breeding process.

“Imagine that you have a blueprint for the order of important pieces of the wheat genome puzzle. With that information, it becomes far easier to assemble the puzzle more quickly into new and improved varieties,” said Pozniak. “But this sequence is just the first step. There is still much work to do to define the function of each of the genetic pieces so that breeders can identify the very best genes in the gene pool.”

Though the work was done on just one variety of bread wheat (Chinese Spring), the new knowledge will serve as the backbone to unlock the genetic blueprint for traits in other varieties as well, significantly accelerating global research into crop improvement, he said.

Nils Stein of IPK Gatersleben in Germany said the new sequence represents “a major breakthrough” for the consortium’s efforts to deliver an ordered sequence for each of the 21 bread wheat chromosomes.

Co-ordinated by the IWGSC, the project uses Israel-based NRGene’s DeNovoMAGIC™ software with Illumina’s sequencing technology.

The public-private collaborative project is co-led by Stein, Pozniak, Andrew Sharpe of the Global Institute for Food Security at the U of S, and Jesse Poland of Kansas State University. Other project participants include Tel Aviv University in Israel and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research.

Funding was provided by Genome Canada, Genome Prairie, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, the Saskatchewan and Alberta Wheat Development Commissions and the Western Grains Research Foundation through the Canadian Triticum Applied Genomics (CTAG2) project; Kansas State University through the U.S. National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program; and Illumina, Inc.

Hamilton, ON– A multi-disciplinary team of researchers has developed a new diagnostic test that can quickly determine if patients are infected with an illness.

The simple test, developed by biochemists, engineers and chemists at McMaster University, features an all-inclusive patch of reactive material, or reagent, printed on paper that changes colour to indicate the presence of a biological marker for a specific bacterium, virus, or even cancer.

“It’s a very simple device that anyone can use,” says Yingfu Li, a professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster and one of the authors of a new paper in the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie. “There’s a huge need for this type of technology.”

Li explains that the platform can be manufactured cheaply, and easily formulated to detect biological markers for a huge range of illnesses.

Only a tiny sample of blood, sweat or other fluid is required, since the test works by detecting and amplifying the target DNA or RNA sequence in a sample. A single molecule of the target can be multiplied thousands of times, producing a visible result. Conceivably a user could swab a doorknob or dip it in a toilet bowl to test for Ebola, for example.

The test is the latest in a series of related developments to emerge from the Biointerfaces Institute, whose mission is to create useful new substances that combine biological agents and physical materials.

“The new test involves printing of all required components needed to amplify a DNA or RNA target directly on paper,” says the institute’s director, John Brennan. “The user only needs to add the sample to the paper and wait a few minutes for a color to develop.”

The test material is suspended in pullulan, a naturally derived polymeric sugar that is also the platform for the familiar Listerine breath strips. Pullulan allows the testing materials to remain viable for months until used.

The new test, which could be commercialized quickly, the researchers say, can diagnose infections even before patients feel symptoms. During cold season, for example, patients could save trips to the doctor and exposing the public by testing themselves at home.

Moreover, the test can also quickly differentiate between illnesses that share similar symptoms, such as headache, fever or diarrhea, permitting a quick diagnosis and earlier treatment. Because it is portable, inexpensive and requires no other equipment, the technology – which can be printed on paper by an inkjet printer – could be used in many environments, such as homes and airports, and in remote locations.

Research funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence and Pro-Lab Diagnostics Inc.

A new tool being developed at Carleton University will be able to quickly and easily identify the presence of two compounds in pork that can give the meat an unpleasant odour when it’s cooked.

In the pig business, this smell is called “boar taint”, and stems from two compounds, skatole and androstenone, found in uncastrated or intact male pigs.

Currently, to avoid the potential of boar taint, most farmers castrate male piglets at a very young age. It’s labour intensive for farmers and stressful for the animals, so the industry has long been searching for options to keep bacon and other pork products tasting great.

Dr. Maria DeRosa, in the university’s chemistry department, is developing a tool similar to a pregnancy test used in women that allows for detection of the two compounds either in live animals or in a carcass at processing.

“We need to know what the levels of the compounds in pigs are that will cause boar taint. The current way of having people sniff for boar taint is both subjective and expensive,” she explains. “So is there a way to measure these compounds cheaply and easily? Can we detect them in fat, for example?”

One current alternative to conventional castration is immunocastration, which means vaccinating the animals to try to keep the two compounds from developing as the pigs hit puberty.

And a team of Canadian researchers is working on a identifying the appropriate genetic markers in hopes of breeding pigs where boar taint won’t be an issue.

DeRosa’s solution involves a biosensor that uses aptamers – small, single-stranded nucleic acids that can bind to large or small target molecules. They’re the “keys” to identifying which DNA sequences will bind to target molecules.

She and her research team are identifying the aptamers that will bind to skatole and androstenone, and are working to have them packaged into a small test kit that can provide results very quickly and without needing to send samples to a lab for testing.

“Our pregnancy test-style kit changes colour if either of these compounds is present in the meat. For example, we can biopsy a small bit of fat from a live animal, and if skatole is found, the aptamer will “grab” it and the test will indicate its presence,” she says.

This could help farmers with breeding, allowing them to select animals that naturally have low enough levels of these compounds so they won’t result in boar taint when pork is cooked. It could also help identify animals at processing whose meat may develop the smell.

DeRosa’s work has received support from Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative, through the AgriInnovation Program, and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

Imagine a fertilizer that stays in the ground until plants need to access it, instead of being washed away or giving plants more nutrients than they can handle.

That’s what Carleton University chemistry professor Maria DeRosa and adjunct professor Carlos Monreal are developing: a smart fertilizer that waits to release its nutrients until crops tell it to do so. It’s a technology that could have great benefit for the environment and human nutrition. Currently, unused or excess fertilizer often ends up in lakes and water ways where it creates algae blooms. A more efficient and cost-effective fertilizer can play a leading role in increasing crop yields and addressing malnutrition issues, as well as reducing the amount of fertilizer that farmers need to use, resulting in cost savings.

“If a crop isn’t ready to take up fertilizer when it is applies, it is wasted and it’s estimated we waste about $1 billion per year in unused fertilizer,” says DeRosa. “Our goal is to make fertilizer smart so that it delivers its nutrients to a crop only when the crop needs it.”

To do this, DeRosa uses aptamers, which are small, single-stranded nucleic acids that can bind to large or small target molecules. Her research involves identifying these aptamers, which are the “keys” to finding which DNA sequences will bind to the target molecules. In human medicine, for example, this approach is starting to be used to detect damaged cells and distinguish them from healthy ones so that therapy is only delivered to the diseased cell. Crops like wheat and canola will release chemical signals when they need nitrogen.

It was through partnering with Monreal, who is also a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, that DeRosa and her team learned the identity of some of those signals – which allows DeRosa to program the coating of special biodegradable fertilizer capsules she’s developed to release the nutrients only when the plants need it.

“For example, if we place the fertilizer into a coated, biodegradable capsule, the coating will protect the fertilizer until the signal arrives from the plant that it needs fertilizer. That signal will hit the aptamer in the coating, break it down and release the fertilizer,” DeRosa explains, adding that the capsules protect the fertilizer from being washed away or damaged by extreme temperatures, but allow the nutrients to be released over time as the plants need them.

Following successful development of the coating and capsule and lab-based testing, DeRosa and Monreal are now moving their concept into a greenhouse setting to see how well it performs with real soil and plants. If successful, DeRosa says this development could open up a whole new field of using nanotechnology and biodegradable polymers to help feed the world’s growing population, projected to surpass nine billion by 2050.

This project has received support from Coop Fédérée and Agrium, as well as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

What if we can redirect high quality grains like corn and wheat from feeding livestock to feeding our growing world population?

A University of Guelph researcher has been asking himself that question for years and has set out to find a practical solution. A professor and researcher in the University of Guelph’s animal and poultry science department, Dr. Ming Fan has been working to find a way to increase the natural digestibility of lower quality feeds in livestock, which he expects will leave more grain available for human consumption or ethanol fuel production, an environmentally sustainable fuel alternative.

Corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, and sorghum are all considered high quality grains that both humans and livestock consume. Many grain processing techniques create grain byproducts that are very nutritional but undesirable for human consumption or further processing. These byproducts, including wheat hulls (husks of the grain), wheat shorts, and distillers grains (from distilling and ethanol production), are high in dietary fibre and could replace the higher quality and costly grains traditionally fed to livestock, like corn and wheat.The problem is that just like humans, monogastric livestock (animals with only one stomach chamber) like pigs have a hard time digesting high levels of fibre.

“Ever had a belly ache from eating too much of one kind of food, like ice cream or bread?” asks Fan. “Pigs feel that way if they eat too much fibre because they can’t digest too much at one time.”

Familiar with the digestive system of pigs, Fan has been leading research since 2009 to find the key to unlock fibre digestion. Grain byproducts and other lower quality feeds are economically cheaper and Fan’s research could change the livestock feed and grain industry if farmers have the ability to maintain the high nutritional value of feed at a lower cost.

“Finding natural fibre degradation or digestive enzymes would allow farmers to produce more with less,” says Fan. “That means raising healthy, nutritionally satisfied hogs with lower cost feed.”

He has discovered a naturally-occurring microbial enzyme in a pig’s gut, which has recently been patented. It already digests fibre and Fan is working to duplicate this natural enzyme to increase a pig’s ability to digest fibre-dense, lower quality grains and byproducts. Still in the early stages, this newly discovered enzyme represents a new type of fibre degradation biocatalyst for livestock and with further development, could increase an animal’s feed efficiency and enhance the digestion. Just like humans take dietary supplements to improve their own digestive bacteria, Fan intends to naturally replicate the enzyme to develop into a feed supplement for animals.

“Feeding the digestive enzyme back to hogs has huge potential for the livestock industry,” says Fan, who expects feed efficiency to improve in hogs by as much as 10 per cent.

Fan says the enzymes need further development before they reach the livestock feed market and is currently finalizing his research data for commercialization.

“We’ve found naturally-occurring gut bacterial enzyme that will be multiplied and fed back to hogs as a feed enzyme supplement to increase their digestion of high fibre, lower quality feed grains and byproducts,” says Fan. “Increasing feed efficiencies like this could revolutionize the landscape of the livestock feed industry.”

Funding for the most current stage of Fan’s research is provided by the Gryphon’s LAAIR (Leading to Accelerated Adoption of Innovative Research) program, which is supported through Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.