This competition challenges the presenters to explain their research in just 3 minutes, using only one slide. A panel of 3 judges will evaluate participants on clarity, engagement and impact, while the audience will also have a chance to vote for their favourite presentation both in person and online via the live stream link.

The eight postdoctoral challengers ready to captivate the audience with their three-minute presentation this year are: 

• Daniel Zogona – Food Science, Bioactive compounds in cereals and their potential health benefits. 
• Titus Olukitibi – Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Immune markers associated with the natural clearance of HPV 
• Kaustav Dey – Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stability analysis of controller hardware-in-loop electro-magnetic transient simulations. 
• Minoo Dabiri Golchin – Occupational Therapy, An overlooked human right: Play 
• Abhay Srivastava – Physiology and Pathophysiology,  Nanotechnology can direct cellular fuel burn and fight inflammation!!! 
• Carmine Slipski – Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases,  Development of a rapid saliva test for detection of oral health
• Illia Roskoshnyi – Law, Legal technological unemployment in the age of AI 
• Nicola Gasparre – Food Science, Green technology for upcycling protein industry co-products into high value food ingredients 

Mark Your Calendars -This competition is open to students, faculty, and members of the public to attend and promises to be both informative and inspiring, offering a rare glimpse into the future of research across multiple disciplines. “This is a great opportunity to learn about the work our postdoctoral fellows are pursing at UM””, says Dr. Kelley Main, dean of the faculty of graduate studies, “I hope to see our community come out to support these students in this competition.”

Location: Bannatyne Campus, Theatre B, Basic Medical Science Building 

Date: September 20, 2024

Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm 

Please register to attend here: https://forms.office.com/r/h9JXQUMpvv 

“It’s meat produced by taking cells from an animal, and then you grow them in big fermentation vats,” says Jim House, a food sciences professor at the University of Manitoba.

“And then once the cells have grown up and multiplied, you pull them back together and form a meat product, such as a chicken nugget or a chicken cutlet.”

Read here

A multidisciplinary team of Canadian researchers is tackling a growing issue for the wheat industry: free asparagine.

This naturally occurring amino acid is a key contributor to grain protein; however, asparagine that remains in the grain as a free amino acid – rather than bound up in the protein – looks to be the trigger for a potential food safety risk. The team’s goal is to help ensure Canadian wheat growers can produce top quality, safe wheat that competes successfully in the marketplace.

“Asparagine is an amino acid that plants generate. It is important for transporting nitrogen around the plant. Generally that free asparagine gets converted into protein in the wheat grain. The trouble is that the grain will also have a pool of some amount of free asparagine as the amino acid. When flour from the grain is baked into bread or cookies, for example, the high baking temperatures tend to cause a reaction between the free asparagine and sugars in the dough, which then forms acrylamide,” explains Martin Scanlon, a food scientist at the University of Manitoba who is leading this research.

The 9th University of Manitoba Food Fight competition took place March 17 as part of the annual Discover Ag in the City public event held at The Forks.

Nine teams enrolled in the course food product development course (FOOD 4510) pitched their unique creations to the three-judge panel, giving background on their product selection, development and marketing plans.  Among this year’s products were a “red” protein burger, a chia seed jam, a potato breakfast muffin and red wine syrup.

The judges – which included Judy Wilson, marketing director for the Asper School of Business, Dave Shambrock, executive director of Food and Beverage Manitoba, and Doug Speirs, humour columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press – in turn asked some hard questions and provided their critical analysis.

Course instructor Dr. Claudia Narvaez from the Department of Food Science notes that the Food Fight competition gives the students a chance to refine their product before their final in-class presentation in April.

“We truly appreciate the opportunity to expose the students to the real-world expertise of the judging panel. The students take the comments back to the test kitchen and classroom to make final tweaks on their products.”

The winning product? The Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bar, a gluten-free snack that impressed the judges from start to finish.  Teammates Kyra O’Keeffe, Zhaoxi Chen, Li Yang, and Xiang Li received U of M Bookstore giftcards and the title of 2017 Food Fight winners.

Tell us about your journey back to Winnipeg.

I was born in Winnipeg, but lived most of my life in Ankara, Turkey, until I came back to Winnipeg for graduate school. I undertook my undergraduate and M.Sc. degrees at Turkey’s number one ranked educational institute, Middle East Technical University. I returned to Manitoba for my doctorate and recently graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Food Science.

I always wanted to come back to Canada for graduate school. Towards the end of my M.Sc. degree, I found myself quite interested in cereals. I guess the passion for studying cereals runs in our family. My father who introduced me to the world of cereals is a cereal scientist himself. My father had his M.Sc. degree in Food Science from the University of Manitoba. I always thought that the U of M is one of the best universities in the world to study cereal science and technology.

Cereal science sounds interesting – what did you study?

During my M.Sc. in food engineering, I studied mechanical properties of gluten-free baked goods. The project was about developing new products using a novel heating technology (a microwave-infrared combination oven) and investigating the shelf life of these baked goods.

During my Ph.D., I studied the effects of the mixing and extrusion processes on the bubbly structure of bread doughs, under the supervision of Dr. Martin Scanlon. Martin introduced me to techniques, such as X-ray microtomography, low-intensity ultrasound, that are not very commonly employed in food science, opening my eyes to interdisciplinary areas of research besides the traditional. He is an exemplary advisor who has a very big influence on how my career shaped.

After my Ph.D., I took a post-doctoral fellow position at the University of Manitoba in collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan Food and Bioproduct Sciences Department. I studied the salt-water-gluten protein interactions in bread doughs during mixing and fermentation.

During my 2^nd post-doctoral fellowship which was also at the U of M, I investigated the influence of genotype, crop growing environment and their interactions on wheat processing quality for breadmaking. I learned most of what I know about Canadian wheat from Dr. Harry Sapirstein.

Tell us about your research at the Canadian Light Source.

Our work at the Canadian Light Source’s Biomedical Imaging and Therapy Beamline (located in Saskatoon, SK) was all about bubbles in bread dough. Bread owes its appeal mainly to the quality of its aerated structure and a good aerated structure depends directly on the bubbles in the bread dough. So if we can determine the bubble sizes in the dough at earlier stages of the breadmaking process, then we can predict how the resulting bread will turn out before bread is fully manufactured. But there are billions of tiny bubbles in bread dough and these tiny bubbles are very fragile.

My research challenge during my Ph.D. was figuring out how to measure the sizes of these tiny, fragile bubbles without destroying my dough sample. And that is how X-rays from a synchrotron source came into my story. The X-ray techniques we used are similar to a head CT scan in principle, so that we can see what is inside the dough without destroying the bubbles. For many people, it is really surprising how much science goes into food science and technology. In summary, the project at the Canadian Light Source focused on the fundamentals of bubbles and how they change over time. In the future, with these bubble detection techniques, I would like to be able to control the quality of tomorrow’s bread. In addition, I would like to apply this knowledge to not only increase the intake of fiber through consumption of baked goods but also cut back on fat, sodium, additives and chemicals in cereal based foods.

Typical work day?

I try to divide my work day into three: research, teaching and service. A big chunk of my time is spent on research (keeping up with relevant literature, publishing papers, etc.), since I am not teaching this semester. As a young scientist, I spent a lot of time in the laboratory as well. For students, I have an open door policy.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

When indoors, I like hanging out with friends, watching movies and playing board games. When outdoors, I like ice skating, dancing and listening to live music performances. I try to catch a music festival every year.

Led by University of Manitoba researchers Drs. Peter Jones and Meghan Azad, the study brings together a team of scientists and health care professionals to understand how microorganisms in our bodies, genetics, and lifestyle – such as diet, activity and sleep – interact to shape our health. The knowledge gained will lead to personalized health information and recommendations that will benefit the current and future health of Manitobans.

“We know that lifestyle factors such as diet, activity and sleep interact and influence risk for chronic health conditions. Through TMPLR, our goal is to understand these interactions, and then identify and test recommendations to improve health in a personalized fashion,” said Dr. Jones, Professor in Food Sciences and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Functional Foods and Nutrition, as well as Director of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (RCFFN).

“We also know that early life experiences have a long-term impact on health,” said Dr. Azad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health and Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. “TMPLR will explore how events during pregnancy and early childhood influence the development of chronic disease in adulthood.”

The study will recruit 1200 total participants over four years, and in the first phase is seeking a cross-section of Manitobans between 30-46 years of age. Participants in the TMPLR study will be asked to come to the RCFFN at the University of Manitoba or to TMPLR’s mobile research unit on two consecutive days to undergo measurements and give biological samples. Samples will undergo analysis for numerous established and emerging health biomarkers and gut microbiota analysis.

Measurements will include a scan to measure body composition and bone density, and physical activity testing to estimate maximal aerobic capacity. Participants will be asked to wear activity monitors for a week to assess day-to-day physical activity and sleep.

The research project will be officially launched today at 11:00 AM in the atrium of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals.

TMPLR was funded by the Collaborative Research Team/Cluster Development Program from Research Manitoba, receiving $1 million in April 2015. Research Manitoba promotes, supports, and coordinates the funding of research in the health, natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities in Manitoba.

More details on becoming a participant in the study are available on the TMPLR website

So what is Listeria monocytogenes? And how can we protect ourselves from this food-borne illness? Rick Holley, professor in the department of food science, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, explains in the video below.

You’ll also want to read this story about a new spin on Halloween by members of the student group, PRAXIS, who participated in a a Canada-wide campaign called “Trick or Eat” organized by Meal Exchange, a national, non-profit charity that empowers youth to take an active role in improving their local food system. And finally, check out this story about Robert Schroth, dentistry professor and member of the Manitoba Institute of Child Health, who provides dental care for underserviced populations.

These are just three examples of the U of M’s reach into the wider community. For more stories, visit the community engagement website.

Martin Scanlon, professor of food science and acting head of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, says that the hope is that the  groundbreaking research could have a direct effect on what we see on grocery shelves. He told Breakfast Television during a report on the research that the point was “getting good ingredients into your average loaf of bread — and yet, getting good quality, not looking like some of these house bricks that you do see on bakery shelves.”

The researchers have already been approached by a manufacturer of frozen dough, he added.

The student also presented her research as part of the 3MT challenge a few weeks ago. A finalist in the live competition, Koksel’s presentation,  “The Perfect Loaf of Bread: Insights from X-rays, Sound Waves and Bubble Dynamics,” was awarded the “People’s Choice,” a prize worth $1,000.