From a fundamental discovery in a chemistry lab to a novel product for the market
It all started when John Sorensen, a chemistry professor, and his research team discovered an enzyme with an interesting reaction, a difficult step in the organic synthesis laboratory. The reaction normally requires multiple steps and many reagents without the same yields. But with the enzyme, it could be done in a single step in great condition. The discovery then sparked conversations among the research team about commercialization and how it could be put somewhere on a store shelf. This is where Randi Roy, a student at the Faculty of Science, who had started working in Sorensen’s lab in 2021, saw the perfect opportunity to get out of her comfort zone and follow her passion. Sorensen and Roy have recently been accepted into the Lab2Market National program. They are the first undergrad-Principal Investigator (PI) pairing from Manitoba and the fourth undergrad-PI pairing ever in the National Lab2Market Program.
We sat down with them to talk about the importance of undergraduate lab experience, research commercialization and learning new skills by going out of one’s comfort zone.