Faculty researchers tackle projects thanks to federal funds

Researchers in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) received grants worth over $1.1 million in 2023 from the Government of Canada which were announced nationally last week.

These grants will support researchers and their trainees and help equip their laboratories as they work to solve scientific challenges in fields that include food processing, human nutrition, insect biodiversity, plant and animal health, soil productivity, and biomaterials.

Two FAFS researchers were recipients of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), a program that provides infrastructure funding to enhance capacity to conduct research. Three received infrastructure support through NSERC’s Research Tools & Instruments funding program and ten were recipients of NSERC Discovery Grants, including four early career researchers who also received Discovery Launch funds.

JELF recipients

Chyngyz Erkinbaev, Biosystems Engineering
Smart Sensing Technologies and Data-driven Innovations: The Future of Food Processing
$160,000

Maneka Malalgoda, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences
Infrastructure to advance the development of healthy grain-based food products
$160,000

NSERC Research Tools & Instruments funding recipients

Rotimi Aluko, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences
Spectrofluorimeter for protein and peptide research
$43,440

Nandika Bandara, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences
Differential scanning calorimeter for protein, food processing, material science and nanotechnology research
$134,388

David Levin, Biosystems Engineering
Process 11 Twin-Screw Extruder for Advanced Polymer Blending
$149,915

NSERC Discovery Grant recipients

DGECR = Discovery Launch supplements for early career researchers
(projects marked with * are year 1 of multi-year funding)

Rotimi Aluko, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences
Structural requirements and efficacy of food protein-derived peptides that modulate glutathione peroxidase 4 activity
$51,000*

Belay Ayele, Plant Science
Molecular mechanisms controlling abscisic acid/gibberellin balance and seed dormancy
$59,000*

Kyle Bobiwash, Entomology
The effects of Western and Indigenous land management systems on insect biodiversity
$38,000* + $12,500 (DGECR)

Fouad Daayf, Plant Science
Adaptation of soilborne pathogens to economic crops in Canada
$39,000*

Hooman Derakhshani, Animal Science
Harnessing the therapeutic potentials of the livestock microbiota: elucidating biochemical, antimicrobial, and immunomodulatory properties of the microbial natural products
$33,000* + $12,500 (DGECR)

David Levin, Biosystems Engineering
Developing Molecular Tools for Biodegradation and Biorecycling of Plastics
$40,000*

David Lobb, Soil Science
Enhancing the understanding and assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation through improvements to sampling and analytical techniques employed using tracers
$47,000*

Afua Mante, Soil Science
Exploring mechanisms controlling attenuation and soil productivity recovery of brine-contaminated agricultural soils in the Canadian Prairies
$30,000* + $12,500 (DGECR)

Cristina Rosell, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences
Unraveling amylase activity going from wheat kernels to healthy foods (AMY-WHEALTHY FOOD)
$51,000*

Joanne Thiessen Martens, Soil Science
Soil, plant, and fertilizer dynamics in phosphorus-efficient Prairie cropping systems
$30,000* + $12,500 (DGECR)