The definitive source for lab products, news and developments … · 2012-12-10 · 20 Lab waRE Figuring Out Our Food Food scientists play an important role in the daily lives of

September/October 2012 www.labbusinessmag.com

The definitive source for lab products, news and developments

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A Look at Food Sciences

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Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences | Food | Environmental | Clinical | Chemical Materials

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Sept./Oct. 2012 www.labbusinessmag.com

standards5 EDITOR’S NOTE

6 NEwS

9 SuzukI MaTTERS

18 TEch waTch

20 Lab waRE

Figuring Out Our FoodFood scientists play an important role in the daily lives of canadians. From testing food to ensure the safety of what we put in our mouths to researching how to create more nutritious meals, food labs are one of the most important kinds of laboratories in the country.

10inside11 Eating Meat

Meat is good for you, says Stuart Phillips, a researcher at the Exercise Metabolism Research Group at McMaster University. He explains his rationale for why we should bring on the beef.

16 who is afraid of Food? Should we trust the latest diet? Does the newest research on cholesterol really matter? We ask Harvey Levenstein these questions and discuss his new book, Fear of Food – A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat.

22 Interview with Dr. Morley hollenberg Morley Hollenberg, a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Calgary, discusses his work and how he feels about winning the CSCI/Royal College Henry Friesen Award.


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© 2012 Waters Corporation. Waters is a registered trademark of Waters Corporation. XBridge, XSelect, CSH,

and The Science of What’s Possible are trademarks of Waters Corporation.

Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences | Food | Environmental | Clinical | Chemical Materials

waters.com

XP 2.5 µm columns allow scientists to improve HPLC throughput and performance compared to conventional 3.5 µm and 5 µm columns while providing a vast selectivity range made possible by 3 unique particles and 14 phases.

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editor’s note

Some people we prefer to never see, because when we see them, we know some-thing went wrong. Like homicide detectives. or high school principals (when they leave a message for mom at her work). or the scientists who test the

quality of our food. When food testing laboratories do their job well (when they’re allowed to do their

job well), they remain backstage, out-of-sight, invisible. We eat without worry. That’s one of the pleasures of living in Canada—enjoying fresh produce knowing an expert has checked it for bugs; knowing a professional tests the city’s tap water every day.

sometimes the system fails. Like in Walkerton, ontario, when lax government oversight and incompetent staffers led to contaminated drinking water, widespread illness and deaths. now we have a new case study in food disasters: XL Foods, the alberta-based meat processing plant at the centre of an ongoing debacle with con-taminated beef.

The mess at XL Foods suggests that the meat industry and government regula-tors forgot what it learned following the listeriosis tragedy at Maple Leaf in 2008. one of the lessons that tragedy taught was the value of communicating with the public—if public health is threatened, warn the public immediately and be honest. There have been no clear communications with the current outbreak. Days passed before XL Foods said anything publicly, and when they did they offered platitudes. The Government of Canada responded with cheerleading: everything is fine, alberta beef tastes excellent, we’re number one. at the same time, the Canadian Food inspection agency issued more recalls for beef products. all is not well, and not just with the beef.

in speaking to nutritional scientists and lab techs who test food quality, we learned about the challenges facing food scientists. one fact caught our attention: the food industry counts on scientists more than ever before but fewer students graduate with the skills industry needs. now, this is a constant problem for many industries. but few industries matter as much as food. We can do without the next iPhone. We can survive without discount airfares. With climate change remaking our resources and changing how we farm, we can’t do without food scientists. and we can’t do without testing facilities and procedures that have integrity.

Invisible work

Robert Price,Managing editor

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Prostate Research • NBW Roundup • Bio Leadership

Championing the Business of BioteChnology in Canada September/October 2012

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Bio-PolicyMichael Prince Talks About Regulations

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According to a new report by Gbi Research, international pharmaceutical compa-nies are increasingly outsourcing clinical trials to countries in asia, Latin america and eastern europe.

Gbi Research’s latest study shows big Pharma is finding greater value in employing Contract Research organizations in emerging nations to manage clinical trials.

Drug discovery companies such as advinus and aurigene in india, and WuXi appTec in China have all delivered their targets ahead of schedule and helped the big pharma-ceutical companies to accelerate their drug research at considerably lower costs.

With the benefits of employing CRos based in developing countries proving to be a major point of consideration for big Pharma, the total number of clinical trials conducted in the u.s. has fallen from 60 per cent of the global sum in 2002 to 40 per cent in 2010.

in 2010, europe carried out 25 per cent of all clinical trials, while east asia accounted for 10 percent. Canada followed at 6.1 per cent.

Education cuts put patients at risk: CSMLS

Clinical Trials Move to Emerging Countries

The Canadian society for Medical Laboratory science warns that a recent move by newfoundland and Labrador’s Regional Health authorities to suspend support for several professional develop-ment activities puts patient safety at risk.

newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Health and Community services recently directed the Regional Health authorities to find efficiencies. Professional development activities, and associated travel, have been curtailed as part of this initiative.

CsMLs says the suspension of pro-fessional development activities directly opposes the recommendations made in the 2009 Report of the Commission of inquiry on Hormone Receptor Testing.

The tightening of finances comes as newfoundland prepares legislation that will regulate medical laboratory technol-ogists along with other health care pro-fessions. The regulation of medical labo-ratory technologists will set forth manda-tory continuing education to ensure the maintenance of skill and competency. However, CsMLs says that if supports for these activities are not in place, it will place an unfair burden on those same professionals.

8 September/October 2012 Lab business

news beat

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that it will close its Quebec-based virology research programme, following

a comprehensive review of its research areas and priorities. The company said it intends to shift resources towards research targets that show greater likelihood of generating revenue for the company.

“In virology, compared to other therapeutic areas in which Boehringer Ingelheim is conducting research, the demands for medical innovation are shifting significantly due to the availability of new medications and also the emphasis on prevention through vaccination, a field in which Boehringer Ingelheim is not active. With the renewed focus on the diseases of high unmet medical need, and considering the scientific possibilities, we decided to con-clude virology research at Boehringer Ingelheim,” said Dr. Michel Pairet, Corporate Senior Vice President responsible for Research and Development at Boehringer Ingelheim.

The winding down of virology research activities will result in the closure of a research facility in Laval, Quebec, during the first quarter of 2013. Approximately 170 employees will lose their jobs. Boehringer Ingelheim entered the Canadian market in 1972 and currently employees more than 700 employees across the country.

Canadian science and technology “is healthy and growing in both output and input,” says a new report by the Council of Canadian academies. Canadian scientists are among the most cited researchers in the world, with ontario, Quebec, british Columbia and alberta accounting for 97 per cent of the scientific papers produced by Canada. ontarians write 46 per cent of all scientific papers published by Canadians.

The report made other noteworthy discoveries: Clinical medicine is the most productive area of research in Canada, in terms of the numbers of papers published; and R&D investment as a percentage of Canada’s GDP has declined since 2001, to

1.81 per cent from 2.09 per cent. Richard Hawkins, a professor at the

university of Calgary, says the report on Canada’s scientific output shows that “Canada’s science system is a success story.”

“as a nation, and especially in the light of national and globally declining resources for science, Canadian science punches con-siderably above its weight.” Hawkins says the report delivers a message to govern-ment: universities are sustaining Canada’s R&D. “as the report points out, Canada has rather a larger portion than normal of business research being conducted in uni-versities. This would be a positive number were it not for the fact that businesses

themselves are hollowing out their R&D capabilities. The report is proof positive that governments need to develop a far more nuanced and mature perspective on these complex issues than they seem to possess at the moment.”

“There are both encouraging and cau-tionary elements to this review,” says Peter Phillips, a professor at the university of saskatchewan. “Canada appears to rank highly or have strengthening performance in some areas of advancing science and technology that are also important to the Canadian economy but has measurably less success in advancing new knowledge into patents (and by implication in use).”

Canada is a Research Powerhouse: Report

Quantum Nano Research Gets BoostResearch into the smallest parts of our universe got a boost this month with the opening of the Mike & ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-nano Centre at the university of Waterloo.

To be shared by the institute for Quantum Computing (iQC) and the Waterloo institute for nanotechnology (Win), the 285,000 square-foot facility will give researchers the tools and collaborative opportunities they need to perform experiments, investigate new processes and materials and build new technologies.

The $160-million building meets the most stringent standards for quantum-scale experiments — precise controls for vibration and temperature, for example — and features a large, six-storey central atrium at the heart of the building surrounded by flexible spaces to encourage interaction and collaboration.

since 1999, Mr. Lazaridis’ philanthropy and fund-raising efforts have netted more than $600 million toward this vision, including funding for iQC, Win, QnC and the Perimeter institute for Theoretical Physics.

Boehringer Ingelheim to Close Quebec Research Facility


It’s in our nature to be healthy

By David Suzuki with contributions from Ian Hanington

One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child. Recently, i found my three-year-old grandson picking at a scab on his arm.

it brought a flood of memories because i used to do the same thing. it was amazing to watch the blood from an injury dry and, over days, form a scab. before that scab was ready to fall off, i would pick at it to see what was underneath, and, wonder of won-ders — it was fresh, pink skin!

it’s amazing how our bodies regenerate. We get hit and bruises form as blood leaks into tissues. over time, the dark blue colour is diluted, and may move before disappearing. even broken bones will heal and return to full strength. and skin, our largest organ, is a miracle layer. it keeps the rest of us inside and every-thing else outside. it wards off infections, sheds water, cools us in hot weather, and repairs itself.

still, viruses, bacteria, and parasites are ever-alert for opportunities to penetrate our protec-tive layer. as well as frequent nicks and cuts, we have natural openings like mouths, ears, noses, anuses, and genitals, each with its own protec-tive mechanisms. if an invading organism gets inside, we have an incredible barrier, our immune system, constantly generating new proteins to fight off infections we’ve never even encountered. We have a defence system that recognizes and fights against any cell with a genetic makeup different from our own (which is why it’s so difficult to transplant organs, tissues, or cells). Yet, pregnant women support a foetus that is genetically different for nine months.

Thanks to evolution, our bodies have powerful ways to ward off illness and infection and enable us to live long and healthy lives. Why, then, do health costs continue to climb at unsustain-able and frightening rates? Part of it is that medical care has become so sophisticated that doctors are able to treat more prob-lems. another part is the ever-increasing cost of drugs. and with a medical system, people are more likely to seek help. still, health-care costs can’t continue to rise forever. Governments are always looking for ways to reduce costs, often by offloading a greater share of the burden onto patients.

We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow things to be sold that should not

be called food. Many have no nutritive value and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies. We spew chemicals into the environ-ment by the millions of tonnes. Molecules pour into us through air, water, and food, overwhelming or weakening our protective immune systems. according to Harvard university doctors eric Chivian and aaron bernstein, “our behaviour is the result of a basic failure to recognize that human beings are an inseparable part of nature and that we cannot damage it severely without severely damaging ourselves.”

The medical literature tells us that the most effective ways to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, alzheimer’s, and many more problems are though healthy diet and exercise. our bodies have evolved to move, yet we now use

the energy in oil instead of muscles to do our work.in 2007, the World Health organization concluded that envi-

ronmental factors contribute to 36,000 deaths and 13 per cent of the disease burden in Canada annually. The Canadian Medical association claims air pollution causes more than 20,000 prema-ture deaths a year. and according to author and environmental lawyer David R. boyd, scientists estimate that environmental factors affecting heart and respiratory disease, cancer, and birth problems contribute to anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 deaths, 78,000 to 194,000 hospitalizations, 600,000 to 1.5 million days in hospitals, and other problems totalling $3.6 billion to $9.1 billion in direct and indirect costs each year.

it’s easier, more effective, and cheaper to let healthy bodies fight off disease and infections than to weaken those defence mechanisms and then compensate for them medically. if we want a stable health system, we must put more resources into reducing pollution and environmental degradation and creating a way of life that keeps bodies and minds happy and in good health. LB

For more from David Suzuki, see Everything Under the Sun (Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation).

suzuki matters

Thanks to evolution, our bodies have powerful ways to ward off illness and infection and enable us to live long and healthy lives.

lab spotlight

On september 16, the Canadian Food inspection agency warned Canadians not to eat beef pro-duced by alberta-based XL Foods. some of the beef coming out of the XL processing plant, CFia said in a release, was contaminated

with e. coli. The news of the contaminated beef rolled through the news-

papers and grocery stores for the next several weeks. People got sick. The public worried. a story broke that the u.s. Department of agriculture found the e. coli in imported Canadian beef before


Food labs face challenges unique to their field of science

Getting the Taste for Food

the Canadian Food inspection agency. another report said gov-ernment officials new about the e. coli outbreak weeks before alerting the public. Ministers stood in the House of Commons and pronounced that all is well and Canadians are safe. Meanwhile, the CFia pulled more alberta beef products from grocery stores. by the end of september, CFia had issued recalls for more than 300 beef products produced by XL Foods.

as the supplier of 40 per cent of the beef Canadians consume, the contaminated beef posed a huge health threat to Canadians. For the beef industry, still recovering from losses sustained after

By Robert Price


Getting the Taste for Food mad cow disease appeared in alberta cattle, the e. coli scare has raised new questions about the security of Canada’s food system.

Food scientists, whether they work in testing labs or in nutri-tional science, face a set of challenges that are unique to their field. every field of laboratory science worries about funding, but in a field where so much of the scientific work ends up in the mouths and stomachs of Canadians, maintaining an innovative research agenda and quality controls remains a daily challenge.

The need for faster testingin the small lab at the ontario Food Technology Centre, a bou-tique food testing laboratory catering to small volume food pro-ducers, lab technicians manually test everything from fresh pro-duce to municipal water for pathogens. The lab uses electric incubators, refrigerators and autoclaves, but the techs run all the tests by hand.

Michelle Mcevoy, oFTC’s lab manager, says speed of service one of the toughest challenges facing a third-party testing lab like oFTC. Whether a lab processes plates by hand or with auto-mated machines, pathogens grow at the same rate.

With today’s approved methods, clearing a sample as negative for salmonella can take up to seven days. For food producers sell-ing food with a shelf life of 12 days, a lengthy set of tests has huge

implications on the cost of production. until researchers invent a faster way to clear

products, food processors are stuck with less time to sell products.

“You’ve always got the money makers at the compa-ny saying, ‘Push it, push it,

push it,’ and the QC people saying, ‘Well, we need

to see,’” says Mcevoy. “That’s a constant push and pull. it can

be pretty hairy.” as third-party testers, Mcevoy says companies like oFTC

bring an extra level of security to consumers. Third-party testers don’t face internal pressure to bias test results. “it doesn’t make any difference to me if i find e. coli in food, a swab, whatever,” says Mcevoy. besides the integrity outside labs can bring to food test-ing, the practice makes practical sense. Positive controls require labs to grow pathogens in the lab, and “food producers really don’t want to keep salmonella and e. coli within their plant boundar-ies,” says Mcevoy.

Projecting needs nancy ames, a research scientist in the agricultural and agri-Food Canada’s Cereal Research Centre, works with plant breed-ers to improve the nutritional value of barley. The work coming out of her lab is called “field to fork,” meaning she deals with barley at all stages of the life cycle, from before the farmer plants

By Julia TeeluckSteak lovers can rejoice knowing that Stuart Phillips champions the case for meat. Phillips, a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and researcher at the Exercise Metabolism Research Group at McMaster University, focuses on how nutrition and exer-cise impact human skeletal muscle protein. “The case for meat really comes in the nutrient density of that kind of protein,” says Phillips. “It’s associated with iron, vitamin B12 and zinc. It’s a very rich source of micro-nutrients, and a pretty judicious source of protein to stave off sarcopenia.”

Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass, occurs as a person ages and can lead to complications such as a decline in mobility. With today’s aging population comes the demand for cost-efficient ways to combat age-associated diseases. Phillips notes two par-ticularly effective strategies: resistance exercise (i.e. weight lifting) and a higher protein intake. “That’s where the meat falls in,” says Phillips.

In Phillips’ labMass spectrometry plays an important role in Phillips’ lab. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry and isotope ratio mass spec-trometry allow Phillips to trace the amino acids in the muscles and see where the new proteins are made. “We infuse into people stable isotope labelled amino acids, for example, and we trace where they go,” says Phillips. “We trace them into certain blood proteins, but we also take muscle biopsies.”

Through this process he and his team assess the rate of new muscle protein synthesis. For example, if a person ingests four ounces of beef protein, they are able to determine the metabolic changes. “We can actually say this promotes the stimulation of X percentage of new muscle growth compared to the same amount as vegetable source protein, which promotes slightly less than X amount of new muscle protein synthesis.”

Bring on the beefAccording to Phillips, a protein “hierarchy” exists. He believes that the increasing emphasis on promoting plant-based proteins as a healthier choice is misguided. “The underpinning reason for that has nothing to do with the understanding of protein nutrition, and more to do with the saturated fat content of the protein itself,” he says.

The idea that high saturated fat consumption raised one’s LDL cholesterol thus increasing one’s risk for heart disease has pre-vailed for decades. However, a 2010 meta-analysis supported by the National Dairy Council found no significant relationship between cardiovascular disease and dietary saturated fat. “If you look at the content of lean meats now, more and more cuts of beef and pork are lean, in other words, they have less than 10 grams of fat per serving,” says Phillips.

Consumers can take a comfort knowing that the nutrition ben-efits of meat can help prevent less-than-desirable diseases. So what’s on Phillips’ plate? A slice of lean beef served rare. “I could be a vegetarian if meat didn’t taste so damn good.”

The case for meat in your three square meals


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the barley seed to the moment the consumer consumes the barley. ames says predicting the needs of consumers represents a huge

challenge for researchers in her field. “My big overall picture is trying to keep on top of what the needs of farmers and consumers will be in the future,” she says. This kind of prediction requires balance and a “blending” of what consumers will need with what farmers can actually grow. Her work is “a futuristic thing,” and she has to focus on keeping ahead of the market. “otherwise i can’t possibly be doing what people need,” she says.

“and of course that ends up affecting funding, so you’ve got to be ahead [of what research needs will be].”

ames says in the field of food science, researchers have a spe-cial obligation not to “reinvent the wheel.” Funds are limited and food is important, so food researchers need to know the field and not duplicate efforts. The food sciences broadly require “a team-work approach,” says ames.

“it’s a challenge that all researchers should be considering—that we don’t repeat research simply for a publication. in agricul-ture, we have a big role in keeping the population healthy. We have to think about the needs of human health. We have a moral responsibility to spend the money the best way we can without duplicating our efforts.”

Karin Wittenberg, associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of agricultural and Food sciences at the university of Manitoba,

agrees with ames that food science requires a team approach. Food science is a small community of specialized individuals,

she says, and providing resources to these specialists so they can do as much as possible means “that we have to get them better connected to each other and the people that they’re serving.”

“To me that has been a bit difficult in the environment that we have here. The will is there, but sometimes the means aren’t.”

Wittenberg continues: “There are always issues like lack of funding, but when we take a look at the numbers of scientists who are today responsible for the research associated with food pro-duction, there aren’t that many left. and yet food is becoming more and more important. Food is more global. it is such a strong economic driver.”

Labour shortage in his government laboratory in Pei, phytochemist Jason McCallum says the food sciences—and all the people and indus-tries that rely on this special breed of scientist—face significant costs if today’s generation of scientists cannot attract students to the field.

“not a lot of people go into natural products chemistry or agricultural-focused chemistry anymore. There are fewer and fewer people graduating with an interest in agriculture or food, fewer and fewer people are focused on the chemistry end of sci-

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lab spotlight

ence,” says McCallum. He traces this gap in the workforce to a shift toward molecular

biology 30 years ago. The shift came at the expense of the field of chemistry. “one of the things students coming into the system don’t really understand is that chemistry is the thing that holds molecular biology together. Most genes are enzymes, and those enzymes are making chemicals, so at the end of the day, it comes back to the chemistry.”

“so if you don’t have the people to do the analysis of the chemicals coming out [of biological processes], you get a bottle-neck there.”

McCallum illustrates the problem with a story from his lab. The lab had set aside funds to hire a student chemist. The job posting went unanswered. “We had all these applicants coming from molecular biology. ‘i can do PCR,” they all said. Well, i don’t care if you can do PCR, can you run an HPLC?”

“The hardest thing is to find people that are skilled in isolating things and doing benchtop chemistry,” he says. “Pharmaceutical companies kind of eat up all the good grads, i guess.”

Communicating with the publicbringing scientists together isn’t easy in any field, but food sci-ences offer a unique set of challenges—and not just when it comes

to staffing issues. Wittenberg explains the challenges the university of Manitoba faced when it opened the national Centre for Livestock and the environment in 2007. The Centre was established to create a team of scientists—including medical microbiologists, engineers, animal scientists and plant scientists—to work on developing sustainable animal production systems, with a particular focus on meat production systems. but, says Wittenberg, the Centre had to conduct work “in a fashion that accounted for the need to be competitive economically,” while at the same time developing food production systems that were also sustainable and safe for humans, the environment and animals.

“so the challenge was for people who were very well known and doing good research in their individual disciplines to be able to work together. They had to be able to find the resources and to build research facilities so they could work to solve these issues,” says Wittenberg.

after five years, Wittenberg says the research team has found ways of getting along and conducting profitable and productive research. The challenge now is to communicate the value of what they do.

“even though we’ve been doing this for five years, our chal-lenge is really around being able to apply for research funds. We need to get government and industrial funding agencies to recog-

nize that when you coordinate across disciplines, across institutions, there’s an extra cost associated with making sure that the communication is open and transparent so that research opportuni-ties aren’t lost.”

Public visibility has been one of the advantages of assembling a diverse research team, as the Centre has done. The research benefits from a kind of economy of scale.

“When you work in one finite area and present research in a very scientific way, you don’t attract nearly as much attention as when you’re doing this holistic type of research. because it’s holistic [working across disciplines], people grasp what we’re trying to do,” says Wittenberg. an informed public breeds a desire among the public for more information. Researchers who can communicate with the public about the science of their everyday lives—like the food they consume—will attract the kind of positive attention that attracts resources. “That kind of mentality [of communicating clearly with the public about public issues] is more and more important, particularly around things like animal agriculture.” LB

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critical perspectives

Author takes on sloppy food science and myths in new book

Afraid of What We Eat

Harvey Levenstein’s Fear of Food – A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat (The university of Chicago Press, 2012) traces the science-induced social fears that

have led to what he calls a “national eating Disorder.” From “germophobia,” led by the late nineteenth century French scientist Louis Pasteur, to the current “war on cholesterol,” Levenstein, professor emeritus of history at McMaster university, explores the science and the claims that influence what we eat. He reminds readers that scientists cannot prove anything with absolute cer-tainty and that we should take claims, such as a recent study that says consuming eggs is as bad for your health as smoking, like we take our eggs—with a grain of salt.

LAB Business: In your introduction, you note that food fears have had the backing of the nation’s most eminent scientific, medical and governmental authorities. What responsibility do scientists have to the public?Levenstein: i’d say one of the main responsibilities they have is not to go for the headlines, and not to exaggerate the certainty of the conclusions they’re drawing. in the case of nutritional scien-tists, many of whom use epidemiological studies as the basis for making recommendations about what people eat, should make it clear about what they’re discovering and associations between eat-ing foods and health outcomes. and not [present findings as] cause and effect.

From reading your book, it seems that the pattern throughout history has been for scientists to come out with radical claims that are misunderstood by the public.Right, and people reading the media reports of these studies tend to ignore or not notice the crucial word that’s always in there, which is “might.”

What role should scientists play in what we should or should not eat?That’s a good question. i think scientists should play a very restrained role. They should restrain themselves from giving people advice about what they should eat. They shouldn’t say anything unless they’re absolutely certain of the health conse-quences of something. so far, i can think of very few things in which they are absolutely certain.

Like what?The only epidemiological study that came out with a slam dunk was the one 50 years ago about the relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

Do nutritional scientists have a purpose? Are they useful to society?a lot of my friends are scientists, and my father used to say about people doing dubious things, “Don’t they have to make a living?” We’re all trying to make a living. scientists are doing research on various things and they’re trying to discover new things. That’s the name of the game. if you don’t discover new things you don’t get money to discover new things—you don’t get grants. and if you’re a scientist, that’s your life—it’s research and grants. Without grants, you’re dead meat. it’s not like people like me who have taught history. You can spend a whole career without having gotten a grant.

For nutritional scientists in particular, i think there’s more chance of getting funding for proving something than just con-firming something that everyone knows.

What’s the problem with this type of research?it can never be an open and shut case because of the very nature of the problem of the relationship between food and health. You’re never really going to be able to prove anything with certainty, at least not in our lifetime. but what we do know is that there are so many thousands of components of every food, most of which we’re unaware of or the function we’re unaware of. Food is such a complex thing. Then when you add that to the human body, which is an even more complex thing, and you’re trying to figure out the interactions between the two, you know, give me a break! How are you going to be certain of the relationship between the two when you’re doing these epidemiological studies?

now, it’s another thing to be working in a lab and to break

By Julia Teeluck


down certain components of things and analyze them chemically, but you can only go so far with that. ultimately, they all have to use that term “might.”

What do you think is the biggest food fad or misconception today?i’d say the persistence of the diet-heart theory, which is the per-sistence of the theory that eating foods that have fat in them will kill you. and not because they’re fat-tening, but because the dietary fat, the cholesterol in food, will kill you.

Whether cholesterol in the blood stream causes heart attack is one ques-tion, and whether the food you eat has a significant influence on the choles-terol is another one. everyone thinks that the food you eat is the main deter-minant of how much cholesterol there is in your bloodstream, and the fact is that it isn’t. it’s only around 10 or 12 per cent of the cholesterol comes from the food you eat. if you have high cho-lesterol, then take a cholesterol lower-ing medication, but don’t bother trying to not eat any eggs.

You speak about the French Paradox and note the pleasure the French get from enjoying and sharing their meals. Should we forget about the sci-ence?Yes, i think so. even people who using these associational studies have tried to say that one of the reasons the French have much lower rates of heart attack or heart disease, for example, is that they get pleasure from their eating. That somehow there are positive health effects to enjoying your food rather than worrying about it. i find that pretty difficult to believe, although i’d love for it to be true. i really don’t think there’s much basis for thinking that.

However, food is one of the most universal pleasures that people can have, and it’s terrible to see the pleasure of eating disappear in so many people. i see the anxiety in people that face food choices. it’s crazy.

Have there been any nutritional discoveries that have caused you to change anything in your diet over

the years?over the years i’ve been more conscious of eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and whole grain breads and so on. i have been caught up occasionally in ideas that i think are unsubstanti-ated, but which go along with things i enjoy eating, like blueber-ries. i like blueberries, so i probably eat some more than i would normally eat because of the claims that it heads off alzheimer’s or it’s good for your memory. LB

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tech watch

Food ScienceResearch in the field of food science and testing is evolving and the amount of people tak-

ing interest in it continues to grow. new developments in lab equipment allow food scientists to change the way we see the things that we consume in our everyday lives. Whether it is safer, healthier, easier to produce or simply better tasting, science continues to make strides to creating healthier, more nutritious and safer foods. Here is a selection of products that are helping us do exactly that.

Diversified Technologies’ PeF Pasteurization system achieves a >5 log bacteria kill without heat or chemicals and is suitable for juices, yogurt, and other foods that can be pumped. Pasteurizing the liquefied food product in a chamber by employing brief pulses of high voltage, this sys-tem does not alter the flavor or consistency of the foods and juices. Custom engineered to process

from 50 l/hr up to 10,000 l/hr throughput, Diversified Technologies’ PeF Pasteurization system generates electrical pulses at up to 60 kV/cm field strength with power levels from 150 kW to 750 kW. Providing full control over pulse and frequency, PeF systems use less energy than con-ventional pasteurization methods.www.divtecs.com

System Pasteurizes Liquefied Food Products

Laboratory instrumentation manufacturer seaL analytical’s aQ1 discrete analyzer automatically tests multiple samples in dis-crete reaction vessels. The aQ1 is ideal for laboratories with moderate workloads requiring varied tests on different samples and for those that need fast individual results. The aQ1 is supplied with standard methods to usePa, asTM, iso and other

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New Compact Discrete Nutrient Analyzer Saves Lab Time, Space


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ensuring sample integrity is critical in labora-tory and pharmaceutical research, microbiology, food technology, and many other scientific applications. With sample protection as its key driver, Thermo scientific developed a new line of Heratherm incubators and Gravity Convection ovens that do just that. Thermo scientific Heratherm General Protocol incubators are ideal for standard applications in pharmaceutical, research, medical, and food labs. They are designed to deliver top-quality temperature uniformity ranging from 5°C ambi-

ent to 75°C. Their unique airflow design, advanced microprocessor control, and automatic overtemperature alarm keep the internal envi-ronment optimal. an interior glass door enables sample viewing without disturbing the desired temperature. on the other hand, the Thermo scientific Heratherm General Protocol Gravity Convection ovens are designed for gentle heat-ing and drying with minimal air turbulence. These ovens are a highly effective choice for precise heating applications. www.thermoscientific.com

OMEGA Introduces New, Easy to Operate Dissolved Oxygen Meter

omega’s new DoH-sD1 series is an innova-tive and easy to operate dissolved oxygen meter with a real time sD card data logger which sets it a part from other dissolved oxygen meters. This Ce product features LCD with green light backlighting, altitude and salt adjustments,

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lab ware

Mass Vortex Flow Meter allows for Advanced, More Reliable Measurement of Liquefied GasesSierra Instruments’ new cryogenic version of its InnovaMass 240 multivariable mass vortex flow meter features advanced, more relia-ble measurement of liquefied gases, including liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, down to -330°F (-200°C). Historically gauged by inexact turbine flow meters, liquid gas flow can now be calculated with precision using Sierra’s new flowmeter. The InnovaMass also contains no moving parts that will wear out or require service, an added advantage that provides stable readings and an increased service life. Using a special cryo-genic temperature RTD, mass calculations are done with the latest density equations of state for liquid oxygen, nitrogen, argon and car-bon dioxide.www.sierrainstruments.com

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ELISA System Offers Rapid, Sensitive and Specific Chemifluorescence-based Procedures using Exceedingly Small Sample VolumesA new automated low volume, high sensitivity microfluidic ELISA by Tecan and Siloman Biosciences offers rapid, sensitive and specific chemifluorescence-based ELISA procedures using exceedingly small sample volumes. The speed, sensitivity and small sample requirements are achieved as a result of the unique microfluidic design of the Optimiser technology. All reactions, including analyte capture and detection, occur within an ~5 μl microfluidic reaction chamber. www.tecan.com and www.siloambio.com


100mL Pressure Reactor optimiz-es chemical pro-cesses at lab scaleMettler Toledo’s 100mL Hastelloy Pressure Reactors EM20-100-HC and EM60-100-HC are designed for use with the EasyMax. These reactors expand the use of EasyMax to both organic chemists who seek an autoclave-like experience and chemical engineers who desire high-pressure process characterization. The 100mL pressure reac-tor’s design expands the use of EasyMax in two ways. First, in its basic configuration, organic chemists gain quick set-up and fast results from low- and mid-pressure reactions using the in-built touchscreen/reactor combi-nation like an autoclave. This simplifies mix-ing, temperature and pressure control and allows easy measurement of reaction factors such as mass flow and gas uptake. www.mt.com/

G-Sphere Molecular Standards Provides Flexible Quality Control for LabsPhthisis Diagnostics’s G-Sphere Molecular Standards are synthetic genes that provide safe, stable, consistent, and abundant con-trols for virtually any organism and any molecular assay. Molecular diagnostic labo-ratories face difficulties in obtaining consist-ent and reliable controls to monitor the per-formance of molecular assays and instru-ments. The new Phthisis product line, the only one currently offering such standards for parasites, is an innovative solution to improve and simplify quality control proce-dures. The custom product is supplied as 100 reaction vials that come with dilution buffer and instructions for use. www.phthisisdiagnostics.com

Permeation Tubes for Nitric Acid Vapor Used to Calibrate Air MonitorsKIN-TEK’s Trace Source Permeation Tubes use a mix-ture of reagent grade nitric and sulfuric acids as the analyte source. The sulphuric acid binds the water, reducing water emission to negli-gible levels. Emission of the sulfuric acid is extremely low compared to that of nitric acid, so the emis-sion is primarily nitric acid. Formation of nitrogen oxides in the vapor is minimized by dynamically blending the emission to form trace concentration mixtures that are then used immediately.www.kin-tek.com

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MottLab.indd 1 8/16/10 4:11 PM


scientist profile

Born in Winnipeg to a “Canadian medical dynasty” (physician parents and four uncles, one aunt and many cousins who work as doctors), Dr. Morley Hollenberg has made

immense contributions in the area of molecular pharmacology of hormone action, as related to signalling by hormone-like mediators, including insulin, epidermal growth factor (eGF) and proteolytic enzymes, since the late 1960s. His scientific contributions have been recognized by membership in the Royal society of Canada and a number of research-related awards, including the Pharmacological society of Canada’s 1999 novartis award for outstanding contributions to pharmacology in Canada; The Canadian society of Clinical investigation 2009 Distinguished scientist award; the Royal society of Canada’s 2011 McLaughlin medal for sustained research excellence; and recently, the CsCi/Royal College Henry Friesen award for 2012 for demonstrated leadership in developing biomedical research at local, national and international levels.

On current research challenges“My research group is known for its work in the area in the area of PaRs (proteolytic acti-vated receptors) which are integrally involved in the processes of inflammatory diseases, which range from arthritis to neurodegeneration. The challenge we face now is to develop drugs that can block the action of these systems in an appropriate way, so i’m really keen on seeing the information we have been able to acquire put to use in minimize the problems of various inflammatory diseases like arthritis, colitis and asthma.”

On the importance of having Dr. Henry Friesen as a mentor“[Friesen] has been what i like to call one of my butterflies. i like to think of mentors as having a butterfly effect on my career. i got to know him when he was still at the university of Manitoba, at which point he had already discovered Prolactin. He showed a lot of inter-est in the work i had done for my doctoral thesis in england. He was always taking an interest in my career, not necessarily directly, but he was always concerned and interested about my work, always checking in to see my progress. if it were not for him, many people, including myself, would not have been able to do the research we have done. it was just an extraordinary honour to receive an award named in his honour [the 2012 Henry Friesen award], because of the inspiration Henry has been to me. at the conference where i received the award, he came up, shook my hand and told me that i’m setting the bar almost too high to jump over now. That, coming from him, was the greatest compliment i could receive.” LB

By Shayan Jaffer

Dr. morley HollenbergProfessor, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary

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Documents

The definitive source for lab products, news and developments … · 2012-12-10 · 20 Lab waRE Figuring Out Our Food Food scientists play an important role in the daily lives of