From lab-grown chicken to cricket-derived protein, these innovative alternatives offer hope for a planet struggling with the environmental and ethical impacts of industrial agriculture. Now, Korean scientists add a new recipe to the list—cultured beef rice—by growing animal muscle and fat cells inside rice grains.
“Imagine obtaining all the nutrients we need from cell-cultured protein rice,” says first author Sohyeon Park, who conducted the study under the guidance of corresponding author Jinkee Hong at Yonsei University, South Korea. “Rice already has a high nutrient level, but adding cells from livestock can further boost it.”
In animals, biological scaffolds help guide and support the cells’ three-dimensional growth to form tissue and organs. To cultivate cell-cultured meat, the team mimicked this cellular environment—using rice. Rice grains are porous and have organized structures, providing a solid scaffold to house animal-derived cells in the nooks and crannies. Certain molecules found in rice can also nourish and promote the growth of these cells, making rice an ideal platform.
The team first coated rice with fish gelatin, a safe and edible ingredient that helps cells latch onto the rice better. Cow muscle and fat stem cells were then seeded into the rice and left to culture in the petri dish for 9 to 11 days. The harvested final product is a cell-cultured beef rice with main ingredients that meet food safety requirements and have a low risk of triggering food allergies.
To characterize the hybrid beef rice, the researchers steamed it and performed various food industry analyses, including nutritional value, odor, and texture. The findings revealed that hybrid rice has 8% more protein and 7% more fat than regular rice. Compared to the typical sticky and soft texture, the hybrid rice was firmer and brittler. Hybrid rice with higher muscle content had beef- and almond-related odor compounds, while those with higher fat content had compounds corresponding to cream, butter, and coconut oil.
“We usually obtain the protein we need from livestock, but livestock production consumes a lot of resources and water and releases a lot of greenhouse gas,” says Park. The team’s product has a significantly smaller carbon footprint at a fraction of the price. For every 100 g of protein produced, hybrid rice is estimated to release less than 6.27 kg of CO2, while beef releases 49.89 kg. If commercialized, the hybrid rice could cost around $2.23 per kilogram, while beef costs $14.88.
Given that the hybrid meat rice has low food safety risks and a relatively easy production process, the team is optimistic about commercializing the product. But before the rice makes its way to our stomachs, the team plans to create better conditions in the rice grain for both muscle and fat cells to thrive, which can further boost the nutritional value.
“I didn’t expect the cells to grow so well in the rice,” says Park. “Now I see a world of possibilities for this grain-based hybrid food. It could one day serve as food relief for famine, military ration, or even space food.”
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Rice grains integrated with animal cells: A shortcut to a sustainable food system by Sohyeon Park, Milae Lee, Sungwon Jung, Hyun Lee, Bumgyu Choi, Moonhyun Choi, Jeong Min Lee, Ki Hyun Yoo, Dongoh Han, Seung Tae Lee, Won-Gun Koh, Geul Bang, Heeyoun Hwang, Sangmin Lee, Jinkee Hong. Matter Volume 7, ISSUE 3, P1292-1313, March 06, 2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2024.01.015 First published online: February 14, 2024
Last week, I received (via email) this enticing November 27, 2023 University of British Columbia media advisory,
Welcome, baking enthusiasts and insect epicureans, to the Great UBC Bug Bake Off!
On Nov. 28 [2023], media are invited as four teams of faculty of land and food systems students engage in a six-legged culinary showdown. Students will showcase insect-laden dishes that are delicious, nutritious and environmentally friendly. Esteemed judges, including UBC executive chef David Speight, will weigh in on the taste, texture and insect ingenuity of the creations.
We spoke to course instructor and sessional lecturer Dr. Yasmin Akhtar about the competition, and why she advocates for entomophagy – eating insects and bugs.
WHY DO YOU HOST THIS INSECT DISH COMPETITION?
This competition is the culmination of my applied biology course “Insects as Food and Feed” where we spent the semester learning about the benefits and risks of eating and using insects. One of my goals is to reduce the negative perceptions people may have of eating bugs. This competition is a fun way to raise awareness among students about the nutritional value of insects, their role in sustainable food systems and the importance of considering alternative protein sources.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF EATING INSECTS?
In addition to being really tasty, there are two main benefits of eating insects.
Many insects are incredibly nutritious: They are high in protein, calcium, good fatty acids and vitamins. For example, a species of grasshoppers commonly eaten in Mexico, Sphenarium purpurascens, contain 48 grams of protein per 100 grams, compared to 27 grams of protein per 100 grams of beef. Insect protein is also easily absorbed by humans and some insects contain all the essential amino acids that humans need.
The other benefit is environmental. Rearing insects requires much less space, fewer resources like water and much less feed. They produce much lower greenhouse gas emissions than cattle or pigs, for example. It also encourages the sustainable use of diverse insect species, rather than relying on a small number of traditional livestock species to meet the world’s needs.
It is also relatively cheap to rear insects, which means that small-scale farmers can benefit.
WHAT ARE SOME EASY WAYS TO INCORPORATE BUGS INTO YOUR DIET?
Insect flours and insect powders are an easy way to incorporate bugs into your diet – especially if you are wary of eating insects whole. You can purchase insect flour online and simply replace wheat flour in any recipe with the insect flour for tasty, high-protein baked products like muffins or as filling in samosas.
Barbecuing insects is another great option: they absorb flavour really well, and dry out to become very crunchy. Barbecued crickets are my favourite! I also really like chocolate-covered ants, and adding insect powder to green tea.
WHAT ARE SOME RISKS OF EATING INSECTS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD BE AWARE OF?
Insects live in a lot of different environments, including soil, and can be infested with microorganisms like bacteria, fungi and other viruses. Just like other animal proteins, insects should be treated before they are consumed – using heat to boil or cook them, for example.
If capturing insects from the wild, you need to be aware that they may be contaminated with pesticides that were used to spray fruits and vegetables. A better option would be purchase them from insect farms, where they are safely raised to be used as food.
Lastly, if you’re allergic to seafood, then you’ll likely also be allergic to insects because they share similar protein allergens.
EVENT: GREAT UBC BUG BAKE OFF
Date/time: Tuesday, Nov. 28, 11:15 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Contest will begin promptly at 11:30 a.m. so please arrive early to set up.
Location: Vij’s Kitchen, Room 130, 2205 East Mall
As you might have expected, the media attended. From a November 28, 2023 article by Stefan Labbé for vancouverisawesome.com
Inside a culinary lab at the University of British Columbia, nine students took turns offering a menu of insect-infused recipes to a panel of judges.
Beef tacos wrapped in cricket flour-laced tortillas. Mealworm ginger sugar cookies “to add a little protein during the holidays.” And cheesecake with a layer of crushed cricket fudge. Judge and UBC executive chef David Speight snapped off a piece of ginger cookie in his mouth.
“It doesn’t really taste like mealworm,” he said with a smile. “That’s good.”
The competition, billed as the Great UBC Bug Bake Off, pit the students against each other to see who could come up with the tastiest, and perhaps least offensive dish. But for students who had just spent months learning about insects as food and feed, the stakes of eating bugs was much larger.
“We’re going hungry globally,” said UBC student Rozy Etaghene, after presenting her cheesecake.
By 2050, the global population is expected to hit nine million people [sic; the UN projection is for 9.8 billion]. To feed all those mouths, agricultural production will have to double, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. But agriculture already takes up 30 per cent of the planet’s land, with up to 70 per cent of that reserved for livestock like cattle, pigs and chickens.
…
But substituting chicken wings for fried crickets is not always an easy sell. A decade ago, Vancouver chef Vikram Vij donated $250,000 to renovate UBC’s culinary lab. At the time, the co-owner of Vij’s restaurants, Meeru Dhalwala, was in the midst of experimentation, first putting insects on the menu in 2008.
It all started with roasted crickets, an insect that requires only two kilograms of feed for every one kilogram of body weight gain. Spiced with cayenne, cumin and coriander, Dhalwala said she would treat them like ground almonds.
“I made a cricket paratha, like a flatbread,” she said. “It was a really big deal at the time.”
…
Back at the UBC culinary lab, the judges had come to a decision: Etaghene’s cheesecake had lost out to a pound cake and plate of cranberry short-bread cookies — both baked with cricket flour.
A cricket paratha served at Meeru Dhalwala’s restaurant in Seattle sold four times better than in Vancouver, says the restaurateur. Stefan Labbé/Glacier Media
Labbé’s November 28, 2023 article offers a lot of information on insects as food in Canada and in the world, as well as, more about the bake off.
Another November 28, 2023 article this time written by Cosmin Dzsurdzsa for True North (I have more about True North after the excerpt) highlights other aspects of the event, Note: Links have been removed,
Canadian journalists were so eager to attend the University of British Columbia’s Bug Bake Off on Tuesday [November 28, 2023] to get a taste of edible insect creations that the event was booked to capacity the night before.
…
Former CBC producer and UBC media relations specialist Sachintha Wickramasinghe told True North on Monday that the event was at capacity.
“There’s been significant interest since this morning and we are already at capacity for media,” said Wicramansinghe.
…
There has been growing interest by governments and the private sector to warm consumers up to the idea of edible insects. The Liberal government has lavished edible insect cricket farming companies with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of subsidies [emphasis mine].
The True North Centre for Public Policy is a Canadian media outlet that simultaneously describes itself as a “media company”, an “advocacy organization” and as a “registered charity with the government of Canada.”[1][2] It operates a digital media arm known simply as True North [emphasis mine].[3][4]
…
In 1994, the Independent Immigration Aid Association was started with the goal of helping immigrants from the United Kingdom settle in British Columbia.[2][5] According to Daniel Brown, a former director of the charity, a new board of directors took control of the charity in 2017 and renamed it the True North Centre for Public Policy.[2] Control was handed off to three people:[2]
Kaz Nejatian, a former staffer for United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney, and current COO of Shopify.[6]
William McBeath, the director of Training and Marketing for the right-wing Manning Centre for Building Democracy.
Erynne Schuster, an Edmonton-based lawyer.
Nejatian’s wife, Candice Malcolm, describes herself as the “founder and Editor-In-Chief” of True North.[7][8]
…
The political leanings of the people in charge of True North in its various manifestations don’t seem to have influenced Dzsurdzsa’s November 28, 2023 article unduly. however, I’m a little surprised by the stated size of the industry subsidies made by the Liberal government. I found an $8.5 million dollar investment (isn’t that similar to a subsidy?) for one project alone in a June 29, 2022 article by Nicole Kerwin for Pet Food Processing, Note: A link has been removed,
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada revealed June 27 [2022] an $8.5 million investment to Aspire, an insect agricultural company, to build a new production facility in Canada. The facility will process cricket-based protein, helping to advance the use of insect proteins in human and pet food products.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, food-grade processing of insects is relatively new in Canada, however insect-based proteins create an opportunity for the country’s agri-food industry to develop more sustainable products.
“The strength of Canadian agriculture has always been its openness to new ideas and new approaches,” said Peter Fragiskatos, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Revenue and member of Parliament for London North Center. “Aspire [Food Group] is helping to re-shape how we think about agriculture and opening the door to new product and market opportunities.”
Founded in 2013, Aspire strives to tackle worldwide food scarcity with a focus on edible insect production, therefore developing highly nutritious foods and lowering its environmental impact. Currently, the company has production facilities in London, Ontario, and Austin, Texas. In 2020, Aspire purchased 12 acres of land in Ontario to construct what it expects to be the largest automated, food-grade cricket processing facility in the world.
“Aspire is re-imagining what it means to sustainably produce food, and how smart technology can turn that vision into a reality,” said Francious Drouin, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada. “Aspire’s innovative facility will help further establish London’s reputation as a hub for cutting-edge technology, strongly contributing to Ontario and Canada’s position as an innovator in agriculture and agri-food.”
Apsire [sic] plans to use the investment, as well as smart technology, to build its first commercial insect production facility in Ontario. The facility will boost Aspire’s insect farming capabilities, providing it with the ability to grow and monitor billions of crickets, which will be used to create nutrient-rich protein ingredients for use in the human and pet food industries.
…
Getting back to the Bake Off, there’s a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) video (runtime: 3 mins. 34 secs.),
UBC Bug Bake Off serves up insect dishes
Students at the University of British Columbia have whipped up some protein-rich dishes made with a special ingredient: bugs. Our Science and Climate Specialist Darius Mahdavi tried the insect-laden dishes and brought some for our Dan Burritt as well.
Sadly, you will have to endure a couple of commercials before getting to the ‘main course’.
Caption: Dr. Maciej Lisicki is developing a formula for perfectly creamy ice cream in his laboratory. Credit Photo: Michal Czerepaniak, source: Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw.
It’s unusual to see a scientist in an orange (maybe it could be called fire engine red?) jumpsuit as it has an altogether different meaning (prison wear) in the US.
Take four brilliant physicists who specialize in fluid mechanics and put them in the kitchen. Give them pots, pans, basic foodstuffs, and a bottle of champagne. Add a COVID-19 pandemic, a pinch of boredom, and a handful of good ideas. Stir, wait, and voilà – you have a “delicious” publication that will teach you how bubbles are created in champagne, how to brew the perfect espresso, and how “kitchen revolutions” can contribute to innovations in many fields, including biomedicine and nanotechnology.
Most of us visit this place every day. But the kitchen is not just for cooking meals. “It can be an excellent place to conduct experiments and even make scientific discoveries,” argues Maciej Lisicki, of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw, co-author of a publication in the prestigious journal Reviews of Modern Physics. The team of researchers, which in addition to Maciej Lisicki includes Arnold Mathijssen of the University of Pennsylvania, Endre J.L. Mossige of the University of Oslo and Vivek N. Prakash of the University of Miami, not only explores the history of food science, but also shows how phenomena in the kitchen lead to innovations in biomedicine and nanotechnology.
COVID pandemic and bubbles in champagne
Maciej Lisicki and his fellow researchers began working on the article during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many researchers could not work in the lab and began experimenting in their homes. “It started primarily with the intention to make an educational tool, given that kitchens offer a low barrier of entry to doing science — all you need are some pots, pans, and a few ingredients to get a few reactions going—but it quickly grew into a more scientific reflection of the history of food once we realized how interwoven the fields are,” says Arnold Mathijssen.
The team of researchers constructed the results of their work along the lines of a menu. “Tasting” begins with the physics of drinks and cocktails, then moves on to main courses, and finishes with coffee and desserts, whose preparation is also based on the intuitive use of the laws of nature.
As with any good party, everything begins with the opening of a bottle of champagne. After a characteristic “pop”, we observe how a mist forms around the neck of the bottle. – This phenomenon is associated with a rapid change in pressure. Inside the bottle it reaches almost five atmospheres, but when the bottle is opened it drops to one atmosphere. “The expansion is accompanied by a drop in temperature, which causes the water vapor that accumulates near the mouth of the bottle to freeze, and the carbon dioxide coming out of the bottle to condense”, Maciej Lisicki explains.
In their paper, the researchers also look at bubbles, which give sparkling wines their unique flavor. “Circulating bubbles force the transport of the liquid in the glass, and thus facilitate the release and spread of aromatic notes and flavors”, the researcher adds. From the section of the paper devoted to drinks and cocktails, we will also learn what makes the foam in beer so thick and stable, why aniseed drinks such as rakija and ouzo get cloudy when enough water is added (the phenomenon is even called the “ouzo effect”), and what “tears of wine” are.
When water surfs the pan
Moving on to the main course, the scientists explain the role of heat and its effect on food textures, aromas, and flavors. Among other things, they describe the Leidenfrost effect, in which a drop of liquid placed on a very hot surface forms an insulating layer of vapor, that prevents rapid boiling. “Water drops thrown onto the pan ‘surf’ and even bounce off the surface, instead of evaporating immediately”, Lisicki says.
Proper temperature is crucial in the preparation of many foods. “It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in physics to fry the perfect steak. Everyone knows that one needs to quickly sear the meat in a sufficiently hot pan. As a result, the proteins on the surface of the steak coagulate and the moisture is kept inside”, the researcher explains.
A Ph.D. in dishwashing
The text also includes examples of scientific discoveries that researchers have made without leaving their own kitchens. One of them is related to the biography of Agnes Pockels.
“Her story speaks of the inequality in science. She was a woman in Germany in the late 19th century, so she was not allowed to attend university for formal training, making it difficult for her to submit her research to journals,” Mathijssen says.
Running her parents’ household and spending a lot of time in the kitchen, she quickly began experimenting there. “Observing the formation of foam and films on the surface of dirty dishes, she was the first to describe the phenomenon of surface tension and developed an instrument to measure it. Initially, scientific journals were reluctant to publish the results of her experiments due to her lack of formal training and affiliation with university staff. Her first paper was published through Lord Rayleigh in Nature and contributed to the understanding of surface effects in liquids. Agnes Pockels then became well-known and respected, and all her subsequent work was published in high-profile journals. This example shows that it is possible to become a respected scientist without leaving home,” notes Maciej Lisicki.
Salad dressing vs. nanoengineering
Research in fluid mechanics can help improve food processing technologies, as well as find applications in other fields such as nanoengineering and medicine. “In an earlier study (“Rechargeable self-assembled droplet microswimmers driven by surface phase transitions”, published in Nature Physics) conducted by my team, we used a simple emulsion that is the basis of salad dressings – oil with water. We were able to make droplets of such an emulsion, with the addition of a surfactant, form tendrils under temperature and move like bacteria. Such nontoxic, biocompatible microfluidics could be used in the future, for example, to precisely deliver drugs anywhere in our bodies”, Lisicki explains.
The review also highlights the applicability of these technologies in areas such as food safety and quality control. By deploying devices that can detect food-borne pathogens or toxins using principles of fluid dynamics, the scientific community can contribute significantly to public health.
Another key aspect of their review is the potential impact it could have on policy decisions, particularly those related to environmental sustainability and food safety. The authors highlight the significance of science-based policies, for example – referencing the announced EU ban on PFAS non-stick coatings by 2030. Using the scientific understanding offered by studies like these, policy makers can make informed decisions to foster a more sustainable and safer food future.
“Kitchen flows show us that significant scientific problems are available at our fingertips and do not always require space technology to explore them. On the other hand, more than a few cosmic technologies were born from inspiration by everyday phenomena. The kitchen can therefore entertain us, but also teach us – in this case, physics. This is why it is worth a try to unleash your curiosity and experiment!” Lisicki adds.
This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-NIFA AFRI 2020-67017-30776 and 2020-67015-32330).
Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw Physics and astronomy at the University of Warsaw appeared in 1816 as part of the then Faculty of Philosophy. In 1825, the Astronomical Observatory was established. Currently, the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw consists of the following institutes: Experimental Physics, Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, the Department of Mathematical Methods and the Astronomical Observatory. The research covers almost all areas of modern physics, on scales from quantum to cosmological. The Faculty’s research and teaching staff consists of over 200 academic teachers, 88 of whom are professors. About 1,100 students and over 170 doctoral students study at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw.
Perhaps the paper provides more information about the ice cream research depicted in the visual image at the top of this posting. Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
I have two items about gene-edited food. One is from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the other is from Hiroshima University (Japan).
Better tasting food?
Cherries without pits do not fit my definition of better tasting food but it’s just one of the touted ‘improvements’.
Can you imagine eating cherries without having to deal with its pits? That could be a reality thanks to gene-editing tools like CRISPR. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
A May 18, 2023 article by Mouhamad Rachini for CBC’s radio programme, The Current, features information from a radio segment on gene-edited food,
When Michael Wolf tried a new type of mustard green that had been gene-edited to taste less bitter, he came away impressed.
“I don’t necessarily like my food very bitter, so I appreciated it,” Wolf, founder of the food tech publication The Spoon, told The Current’s Matt Galloway.
Food scientists are starting to use gene-editing technology, called CRISPR [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats], to change certain features of some Canadians’ favourite fruits and vegetables. For example, scientists told Wolf that the technology could be used to create cherries without a pit.
Pairwise, a North Carolina-based gene-editing startup, recently rolled out a mustard green engineered to be less bitter than the original plant. It’s the first CRISPR-edited food to hit the U.S. market.
Although the gene-edited mustard greens haven’t appeared in Canada yet, the process could find a home here very soon.
Earlier this month, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) seed guidelines now allow for some modified plants.
The updated rules now allow seeds created through gene-editing without an independent safety assessment by the government, as long as they aren’t spliced with DNA from other types of fruits or vegetables, or altered to make them pesticide-resistant. [emphasis mine]
Wolf explained further that gene-editing with CRISPR has some key differences from other types of genetic modification for food, which has been around for some time.
“[With genetic modification], you’re maybe inserting a foreign DNA into a molecule. But with CRISPR, what it’s essentially doing is just cutting out undesirable traits,” he said. [emphasis mine]
“So you’re not really inserting something that might be foreign to the organism. So it’s something that is a bit, I guess, less concerning for a lot of people who are worried about GMO because that takes away that concern.” [emphasis mine]
…
“Removing bitterness in a vegetable, I believe, is doing a disservice to our palate,” Dionisia Roman-Osicki of Virden, Man., wrote to The Current. “You can’t be a foodie without recognizing the value of bitterness in food.”
Organic farmer Antony John said there are already “cultural methods” to sweeten the taste and nutritional values of certain foods without genetic modification, such as carrots.
“The cold temperatures causes the carrots to provide an antifreeze, and that antifreeze is sugar,” said John, co-owner of the Soiled Reputation farm in Sebringville, Ont. “So they convert the starch in their roots into sugars. So letting your carrots grow when it’s cold and when there’s subzero temperatures will enhance the sugar in it.”
…
The radio segment embedded in Rachini’s May 18, 2023 article is 13 mins. 14 secs.
Allergen-free eggs
Over at Hiroshima University, a May 17, 2023 press release (also on EurekAlert but published May 16, 2023) announces research into making eggs safer for people who have allergies, Note 1: The researchers have used a different kind of gene-editing (or genome-editing) technique Note 2: Links have been removed,
Researchers have developed a chicken egg that may be safe for people with egg white allergies. Chicken egg allergies are one of the most common allergies in children. Though most children outgrow this allergy by age 16, some will still have an egg allergy into adulthood. Egg white allergies can cause a variety of symptoms, including vomiting, stomach cramps, breathing problems, hives, and swelling and some people with egg white allergies are unable to receive certain flu vaccines.
Using genome editing technology, researchers have produced an egg without the protein that causes egg white allergies. This protein, called ovomucoid, accounts for approximately 11% of all the protein in egg whites.
Research detailing the food safety profile of this modified egg, called the OVM-knockout, was detailed in a paper published in Food and Chemical Toxicology in April 2023.
“To use OVM-knockout chicken eggs as food, it is important to evaluate its safety as food. In this study, we examined the presence or absence of mutant protein expression, vector sequence insertion, and off-target effects in chickens knocked out with OVM by platinum transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs),” said Ryo Ezaki, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life at Hiroshima University in Hiroshima, Japan. TALENs are restriction enzymes that recognize specific DNA sequences and break or cut them.
In order to develop the OVM-knockout eggs, researchers needed to detect and eliminate the ovomucoid protein in the egg whites. TALENs were engineered to target a piece of RNA called exon 1, which codes for specific proteins. The eggs produced from this technique were then tested to ensure there was no ovomucoid protein, mutant ovomucoid protein, or other off-target effects. The eggs had the desired frameshift mutation, which is a mutation created by inserting or deleting nucleotide bases in a gene, and none of them expressed mature ovomucoid proteins. Anti-ovomucoid and anti-mutant ovomucoid antibodies were used to detect any traces of the protein, but there was no evidence of ovomucoid in the eggs. This means that mutant ovomucoids could not create new allergens. This is an important step in determining the safety profile of the eggs.
Other gene editing tools, such as CRISPR, tend to have off-target mutagenesis effects. This means that new mutations are prompted by the gene editing process. However, whole genome sequencing of the altered egg whites showed mutations, which were possibly off-target effects, were not localized to the protein-coding regions.
“The eggs laid by homozygous OVM-knockout hens showed no evident abnormalities. The albumen contained neither the mature OVM nor the OVM-truncated variant,” said Ezaki. “The potential TALEN-induced off-target effects in OVM-knockout chickens were localized in the intergenic and intron regions. Plasmid vectors used for genome editing were only transiently present and did not integrate into the genome of edited chickens. These results indicate the importance of safety evaluations and reveal that the eggs laid by this OVM knockout chicken solve the allergy problem in food and vaccines.”
Looking ahead, researchers will continue to verify the safety profile of the OVM-knockout eggs. Because some people are highly allergic to this specific protein, even small amounts of ovomucoid can cause a reaction. Researchers will need to perform additional immunological and clinical studies to determine the safety of the OVM-knockout eggs. At this time, researchers have determined that OVM-knockout eggs are less allergenic than standard eggs and can be safely used in heat-processed foods that patients with egg allergies can eat. “The next phase of research will be to evaluate the physical properties and processing suitability of OVM-knockout eggs, and to confirm their efficacy through clinical trials,” said Ezaki. “We will continue to conduct further research toward the practical application of allergy-reduced eggs.”
Caption: For their artificial fairy, Hao Zeng and Jianfeng Yang got inspired by dandelion seeds. Credit: Jianfeng Yang / Tampere University
That image makes me think of Tinker Bell (the fairy in the novel/play/movie with ‘Peter Pan’ in its titles) but I can also see how the researchers were inspired by dandelion seeds, which we used to call ‘wishes’.
The development of stimuli-responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of material-related opportunities for next-generation small-scale, wirelessly controlled soft-bodied robots. For some time now, engineers have known how to use these materials to make small robots that can walk, swim and jump. So far, no one has been able to make them fly.
Researchers of the Light Robots group at Tampere University [Finland] are now researching how to make smart material fly. Hao Zeng, Academy Research Fellow and the group leader, and Jianfeng Yang, a doctoral researcher, have come up with a new design for their project called FAIRY — Flying Aero-robots based on Light Responsive Materials Assembly. They have developed a polymer-assembly robot that flies by wind and is controlled by light.
Superior to its natural counterparts, this artificial seed is equipped with a soft actuator. The actuator is made of light-responsive liquid crystalline elastomer, which induces opening or closing actions of the bristles upon visible light excitation,” explains Hao Zeng.
The artificial fairy is controlled by light
The artificial fairy developed by Zeng and Yang has several biomimetic features. Because of its high porosity (0.95) and lightweight (1.2 mg) structure, it can easily float in the air directed by the wind. What is more, a stable separated vortex ring generation enables long-distance wind-assisted travelling.
“The fairy can be powered and controlled by a light source, such as a laser beam or LED,” Zeng says.
This means that light can be used to change the shape of the tiny dandelion seed-like structure. The fairy can adapt manually to wind direction and force by changing its shape. A light beam can also be used to control the take-off and landing actions of the polymer assembly.
Potential application opportunities in agriculture
Next, the researchers will focus on improving the material sensitivity to enable the operation of the device in sunlight. In addition, they will up-scale the structure so that it can carry micro-electronic devices such as GPS and sensors as well as biochemical compounds.
According to Zeng, there is potential for even more significant applications.
“It sounds like science fiction, but the proof-of-concept experiments included in our research show that the robot we have developed provides an important step towards realistic applications suitable for artificial pollination,” he reveals.
In the future, millions of artificial dandelion seeds carrying pollen could be dispersed freely by natural winds and then steered by light toward specific areas with trees awaiting pollination.
“This would have a huge impact on agriculture globally since the loss of pollinators due to global warming has become a serious threat to biodiversity and food production,” Zeng says.
Challenges remain to be solved
However, many problems need to be solved first. For example, how to control the landing spot in a precise way, and how to reuse the devices and make them biodegradable? These issues require close collaboration with materials scientists and people working on microrobotics.
The FAIRY project started in September 2021 and will last until August 2026. It is funded by the Academy of Finland. The flying robot is researched in cooperation with Dr. Wenqi Hu from Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany) and Dr. Hang Zhang from Aalto University.
Courtesy: Wallpaperstopick [downloaded from https://wallpaperstopick.blogspot.com/2012/05/keanu-reeves.html]
The Keanu Reeves molecule is produced by bacteria.according to a February 6, 2023 news item on phys.org,
Bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas produce a strong antimicrobial natural product, as researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) have discovered. They proved that the substance is effective against both plant fungal diseases and human-pathogenic fungi. The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and highlighted in an editorial in Nature.
The newly discovered natural product group of keanumycins in bacteria works effectively against the plant pest Botrytis cinerea, which triggers grey mould rot and causes immense harvest losses every year. But the active ingredient also inhibits fungi that are dangerous to humans, such as Candida albicans. According to previous studies, it is harmless to plant and human cells.
Keanumycins could therefore be an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides, but they could also offer an alternative in the fight against resistant fungi. “We have a crisis in anti-infectives,” explains Sebastian Götze, first author of the study and postdoc at Leibniz-HKI. “Many human-pathogenic fungi are now resistant to antimycotics – partly because they are used in large quantities in agricultural fields.”
Deadly like Keanu Reeves
The fact that the researchers have now found a new active ingredient in bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas is no coincidence. “We have been working with pseudomonads for some time and know that many of these bacterial species are very toxic to amoebae, which feed on bacteria,” says study leader Pierre Stallforth. He is the head of the department of Paleobiotechnology at Leibniz-HKI and professor of Bioorganic Chemistry and Paleobiotechnology at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. It appears that several toxins are responsible for the deadly effect of the bacteria, of which only one was known so far. In the genome of the bacteria, the researchers have now found biosynthesis genes for the newly discovered natural products, the keanumycins A, B and C. This group of natural products belongs to the nonribosomal lipopeptides with soap-like properties.
Together with colleagues at the Bio Pilot Plant of the Leibniz-HKI, the researchers succeeded in isolating one of the keanumycins and conducting further tests. “The lipopeptides kill so efficiently that we named them after Keanu Reeves because he, too, is extremely deadly in his roles,” Götze explains with a wink.
The researchers suspected that keanumycins could also kill fungi, as these resemble amoebas in certain characteristics. This assumption was confirmed together with the Research Centre for Horticultural Crops at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt. There, Keanumycin was shown to be effective against grey mould rot on hydrangea leaves. In this case, culture fluid that no longer contained bacterial cells was sufficient to significantly inhibit the growth of the fungus.
“Theoretically, the keanumycin-containing supernatant from Pseudomonas cultures could be used directly for plants,” says Götze. Further testing will be carried out together with the colleagues in Erfurt. Keanumycin is biodegradable, so no permanent residues should form in the soil. This means that the natural product has the potential to become an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides.
Fungal diseases such as Botrytis cinerea, which causes grey mould rot, cause immense harvest losses in fruit and vegetable cultivation every year. More than 200 different types of fruit and vegetables are affected, especially strawberries and unripe grapes.
Possible applications in humans
“In addition, we tested the isolated substance against various fungi that infect humans. We found that it strongly inhibits the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, among others,” says Götze.
Instead of plants, Keanumycin could therefore possibly also be used in humans. According to the tests conducted so far, the natural product is not highly toxic for human cells and is already effective against fungi in very low concentrations. This makes it a good candidate for the pharmaceutical development of new antimycotics. These are also urgently needed, as there are very few drugs against fungal infections on the market.
The work was supported by the Werner Siemens Foundation, the Leibniz Association and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) as part of the Balance of the Microverse Cluster of Excellence, and funded by the Dr. Illing Foundation.
The study was highlighted by Nature in a “News & Views” article.
Here are citations and links to both the published study and the article in Nature,
Bacterial defence repurposed to fight blight (News and Views article) by Andrew Mitchinson. Nature 614, 39 (2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00195-x Published: 30 January 2023
Both the study and the ‘News and Views’ article are behind a paywall.
it’s not altogether a surprise that this research on whisky has Scottish origins. From an October 11, 2022 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed),
Researchers at a Scottish university have found a way to use gold nanoparticles to measure the maturity of whisky, which could help distillers with one of the key challenges in the production process (ACS Applied Nano Materials, “Growth of Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Aging Cask-Matured Whisky”).
Chemists and bioscientists from the University of Glasgow developed the test, which harnesses a unique property of cask-aged whisky to measure its maturity.
Each variety of whisky gains some of its colour flavour profile from being stored in wooden casks while it matures over a period of months or years. The flavour of the final product is created by a complex mix of factors known as ‘congeners’ – chemicals left in the spirit after it is distilled and other chemicals absorbed from the wood casks, which react with oxygen over time.
The unpredictable interactions of congeners, along with other factors like the size and shape of the cask and the number of times it has been used before, mean that each cask matures in its own way, and in its own time.
To ensure the consistency of their products, distillers employ highly experienced master blenders. They regularly sample the casks to check the whisky’s readiness for blending, bottling and sale as either a single malt or a mixed blend – a laborious and expensive task.
The researchers set out to develop a test which could do some of the work of the master blenders by using chemical reactions to determine the maturity or ‘age’ of whisky samples.
They built their test on a reaction which occurs when samples of whisky are mixed with a solution containing small quantities of a special type of gold. A chemical reaction in the whisky causes distinctively-coloured gold nanoparticles to form in the sample over a short period of time at room temperature.
The researchers mixed the gold solution with samples from 15 different whiskies distilled in Scotland, Japan and the US. They also tested multiple samples taken at regular intervals from a single cask over a period of six years, which were supplied by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute.
By measuring a property of each sample known as its localised surface plasmon resonance, they found that the unique chemical composition of the whiskies resulted in the creation of gold nanoparticles with distinctly different shapes, sizes and colours in each sample.
They also discovered that the speed of the production of the nanoparticles was connected with its maturity – the faster the nanoparticles formed, the more mature the whisky was.
The results suggest that the process could be used to develop a quick, reliable test for distillers to measure the maturity of their whiskies, reducing the need for master blenders to be involved in every step of the process.
Dr Will Peveler, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry, is the paper’s lead author. Dr Peveler said: “Age is more than just a number when it comes to whisky – the complex chemical reactions which occur in each cask make it impossible to estimate whisky’s maturity of flavour simply based on how long it’s been ageing.
“For as long as there’s been a whisky industry, distillers have been trying to find better ways to measure the maturity of individual casks to help them understand when they will be ready to use in a single malt or a mixed blend.
“What we’ve been able to do for the first time is show that the ageing-related chemistry of the whisky controls the formation of gold nanoparticles. That has allowed us to develop a unique ‘fingerprint’ not just for types of whisky we tested but also for how whiskies mature over time.
Co-author Dr Jenny Gracie, also of the School of Chemistry, added: “Currently, there are a number of other tests available to measure whisky maturity, which use specialist processes like chromatography and mass spectrometry. However, they are rarely available on the warehouse floor, and if samples have to be sent offsite for analysis, this slows everything down.
“We hope that in the future we can develop this initial finding into a quick, easy and portable kit that distillers can use to measure the maturity of their whiskies without having to send samples for time-consuming tests with specialist equipment.”
A Rutgers [Rutgers State University of New Jersey, US] scientist has developed a formulation of low-fat chocolate that can be printed on a 3D printer in pretty much any shape a person can conceive, including a heart.
The work heralds what the researcher hopes will be a new line of “functional foods” – edibles specially designed with health benefits. The aim is to develop healthier kinds of chocolate easily accessible to consumers.
Reporting in the scientific journal, Food Hydrocolloids, a Rutgers-led team of scientists described the successful creation and printing of a mixture producing low-fat chocolate — substituting fatty cocoa butter with a lower-fat, water-in-oil emulsion.
“Everybody likes to eat chocolate, but we are also concerned with our health,” said Qingrong Huang, a professor in the Department of Food Science at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “To address this, we have created a chocolate that is not only low-fat, but that can also be printed with a 3D printer. It’s our first ‘functional’ chocolate.”
Huang, an author of the study, said he already is working on manipulating sugar content in the new chocolate formulation for low-sugar and sugar-free varieties.
Researchers create emulsions by breaking down two immiscible liquids into minute droplets. In emulsions, the two liquids will usually quickly separate – as is the case with oil and vinegar – unless they are held together by a third, stabilizing ingredient known as an emulsifier. (An egg is the emulsifier in a vinaigrette.)
Chocolate candy is generally made with cocoa butter, cocoa powder and powdered sugar and combined with any one of a variety of different emulsifiers.
For the study, the scientific team experimented with different ratios of the ingredients for a standard chocolate recipe to find the best balance between liquid and solid for 3D printing. Seeking to lower the level of fat in the mixture, researchers created a water-in-cocoa butter emulsion held together by gum arabic, an extract from the acacia tree that is commonly used in the food industry, to replace the cocoa butter. The researchers mixed the emulsion with golden syrup to enhance the flavor and added that combination to the other ingredients.
As delightful as it is to eat, Huang said, chocolate is a material rich with aspects for food scientists to explore.
Employing advanced techniques examining the molecular structure and physical properties of chocolate, researchers investigated the printed chocolate’s physical characteristics. They were seeking the proper level of viscosity for printing and looking for the optimal texture and smoothness “for a good mouthfeel,” Huang said. Experimenting with many different water-oil ratios, they varied the percentages of all the main ingredients before settling on one mixture.
In 3D printing, a printer is used to create a physical object from a digital model by laying down layers of material in quick succession. The 3D printer, and the shapes it produces, can be programmed by an app on a cellphone, Huang said.
Ultimately, Huang said he plans to design functional foods containing healthy added ingredients – substances he has spent more than two decades studying, such as extracts from orange peel, tea, red pepper, onion, Rosemary, turmeric, blueberry and ginger – that consumers can print and eat.
“3D food printing technology enables the development of customized edible products with tailored taste, shape and texture as well as optimal nutrition based on consumer needs,” Huang said.
Other researchers on the study included Siqi You and Xuanxuan Lu of the Department of Food Science and Engineering at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.
The São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Nanotechnology, Agriculture and Environment (SPSAS NanoAgri&Enviro) will be held on July 3-15 at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) in Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil.
Reporters are invited to reach the organizing committee through the email eventos@cnpem.br, for opportunities to visit the school and sessions.
Designed to meet an increasing level of content depth and complexity, the SPSAS NanoAgri&Enviro will cover the following topics: i) Nanotechnology, innovation, and sustainability; ii) Synthesis, functionalization, and characterization of nanomaterials; iii) Characterization of nanoparticles in complex matrices; iv) Synchrotron Light for nano-agri-environmental research; v) Biological and environmental applications of nanoparticles; vi) Nanofertilizers and Nanoagrochemicals; vii) Ecotoxicology, geochemistry and nanobiointerfaces; viii) Nanosafety and Nanoinformatics; ix) International harmonization and regulatory issues; x) Environmental implications of nanotechnology.
Discussions regarding those topics will benefit from the participation of internationally renowned scientists as speakers, including Mark V. Wiesner (Duke University), Iseult Lynch (University of Birmingham), Leonardo F. Fraceto (São Paulo State University – UNESP), Gregory V. Lowry (Carnegie Mellon University), Marisa N. Fernandes (Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCar), Caue Ribeiro (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – EMBRAPA), and others.
The program also comprise didactic activities programmed among theoretical interactive classes, practical experiments (hands-on), and technical visits to world-class facilities and specialized laboratories from several institutions in São Paulo state.
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is supporting the event through its São Paulo School of Advanced Science Program (SPSAS http://espca.fapesp.br/home). Undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers who are already working on subjects relating to the school can apply to receive financial support to cover the cost of air travel, accommodation and meals. Applications must be submitted by February 5, 2023.
I looked up the criteria for eligible applicants and found this among the other criteria (from the Applications page),
Participating students must be enrolled in undergraduate or graduate courses in Brazil or abroad, being potential candidates for Master’s, Doctoral or Post-Doctoral internships in higher education and research institutions in the state of São Paulo. Doctors may also be accepted. [emphases mine]
If I read that correctly, it means that people who are considering or planning to further their studies in the state of São Paulo are being invited to apply.
I recognized two of the speakers’ names, Mark Wiesner and Iseult Lynch both of whom have been mentioned here a number of times as has Gregory V. Lowry. (Wiesner very kindly helped with an art/sci project I was involved with [Steep] a number of years ago.)
Caption: Extent of decay in apples treated with clay film and cling wrap. Credit: Miharu Eguchi National Institute for Materials Science eguchi.miharu@nims.go.jp
This research into food packaging comes from Japan’s National Institute for Materials in a March 8, 2022 press release (also on EurekAlert but published on April 12, 2022),
An international research team consisting of NIMS, The University of Queensland and National Taiwan University has succeeded in creating a clay film with its gas permeability optimized for long-term storage of fresh produce by adjusting the sizes of the clay nanosheet particles comprising it. The team then uniformly coated the surfaces of various fruits with the film. This treatment kept the fruits’ respiration rates low without completely depriving them of oxygen, preventing them from decaying.
Efforts have been made to develop gas barrier films using clay nanosheets. Although some researchers attempted to improve the film properties of clay nanosheets by adding organic polymers to them, films can also be formed using only clay nanosheets without additives. Only a few studies had previously evaluated the physical properties of clay films composed solely of clay nanosheets.
This international joint research team focused on the gas permeability of clay films and found that a film composed of clay nanosheets with particle sizes in the range of several dozen nanometers (1 nm = one millionth of 1 mm) had relatively high permeability to gas molecules as they can pass through gaps between particles. This gas permeability is equivalent to that of plastic bags with minute pores used to store fresh produce. These bags are able to adequately reduce oxygen supply to fresh fruit, preventing it from ripening too rapidly. The gas permeability similarities between the clay film and the plastic bags inspired the research team to assess the ability of the clay film to preserve the quality of fresh produce for long periods of time.
In this research, the team applied a suspension of clay nanosheets to the surfaces of various fruits (e.g., apples, bananas and oranges) to form uniform films on their surfaces. The team also prepared untreated fruits and fruits covered in cling wrap for comparison. The gas emissions and appearance of these treated and untreated fruits were monitored for several months. As shown in the figure [above], the untreated apples (the first photo from the left) had decayed by the end of the experimental period and the apples covered only in cling wrap (the fourth photo from the left) had also decayed and grown mold. By contrast, the apples coated with the clay film (the two middle photos) did not decay or grew mold, presumably because the film reduced the external oxygen supply needed for ripening and mold growth. In addition, the clay film was confirmed to be in tight contact with the surfaces of the apples it coated, suggesting that it may be able to effectively block the diffusion of ethylene into the air, a phytohormone which plays an important role in inducing fruit ripening.
In addition to its potential ability to restrict the external oxygen supply and ethylene diffusion, the clay film may be able to prevent odor compounds produced by fresh produce from diffusing into the air, possibly making them less attractive to pests. In future research, the team plans to improve the ease of application and strength of the clay film to make it more suitable for preserving the quality of fresh produce during its transportation to the market.
This project was carried out by an international joint research team consisting of Miharu Eguchi (Senior Researcher, Mesoscale Materials Chemistry Group, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, NIMS) and researchers from The University of Queensland and National Taiwan University. This work was supported in part by JST-ERATO Yamauchi Materials Space-Tectonics Project.
