Root rot disease especially Aphanomyces root rot has led to decrease pea acreage in the prairies due to yield losses of up to 70 percent in wet years. Current fungicides are few and have very limited efficacy on the target pathogen, but may negatively affect other living organisms in the environment. Therefore, there is the need to develop effective tools against root rots in a more effective and natural way. One graduate student will develop a polymer-based seed coating with antifungal properties to protect pea seedlings from root rot disease.

Blueberries consumption has increased in the last decades due to their delicious flavour and recognized health benefits. However, even if the blueberry flavour is naturally delightful, some consumers are concerned because this flavour is not consistent over weeks, which could result in a decreased purchasing interest. Blueberry flavour depends on many factors, especially the genetic and pre-/post-harvest factors. Cultivar selection is one of the most effective ways to modulate blueberry flavour, but berry breeders need to know which specific compounds they should regulate.

In recent years, plant-based food products, such as plant-based beverages, ice-cream, and yogurt, have been much admired by health and environment conscious consumers due to their sustainability and health benefits. This industrial collaborative project aims to optimize grinding processing to treat plant proteins of different sources to achieve sufficient particle size reduction, while avoiding the adverse impact on the product physicochemical and functional properties.

Genacol Canada Corporation Inc. manufactures a collagen hydrolysate (CH) supplement sourced from bovine (Genacol® Original Formula) that has shown positive results and potent efficacy in three clinical trials for reducing joint pain. Following digestion and absorption, CHs release amino acids and peptides that can lead to the health-promoting properties of the supplement. Recent studies suggest that joint pain is a multi-tissue disease and involves both articular cartilage and bone. However, the current understanding of the effects of Genacol's CHs on bone health is still inadequate.

This project aims at providing a comprehensive appreciation of the net carbon capture potential of using pine beetle affected wood as feedstock for biochar (a carbon rich material) production and use throughout British Columbia. The carbon capture potential will be assessed by balancing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, transport, and amendment of the biochar on agricultural fields with a model of the soil carbon and plant growth impact of biochar addition.

Medical images were collected from cervical tumors from mice undergoing cancer treatment using radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. The purpose is to discover new biological molecules and observe the immune system reacts during radiation treatment. These images will be analyzed by MATLAB, which is a computer platform. MATLAB will perform a couple of operations on an image to extract useful information from the image, such as the location and number of biological molecules and immune cells that appear during radiation therapy.

The proposed trial will evaluate the benefit of using donor human milk versus formula as a supplement to parent milk, when the latter is unavailable, in the well-baby nursery. Although the goal for infant feeding is exclusive parent milk from birth, up to 50% of all infants in well-baby units receive a supplement for a variety of reasons including parent illness, infant low blood sugar or excessive weight loss, and in the instance of two-father families among other reasons.

By 2050, the world population is predicted to increase to 9.6 billion, 2 billion more from today's population. This presses the necessity to increase the food production at a huge amount. There is a lot of efforts to address this issue, and this project is aiming to contribute to this issue through using agricultural by-products for animal feedstock production. Fusarium fungi are common pathogenic microbes in small grain crops, such as wheat, rye, and barley. The infestation of Fusarium results in small kernel with contamination of toxic secretion of Fusarium (mycotoxins).

In Canada, haskap berries are gaining increasing popularity due to their health benefits. The health-promoting effects of haskap berries are primarily attributed to the antioxidants in the fruits, especially anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and vitamin C. Since the quality of haskap berries largely depends on their antioxidant levels, it is of great importance for the berry industry to develop rapid detection methods to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of fresh haskap berry products.

Soil acidity in Alberta and northeastern British Columbia has been recognized as a problem since the early 1960's. With the current application of N fertilizers, this problem has persisted making it unsustainable to maintain high crop yields in the long term. This project hypothesizes that the one-time application of lime to increase soil pH will lead to increased crop yields and promote soil health. On-farm research will be undertaken to demonstrate directly to producers how to employ lime as a management tool and its benefits to farm income.