New UW Research Institute

New UW Research Institute

Canada Safeway Export Development Department, Edmonton, Alberta: - Alberta beef. Canadian Association of Fish Exporters, Ottawa, Ontario: - Smoked, fr...

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Canada Safeway Export Development Department, Edmonton, Alberta: - Alberta beef. Canadian Association of Fish Exporters, Ottawa, Ontario: - Smoked, frozen and canned Atlantic fish. Canadian Pizza Crust Company Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario: - Pizza crusts, frozen pizza. Cambra Foods Ltd., Lethbridge, Alberta: - Refined canola oil. Clouston Foods Canada Ltd., Lachine, Quebec: - Frozen fish, canned seafood. Comeau's Seafoods Limited, Saulnierville, Nova Scotia: - Frozen fish and seafood, smoked fish.

Ernest Carriere Inc., St. Denis sur Richelieu, Quebec: - Canned vegetables, maple spread. Fin d'Hiver Inc., St. Hippolyte, Quebec: - Maple syrup, maple butter, honey. IMO Foods Limited, Halifax, Nova Scotia: - Smoked and canned fish. Mo-na Enterpises Ltd., Edmonton, Alberta: - Dried and brined wild gourmet mushrooms. Nanton Pure Water Co. Ltd., Nanton, Alberta: - Spring water, sparkling flavoured water. National Sea Products Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia: - Fresh, frozen, smoked, dried fish;

fresh and frozen seafood. Northumberland Seafoods, West Royalty, Prince Edward Island: - Frozen and canned lobster, frozen fish and shellfish. Produits Belle Baie Ltee., Caraquet New Brunswick: ' - Frozen and canned fish and vegetables. Rich Products of Canada Limited, Port Erie, Ontario: - Frozen non-dairy products, frozen bakery products, icings and fillings. Rocky Mountain Breweries Ltd., Red Deer, Alberta: - Beer. Wild Blueberry Association of North America, Fredericton, New Brunswick: - Processed and frozen blueberries.

New UW Research Institute

Although the Moo-Young process has been widely reported by news media, other promising biotechnology research is also under way at Waterloo. This research may make it possible to use microbes to remove sulphur from coal (minimizing the acid rain problem), extract metals from ore, preserve food better, degrade toxic wastes, combat insect pests more effectively, or prevent blights or rusts from destroying crops.

ing formed. According to Dr. MooYoung the close co-operation between the two campuses is expected to continue and may lead to a union of the two institutes at some future time. Dr. Moo-Young feels the IBR will also work closely with the existing Institute for Computer Research (lCR) at Waterloo, with the latter helping to develop the computer software needed to permit the control and automation of a variety of biotechnological processes. In addition, continuing collaboration with the Waterloo Centre for Process Development (WCPD), also located on the UW campus, will permit pilot plant scale demonstrations of inventions, necessary preliminaries to industrial applications.

The University of Waterloo has established an Institute for Biotechnology Research (IBR) on campus. The IBR will co-ordinate the wide range of biotechnology-related research under way at Waterloo, and promote its further development. In the process, it will seek research contracts and support from industry, government and public agencies, and promote the transfer of campus-generated knowledge in the biotechnology area to help keep Canadian industry competitive. The Institute will also conduct workshops and seminars on new aspects of biotechnology, will encourage the development of expertise in biotechnology areas among UW students and staff, and provide manpower training for Canada's growing bioindustries. To date, the most conspicuous biotechnology achievement at Waterloo has been the process developed by Dr. Murray Moo-Young, chemical engineering professor, to convert agricultural and forestry wastes (such as crop residues, manure, sawdust, or pulp mill sludge) into either protein or gasohol. Dr. Moo-Young, who has been named interim director of the IBR, uses microbial life forms to change one substance into another. These microbes have been specially selected and are grown in specially-designed fermenters. The process has been licensed to a Canadian company that hopes to develop it further and market it internationally. It has also been licensed in Common Market and Iron Curtain countries. xxx I Affaires de l'Institut

Campus expertise affiliated with the new Institute will also make it possible for computers to automate biotechnological process so they can be controlled with great precision at minimum cost. IBR expertise will permit new microbes to be genetically engineered and new materials deliberately created. There is also expertise in "downstream processing" ... the extraction of useful products economically, be it food, a drug or a metal from a slurry of microorganisms living in a fermenter. Initially, up to 35 UW faculty members will be involved in the Institute. They are in five academic departments (biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering and physics). These faculty members have been involved as consultants with dozens of industries, government departments and agencies. Several hold patents on inventions. A number of them have written books on various aspects of biotechnology, and a number are editors of scholarly journals in the biotechnology area. Though the Institute has been formed on the UW campus there are close relationships with faculty members at the University of Guelph where a similar institute is in the process of be-

CFPD Centre Expands The Can'adian Food Products Development Centre at Portage la Prairie is expanding with $491,000 in assistance from the federal and provincial governments. The funding will be provided under the federal-provincial Enterprise Manitoba agreement.' The Manitoba Jobs Fund will provide the total funding assistance initially, and will recover $306,875 from the federal government. Revenues generated by the Centre are designated to cover the remaining cost of the nearly $1 million physical CFDD Centre Expands

The project, an addition of about 350 square metres, will greatly expand the Centre's product development area, where testing of food production processes is carried out. The expansion will mean increased freezer and food storage capacity, enlarged dry mix, proJ. Ins(. Can. Sei. Teehnol. Alimenl. Vol. 16, No. 4. 1983