Combines biology, lab automation and machine learning to achieve a new scale of research and product development.
The Global Institute for Food Security’s (GIFS) Engineering Biology Platform provides researchers with a single-source, integrated solution for high-throughput measurements that enhance the entire design, test, build and learn cycle.
The facility positions Saskatchewan as the engineering biology centre for agriculture in Canada, growing the province’s profile as the hub for delivering biomanufacturing services to support the agri-food and biotechnology sectors as it aims for accelerated discovery, development and delivery of innovative products that meet market demand efficiently and sustainably (economically, environmentally and socially).
Applications: The platform supports the development — and scaled production — of industrially relevant microbes, DNA, proteins and peptides, and other innovations that advance research and sustainable food production, as well as applications in health, natural, and environmental sciences, and other disciplines.
Protein engineering and design: Enhanced food and agricultural enzymes; improved protein ingredients
Natural product development: Biochemical pathway domestication; metabolite characterization
Precision fermentation: Strain domestication and improvement; bioprocess optimization
Bioengineering microbial strains
- DNA assembly: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) fragments, plasmids, gene clusters and synthetic chromosomes
- Verifying successful assembly: Colony PCR, electrophoresis and dye-based assays
- Biochemical pathway domestication
Cell growth and phenotyping
- Reproducibly culture aerobic organisms with thousands of micro-volume cultures in parallel
- Transformation, plating, colony picking (2,400 colonies/hour), culturing, passaging, growth-based analysis, and fluorescence-based analysis
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Policy and governance
Specialized labs and equipment
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| Hudson Robotics RapidPick MP | 20 pin colony picker with fluorescence (green fluorescent proteins (GFP) and red fluorescent proteins (RFP). Automates colony selection and picking from a petri dish, omni-trays, 24-well, 96-well and 384-well plates. RapidPick software retains a record and image of each specific colony and which culture plate/well it inoculated. |
| Hamilton MagEx STAR liquid handler | Fully automated liquid handler for automating column-based and magnetic bead-based nucleic acid extractions and cell transformations. |
| Galenvs Sciences miQron™ Automated Nucleic Acid Purification Systems (3) | Automated extraction and purification system for DNA, RNA, proteins and cells. Used for genomic DNA as well as plasmid extractions. UV sterilization function to reduce sample contamination between batches. |
| Agilent UV-VIS Microplate Spectrophotometer Model EPOCH 2 (4) | Measure UV-Visible absorbance. The broad wavelength range enables applications from nucleic acid, protein quantifications, and microbial growth assays. |
Private and public sector research partners
- Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC)
- Agriculture Victoria (Australia)
- National Research Council Canada
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Additional information
| Title | Hyperlink |
|---|---|
| GIFS at USask puts engineering biology to work | https://gifs.ca/news/gifs-puts-engineering-biology-to-work/ |
| Government of Saskatchewan commits $15 Million to GIFS at USask | https://gifs.ca/news/details/gifs-funding-commitment |
| A closer look at engineering biology and accelerated breeding | https://gifs.ca/news/a-closer-look-at-engineering-biology-and-accelerated-breeding/ |