Provides high-throughput microbial strain engineering, metabolomics, laboratory automation, fermentation, and omics services to accelerate research and bioproduct development.
The Global Institute for Food Security Engineering Biology platform is Canada’s only biofoundry dedicated to food and agriculture. It combines microbial strain engineering, laboratory automation, high-throughput phenotyping, precision fermentation, and metabolomics to accelerate the design, testing, and scale-up of biological solutions within a single facility. Researchers as well as industry can access automated DNA assembly, gene editing, parallel cultivation, and advanced analytics to develop microbes, proteins, enzymes, and other bio-based products.
Example projects include developing probiotic yeast strains capable of producing and secreting elevated levels of antibacterial proteins that target a major poultry pathogen. Using automated strain engineering, gene editing, and high-throughput screening, researchers are creating yeast strains with enhanced protein production and pathogen-targeting activity, improving the effectiveness of probiotic-based treatments in poultry.
Other projects include developing phytase enzymes that improve phosphorus availability for crops through computational protein design, automated screening, and functional characterization. Additional work supports high-throughput DNA assembly and screening of thousands of plasmids for plant metabolite and recombinant protein production.
Strain engineering: Design, assemble, and optimize microbial strains using automated DNA assembly, verification, and pathway engineering workflows.
- Assemble DNA constructs, including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) fragments, plasmids, gene clusters, gene blocks, and synthetic chromosomes.
- Verify assembly success using colony PCR, electrophoresis and dye-based assays, and sequencing.
- Optimize and domesticate biochemical pathways for downstream applications.
Cell growth and phenotyping: Reproducibly culture aerobic microorganisms using thousands of micro-volume cultures in parallel.
- Perform transformation, plating, colony picking (up to 2,400 colonies/hour), cultivation, passaging, and growth and fluorescence-based analyses.
- Conduct precision fermentation from microlitre- to litre-scale using parallel benchtop bioreactor systems (4 x 0.2-1.8L and 2 x 3.5-10L).
Proteomics and metabolomics: Quantify and analyze proteins and metabolites at high throughput, processing thousands of samples per day.
- Perform high-throughput sample preparation and analysis using HPLC, LC-MS platforms, including Quadrupole Time-of-Flight (QTOF), and Triple Quadrupole (TQ) systems.
- Deliver targeted proteomics and targeted or untargeted metabolomics for microbial, agricultural, and environmental samples.
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Clean technology
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Manufacturing and processing
Specialized labs and equipment
- Microbial colony selection and screening: Select, image, and isolate microbial colonies using automated fluorescence-enabled colony pickers for agar plates and multiwell formats.
- Automated nucleic acid extraction and purification: Extract and purify DNA, RNA, plasmids, proteins, and cells using automated column- and magnetic bead-based workflows capable of processing 96, 192, or 384 samples simultaneously.
- Automated cell transformation and sample processing: Accelerate DNA assembly, cell transformation, and molecular biology workflows using liquid-handling and acoustic liquid handling robotic systems.
- UV-visible absorbance and fluorescence-based analysis: Perform microbial growth and growth kinetics assays and measure nucleic acid and protein concentrations using high-throughput microplate readers.
Private and public sector research partners
- York University
- University of Saskatchewan
- Vanderbilt University (United States)
- University of Alberta
- Ergo Bioscience (Argentina, Canada)