Grant: Engage Grants Program

The Newfoundland-based company Sedna Nutraceuticals Inc. develops high quality products from fruits, wildblueberries, cranberries, and others, and wishes to pursue scientific research into these products. Specifically,scientific validation of the benefits of these products to longevity and other life characteristics is particularlydesirable. To this end, our research group proposes to use the well-studied model organism Drosophilamelanogaster, including the Drosophila model of Parkinson Disease, to test key products of SednaNutraceuticals. Specifically, commercial preparations made from blueberry, cranberry, chia and blueberry/chiapowder will be evaluated for the ability to 1) extend the lifespan of standard flies; 2) restore the lifespan ofalpha-synuclein-expressing (Parkinson Disease-like model) flies; and 3) suppress the abnormal development ofalpha-synuclein-dependent eye phenotype. If, as predicted, the nutraceutical supplementations show significantimprovements to these characteristics, this will provide verification of the life-span and health-span relatedbenefits; evidence very useful in promotion of these products.