Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Bacteriophages are virus that attack bacteria and kill them. Every biotechnology process that relies on the useof bacteria to make a product or to overproduce a molecule may, at some time, struggle with the presence ofvirulent phages. For example, phages are the primary cause of fermentation failure in the milk transformationindustry.Even if a company followed the best sanitary and processing standards, bacteriophages are ubiquitous and theirpresence in an industrial cheese dairy means complications. In fact, bacteriophages infection represents themost significant biological factor affecting this industry and represents THE enemy to control. To help the foodindustry to overcome this problem and to develop new tools in the detection of bacteriophages,TransBIOTech's team, in collaboration with an industrial partner, will develop a method based on cytometry.Flow cytometry is generally used to characterize eukaryotic cells but lately it has also been use for prokaryoticanalytical purpose. With this technology it is possible to assess bacterial viability by a double stainingtechnique utilizing fluorescent probes. This method has the advantage of being faster than conventionalmethods and allows real-time assessment of the state of bacteria during the process. The final purpose of thisproject is to transfer this technology in the partner's dairy plants. The implantation of this analysis tools willassure our partner to keep its leading position in dairy Canadian industry becoming an example of innovationfor the entire food industry.