Algae-Based Food Product Development Earns Gates Foundation Award
Mingyu Qiao, PhD’s recent work focused on DHA, critical to fetal and infant brain and eye development. The DHA will be produced in a microalgal strain isolated in Qiao’s lab. The post Algae-Based Food Product Development Earns Gates Foundation Award appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News .
The Gates Foundation has awarded a $500,000 Grand Challenges grant to a University of Connecticut researcher specializing in sustainable food products using algae and other natural materials. Assistant Professor Mingyu Qiao's project, titled "Ultra Low-Cost DHA Powder from Algae Grown on Digested Grain Spent," aims to create a novel strain of microalgae that can produce the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) using spent brewer waste.
This method would provide a significantly lower-cost production process for DHA, which is critical for fetal and infant brain and eye development, than current methods. The project also seeks to deploy this technology in low- and middle-income countries, creating local jobs and reducing reliance on expensive pharmaceutical-grade algal DHA powders.
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