Healthier milk? U of A wants to find out if it's possible

Tuesday, June 3, 2003
Edmonton Journal
Larry Johnsrude

EDMONTON - Although milk has been called "nature's most perfect food," researchers at the University of Alberta want to make it better.

Thanks to a $275,000 federal grant, John Kennelly, chair of agriculture, food and nutritional science at the U of A, is studying the effects different kinds of cattle feed have on fat content in milk.

During the study, he'll look at how different feeds change the composition of milk and how to modify milk to produce types and amounts of fats that are beneficial to human health.

The research project is one of 156 being funded over the next year at the U of A with $18 million in grants from the federal Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The U of A's chemistry department was one of the big winners, scoring three separate grants in the $400,000 range.

Chemist Rod Wasylishen, who holds the Canada research chair in physical chemistry, will get $445,200 over the next year. His project, which involves about 10 researchers, will use mechanical resonance imaging to study new solids created at the National Institute for Nanotechnology, also on the U of A campus.

The same technology is used in medical MRI equipment to take three-dimensional images of the human body.

Chemist David Bundle, director of the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science, received a $416,000 grant to research the use of complex carbohydrates in pharmaceuticals.

The project involves using a computer model to examine the bonding between carbohydrates and proteins, so that carbohydrate-based drugs can be used to block toxins such as E. coli from entering healthy cells.

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