Biochemistry Professor Eugene Fletcher has been awarded funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) under the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative. The funding will investigate solutions to manage dairy waste by engineering yeast to convert lactose-rich waste and by-products into propionic acid, a chemical used as a preservative in food and feed, herbicides, and as a precursor compound for making cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The funding will help train students and build partnerships with the dairy industry. For more information on Prof. Fletcher’s molecular microbiology work, visit this webpage.