Brock University Research Receives $3M to Address Worldwide Food Security Challenges

For more than three billion years, cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae seen in some lakes, has been converting sunlight to chemical energy through photosynthesis.

Most of this process involves visible light humans can see. But Brock University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Divya Kaur Matta is curious about a particular species that uses an almost invisible portion of the colour spectrum to convert light and store energy — knowledge that could have powerful implications for agriculture.

Matta was among 18 Brock researchers awarded funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), announced Friday, June 14.

The University received more than $3 million from the 2024 round of Discovery Research Programs grants.

Included was the work of Alonso Zavafer, whose interest also lies in light and crops, specifically colours given off by plants during photosynthesis.

The Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Engineering is developing tools that use the colour of plants as a way of continually monitoring their health, nutrition and metabolism, another potential boon for the agriculture industry.

“As these funding successes show, Brock researchers are continuing to expand their strengths in agricultural research,” says Acting Vice-President, Research Michelle McGinn. “We are grateful for NSERC’s support within this field and across the broad range of other topics funded this year.”

Matta’s project involves studying a particular marine cyanobacterium called Acaryochloris marina (A. marina). This species contains pigment molecules called chlorophyll d that allows it to draw energy from far-red light, which is on the extreme red end of the visible colour spectrum. It is one step away from infrared light that is invisible to the human eye.

Matta’s research group, the Computational Biophysics Laboratory, is aiming to better understand how A. marina and other species are able to gather and store energy under very low light conditions. She says such information could help boost global agriculture and food security.

“This remarkable ability to adapt suggests that it could be used to engineer crops that thrive in shaded conditions and may even lead to innovations in sustainable energy,” Matta says.

Increasing food security is also the aim of Zavafer’s research, which is in the field of ‘biophotonics.’

A photon, the smallest particle of light, emits visible and near-visible light. Biophotonics includes studies of photons in biological systems to see if cells and tissues are healthy, playing a major role in medical imaging and therapeutic procedures.

Zavafer’s research group, the Biophonic Engineering Laboratory, aims to improve food security by providing farmers with cost-effective tools to monitor plant stress in crops.

“One possible way to improve farming is by monitoring and controlling in real time the health, nutritional and metabolic content of crops,” says Zavafer. “This project aims to identify, develop and refine photonic tools to monitor plant performance to support the agriculture, horticultural and forestry sectors.”

Zavafer and Matta’s work is being funded by NSERC’s Discovery Grant, which supports ongoing research programs with long-term goals rather than a single short-term project or collection of projects.

Also announced June 14 was an NSERC PromoScience grant, awarded to Professor of Biological Sciences Jeff Stuart for his “Lab-in-a-Box” interactive outreach program, which brings free interactive laboratory experiences to schools and underprivileged youth groups.

In addition, Brock researchers received funding from the Discovery Development Grant and the Research Tools and Instruments Grant.

“The Discovery Research Programs shows our government’s commitment to advancing science and technology in Canada and beyond,” says Vance Badawey, Member of Parliament for Niagara Centre.

“I’m pleased to see the vibrant contributions Brock University researchers are making in the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, psychology and health sciences through their innovative research projects,” he says.

“Looking over the list of research projects being supported by the Discovery Research Programs, I’m impressed by the talent of the Brock University research community,” says Chris Bittle, Member of Parliament for St. Catharines. “These projects will make significant inroads in health care, agriculture and technology, areas particularly relevant for Niagara as well as the rest of the country.”

Recipients of the 2024 Discovery Grant are:

• Michael Bidochka, Professor of Biological Sciences, “Molecular communication between a fungal endophyte and host plant”
• Karen Campbell, Associate Professor of Psychology, “The effects of age differences in attentional control on memory for naturalistic stimuli”
• Stephen Cheung, Professor of Kinesiology, “Isolating thermal influences on neuromuscular responses to acute and chronic exercise”
• Val Fajardo, Associate Professor of Kinesiology, “Characterizing the physiological role of neuronatin in murine muscle”
• David Gabriel, Professor of Kinesiology, “A unified approach to understanding the physiological significance of the electromyographic signal”
• Yuanlin Li, Professor of Mathematics, “Structure of group rings and research on zero-sum problems in combinatorial number theory”
• Adam MacNeil, Associate Professor of Health Sciences, “Masters of inflammation: immunomodulatory signaling mechanisms of mast cell activity”
• Divya Matta, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, “Deducing the design principles of far-red photosynthesis for improved crop production”
• Rahnuma Nishat, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, “Reconfiguration of paths and cycles: theory and applications”
• Melanie Pilkington, Professor of Chemistry, “Synthesis and study of high spin molecule-based materials”
• Barak Shoshany, Assistant Professor of Physics, “Understanding causality: paradoxes, topology changes, and computational tools”
• Evangelia Tsiani, Professor of Health Sciences, “Regulation of glucose homeostasis: investigation of novel polyphenols”
• Alonso Zavafer, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Engineering, “Development of biophotonic and bio-optical tools for precision agriculture”

Recipients of the 2024 Discovery Development Grant is:

• Francine McCarthy, Professor of Earth Sciences, “The impact of land use at mid-latitudes in eastern North America on the global carbon budget: implications for the Anthropocene

Recipients of the 2024 Research Tools and Instruments Grant are:

• Shawn Beaudette, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, “Essential high-density surface electromyography equipment to support diverse research programs in electrophysiology”
• Stephen Klassen, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, “System for exploring cardiovascular regulation in the human brain and periphery”
• Vaughn Mangal, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, “An urgent need for an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer for quantifying inorganic contaminants in the environment”
• Gaynor Spencer, Professor of Biological Sciences, “Urgent replacement of a failed camera on a cell imaging and recording rig to study the role of retinoids in nervous system function”