Research Team

My Research Team in 2012.

Approach to graduate student supervision

I find that students need to realize that there is a broad spectrum of talents, that each has unique talents and one is more skilled in a given area than another, that while at an earlier stage in their lives there were pressures for conformity, now they should recognize the great values of diversity.

An important part of the teaching in a University occurs in the research laboratories where students undergo the transformation from assimilating knowledge to generating new knowledge. This transformation occurs under the guidance of the professor in whose laboratory the work is done. My approach to graduate student supervision is guided by the following premises:

1. provide as much guidance and support as necessary, and as much independence as possible;
2. challenge graduate students with ideas and research concepts that are foreign to their research projects, and expect to be challenged by their concepts and insights;
3. provide positive feedback and rewards for significant achievements.

M.Sc. students graduated

1. Brenda Schneider, M.Sc. in Animal Science (University of Alberta), On-Farm and Ante Mortem Factors Affecting Broiler Quality, 2009. Supervised. Brenda’s Thesis
2. Tulia Perez, M.Sc. in Food Science and Technology University of Alberta), Omega-3 Enrichment and Oxidative Stability of Broiler Chicken Meat, 2009. Co-supervised with Dr. R. Renema. Perez’s Thesis
3. Vida MoayediM.Sc. in Food Science and Technology (University of Alberta), Physiochemical and Rheological Properties of Alkaline Isolated Poultry Proteins, 2010. Supervised. Moayedi’s Thesis
4. Yuliya Hrynets, M.Sc. in Food Science and Technology (University of Alberta), Protein Isolation from Mechanically Separated Turkey Meat (MSTM). Yuliya’s Thesis
5. Jacky Chan, AFNS, M.Sc. in Food Science and Technology (University of Alberta), Protein functionality in turkey meat, 2011. Supervised. Jacky’s Thesis
6. Sandeep Singla, M.Sc. in Animal Science (University of Alberta), Bone and Meat Discolouration of Broiler Chicken Thighs, 2011. Supervised.
7. HeNan Wang, M.Sc. in food science, Protein adhesive material from spent hens, 2013. Co-supervised with Dr. Wu.

Current supervised graduate students

1. Yuliya Hrynets, AFNS, Ph.D. started in September 2010.
2. Yang Liu, AFNS, Ph.D. (co-supervised with Dr Gaenzle) started in December 2009.
3. Henan Wang, AFNS, Ph.D. started in May 2013.
4. Hong Pui Khoon, Ph.D. started in January 2011.
5. Lihui (Mavis) Du, Ph.D. started September 2011.
6. Mohannad Badawi, M.Sc. started in September 2011.
7. Sandeep Nain, Ph.D. started in January 2012.
8. Daylin Hincampie Martinez, M.Sc. started in September 2012.

Supervision of international graduate students

1. Hong Pui Khoon, M.Sc. student, Canadian Commonwealth Exchange Program, Asia-Pacific (formerly GSEP). Supervision during an 8 months stay at University of Alberta, 2009-2010.
2. Spevackova Veronika, Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, Ph.D. student. Supervision during a 4 months stay at University of Alberta, June - September 2010.
3. Diblikova Lenka, Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, Ph.D. student. Supervision during a 4 months stay at University of Alberta, June - September 2011.
4. Davide Gottardi, Interdipartimental Centre for Industrial Research-CIRI-AGRIFOOD, Universita’ di Bologna, Italy. January 2012 – November 2012.

Research Associates and Post Doctoral Fellows

Dr. Maurice Ndagijimana (Research Associate)

There is a growing interest in marine and meat processing by-products as sources of peptides and proteins. Dr. Ndagijimana is focused on extraction of proteins and characterization of their functionality as well as characterization of bioactive peptides.

In addition, Dr.  Ndagijimana is researching on how to modify proteins and peptides (by glycation or glycosylation) in order to improve their functionality and bioactivities (eg. antimicrobial activity). Proteins and peptides as well as glycoproteins and glycopeptides are characterized by a repertoire of different techniques including FPLC, UPLC, LC-MS/MS, MALDI-TOF-MS or Orbitrap-LC-MS/MS.

Dr. Zied Khiari (Post Doctoral Fellow)

Dr. Khiari is currently involved in process piloting and scaling-up technologies for recovering value added food ingredients from poultry by-products. The scale-up of technologies, developed in Dr. Betti’s laboratory, includes:

1. Scaling-up poultry protein isolate extraction process,
2. Scaling-up glycosaminoglycan production from poultry bone biomass.

Dr. Khiari is also involved in the research project about functional modification of proteins by the use of high pressure processing technology.  

Dr. Satyanarayana Bejjani (Post Doctoral Fellow)

Dr.  Satyanarayana  is currently working on Functionalized peptides for skin care produced from bovine and poultry collagen biomass.

Bioavailbility of proteins and peptides is a detrimental factor as it measures the physiological activity of molecule. The bioavailability of proteins and peptides is poor due to they susceptibility to degradation by the gastrointeintestinal enzymes and proteases. In this project we aim to increase the bioavailability of collagen peptides by functionalization with amino sugars to increase collagen bioactivity in vitro and in vivo. Two model cell lines Caco-2 cells and fibroblast which represent intestinal and skin type of cells, will be used to measure the bioactivity in vitro and in vivo.