Oct. 26, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laurie Jacobson
(805) 756-6097
Cal Poly Dairy Products Technology Center,
Professors
Receive $490,000 Grant for Research Using ‘Laser Tweezers’
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly’s Dairy Products Technology
Center and
professors Rafael Jiménez-Flores and Philip Tong have been
awarded a
$490,000 grant from the California State University Agricultural
Research Initiative for a study involving “laser tweezer”
equipment.
Their three-year project will use laser tweezers, also known as
optical
tweezers. Scientists will use the equipment to measure properties
of the
components of milk fat globules (MFGs) and their membranes (MFGMs),
which are abundant in milk, buttermilk, cream and whey. The state
grant
matches a $490,000 grant from Dairy Management Inc. for an ongoing
study
and promotion of dairy ingredients at Cal Poly’s DPTC.
Laser tweezers use a strongly focused laser beam to trap small
particles
and objects within the beam. The laser tweezers can then manipulate
individual cells and similarly sized bits of matter, Jiménez
explained,
and measure the forces involved with great precision. Measuring
the
interactions of the particles accurately is important to assess
their
function, he added.
MFGs and MFGMs are important yet unexplored component of milk,
Tong
said. They contain proteins, lipids, oligosaccharides, phospholipids,
glycolipids, glycoproteins and other compounds with proven biological
activity, Tong explained.
“These components of the MFGM are very important for both
human health
and as ingredients in other foods. But there has been little work
on
done generating data on their physical properties or characterization
of
their function,” Jiménez added.
Professors Jiménez and Tong hope to generate better understanding
and
utilization of MFG and MFGM. “We hope that this project results
in
important data that directly measures how membranes and their components
work naturally in our foods, and how this is relevant to our health,”
said Jiménez.
The research findings will also have practical implications for
the
dairy food industry, Tong stressed. “This work will help to
highlight
the functional and nutritional properties of milk fat globule membranes,
which should be attractive to food formulators and processors,”
said
Tong.
Professor John Sharpe of the Cal Poly Physics Department's Dynamical
Systems Imaging Laboratory will join Jiménez and Tong on
the research
project. Sharpe has experience working with the laser tweezer equipment.
He is currently building the infrastructure and systems required
to set
up the equipment and research module.
UC Davis Professor Juan Fernando Medrano will contribute bovine
mammary
cells for the project. “The mammary cells are the biological
generators
of the MFGM, and we need to study them, also, to gain the fundamental
understanding of the biological activity of the membrane components,”
Jiménez explained.
As part of the study, scientists at the DPTC will
be generating
processes for the concentration and production of ingredients containing
MFGM components and characterizing their properties by traditional
procedures.
-# # # -
For more information on this work on other work taking place
at the
DPTC, visit its website: www.calpoly.edu/~dptc
or call DPTC research
associate Laurie Jacobson at (805) 756-6097.