Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 50
wineries to come and try to develop a product they don’t
yet know will work with small financial inputs,” Paul says.
This project is unique in the context of Waite’s research
focus. Where most market-related work is done by the
business school, for the NOLO team, it also focuses on
consumer research from a sensory point of view, with
research also going into understanding what consumers
want in terms of taste and feel.
“The challenge is to produce a no-or-low-alcohol
product that provides a wine-like experience without the
downsides of alcohol,” Paul says.
Unlike other research areas at the Waite, the NOLO
project symbolises the possibilities and strength of the teams
working at the campus and sets an example for research that
converges scientific expertise, industry collaboration, and
market research, aiming to shape a new era in winemaking.
Professor Jason Able, Head of the School of Agriculture,
Food and Wine, says the work being done at the Waite is
vital to the future prosperity and sustainability of our time
on Earth.
“We’re now looking at the next wave, or the next
generation of crops and commodities for breeding
programs. They’re not mainstream like those crops that
have come before us in the last hundred years,” Jason
says. “When you think about climate change, then we’ve
got to start thinking about building resilience to this everchanging climate. We can start to think about resilience in
environments where commodities are not typically grown.”
The University’s commitment to pushing the boundaries
of conventional agriculture opens the door to more
opportunities and a more sustainable future for growers.
“Due to climate change and an ever-changing
environment, part of a breeder’s remit will definitely
be to try their most advanced germplasm in very
challenging environments,” Jason says. “Breeders will
start considering future-proofing for that particular area
or region where a grower might need it for things like yield
improvement, disease resistance, water use efficiency,
nutrient deficiencies.”
The unassuming yet powerful duckweed is one plant
being tested for a very challenging environment, and stands
as a potential game-changer for sustainable agriculture and
a revolutionary protein source. Associate Professor of Plant
Synthetic Biology in the School of Agriculture, Food and
Wine, Jenny Mortimer, is leading the research that focuses
on engineering crops for future challenges.
“My research isn’t just using food crops. It’s actually
developing new dedicated crops, especially for the
production of biofuels and biomaterials,” Jenny says. “In
addition to that, as climate change becomes more of an
issue alongside growing populations, we explore how we
can engineer the crops of the future.”
With concerns of reductions in space, Jenny focuses on
the need for rapidly growing plants in indoor and vertical
farming, where plants like duckweed take centre stage.
This is something Jenny believes scientists need to consider
quickly as the world rapidly changes. In battling the space
and time investment required for current crops, Jenny
applies civil engineering principles to biological systems.
This is synthetic biology, which seeks to streamline
the process of creating genetic blueprints for desired
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