Number 57, April 2010
STELA Historical Capsule
The E-MILK without borders!
E-MILK is also available in its original French
version: le FAX-LAIT.
We invite you to circulate this newsletter within your
company, and even coast to coast! For a free
subscription, email [email protected]
Word from the Director
Preparation of the STELA’s 25th anniversary
activities is progressing well. The celebrations will be
launched on June 11, 2010, at the Hotel Palace
Royal in Quebec at the same time as a prestigious
conference on Dairy Science starring M. Jean-Louis
Maubois, the international expert in membrane
separation processes. The complete programme of
the activity is accessible online and registrations
start right away. Above all, do not miss this unique
event for the opportunity it offers to participate to
remarkable scientific conferences and meet special
guests, partners, former STELA students and
friends.
This first 2010 E-Milk has a special historical
connotation. First, a Historical Capsule has been
added to have you travel a few years back; second,
the Eye on Technology Transfer was written in a
historical perspective by two STELA builders; and
finally, we added a Publication Capsule which lists
the most recent publications from the STELA
researchers and students.
We hope you will appreciate these few novelties and
we wish you will be with us to celebrate 25 years of
excellence in dairy research, training and
technological transfer!
Sylvie Turgeon
Director
1. What is the latin signification of STELA?
a) milk
b) star
c) cheese
2. What was the name of the E-Milk’s ancestor?
a) La Goutte de Lait
b) Informe-Lait
3. Who was the STELA’s first director in 1985?
a) Jacques Goulet
b) Paul Paquin
4. Who is the last researcher to have joined the STELA
Centre as regular member?
Answers are at the last page of the newsletter.
Human Resources
We congratulate Gisèle LaPointe who was appointed
director of the Food Science and Nutrition Department
of the Agriculture and Agrifood Faculty (FSAA) at Laval
University.
New students and professionals arrived this winter at
the STELA Centre:
 Marie-Pier Villeneuve, M.Sc., supervised by Yvan
Chouinard;
 Marie-Pierre Dallaire, M.Sc., supervised by Yvan
Chouinard;
 Lea Kady Saliba, M.Sc., supervised by Yvan
Chouinard;
 Nathalie Vernoux, postdoctoral fellow, supervised
by Gisèle LaPointe;
 Rima Hatoum, Ph.D., supervised by Ismaïl Fliss,
cosupervised by Steve Labrie;
 Sarah Dambrosi, Research professional in
Julie Jean’s team;
Functional Approach to Improve their Applications in
Food and Health; $175,000.
 Francis Boileau, Research professional in
Ismaïl Fliss’ team;
Julie Jean: Attachment and Persistence of Noroviruses in Food Environment: a Structure-Function
Study; $135,000.
Welcome to everybody!
Research Projects
Yvan Chouinard is the chairholder of the NSERC
Industrial Research Chair on Nutritional Control
of the Production of Milk Components in Dairy
Cows which was inaugurated at the beginning of
February 2010 at the Deschambault Animal Science
Research Centre (CRSAD).
The Chair’s scientific program aims first of all to
develop diagnostic tools that can be used to identify
certain nutritional problems that arise in dairy herds;
secondly to adjust the production of milk
components to satisfy market requirements; and
finally to analyze the dietary factors that can
influence the oxidative stability and flavour of milk.
This five year Industrial Research Chair provides
close collaboration with the various stakeholders in
Canada's dairy industry and allows for effective
transfer of technology and training of highly qualified
personnel to meet the specific needs of this industry.
It also guarantees the appointment of two professors
to the Animal Science Department of the FSAA. Two
members of STELA, Ph.D. graduates in Animal
Science, Rachel Gervais and Édith Charbonneau
were recently appointed. The Chair’s financial
partners are NSERC, Novalait, the Dairy Farmers of
Canada, the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food, the Quebec Dairy Producers
Federation and Valacta for a total budget of 1.45
million dollars.
Yvan Chouinard was also granted $345,000 from
the Leaders Opportunity Fund of Canada Foundation
for Innovation to upgrade the Deschambault’s
Animal Science Research Laboratory.
Muriel Subirade: The Forming Mechanism
Functional Nanostructures for Food; $175,000.
of
Finally, Paul Angers received an NSERC (RTI) grant
of $59,582 to purchase a Gas Chromatograph.
Member Outreach Activities
Julie Jean and her team evaluated the efficiency of
commercial disinfectants to eliminate the norovirus that
causes most of foodborne gastroenteritis. Results
reveal that a mix of water with bleach (sodium
hypochlorite) is the best to achieve disinfection.
Marilyne Girard, M.Sc., and Solange Ngazoa, postdoc,
participated in the realisation of methods and tests.
Press release, Le Soleil Le Devoir, March 18, 2010.
Jacques Goulet thinks that adding more vitamine D in
milk could make up for deficiencies found in 50% of the
Canadian population. These deficiencies could
increase risks of colon and digestive tract cancers,
leukemia, auto-immune and cardiovascular diseases.
Le Soleil, February 7, 2010.
Denis Roy and Paul Paquin participated to the TV
show l’Épicerie at Radio-Canada on January 27, 2010
to explain to consumers the real effects on the immune
system of functional foods containing pre- and
probiotics and the regulation applying to health claims.
l’Épicerie.
Denis Roy also wrote about Foods that protect us in
the Health and Nutrition section of the French Trends
Guide 2010, from the Editor Isabelle Quentin. Also, the
book he wrote with the nutritionist Isabelle Huot in
2008: Stimulez votre système immunitaire, will be
published in Romania!
Three STELA researchers obtained the renewal of
their NSERC Discovery grant until 2015:
Gisèle LaPointe: Exopolysaccharide Production and
Degradation by Lactic Acid and Probiotic Bacteria: a
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Number 57, April 2010
Our Graduates
Eye on Technology Transfer
Two students successfully defended their doctoral
thesis:
Development of bioactives from milk…
“A true love story…”
Éric
Andriamahery
Rasolofo
(D.
Roy,
G. LaPointe): Molecular Approach to Monitor
Microbiological Quality of Milk.
Many years before these days that value
multidisciplinary team research and partnership with
industry, Sylvie Gauthier and Yves Pouliot probably
had a vision of the actual slogan «Un c’est bien, mais
deux c’est mieux…» (One is good, but two is better),
by joining their research efforts to discover the Holy
Grail : bioactive fractions from bovine milk.
Fabien Dachet (G. LaPointe, D. Roy): Evaluation of
the Fermenting Performance of Lactococcus
cremoris.
Scholarships - Prizes
Maxime Saffon, M.Sc. student supervised by Yves
Pouliot, will spend 2011 at the CalPoly Dairy
Products Technology Center in the United States.
He was awarded a scholarship of the FQRNT’s
International Advanced Training Programme.
Congratulations!
What have they become?
Abderazzak Akbache, Ph.D., was recently hired as
Research and Development Director at the Centre
de développement bioalimentaire du Québec
(CDBQ) at La Pocatiere, Quebec. www.cdbq.ca.
Fabien Dachet Ph.D. started a postdoctoral training
at the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at
the Wayne State University School of Medicine in
Detroit, Michigan.
Samy Gaaloul, Ph.D., works in Research and
Development at Parmalat Canada in Winchester,
Ontario.
David Lachkar Ph.D., was also hired as Research
and Development Director at Aliments Original in
Châteauguay, Quebec.
Since almost 20 years, these two research scientists of
the first years of the STELA Centre really pooled their
knowledge and their passion to develop an uncommon
expertise at an international level on dairy protein
enzymatic hydrolysis and fractionation of peptide
mixes. This synergy generated many universityindustry projects, of which one NSERC Collaborative
Research and Development (CRD) with Wyeth Ayerst
and the Lactel Group in 1995, and afterwards, the
founding of Advitech Solutions inc. in December 1996,
with the complicity of Paul Paquin.
Almost 10 years of fruitful industry research followed
during which the couple had the opportunity to develop
and bring to a commercial scale the BioZate™, an
antihypertensive whey protein hydrolysate, and a few
other prototypes of bioactive fractions that stayed in
industrial drawers. The last of the family is the product
XP-828L, a bovine milk growth factor extract that has
the capacity to reduce psoriasis symptoms. It is
commercialized under the trademark Dermylex™ by
Advitech inc. To bring this product to maturity, a new
CRD-NSERC project started in 2005 in partnership
with the company. The project, recently completed, led
to many practical results which are exposed here.
Extraction, characterization and biological
activities of bovine milk growth factors
CRD-NSERC- Project
(Laval University – Advitech inc) 2005-2009
Many objectives were pursued along with the research
project:
 The complete characterization of the XP-828L to
distinguish it from other whey-based commercial
products;
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Number 57, April 2010
 The identification and quantification of the active
components of the product;
 The identification of other sources of dairy
substrates to manufacture the product;
 A better understanding of each of the XP-828L
manufacturing steps and the impact of several
factors, like pH and thermal treatments, on the
quality of the final product in terms of growth
factors and biological activity contents;
 The development of new growth factor extraction
strategies from different dairy substrates using
approaches based on potential interactions of
these
 molecules with polysaccharides to offer other
alternatives
of
the
commercial
product
manufacturing processes;
 The evaluation of the impact of gastrointestinal
digestion on the product, its protein composition,
but also the enzymatic damage of active
components;
 The elucidation of the role of the commercial
product’s components and their action mechanism
to better understand its biological activity;
 The evaluation of the product’s anti-inflammatory
properties with another in vivo animal model to
possibly broaden the range of potential
applications of the commercial product.
This research project lead not only to new scientific
and technical knowledge for a better understanding
of different aspects of the commercial product for
Advitech, but it also identified different choices in
terms of more competitive dairy substrates to make
the commercial product and new manufacturing
approaches.
The most relevant knowledge for Advitech that
stemmed from this research project is:
 The identification of other dairy substrates, more
accessible in Canada and less expensive, to
manufacture the product;
 The complete characterization of the product’s
composition in major and minor proteins and its
content in growth factors, and this for all the
ingredients developed inside the project with
different dairy substrates and new technological
approaches;
 The demonstration that in vitro gastrointestinal
digestibility of the commercial product does not
affect any aspect of its biological activity;
 The demonstration that some of the commercial
product components improve the response of the
innate immune system, most particularly by
activation of neutrophils that play a primary role in
host defence;
 The demonstration that the commercial product is
able to reduce intestinal inflammation in rats, which
could represent another potential application for the
commercial product as a natural health product.
Dermylex™ has otherwise obtained a NPN (Natural
Product Number) from Health Canada dated March 10,
2010.
Epilogue
They lived happily ever after and had many “children”»
… It seems that Sylvie and Yves are actually working
on the conception of a new offspring… twins in fact:
two peptide fractions from whey proteins that would
improve immune health …
To be continued…
This CRD-NSERC project delivered 20 scientific
publications submitted or in preparation, of which 10
are already accepted or published, 38 oral
communications or posters, and 1 patent. In terms of
high qualified personnel, this project allowed for the
training of 2 postdoctoral students, 5 Ph.D. and M.Sc.
graduate students, 2 technicians, 3 Food Science and
Technology undergraduate and 3 French trainees.
Research team:
Sylvie Gauthier, STELA/INAF, Principal investigator
Yves Pouliot, STELA/INAF
Sylvie Turgeon, STELA/INAF
Patrice Poubelle, CHUL Research Centre
Financial partners:
NSERC
Advitech inc.
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Number 57, April 2010
Publication Capsule
Students are identified with an asterisk (*)
1. Arteau, M*, S Labrie and D Roy. 2010. Terminal
Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism and
automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis
profiling of fungal communities in Camembert
cheese, available online: International Dairy
Journal.
2. Audy, J*, S Labrie, D Roy and G LaPointe. 2010.
Sugar source modulates exopolysaccharide
biosynthesis in Bifidobacterium longum subsp.
longum crc 002. Microbiology 156 (Pt 3);
653-664.
3. Bassett, CMC, AL Edel, AF Patenaude,
RS McCullough, D Blackwood, PY Chouinard,
P Paquin, B Lamarche and GN Pierce. 2010.
Dietary vaccenic acid has anti-atherogenic effects
in ldlr-/- mice. Journal of Nutrition 140 (1);
18-24.
4. Bazinet, L, Y Pouliot and F Castaigne. 2010.
Relative contributions of charged species to
conductivity changes in skim milk during
electrochemical acidification. Journal of
Membrane Science, 352; 32-40.
5. Bazinet, L and L Firdaous. 2010. Application of
electromembrane processes to the production of
nutraceuticals or functional foods. Published upon
invitation in the Handbook of Membrane
Research: Properties, Performance and
Applications, Gorley SV, (Editor). Chemical
Engineering Methods and Technology Series,
Nova Science Publishers Inc., Hauppauge, NY,
Chapter 8; 291-312.
6. Ben Ounis, W*, SF Gauthier, SL Turgeon,
Y Pouliot. 2010. Separation of transforming
growth factor-beta 2 (TGF-β2) from whey protein
isolates by crossflow microfiltration in the
presence of a ligand. Journal of Membrane
Science, 351:189-195.
7. Casademont, C, G Pourcelly and L Bazinet. 2010.
Bilayered self-oriented membrane fouling and
impact of magnesium on CaCo3 formation during
consecutive electrodialysis treatments, Langmuir,
26 (2); 854-859.
8. Dachet, F*, D St-Gelais, D Roy and G LaPointe.
2010. Transcriptome profiling of lactococcal mixed
culture activity in milk by fluorescent RNA arbitrarily
primed-PCR. Dairy Science and Technology,
online.
9. Deutsch, SM, LEBP, C Hervé, MN Madec,
G Lapointe, G Jan, LELY and H Falentin. 2010.
Capsular phenotype in Propionibacterium
freudenreichii correlates with the expression level of
gtf, a unique polysaccharide synthase encoding
gene, Appl Environ Microbiol.
10. Fliss, I and E Kheadr. 2010. Collaboration in the
writing of the chapter: Antimicrobial activity of the
genus Bifidobacterium, of the book Bifidobacteria:
Genomics and Molecular Aspects, published by
Caister Academic Press at Baltasar Mayo and
Douwe van Sinderen Editions. Horizon Scientific
Press.
11. Gaaloul, S*, SL Turgeon and M Corredig. 2010.
Phase Behaviour of Whey Protein Aggregates / Carrageenan Mixtures: Experiment and Theory.
Food Biophysics, Springer NY, 1557-1866, online.
12. Girard, M*, S Ngazoa*, K Mattison and J Jean.
2010. Attachment of noroviruses to stainless steel
and their inactivation, using household disinfectants,
Journal of Food Protection,
73 (2); 400-404.
13. Hammami, R*, A Zouhir, C Le Lay*, J Ben Hamida
and I Fliss. 2010. Bactibase second release: A
database and tool platform for bacteriocin
characterization, Bmc Microbiology, 10.
14. Hébrard, G, V Hoffart, E Beyssac, JM Cardot, M
Alric and M Subirade. 2010. Coated whey
protein/alginate microparticles as oral controlled
delivery systems for probiotic yeast, Journal of
Microencapsulation, online.
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Number 57, April 2010
15. Liang, L*, V Leung Sok Line*, GE Remondetto
and M Subirade. 2010. In vitro release of alphatocopherol from emulsion-loaded beta-lactoglobulin gels, International Dairy Journal,
vol. 20 (3), 176-181.
16. Martel, C, S Dugre-Brisson, K Boulay, B Breton,
G Lapointe, S Armando, V Trepanier, T
Duchaine, M Bouvier and L Desgroseillers. 2010.
Multi-merization of staufen1 in live cells, RNA,
16(3); 585-597.
17. Rasolofo, EA*, D St-Gelais, G LaPointe and
D Roy. 2010. Molecular analysis of bacterial
population structure and dynamics during cold
storage of untreated and treated milk,
Int J Food Microbiol, 138 (1-2); 108-118.
18. Rusu, D*, R Drouin, Y Pouliot, S Gauthier and
PE Poubelle. 2010. A bovine whey protein extract
stimulates human neutrophils to generate
bioactive il-1ra through a NF- B and MAPKdependent mechanism, Journal of Nutrition,
140 (2); 382-391.
19. Taibi, A*, N Dabour*, M Lamoureux, D Roy and
G Lapointe. 2010. Evaluation of the genetic polymorphism among Lactococcus lactis subsp.
cremoris strains using comparative genomic
hybridization and multilocus sequence analysis,
Int J Food Microbiol.
Dairy Science and Technology Week 2010
June, 7 to 9, 2010
IDF Symposium on Science and Technology of
Fermented Milk, Tromsö, Norway
http://www.idffer2010.no/
Dairy Science Symposium and Launch of
STELA’s 25 Years Celebrations
June11, 2010
Special guests, friends and STELA’s alumni
Hôtel Palace Royal, Quebec
Program and registration
Health via Probiotics
International Symposium
October 28 and 29, 2010
Mont-Royal Centre
Montreal
For more information
IDF World Dairy Summit
November 4-11, 2010
Auckland, New-Zealand
Sylvie Turgeon is a keynote speaker and will present:
Dairy matrices: impact of their structural properties on
the delivery of intrinsic and extrinsic bioactives
http://www.wds2010.com
Answers of the Historical Capsule
Future Events
1- b) Star (…The Milky Way)
Novalait Technological Forum
2- b) Informe-Lait
13 mai 2010
Hôtel & Suites Le Dauphin
Drummondville
Forum Technologique Novalait 2010
3- b) Paul Paquin
IDF/ISO Analytical Week
Please contact:
May 17-21, 2010, Montreal, Quebec
Standardization and sampling methods for milk and
dairy products
For more information
4- Steve Labrie
For more information on E-Milk
Hélène Fortier, Administrative Secretary
STELA Research Centre
Tel.: (418) 656-3726
Fax: (418) 656-3353
E-mail :[email protected]
Site internet : http://stela.fsaa.ulaval.ca
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Number 57, April 2010