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U of S researchers get $5.6M to study flax versatility Promise contained in the flax plant may be unlocked in one of three new projects funded by the federal government through Genome Canada's Prairie centre. Gordon Rowland and Sylvie Cloutier, scientists at the University of Saskatchewan, received $5.65 million to study the usefulness and versatility of flax. The scientists plan to use genomics research to improve flax breeding. Genomics is the study of gene sequences in living organisms; a genome is a full DNA map of an organism. "Canada is the world's largest producer of flax, which places the onus on us to lead flax research and development," Rowland said at a news conference Monday. Peter Phillips, also with the U of S, received $2.5 million for a research project that looks at the ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social implications of genomics research. Tagged as GE3LS, the project involves a national research team to study how Canada can benefit from applying genomic research to agriculture. The third Genome Prairie project, based at the University of Manitoba, will investigate new ways of producing biofuels. Researcher David Levin said biofuels have the potential to replace fossil fuels for transportation, but the present reliance on grains has created "tremendous controversy." The biofuels project, which received $4.87 million from the federal government, will investigate new sources for biofuels, such as waste products from forestry, or straw from wheat, flax and hemp. In total, the three projects will be funded for almost $28 million, when contributions from other funding partners -- such as the provincial government, international investors, and industry -- are included. The three projects were among 12 announced Monday at the Agriculture Building at the U of S, with $53 million coming from the Canadian government through Genome Canada and $59 million from other partners. The agriculture and bioproduct projects were solicited through a competition, and selected from 48 proposals through a peer-review process. Wilf Keller, president and CEO of Genome Prairie, was pleased that the Prairie arm of the national research organization landed three of the projects. "We're happy with this. That's a reasonable level in our opinion. Mind you, this competition was about bioproducts and agriculture, so we feel this area is very important. "We obviously would have been disappointed had there been less than this. We're very happy, though, with what has been received. "These projects will commence over the next four months and run for three to four years. We can look forward to seeing some important benefits and results coming out of this work," Keller said. Gary Goodyear, minister of science and technology, said the Conservative government's funding is part of its economic stimulus plan. While Genome Canada was not directly funded in the last budget, it has received $240 million funding in previous budgets for four- and five-year contracts, he said. The flax project will focus on both the health benefits and the industrial uses of the crop, said Rowland. "We used to grow lots and lots of this crop, specifically for the industrial market, for producing linoleum flooring, or for paints . . . and then the petroleum products came along and displaced a lot of this," he said. "We want to maintain or even grow the industrial
side of the crop. At the same time, there are all these health
applications.
That flaxseed is a really good package of beneficial components." |
