Plants and crops play an essential role in the environment and food security and the better utilisation of plants is vital to address this as the global population continues to grow.
The Plant Biotechnology expertise at the Centre for Applied Bioscience Research is focussed on helping plants to be more productive. This is achieved through four main approaches:
- Strain selection – selecting strains that are better suited for particular growth conditions
- Growth conditions – identifying growth conditions that can are most suited to the end-point (ie protein production)
- Efficient extraction – dependent upon the target sector, extraction of specific compounds is very important. It is often the case that extraction can only become commercially viable if a number of compounds are extracted in a biorefinery approach
- Biomass utilisation – at the end of every process with natural products, there is generally biomass that is not utilised. At the Centre for Applied Bioscience Research, we specialise in identifying opportunities for these types of biomass.
In addition to the expertise at the Centre for Applied Bioscience Research, it is also the equipment and facilities that support our delivery across a range of sectors. Our plant growth chambers are a key enabling technology to help Irish companies to address a range of plant biotechnology questions. In addition to these chambers other equipment that is also utilised includes:
- LC-MS
- ICP-MS
- Calorimeter
- GC-MS
- AA
- Freeze dryer
- Spray dryer
