News

Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) is pleased to announce the signing of a research collaboration agreement with Adventus LifeFoods Inc..

This agreement—the first of its kind at CUE—will provide the Adventus team with resources and support working with Dr. Makan Golizeh (Faculty of Science) to develop premium quality multi-functional health food ingredients. Through this collaboration, our objective is to further validate and advance the scaling up of Adventus’s novel technology for manufacturing functional iso-malto-oligosaccharides (IMOs).

This partnership has been facilitated by the BMO Centre for Innovation and Applied Research, Faculty of Science, and Office of Research Services.

Quotes

• “This is an exciting opportunity and milestone for CUE,” said Dr. Manfred Zeuch, Vice-President of External Affairs and International Relations at CUE. “We are focused on developing opportunities for industry and academia to collaborate, and look forward to driving innovation through our first-ever industry partnership with Adventus. This agreement will lead to the development of novel products and technologies, and will provide excellent training opportunities for our students.”
  
  
• “This research collaboration project with CUE brings value for our business, growth, and success,” said Dr. Hassan Qureshi, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Adventus. “Working with academia allows us to bring our novel innovations to the next level of scientific discovery, and give us a level of recognition and regard among the business community.”
  
  
• “Collaborations like this open up new horizons for our faculty and students,” said Dr. Valerie Henitiuk, Vice-President Academic and Provost at CUE. “It is worth noting that Dr. Golizeh joined CUE in recent months, making this agreement even more exciting. Our boutique university is continuing to grow and evolve, and I am looking forward to supporting future collaborations between academia and industry.”

About the Partners

Dr. Makan Golizeh
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science 

Dr. Makan Golizeh is an analytical chemist with extensive experience in mass spectrometry, biometals, and computational biochemistry. Dr. Golizeh earned his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). His research has led to a multitude of publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations, as well as several awards including the Mention of Honour of UQAM Faculty of Sciences, Governor General’s Academic Medal nomination, and the 2015’s Michel Bertrand Award in Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry. Dr. Golizeh completed postdoctoral training at Ohio Medical University in molecular dynamics of type 2 diabetes before joining McGill University Health Centre where he developed a novel approach in biomarker discovery of infectious diseases using integrated omics.

Adventus LifeFoods Inc.

Adventus LifeFoods Inc. is a manufacturer of premium class dietary and health food ingredients, supplements, functional food products, and nutrition and beverages. With our proprietary process (patent-pending), scientific expertise, and product knowledge base, Adventus leverages manufacturing platform technologies to discover, upgrade, develop, manufacture, and market a range of multi-functional health ingredients for food processors, food formulators, and general retailed consumers.

BMO Centre for Innovation and Applied Research

The BMO Centre for Innovation and Applied Research (BMO-CIAR) provides a woven approach for connecting multi-departmental applied research activities to external stakeholders, and assists with technology commercialization and the advancement of early-stage companies. The BMO-CIAR can be found in the state-of-the-art Allan Wachowich Centre for Science, Research, and Innovation. More information on our facility rental can be found here.

Concordia University of Edmonton

Concordia University of Edmonton is Canada’s pre-eminent small university, offering over 45 majors and minors in the fields of arts, science, and management, as well as two after-degree programs, several master’s degrees, and several graduate certificates and diplomas. In and out of our classrooms and lecture halls, we translate what we learn into extraordinary hands-on experiences. We live and work on a small campus, a river valley oasis, but Edmonton is our workshop. Our ultimate goal has not changed since 1921: to be more than students and professors, to create a community of active citizens, of good and honourable people. For more information, visit www.concordia.ab.ca.