The protein nutrition laboratory at Nutrition Research Division, the Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Canada, conducts researches on the impact of anti-nutritional factors and bioactives in the plant-derived proteins as well as supplementations with amino acids on dietary protein quality and amino acid bioavailabilities. These studies would provide important information to support establishment of the safe levels of anti-nutritional factors allowed in the plant-based protein foods, and setting of the max levels for amino acid supplementations in foods and drinks. Amino acids are basic compositions of a protein that is one of the key nutrients contained in foods and required by humans. Amino acid composition in a protein determines its quality and bioavailability. To ensure the delivery on the commitments and milestones of the ongoing projects, the protein nutrition laboratory requires a cryogenic freezer to maintain healthy frozen cell lines. This cryogenic freezer would ensure that the cell lines are kept between -130°C to -150°C.A cryogenic freezer capable of reaching and maintaining temperatures between -130°C to -150°C is needed to maintain healthy frozen cell cultures. Frozen cell cultures are part of the research that supports the setting of nutritional policies and regulations on food safety as a part of the Health Canada mandate.Maintaining healthy, growing cell cultures is a demanding task made more difficult by the ever present risk of their loss through accidents or contamination. In addition, actively growing cell cultures are not static but, like all populations of microorganisms, subject to age-related or environmentally-induced changes which can result in their ongoing evolution and potential loss.Frozen cultures provide an important backup supply for replenishing occasional losses due to contamination or accidents and provide the assurance of a homogeneous culture supply. Cellular changes or alterations occur in all actively growing populations. These changes often result in the loss of important characteristics during evolution of the cultures thereby introducing unwanted variables into long-term experiments. Cryogenically preserved cultures apparently do not undergo any detectable changes once they are stored between -130°C to -150°C. Therefore, the biological effects of in vitro cellular aging and evolution may be minimized by frequently returning to frozen stock cultures, allowing ongoing long-term culture experiments to be successfully completed without these unwanted variables. Frozen cultures also provide a valuable baseline against which future experimentally-induced changes may be compared or measured.Acquisition of a cryogenic freezer would add new in-house capacity and capabilities of amino acid and protein nutrition research.Health Canada has a requirement for the supply of one (1) Cryogenic Freezer.
