Bio-Industrial Research Laboratories

Contained Plant Pathogen & CL2 Laboratory Details

InnoTech Alberta has a CFIA and Health Canada license for our plant pathogen and CL2 laboratory. We have a large culture collection of many plant pathogens from agricultural and greenhouse crops as well as many types of cultures commonly used in industrial hygiene testing. In this lab we are able to conduct:  

• Inoculum production: Produce large scale amounts of fungal cultures used for crop evaluations such as disease resistance traits and crop protection products (examples include sclerotina, fusarium spp., rhizoctonia spp. etc.) 
• Plant pathogen identification: Evaluate plant and/or soil materials for disease-causing bacteria or fungi by visual, microscopic, plating, and/or molecular sequencing methods 
• Mold and microbial analysis: Identification and enumeration of plant or environmental samples using selective and differential media and/or qPCR 
• Plant health problem diagnosis: Consulting services for plant health-related problems due to diseases, pests and insects, and environmental or management issues  
• Fungicide bioassay: Early fungicide evaluations using laboratory petri plate techniques, efficacy testing of synthetic and natural fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers, & biological agents: Laboratory techniques to evaluate the efficacy of products including but not limited to reduction in pathogen numbers in treatment substrates by enumeration, in vitro bioassays measuring specificity, stability, efficacy and treatment effects 
• Cannabis testing 
• Industrial hygiene product (sterilizers, disinfection, and cleaning agents) efficacy testing 

 Molecular Biology Laboratory Details

InnoTech Alberta’s molecular biology laboratory studies DNA and RNA of plants, pathogens, soil, water and other organisms; to understand the genetics and microbial community profiles at play, and to develop and assess effective new products.  We have a suite of highly specialized systems to choose from: 

• 16S rRNA analysis: Used to determine the microbial community identification in soil, water, or other environmental systems; or to ID isolated unknown bacterial or fungal samples
• High throughput Oxford Nanopore Sequencing: For whole genome or transcriptome sequencing, this gives both long (Gb) and short reads (200bp plus) for DNA, RNA or epigenetic markers. This is used for breeding and selection of crops or plants, or for identification purposes of species in an environment
• eDNA analysis in conjunction with the Environmental division allowing us to provide clients with community profiles of wildlife, or microbiomes. We have worked extensively with soil, water, shale, soil cores, dust trap, and many more unusual sample types
• Bioinformatics & genomics analysis: we provide analysis of larger high-throughput genetic data sets or community analysis along with our high-throughput sequencing services 
• Plant and fungal genotyping: We offer genotyping services to help determine variety or pathotype of both plants and fungus 
• DNA and RNA extractions: we can do mid-sized sample extraction, quantification and assessment projects from 192 to thousands of samples of various types 
• Molecular pathogen & environmental microbial identification

Plant & Microbial Biochemistry Lab Details

This laboratory analyzes plants and samples for mycotoxins (secondary metabolites of fungi) for several purposes: fungal species evolution research, crop cultivar development for resistance to mycotoxin producers, and food and feed safety.  

We can conduct fungal and bacterial metabolite preparative, research as well as development services including fermentation and purification of mycotoxins, the identification/quantitation of secondary metabolites of plants and microbes (includes cannabinoids and other secondary metabolites of Cannabis sativa), and the development of analytic methods for plant and microbial metabolites. 

Laboratory Equipment

Our bio-industrial laboratories have access to a wide range of scientific equipment and tools: 

• Autoclaves  
• Biosafety cabinets 
• Centrifuges 
• Fume hoods 
• Oxford Nanopore Sequencer 
• PCR machines (including quantitative real-time PCR machines) 
• DNA extraction and assessment equipment (Nanodrop, Fluorometer, Costal Genomics Lightbench) 
• Tissue Grinders 
• Microscopes  
• Specialized microscope imaging cameras and software 
• Rotary evaporators  
• Water baths 
• FTIR spectroscopy 
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography 
• Nanodrop spectrophotometer 
• Elisa plate reader 
• Freeze Dryers 
• Incubators 
• -80° freezers