Science Café – Yeasts at Work: Beer, Bread and Beyond

For centuries, yeasts have transformed our food and beverages by converting sugars into alcohol for beer and wine, as well as carbon dioxide which causes bread to rise. In this Science Café, I will share my work on enhancing beer flavors to make them taste and smell like tropical fruits. But yeasts can do much more than just helping with brewing. I will also talk about how my research group at Carleton is creating new strains of yeast for various industrial applications. For example, we are giving beer yeast new genetic instructions so they can consume plastic waste and dairy by-products, and turn them into valuable products used as biofuels, cosmetics, and preservatives for animal feed.

My goal is to give the audience a new appreciation of the amazing power of this tiny living organism, often kept in your kitchen cabinet or homebrew drawer in the basement.

About the presenter:

Dr. Eugene Fletcher is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology, Carleton University. Prior to joining Carleton in the summer of 2023, he was the Research and Development (R&D) Lead at Escarpment Laboratories, a yeast company based in Guelph, Ontario. At Escarpment Labs, he spearheaded an active research program to develop yeast strains for craft brewers in Canada and abroad.

Eugene got his PhD in Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Following his PhD in 2014, he pursued postdoctoral training at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg (Sweden), Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Ottawa.

His research program at Carleton focuses on developing better yeasts for industry. In addition to his academic and industry experience, Eugene holds a 2023 US patent and is passionate about moving ideas from the lab bench to market.

To find out more about Dr. Fletcher, head to X and follow @EuFletch or follow along on Linkedin.