This annual award recognizes outstanding research work in the areas of agrochemicals and food chemistry. Learn more about this year's awardees and read their winning research articles.
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC) and the ACS Divisions of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (AGFD) and Agrochemicals (AGRO) are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Research Article of the Year Award. Launched in 2013, this award annually recognizes outstanding research work in the areas of agrochemicals and food chemistry.
Congratulations to this year’s award recipients! The awards will be presented at ACS Fall 2024. Each award winner receives an honorarium, a plaque, and travel expenses to attend the ACS National Meeting to present their research.
Winner of the AGFD Division Research Article of the Year Award
Read the Full Article
Proof of Concept for Cell Culture-Based Coffee
Heikki Aisala, Elviira Kärkkäinen, Iina Jokinen, Tuulikki Seppänen-Laakso, and Heiko Rischer*
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c04503
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c04503
This exceptional research article announces the replication of aromas and tastes of a conventional cup of coffee by roasting and brewing lab-grown coffee plant cell cultures. Sensory evaluation by trained taste-testers identified similar bitterness and sourness characteristics to conventional coffee, and the new brews had more roasted, burned sugar, and smokey aromas. This study demonstrates the viability of cellular agriculture as an alternative coffee production method, which can help overcome challenges in coffee production like land use, climate change and increased demand.
For further reading, check out the related Axial post surrounding this research:
Beyond the Bean: The Science Behind Lab-Grown Coffee
Coffee production faces serious global challenges on a number of fronts; yet demand continues to grow. But could we think outside the box, replacing traditional coffee crops with cellular agriculture?
Winner of the AGRO Division Research Article of the Year Award
Read the Full Article
Immune Mechanism of Ethylicin-Induced Resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in Rice
Hongxia Lu, Zhongjie Shen, Yujun Xu, Linjing Wu, Deyu Hu, Runjiang Song*, and Baoan Song*
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07385
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07385
Ethylicin (ET) is promising for controlling rice bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). This outstanding research article reveals a detailed mechanism for the process, finding that ethylicin inhibits Xoo by increasing the content of defense enzymes and chlorophyll in rice. Proteomic analysis provided insight into ET's impact on the rice abscisic acid (ABA) signal pathway, activating calcium-dependent protein kinase 24 (OsCPK24). The authors identified OsCPK24 as a key mediator in rice resistance to Xoo, paving the way for the development of new bactericides leveraging OsCPK24.
Accepting the Research Article of the Year Award (AGFD Division) on behalf of all co-authors: Dr. rer. nat. Heiko Rischer
Dr. rer. nat. Heiko Rischer is a Research Team Leader for Plant Biotechnology at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. and an Adjunct Professor in Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Helsinki. He is a Biologist with a Ph.D. in natural product chemistry, and he is particularly interested in the biosynthesis of plant secondary metabolites. He has expertise in plant cell and tissue culture methods, analysis of secondary metabolites including metabolic profiling, and biotechnological production, at industrial scales, of plant-based compounds and phytopharmaceuticals. His major current research interest is the use of plant cell cultures for sustainable food production (Cellular Agriculture). Learn more about Dr. rer. nat. Heiko Rischer from our recent interview below.
What inspired you to pursue your particular area of research?
The idea of using plant cell culture technology to produce food biotechnologically, also known as Cellular Agriculture, emerged several years ago and is based on years of previous work for pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics applications. A publication in the 1970s that first explored the idea inspired us to work especially with cell-based coffee, but the concept is not limited to coffee and we are working with various other plants as well.
What’s next for your research?
Once the feasibility of cell cultured coffee had been demonstrated, essentially two research directions opened up. One is to explore the fundamental scientific questions about the flavour precursors in the cell material and how they can be manipulated/enhanced to produce a wide range of coffee raw material. The other is to examine the technical issues related to the implementation of the technology throughout the entire value chain, from increasing biomass production to processing methods such as roasting, to product development considering regulatory aspects.
What do you consider to be the most important advances in your field in the past five years?
It is not so much the gradual technical improvements but more the holistic conceptual thinking along with the economic interest that drove the field forward. Of course, omics approaches are essential to describe and efficiently regulate the biological systems for applications. On the other hand, the enormous potential of current molecular tools and AI has hardly been explored.
Accepting the Research Article of the Year Award (AGRO Division) on behalf of all co-authors: Dr. Runjiang Song
Dr. Runjiang Song is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, Guizhou University (GZU, China). His research focuses on the development of green pesticides, including the design of new agrochemical structures derived from natural products, bioactivity screening, and the application of advanced molecular biology techniques to elucidate their mechanisms of action. He has identified pyruvate kinase as a potential new target against rice bacterial leaf blight and uncovered rice calcium-dependent protein kinase 24 as a target for inducing plant resistance to bacterial diseases. Learn more about Dr. Runjiang Song from our recent interview below.
What inspired you to pursue your particular area of research?
That has to be my experience. I studied at the School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) as an undergraduate. During my final year project, I was a member of Prof. Zhong Li’s group where I focused on the research of neonicotinoid pesticides. At that time, I was amazed that such small aphids could seriously damage food crops and wondered how chemicals could kill these pests, which sparked my interest in pesticide development. However, because of my weak knowledge in chemistry and biology, I went to the Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to continue my Ph.D. studies after my graduation. During this period, I delved deeply into the knowledge of chemical synthesis and biology, which laid the foundation for my subsequent research. In addition, I always think pesticides are responsible for ensuring food security for a growing global population. I believe that pesticides have to be sustainable as we go forward. This sustainable goal combined with my undergraduate and Ph.D. experience inspired me to pursue the research and development of green pesticides.
What’s next for your research?
Currently, the chemical control of plant bacterial diseases represents a challenging area due to resistance development and bad eco-compatibility of conventional bactericides. Thus, my next research will be to design novel bactericides based on our discovery of pyruvate kinase and calcium-dependent protein kinase 24, potential target proteins against plant bacterial diseases. More specifically, this may involve a multi-step process that includes biochemical research, computational modeling, chemical synthesis, and a series of testing phases.
What do you consider to be the most important advances in your field in the past five years?
I am pleased to see that over the past five years, an increasing number of my fellow researchers have started to focus on the research into the mechanisms of action of pesticides. Previously, the discovery of a new class of pesticides often depended on serendipity. However, with the development of molecular biology techniques, these technologies are being used more extensively to uncover the mechanisms of action of both traditional and new pesticides, in doing so, many potential new target proteins have been discovered and their functions revealed. Screening or designing specific agrochemicals based on these potential targets may lead to the discovery of lead compounds with good activity, reducing costs and risks to non-target organisms. In addition, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), incorporating AI into pesticide design not only speeds up the process but can also lead to more innovative approaches and solutions in the development of new pesticides. Therefore, I believe that biotechnology and AI are the most important innovations brought to pesticide research.
Learn About Last Year's Winners
