Food Science
Proteins4Singapore
Cultivation of alternative protein sources for a sustainable urban food production in Singapore.
About the Programme
Proteins4Singapore develops sustainable protein ingredients and foods for land and resource constrained urban environments. The programme integrates urban-compatible biomass production with sustainable extraction and processing, analytical characterisation, texturisation and reverse food engineering, nutrition and microbiome research, food safety, and supply-chain assessment.
Proteins4Singapore connects protein production and processing with functionality, nutrition, sensory quality and scale-up to develop practical and appealing alternative-protein foods for Singapore.
Key Objectives
Combining the functionality-driven cultivation of alternative non-animal protein sources with innovative processing and extraction methods as well as novel reverse food engineering approaches.
The following research objectives are defined:
- Develop synergies between cultivation of indoor soybean and microalgal biomass within optimised space and minimal resource inputs.
- Urban Protein Production: Develop resource-efficient microalgae and other protein production systems suited to urban environments.
- Link efficient and sustainable extraction methods for these protein sources to the techno-functional, nutritious and flavour aspects of food production.
- Enable an analytical characterization platform for functionality-driven optimizations of protein cultivation and processing and establish knowledge for functionalization of these proteins/peptides by thermomechanical processing and bioengineering techniques.
- Create novel and efficient food production concepts by reverse engineering approaches for large-scale industrial or decentralised food production platforms.
- Rational Texturisation: Develop food structures through reverse engineering approaches that utilise the molecular properties and interactions of food components.
- Specify functional aspects and identify the mechanisms of beneficial food-microbe interactions and their advantages for the consumers in Singapore.
- Develop a resilient local supply chain of protein-based agri-food products and assess the protein supply chains for the proposed production technologies with the tools of e.g., life-cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment.
- Additive Manufacturing: Enable rapid, iterative food design and scalable industrial or decentralised production through additive manufacturing.
Research Team
Proteins4Singapore is delivered by a consortium of investigators from TUM, NTU, SIFBI and SIT, together with a resident research team based at TUMCREATE in Singapore.
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
- BECKER, Thomas — Programme Lead
- GULDIN, Stefan — Principal Investigator
- BRUECK, Thomas — Principal Investigator
- DAWID, Corinna — Principal Investigator
- HALLER, Dirk — Co-Investigator
- HINRICHSEN, Kai-Olaf — Principal Investigator
- RYCHLIK, Michael — Principal Investigator
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
- PREISER, Peter — Programme Lead
- CHEN, Wei Ning William — Principal Investigator
- LAU, Raymond — Principal Investigator
- LI King Ho Holden — Co-Investigator
- NG Wei Tat Leonard — Principal Investigator
- TAN Lay Poh — Co-Investigator
- S. Viswanathan — Principal Investigator
- XIA Kelin — Principal Investigator
- YEONG Wai Yee — Principal Investigator
Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI)
- NG Siew Bee — Co-Investigator
- KANAGASUNDARAM, Yoganathan — Co-Investigator
Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)
- NELSON, Arif — Co-Investigator
- LIM Bee Gim — Co-Investigator
Researchers at TUMCREATE
- Prof. Stefan Guldin — Scientific Co-Director and Resident Principal Investigator
- Diego Atoche Garay — Research Associate
- LUO Jing (Yvonne) — Research Associate
- Marta Arbrile — Research Associate
- Nadyssa Willanda — Research Associate
- Dr Nikolaus Isidor Stellner — Research Fellow
- Tillmann Maria Peest — Research Associate
- Dr Vanesa Calvo Baltanas — Research Fellow
- Dr Vishal Khanpit — Research Fellow
- Dr Oliver Watkins — Analytical Food Chemist (Metabolomics)
- Dr Shiwei Ng — Research Fellow
- Rishika Batra — Research Associate
- Sophia Morsten — Research Associate
- Jooseop Park — Research Associate
- Weichen Shu — Research Associate
- Dr Nathaniel Hendrik — Research Fellow
- Natan Abelian — Research Associate
- Helena Heimes — Research Fellow
- Junxiang Lu — Research Engineer