Student unlocks DNA of flaxseed to create potential for healthier food
April 22, 2010 by admin
Omega 3 and Omega 6 are essential fatty acids in foods that play an important role in growth and development, reproduction, vision and the immune system, including prevention of cancers and heart diseases.
However, modern diets are often too high in Omega 6, which can increase the probability of disease and depression, and too low in Omega 3, creating substantial health issues.
Binudith (Bin) Warnakulasooriya, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Fort Richmond Collegiate, Winnipeg, decided to tackle this widespread problem by figuring out how to unlock DNA to produce flaxseed with the healthiest ratio of the Omega fatty acids.
Although flaxseed generally has more Omega 3 than 6, Bin identified many types of flax that have too high a level of Omega 6, making them unsuitable for human consumption since they could lead to chronic diseases.
“My experiment found the right ‘genetic code’ necessary to get a lower Omega 6 and get higher levels of Omega 3 from the flax plant,” he said.
Armed with this genetic secret, plant scientists could develop and commercialize flax types with the optimal Omega 3 / Omega 6 ratio. And it could go a long way towards correcting the dietary imbalance of many people.
It took months of 2.5 hour lab sessions daily to make this breakthrough, so the big challenge for this busy high school student, simultaneously involved in athletics and other extracurricular work, was time management.
After five years of science competition (he placed third in last year’s SABC national final), Bin says he was surprised at how “smart and complicated” projects have become. “The competition increases every year.”
Bin, who plans a career in molecular genetics or medicine, says a major lesson for him this year was “how organized you have to be to achieve anything.”
