New Infrastructures at Canada's Institute of Nutraceuticals
UniversitDe Laval Rector Michel Pigeon inaugurated the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods' (INAF) new research infrastructures. These installations, the result of a C$15.2 million ($12.1 million) investment, aim to strengthen INAF's position in research on the links between nutrition, health and disease prevention.
The investment made possible the renovation of existing laboratories, the building of new ones, and the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment. Thus, INAF now possesses molecular biology and biochemical laboratories, a pilot laboratory for food processing, animal research facilities, and a laboratory dedicated to clinical trials comprising a calorimetric room and physiological analysis units. These rooms are equipped with instruments necessary for conducting innovative research: mass spectrometry systems, high-pressure liquid and gas chromatographs, as well as Canada's only gastric and intestinal dynamic simulator, which will allow scientists to better understand how beneficial molecules are absorbed in the body.