UNews - Synbridge

Unique approach to shipment tracking earns Innovation Catalyst Grant funding

trevor.kenney — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:18:36 +0000

In a world that increasingly relies on dependable shipping options for everything from clothes to car parts to food items, an innovative new business has earned support from a pan-Alberta entrepreneurial program through a two-year, $250,000 Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG).

Dr. Annie Ray and her start-up company Anandi Botanicals Inc. is at the forefront of supplying tissue cultivated plants for agriculture, horticulture, forestry and conservation. Their specialty is providing virus free plants to greenhouses and nurseries, berry growers, orchards, mining and reclamation companies and more. What makes their products unique is that they will soon be packaged in biodegradable containers that have been embedded with sensors that can track the conditions the plants endure throughout the shipping process.

Anandi Botanicals Ltd. is pioneering a new way to track shipments of their plants to enhance their health and sustainability.

“I have been working in the plant tissue culture industry for more than a decade and observed a gap in shipment tracking for plants. While sensors can be purchased separately to monitor shipment conditions, they are not integrated into a simple system for plant shipping,” says Ray, who has a PhD in plant biology. “I saw an opportunity to fill that gap with a more practical solution, since there was no suitable option available in the market.”

Her idea was to create packaging that integrated the sensors into the containers and, better yet, the containers would be made of a biodegradable material rather than plastic.

“We tried it with plastic packaging first and it worked wonderfully but we wanted something biodegradable, so we started talking with companies that used seaweed as plastics,” she says. “We were doing it on our own, but it was slow without any funding and that’s when I found out about the ICG grant.”

The Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG) is an entrepreneurial fellowship designed to support recent graduates (master’s or PhD) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The program provides a two-year runway for entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize innovative, science-based products and services that contain a hardware component.

“This grant is designed for recent STEM graduates who have really great ideas but because they are just beginning to establish themselves, they don’t have the business relationships or the capital to bring these ideas to market,” says Luc Roberts (BSc ’12, PhD ’23), entrepreneurial strategist for the Teaching Centre and Agility. “What’s great about this grant is that it supports the recipient with not only a salary as well as seed funding, but a network of mentors, peers and innovation ecosystem partners to help them.”

The ICG is administered by partner universities (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge) with participation and oversight by the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation.

"Alberta is full of brilliant people with ideas worth backing. The Innovation Catalyst Fund exists to make sure those founders can build their companies here, hire here, and keep their intellectual property here,” says Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. “This cohort is proof the model is working. Twelve early-stage ventures, twelve reasons for the next generation of Alberta innovators to bet on this province."

Ray, who is also a recipient of an RDAR-SCAP grant for a conservation project, leases lab facilities at Synbridge. She says that with a successful model shipping plant products using her innovative packaging technique, she is already looking to other industries.

“This is not only restricted to the plant industry, but it could also be used for food and beverage, perishables, as well as pharmaceutical industries. This is only a start,” she says.

A start funded by a unique program that is bringing ideas to life.

U of L’s Synbridge helps launch Paramoria Agri-Science

caroline.zentner — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 20:54:29 +0000

Biotech startup companies face a number of hurdles getting their businesses off the ground, not the least of which is the cost of specialized tools and equipment.

That was the case for Brent Puchalski, a molecular plant pathologist and founder of Paramoria Agri-Science, when he looked to launch a company to help grain and oilseed farmers better fight fungal infections in their fields. Luckily, he was able to connect with Synbridge, a synthetic biology makerspace at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Paramoria was able to gain access to Synbridge’s specialty lab and biotechnology equipment on a fee-for-use basis.

“It’s been great working with Paramoria,” says Dr. Laura Keffer-Wilkes (MSc ’12, PhD ’16), manager of Synbridge. “It’s exciting to have them on campus and work in our space. Synbridge gives businesses a chance to fulfil the biotechnology side of their business plan by offering them lab space and use of our equipment at a reasonable cost.”

Reducing fungicide use

“In a nutshell, what we are doing is developing a microbial radar system which allows farmers to measure the amount of disease-causing agents or spores in their fields in real time,” says Puchalski. “We’re developing tools and technologies to try to mitigate the reliance of Canadian agriculture on fungicide application. We believe, based on the data and based on our protocol, we can significantly reduce the amount of fungicides that are applied across the Prairies and potentially around the world.”

Brent Puchalski holds a petri dish containing sclerotinia, a fungus that can cause disease in canola.

Puchalski and his father, Byron, a retired plant pathologist, estimate up to 75 per cent of all fungicide applications may be unnecessary, as farmers spray out of an abundance of caution, not because they know they have a fungal problem. That caution is well-placed as fungal infections can result in significant yield loss. The Puchalskis have developed an inexpensive spore trap that harvests spores from the air, which are then taken back to the lab for analysis using Synbridge’s molecular tools.

“We want to give farmers tools to better manage their fields by telling them exactly what they do and don’t have, rather than guessing and worrying,” says Brent. “Right now, farmers rely on models and predictions and their own skill and gut feeling. We aim to limit this practice by giving them a weekly measurement of what’s in their field at any one time.”

Testing the tools

Since gaining access to the lab in April, Paramoria has been busy prototyping and testing its technology with four farmers across a dozen fields during the past growing season. Their testing focused on detecting the presence of stripe rust, which affects cereal grains like wheat, and sclerotinia, which can attack all major crops in southern Alberta. The samples and analyses done over the summer showed them the system worked and will give their clients actionable data to use when deciding to apply fungicide.

“We are very confident in our results, and that this system will do what it’s supposed to do,” says Brent. “We believe we can cut down farmers’ fungicide applications.”

Not only will farmers save money by spraying only when and where needed, reducing fungicide use is also beneficial for the environment and helps reduce the likelihood of resistant strains developing.

Now that the prototyping and testing phases have been completed, the Puchalskis want to expand their operations in more fields next year. Anyone interested is welcome to contact them through their website, by calling 587-282-1285, or by sending an email to puchalsk@ualberta.ca.

About Synbridge

Synbridge was formed in 2016 with the assistance of a $1.5-million grant from Western Economic Diversification. The grant enabled the purchase of specialized equipment like a fluorescence activated cell sorter, protein purification systems, centrifuges and more.

Located in Science Commons, Synbridge’s lab and services are open for anyone to use from small startups to multinational companies. Synbridge provides space for different research groups on campus, gives students training opportunities and hosts both the high school and U of L iGEM teams. Synbridge is also involved in two R & D challenges with industry as part of the U of L’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program.

Anyone interested in working in the Synbridge facility can contact Keffer-Wilkes at synbridge@uleth.ca.

UNews - Synbridge

Unique approach to shipment tracking earns Innovation Catalyst Grant funding

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U of L’s Synbridge helps launch Paramoria Agri-Science

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