DSM produces a wide variety of biotechnological products such as enzymes, cultures, polyunsaturated fatty acids and cell extracts. The analytical challenge in biotechnological innovations is to identify and quantify a large variety of compounds of interest in- and outside of microbial cells, in products, in food applications and in bioprocesses. Next to structural identification and quantification of these molecules, their localization and activity in the food matrix also plays an important role, requiring both high throughput data-driven experiments and deep insights.
In this presentation, examples will be shown how smart combinations of analytical technologies combined with advanced data analysis and interpretation allow for new insights in the molecular basis of food and our bio-based ingredients. We use native separation technologies not only to analyse the food matrix but also to analyse the enzymes (proteoforms) making it possible to perform activity determination and molecular characterization using MS in parallel allowing to study structure-function relationships. Lipidomics, enabled by direct infusion ion mobility MS, is used to study oil compositions and fats in food matrices without sample preparation and allows to distinguish positional isomers. Finally, untargeted MS-based technologies, as well as untargeted High-Throughput NMR, were combined with sensory studies in a so-called Sensomics approach to improve food sensation based on molecular insights of fermented milk products flavor pathways.
Dr. Maurien Olsthoorn, Corporate Science Fellow Analysis & Characterization, DSM Biotechnology Center, Delft