Work on cranberry helped research manager bridge university/industry divide

By Hank Schultz

- Last updated on GMT

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Work on cranberry helped research manager bridge university/industry divide
Linking the goals of companies in the dietary supplement sector with the objectives of university researchers is more art than science. Working with companies like Canadian cranberry supplier Fruit d’ Or has helped Christian Krueger, research program manager at the University of Wisconsin, refine his approach so that both parties can benefit.

Fruit d’ Or has refined its testing approach by collaborating with Krueger, said marketing director Stephen Lukawski. 

“We are always looking for ways to increase standards, to raise the bar of our quality,” ​Lukawski said.

Deep dive on cranberries

Krueger has developed a mass spectrometry method through the company, Complete Phytochemical Solutions, he operates in conjunction with his university activities.  Known by the acronym MALDI-TOF, Krueger has used the approach to give a more complete look at the proanthocyanidins contained within the fruit.

“As this relates to cranberries, we are looking at the characteristics of the proanthocyanidins.  It allows us to get more information about the distribution of these chemicals and the unique linkages within them,” ​Krueger said. The method can distinguish the A-type linkages found in the cranberry PACs from those in other natural sources, such as grape seed extract. It’s possible, Krueger said, for a knowledgable person to fool certain less sensitive chemical tests using the right kind of PAC-containing adulterant.

Most of the PACs contained in cranberry are soluble, Krueger said, which was fine in the earlier work he did for Ocean Spray and the Cranberry Institute.  Most of the products in the market at the time were juice products, or spray-dried versions of these. But now more and more whole cranberry ingredients, like those from Fruit d’ Or, are appearing on the market, he said, so another approach was needed to look at the insoluble PACs that were connected to the protein and fiber portions of the fruit that would be left over after juice extraction. Krueger was able to adapt a known method to do a deep dive on these other PACs so as to have a robust fingerprint for the whole fruit.

“It’s not a new method—it has been around for decades—but previously it had only been applied to forages and feeds for animal nutrition,”​ Krueger said.

Lessons learned

Krueger said collaborating with Lukawski and Fruit d’ Or on the MALDI-TOF method and the application of DNA testing to the verification of its raw material has helped him work out the best method for helping companies work with university researchers, who might have a natural suspicion of market-driven study designs.

“In our business strategy we do a deep dive with companies like Fruit d’ Or to come up with an overall approach to the problems they are facing. In doing so, we try to act as a bridge between industry, the market and the basic research done at the university,”​ Krueger said.

This can be a balancing act, Krueger said. University research would in its purest form be directed toward discovery, while a company-funded study at its so to speak crassest level would be meant to underpin a marketing strategy.  

“The university is not set up to provide consulting-type interactions with industry,”​ Krueger said. “The university really isn’t in the business to be a contract research organization. It’s a fundamentally different mentality on both sides. The university would love to have you fund a big project, but it’s all novel discovery.

“When I talk with the chief science officers of companies, the guys with the PhDs, they get it, and they would love to fund the basic research. But they usually aren’t the guys making the money decision.  I work with companies to try to show them what they could do with study design to find out the things they want to know while still attracting the attention of the university,”​ he said.

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