LFS Research Facilities

Food, Nutrition, and Health

The clinical nutrition laboratory is equipped with an array of state-of-the-art analytical instruments, such as headspace GC-FID, GC-MS, HPLC-DAD, and UHPLC-DAD, etc. Our researchers and graduate students are capable of determining and characterizing a wide range of nutrients (e.g., vitamins and amino acids), phytosterols, antioxidants, flavonoids and their metabolites. The clinical nutrition lab provides an excellent training environment for graduate students.

The clinical research unit comprises a reception lounge, clinic rooms, a sample preparation area and a meeting room equipped with an observation mirror and an audio/video system. The room is suitable for conducting small focus-group meetings, and behaviour and consumer studies. In addition, the unit is also equipped with many clinical research tools, including a bioimpedance scale, stadiometer, calipers, a blood pressure monitor, glucometers, hemoglobin analyzers, a urine analyzer, a metabolic cart and a fully stocked phlebotomy station for blood-sample collection.

The culinary laboratory is equipped with numerous modern kitchen stations and a demonstration station. The on-site audiovisual system enables filming, videoconferencing, distance education and live webcasting. The culinary lab provides a great learning environment for students to learn basic food theory and food preparation, as well as multicultural culinary techniques and skills. It has been frequently used for culinary classes on regional cuisine.

The sensory laboratory consists of 14 panelist booths complete with delivery windows and red lighting. The sensory lab is connected to the culinary laboratory for preparing food samples, and a boardroom for panelist training. The laboratory is ideal for teaching, research and commercial testing.

Food Safety and Quality

The pilot plant facility at the Food, Nutrition and Health (FNH) building is food-grade, and includes equipment specifically for food engineering/processing experiments. This facility is used for teaching in FNH325/326 and for student projects in FNH425, FNH497 and FNH499.

Food, Nutrition and Health (FNH) research labs on the second and third floor at the FNH building are used year-round for graduate research, and on a by-permission basis for undergraduate students in FNH425, FNH497 and FNH499. These labs offer a wide assortment of analytical equipment and reagents.

Undergraduate teaching laboratories for FNH325/326 and FNH 425 are located at the McMillan Building (2357 Main Mall, UBC Point Grey Campus). These adjacent laboratory rooms are equipped specifically for food chemistry/analysis and food microbiology experiments.

Sustainable Agriculture

The Biometeorology and Soil Physics Group has more than three decades of experience in making CO2, CH4, N2O, water vapour, and energy exchange measurements over remote forest, wetland, and agricultural ecosystems. Because of our significant technical expertise, we’ve been able to design a variety of instrumentation to enable continuous environmental measurements including temperature-controlled gas analyzer (for CO2, CH4, N2O and water vapour) enclosures, automated soil gas flux chamber systems and soil CO2 concentration sensors.

Instruments in the Sustainable Agriculture Landscapes Laboratory (SAL) include a Bruker TENSOR 37 FT-IR spectrometer for high-throughput physical and chemical analysis of soils and a Picarro CRDS for the simultaneous analysis of CO 2, N 2O and CH 4. The lab also maintains workstations for GIS and remote sensing analysis.

The Analytical Core Facility was established as collaboration between scientists in the Wine Research Centre and the Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL). This facility also serves as a core analytical laboratory for scientists in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the MSL. In addition, the Microarray Facility in the Centre serves as a core DNA Array Facility for scientists on the UBC campus. Researchers in the Wine Research Centre also have full access to the outstanding research facilities in the Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL) which is conveniently located adjacent to the Centre. Quantitative proteomics projects at the Centre are done in collaboration with the University of Victoria – Genome BC Proteomics Centre.

The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) and the UBC Farm are uniquely positioned to respond to challenges of preserving traditional foodscapes and ecosystem services, the elimination of hunger and malnutrition, and adaptating to climate change by supporting globally significant research and innovation in socially just and ecologically sustainable food production, processing and distribution. With 24 hectares of integrated organic farm and forest ecosystem located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, the UBC Farm and the CSFS are a Living Laboratory and Agent of Social Change. CSFS engages with a diverse community comprised of UBC students, faculty, and staff as well as international academic, community, and industry partners.

The UBC Dairy Centre is operated both as a typical modern dairy farm and as an intensive dairy cattle research centre. Approximately 230 cows are milked each day. Milk and animal sales cover the costs of the Centre’s day-to-day farming operations. The herd of approximately 500 animals is large enough to provide an adequate number of research animals to meet the Centre’s scientists’ increasing teaching and research requirements.

Totem Field is a centrally located Research Field in the heart of Vancouver’s UBC campus. It has been used throughout the years for many types of research. From short term projects, to very long term projects, Totem Field is an excellent site for research and teaching. Our diverse soil types range from rich and Loamy to dry and desert like. We have adaptive irrigation capacity from drip line to overhead. We are here to lease space for all research and teaching purposes.