Dr. B. Pam Ismail is a Professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota (U of M) and is the director and founder of the Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC), an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying plant and alternative proteins. She joined the U of M as an Assistant Professor in May of 2007 following a post-doctoral research training in the Department of Food Science at Purdue University (2004-2007). Pam received her Ph.D. degree in Food Science from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England (2003). She has over 20 years of experience in Food Chemistry research focused on analytical chemistry, protein chemistry, enzymology and chemistry and fate of bioactive food constituents. Her research focuses on chemical characterization and enhancement of functionality, safety, bioavailability, delivery, and bioactivity of food proteins and phytochemicals, following novel processing and analytical approaches. Her group is currently researching ways to improve functionality, thermal stability, and bioactivity of food proteins, as well as ways to reduce allergenicity following enzymatic and other natural protein modification approaches. Protein structural characterization is performed using a number of proteomic analytical tools, aiming at linking structure to function. Her lab group is also studying the stability and activity of phytochemicals, as affected by their chemical structure, storage, and processing, following novel analytical techniques. Pam is leading the effort on determining the functionality and storage stability of perineal crops for food applications as part of the ongoing Forever Green Initiative effort to develop perineal crops with environmental benefits. Pam has contributed original research papers to a number of scientific journals, including the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Food Chemistry, Journal of Dairy Science, International Dairy Journal, etc. Pam teaches a senior undergraduate level Food Analysis course and a graduate level Protein Chemistry course, and has received several teaching awards including “Distinguished Teaching Award” for undergraduate faculty in a tenured position, 2014, and “Outstanding Professor”, 2012, in recognition of outstanding contributions to the University of Minnesota and the college’s education of students. 

Publications

Nigel graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2020. He joined the lab in Spring 2021 as an M.S. student out of keen interest in studying protein alternatives and contributing to a more sustainable food system. He later transferred to the PhD program in Spring 2023. His research involves screening various oat lines for differences in protein profile and studying how they affect protein techno-functionality and nutritional quality. Nigel has a passion for learning, the people, and the planet. He finds inspiration through helping others and seeking challenges. Nigel served as Treasurer for the Food Science and Nutrition Club and Phi Tau Sigma from 2021-2023. He has competed in and won IFT student competitions such as the Protein Innovation Challenge in 2022 and the 'Don’t Spoil It!' International Digital Hackathon in 2021. Nigel completed an R&D internship with PURIS in Summer 2022 and in 2024, he completed an international R&D internship with CJ CheilJedang in South Korea. Catch him representing the FScN department at pop-up booths at the Minnesota State Fair or Bell Museum. Outside of academia, Nigel enjoys spending time with friends and family, organizing weekly open volleyball sessions at the St. Paul Gym, and traveling.

Saajewa graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2017 after completing her B.S degree in Nutrition with a minor in African and African American Studies. She then worked for Allina Health and the University of Minnesota Extension focusing on clinical and community nutrition as a Nutrition Ambassador, Dietetic Technician, and Cooking Matters Program Coordinator before joining the Ismail Lab in the fall of 2021 to begin her Masters degree. Her research is focused on screening varieties of camelina and pennycress for protein nutritional quality, functionality, and digestibility in an effort to develop optimal lines of each crop variety for food use. Saajewa has since completed an R&D Product Development summer internship with Cargill in 2022, where she worked on the application of soluble fibers in bakery and snack goods. Saajewa currently serves on the executive board of the Food Science and Nutrition Club as the Community Outreach Chair. In this position, she has been able to not only connect her love for both food science and nutrition, but also support Minnesota communities through philanthropic work.

Charu completed her M.S in Food Science and Technology in 2020 at the Iowa State University. During her Masters she worked with pea protein concentrate and amaranth. Then she worked for a startup as a researcher for 2 years, where she helped in developing wireless sensors to monitor cell growth. She joined Ismail lab in 2022 and works as a researcher. She currently works on enzymatic modification of hemp protein and improving its solubility. She will soon be working with protein extraction and protein extrusion. In Charu's free time, she enjoys watching movies, and traveling.

Yi is a food science master's student at Dr. Ismail’s research lab. She completed her B.S in Food Science in May 2020 at the University of Minnesota. In the same year, Yi joined Ismail’s lab, working as a PPIC researcher. She participated in 6 projects, mainly working on the structural and functional characterization of soy, pea, chickpea, cranberry, buckwheat, pennycress, and rice proteins. After being a researcher for 2 years, Yi decided to pursue her M.S. degree in Food Science under Dr. Ismail in the fall of 2022. Her research focuses on screening four varieties of hemp grains for differences in protein functionality and nutritional quality and the evaluation of the texturization potential of hemp protein using high moisture extrusions for meat analogues. In summer of 2024, Yi worked as an R&D intern in the K sauce and Vinegar Category at CJ CheilJedang Corporation in South Korea where successfully innovated two new prototypes of global soy sauces, starting from market research, upgraded the filtered soybean paste water from fermentation, then finalized the soy sauces by formulation, analytical tests, and sensory evaluation. The project's mission was to target sustainability, upgrading, and innovative flavor to increase the company's revenue growth. Outside of the lab, Yi enjoys snowboarding, cooking, traveling, and playing with/training her little parrot Pearl.

Anastasia Natania (she/they) is a second year graduate research assistant and Master’s student in the Ismail lab. She was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia before moving to the United States for high school. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in Spring 2021 and started her position as a research specialist in Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC) in Fall of 2021 to Spring 2022, continuing on to start their graduate studies in Fall 2022. Anastasia’s current project is to develop a method to extract proteins from perennial flaxseeds. In her free time, Anastasia enjoys going to bakeries, drawing, and doing fiber arts.

Andressa joined the PPIC team in September 2022 as a Research Intern and worked on different PPIC projects involving plant proteins. She graduated with a Bachelor of Food Engineering from Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (Brazil) in 2019. During her bachelor’s degree, Andressa was awarded a full scholarship for partial studies abroad and spent 16 months studying at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Andressa worked for 2 years in the food industry as a quality control analyst and R&D assistant. She completed her master’s degree in food science at Universidade Estadual de Londrina (Brazil) and her research focused on bioactive peptides from germinated and non-germinated bean flours. Currently, Andressa is pursuing her PhD in food science and her research is focused on improving the functionality of pea protein through Maillard-induced glycation for high-protein beverage applications.
 

Medora graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in December of 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and a minor in Chemistry. During her undergraduate career, she participated as a research assistant in various in vivo projects studying Salmonella control and prevention in turkeys and turkey products and worked as a lab technician in a food microbiology quality testing laboratory. Following graduation, she joined the PPIC team in January of 2023 as a Research Specialist. During her time at PPIC, Medora participated in 6 research projects, focusing in studying and comparing the structural and functional characteristics of various plant protein sources. She also led a project exploring and optimizing the protein extraction of sainfoin, and characterizing it's structural, functional and nutritional properties. Following her interests in food sustainability, Medora joined the Ismail Lab in Fall of 2024 as a master’s student, working on blending pea, chickpea, and oat proteins to assess for improved structural and functional properties. In her free time, you can find her trying new recipes, crafts and fiber arts, traveling and camping around new places, or playing trivia!

Kavan is a first year graduate research assistant, with research focused on the dry separation of Minnesota beans. He joined the lab at the beginning of 2022 as an undergraduate research assistant, where he worked on several projects, including oat protein extraction and fractionation, camelina and pennycress protein extraction and ultrafiltration, and hemp protein extraction. During the summer of 2023, he had the opportunity to work as an R&D intern at PURIS, focusing on sustainable protein applications in the industry. After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Food Science from the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2023, he decided to stay on as a full-time PPIC researcher, working on hemp, pea, and whey projects. During the summer of 2024, he completed another R&D internship at Cargill, working on egg applications. Kavan has a passion for a sustainable food future and enjoys working with alternative protein sources, processes, and plant-based foods. Outside of school, Kavan enjoys making music, baking sourdough, brewing coffee, and exploring new places.

Dr. Pandalaneni joined PPIC in Nov 2020 taking responsibilities as Manager of Operations. He moved to St. Paul, MN after working as a Global Application Scientist after his Ph.D. in Food Science from Kansas State University (2018). During his Ph.D. he worked on improving dairy processing techniques in lactose crystallization and worked on evaluating high protein dairy beverage stability by studying ingredient functionality in the application. He brings expertise on ingredient functionalities and their interactions in food applications. Dr. Pandalaneni obtained his Master’s in Food Biotechnology from the University of Leeds, UK, in 2010 and his Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology from India, 2009. He has work experience working in different roles in the food industry in both the UK and India as well. Dr. Pandalaneni is responsible for managing research projects, collaborations with PPIC industry partners, in addition to coordinating PPIC events, communications, and web design.

Echo Crawford joined the PPIC team in April 2024 as a Research Project Manager. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a Master of Science in Food Science. Her research focused on evaluating processing conditions and hydrocolloid addition on the functional properties of Aquafaba (the cooking water from chickpeas) and exploring optimal conditions of processing and hydrocolloid addition to use it as an egg substitute in cake. While at UGA, Echo also taught in the Food Processing Lab - getting hands-on experience with pilot plant level equipment. After graduating, Echo went on to work as a project coordinator for a safety and regulatory compliance consulting group before spending time working in Quality and Operations for a protein powder/dietary supplement company. As a vegan for over a decade, Echo has had a longstanding passion for animal protein substitutes and interest in new and sustainable plant-based foods. In her free time, you’ll likely find Echo in the air doing circus arts – with dance trapeze, aerial hoop, and aerial silks as her main disciplines – or cooking up a storm.

Sarra joined the PPIC team in August 2023 as a Research Intern. She completed a Master of Science degree in Food Safety and Microbiology at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Her research focused on the microbial safety of food products with an emphasis on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) spread in the food chain. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology (Honors) from the Lebanese American University, Lebanon. Sarra completed both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees as a recipient of the fully funded Tomorrow's Leaders Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) scholarship awarded by the U.S. Department of State for excellent academic standing and leadership potential. During her undergraduate journey, Sarra was also awarded a fully funded opportunity to attend the University of California, Berkeley for an exchange semester in the United States. Sarra has acquired extensive research and laboratory skills working as a graduate student researcher at the Food Microbiology laboratory at the American University of Beirut where she developed experimental protocols and contributed to the AMR research taking place at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.    

Matheus joined the PPIC team in November 2023 as Researcher III. Before he started in Dr. Pam Ismail’s lab, he was an exchange international student in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, working with Dr. Gary Reineccius in the flavors lab. Matheus has extensive experience with protein with different applications. During his undergraduate journey, he worked as research assistant in various enzymes purification projects studying extraction, purification, and characterization of proteases from Aspergillus fungi. Matheus holds a Master's and PhD of Food Engineering from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) – Brazil, and his research focused on improvement of the functional and antioxidant properties of rice protein by enzymatic hydrolysis for the microencapsulation of oil by spray drying. His recent publications include a paper on the performance of rice protein hydrolysates as a stabilizing agent on oil-in-water emulsions and a paper on increasing the retention of anthocyanins in rice bran protein by acting as an encapsulating agent in the spray drying of grape juice. Apart from this, he has contributed to various research projects related to use modification of vegetable protein on microencapsulation process. In his free time, he likes to play basketball, go to the gym and watch the Brazilian football league. 

Nardos is a sophomore and she joined the lab in Spring 2024 as an undergraduate researcher. Her inspiration for majoring in Food Science stems from her passion for cooking. She plans to attend culinary school in the future. Nardos participated in the 2021 Minnesota Youth Institute and the 2021 Global Youth Institute. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, listening to music and photography.

Molly is a junior majoring in Food Science, and she joined the lab in Spring 2024 as an undergraduate researcher. Her motivation for studying Food Science is a passion for exploring the chemistry behind the food we eat. Beyond her academic pursuits, she loves to bake, sing with a chorus, and salsa or swing dance.

Sabrina is a Sophomore double majoring in Food Science and Nutrition with a minor in Entrepreneurship, and she joined the lab in Summer 2024 as an undergraduate researcher. Her love for food science began with her love for cooking foods from her home country Peru, while learning about foods from different cultures. As someone who works in a very diverse workspace, Sabrina is motivated to continue learning and fueling her love for food science. Beyond her love for food science is the knowledge in nutrition and entrepreneurship fueled by her hobbies including competitive powerlifting, her faith (Christianity), cooking, listening to music, Latin dancing, and broadening her creative plate.

Hannah is a senior majoring in Biochemistry and joined the lab in Summer 2024. Her passion for food science began from a young age, as she was exposed to many different cuisines. She loves learning the chemistry behind food and how it fuels her as an athlete. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors, swimming, cooking, and playing the piano.