PhD Student Saving Beer with DNA

Humorous, stereotypical images of fraternity parties and beer gardens often plague college and university students like a hidious scarlet letter.  But ironically, a PhD student from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada has taken that stereotype and created something truly, scientifically ingenious.

Monique Haakensen is a 26 year old graduate student completing her PhD in pathology and laboratory medicine.  But her interesting choice in dissertation has given her both recognition and awards.  Her choice is to study the causes of beer spoilage.

According to Haakensen in an interview with The Canadian Press, breweries usually keep batches of beer for two to three months prior to shipping to retail in order to detect spoilage.  However, Haakensen has developed a few new methods, including one based on DNA analysis, to determine whether or not a batch of beer will be spoiled.

Her detection method has successfully cut the downtime for breweries to a matter of a few days. This means beer can be shipped quicker to retail and operation costs could be significantly reduced.  This has already garnered her praise and awards from industry giants such as Coors and Miller.  She has also been credited with the discovery of two new genes of bacteria that are directly involved with beer spoilage.  

When asked if she could make a career out of beer research, she says that there’s not much opportunity for a long term career after the dissertation.  She is currently employed by the University’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.

The University of Saskatchewan is just one of two labs in the world that studies beer spoilage; the other lab is located in Japan, and is operated by the Asahi Brewery.