Alumni Profile

Bacchus and Biotech

Making every year a great year for wine.

Steven Lund (M.S. in plant biology, '90; Ph.D., '95) is no wine snob but what he knows about the genomics and biochemistry of wine grapes would make Robert Mondavi's head spin.

Steven Lund is helping put a high-tech spin on an ancient industry.

So, while he swirls the wine in his glass, he's not just enjoying the color, aroma, and flavor, but rather, he's thinking about the genetic mechanisms controlling those qualities during berry ripening.

In 2002, Lund joined the University of British Columbia's Wine Research Centre in Vancouver as an assistant professor in the faculty of agricultural sciences. Before his current position, Lund worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Florida and then as a senior staff scientist with Genesis Research and Development in New Zealand. There aren't a lot of genomics experts in the field of viticulture compared to other crops such as maize and tomato. That's why UBC recruited someone from outside the industry to work at the Wine Research Centre.

Canada may not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of wine. However, the country has two major wine-making regions-the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and the Niagara area in the east-and Canada is fostering this research to assist its growing wine industry.

The Centre recently received a $3.1 million funding award from Genome Canada, an organization that provides financial resources for genomics and proteomics research, for an integrated genomics project in grape berries, on which Lund is project leader for Canada. They will conduct the research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Madrid and other Spanish universities with funding from Genome Spain. So, one of the world's oldest wine producing countries is collaborating with one of the newest.

Vineyards have always been at the mercy of soil conditions, climate, and disease. When Mother Nature works in the growers' favor, however, the result is a 'great year' for the wine. Now, genomics may assist in this centuries- old process by minimizing the need for luck and guesswork in the growing process. Says Lund, "Growers do their best, but it"s like typing into a computer and not knowing what goes on in the hard drive. They don't know why things turn out the way they do. When you know what"s going on inside the plants, you can use that knowledge to improve wine production."

Lund stresses that this work is not aimed at commercializing genetically modified grapevines and wines. "Genomics doesn't mean GMOs," he says. Instead, it allows growers to understand how the plants operate. They may respond in the way they breed the plants and the way they treat the plants in the vineyard.

For example, growers may more selectively grow grapes with more concentrated flavor, or a particular skin thickness and seed size. They may also learn when the genes that initiate ripening and control quality "switch on." At that point they may, for example, withhold water from the plants to intensify flavor before harvesting.

While Lund's work involves extremely complex science, the results will be simple to understand- more consistent "great years" and better wine in our glasses.

-Terri Peterson Smith