KATHERINE SMART (1)
(1) SABMiller, Loughborough, U.K.
While optimization and consistency of large-scale brewing
fermentations from inoculation and dispersal of biomass to product
recovery is of critical economic and industrial importance, process
innovation requires an effective understanding of the biological
constraints and opportunities of the system. Efficient fermentation
requires conditions appropriate for ensuring high productivity while
maintaining yeast viability and fermentation performance. However,
optimal conditions for the former can be sub-optimal for the latter,
leading to inconsistent and even “stuck” fermentations. Although it is
recognized that yeast is exposed to fluctuations in oxygen
concentration, osmotic potential, pH, ethanol concentration, nutrient
availability, and temperature, the impact of these stresses on yeast
fermentation performance is still not well understood. This paper will
focus on the stresses customarily associated with the use of increased
gravity from the perspective of osmotic and ethanol tolerance. The paper
will demonstrate that previous assumptions concerning the relative
impact of certain stresses may not be correct. In particular, we will
focus on whether certain stresses could even be beneficial to
fermentation.
Katherine Smart completed a B.S. (with honors) degree in biological
sciences at Nottingham University in 1987 and was awarded the Rainbow
Research Scholarship to complete a Ph.D. degree in brewing yeast and
fermentation at Bass Brewers, Burton-on-Trent, England. She then moved
to Cambridge University to take up an appointment as a research fellow
in the Department of Plant Sciences, where she worked on bioactive
surfaces, biofouling, and bacterial contamination of beverages in
collaboration with the beverage packaging company Elopak. In 1992,
Katherine became a lecturer in microbiology and fermentation at Oxford
Brookes University. By 2000, she had been appointed to the Scottish
Courage Reader in Brewing Science and became the youngest Fellow of the
Institute and Guild of Brewing. In 2005 Katherine moved to the
University of Nottingham, where she became the SABMiller Professor in
Brewing Science. She was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Society for
the Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce in 2009 and a Fellow of the Society
of Biology in 2010. She leads brewing science at the University of
Nottingham, which offers a state-of-the-art e-learning M.S. degree in
brewing science, and established brewing science research programs in
barley genomics, malting, yeast genomics, fermentation, and flavor. She
is currently holding some £8 million in research funding for brewing and
bioethanol fermentations. Katherine has received several awards for her
research, including the Institute of Brewing and Distilling Cambridge
Prize (1999), the prestigious Royal Society Industrial Fellowship
(2001–2003), an Enterprise Fellowship (2002), and the Save British
Science Award at the Houses of Parliament in the UK (2003). Her core
research interests are yeast cell biology, fermentation (beer
fermentations, bioethanol fermentations), and stress responses in yeast.
