27 Jun 2024 --- US-based University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has received a five-year, US$14.8 million grant to develop a “Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability” (PreFerS). The funding for the center, which will focus on advancing technologies for microbial cell engineering to formulate “safe, nutritious and appetizing” foods, has been given by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF). Researchers will leverage advanced fermentation techniques to convert sugars and inedible parts of crops into targeted, nutritional molecules such as alternative proteins, healthy lipids and vitamins.