Cheers to 10 years! How research with yeast is creating a new brew and helping scientists understand radiation

A team of researchers who work at the SNOLAB in Sudbury have taken on a side project to help the facility celebrate its 10th anniversary.

The SNOLAB is located 2km underground in Vale's Creighton Mine. The facility said it is "focused on the direct detection of neutrinos and dark matter, but is well suited to host biology, geology and quantum technology studies."

One research project currently underway at SNOLAB is the REPAIR project. Christopher Thome is an assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and is working on the REPAIR project. He said it is focusing on the effects of the presence of radiation.

"Ionizing radiation is something we're exposed to on a daily basis from a variety of different sources, so things like cosmic radiation as well as different isotopes in the soil and rock around us," he said.

"Our hypothesis is that … because we've evolved and adapted in the presence of this background radiation that it could be something that's essential for life."

He said if that hypothesis is correct, that could prevent DNA damage, including cancer formation.

Thome said SNOLAB is the ideal place to do such an experiment.

"One of the main sources of background radiation is cosmic rays that we're exposed to from space," he said.

"So these really high energy cosmic rays, it's really difficult in our laboratory at the medical school to shield out those cosmic rays."

Thome said the location of the lab "shields out all background radiation."

"We can get a much lower level of background radiation down in SNOLAB than we can at our lab here in NOSM," he said.

Therapeutic use?

Thome said they've been collecting data for about two years and are still in the early stages of the experiment.

He said they are hoping to answer questions about natural background radiation and the impact on cells.

"There's a lot of concern about some low dose exposures from things like medical diagnostic procedures," he said.

"So if we can show that low levels of background radiation really aren't harmful and might actually be a necessity for normal function, that kind of challenges that view that all levels of radiation are harmful."

Thome added the work could answer some questions about radiation exposure, including whether low doses of radiation could be used for cancer treatment instead of higher doses.

"They might actually have a stimulatory effect and could be used as a therapeutic," he said.

Cosmic Rays

The research includes using human cells, fruit flies and yeast. Using yeast has led to a collaboration between the lab and local brewery, 46 North. Researchers cultivated yeast for the brewery to use to create a brew called Cosmic Rays.

Thome said it's been a neat "side-project" to grow yeast for a local brewery.

"Yeast are a really good model system for things like ionizing radiation," he said.

"They're a very simple organism to grow and culture in a lab. Genetically, they share a lot of the same genes that humans do."

"Cosmic Rays pours brilliantly clear with a golden yellow colour," Graham Orser, owner and brewmaster of 46 North said.

"The beer finishes dry, crisp and clean with a gentle fruitiness aftertaste."

Cosmic Rays is currently sold out, but the brewery has plans to make more later this year.