Archive for February, 2012

Andrew W. Miller Appointed to Synedgen Board of Directors

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

February 15, 2012 Synedgen is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew W. Miller to the Board of Directors.
Mr. Miller is the President/CEO of Stimson Lumber Company in Portland, OR, an integrated timberland and wood products manufacturing company with operations in OR, WA, ID, and MT.
Mr. Miller serves on multiple regional and national industry association Boards, and several non-profit Boards in the Portland area. Mr. Miller graduated from Grinnell College (Grinnell IA) with a BA in Economics, and earned an MBA in Finance from Columbia University (New York NY).
Synedgen CEO Dr. William Wiesmann stated, “Andrew is an outstanding and successful business leader with extensive business expertise and experience. The addition of Andrew Miller to Synedgen’s board will strengthen our company as we position Synedgen to focus on product sales in the near term and growth strategies for the future.”

Study Shows Chitosan Derivative Reduces Risk of Food Contamination

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Claremont CA, January 24, 2012—Research conducted by Synedgen Inc. and the School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography, at Bangor University, Bangor, UK, appears in the early view of Food Control, an international, official scientific journal of the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) covering microbial food safety and antimicrobial systems.

Investigations focused on a highly effective chitosan derivative developed by Synedgen to control the spread of food-borne pathogens. The article highlights the potential for Synedgen’s chitosan derivative to provide a new, inexpensive means to improve food safety.

Stacy Townsend PhD, and Shenda Baker PhD, of Synedgen, and Rabya A. Lahmer, A. Prysor Williams PhD, and Davey L. Jones PhD from Bangor University UK, conducted the research described in Antibacterial action of chitosan-arginine against Escherichia coli O157 in chicken juice.

They tested Synedgen’s derivative on chicken juice because it readily accumulates in food packaging and is often implicated in food poisoning incidents, and found that it significantly reduced both the numbers and metabolic activity of E. coli. In addition, it also impeded the growth of general food spoilage bacteria and reduced malodor. Importantly, this effect lasted up to 3 days.

“Food-borne illnesses pose a serious health concern. The results of this research confirms the ability of our biocompatible derivative to reduce lethal bacteria in packaged food sources, and potentially offers a new means to safely and effectively improve food safety, maintain product shelf life and freshness, and prevent food contamination,” remarked Dr. Baker.

This research was also presented at a poster session at the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) Summer Conference.

The article abstract is available at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512000485