Starch Designers
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| Martha James and Al Myers are developing corn varieties with altered starches. |
When we eat corn or potatoes, the starches are digested quickly, followed by an insulin spike and a release of glucose into the blood stream--not a good thing for diabetics.
But a new starch has been developed at Iowa State by Martha James and Alan Myers. It digests more slowly, and results in a more even release of insulin and glucose. Developing this "slow sugar release starch" in order to combat type II diabetes and obesity is one goal of the Plant Sciences Institute's Nutrition Research Initiative for which James was recently appointed co-leader. s
James and Myers, both in the biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology department, are developing corn varieties with altered starches. They plan to market the starch through their new company, Starch Design.
"What we're focusing on right now is this slowly digestible starch," said James. "But in general, our goal is the tailoring of starches that have specific structural changes."
Starch is composed of long chains of glucose molecules linked together. There are two types of molecules: amylose and amylopectin. James and Myers have altered a gene to create longer length amylopectin chains than are found in normal starch, which they predict will make the molecule more slowly digestible.
They are in the process of evaluating the starch with respect to its chemical structure (to find out the lengths of the linear chains) and to evaluate the functional properties that determine its use in foods.
"A key point," said Myers "is for the corn to fit into the industry production stream." The plants need to be the same height and weight and bear the same yield as corn that is produced nationwide.
Preliminary data suggest that the starch is more slowly digestible, said James. This fall, James' and Myers' Starch Design project will begin human trials. They'll incorporate the starch into a food product, such as a granola bar, then measure the glycemic index in subjects who consume it.
These tests will be done in collaboration with Dr. Suzanne Hendrich at the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center; the center is funded by a Biosciences Alliance Initiative grant.
James and Myers expect the first slow starch food product to be geared toward diabetics. After that, food products may target a more general population, perhaps in a pasta or bread that prolongs the time before the onset of hunger. Another possibility down the road would be to tailor starches used for certain manufacturing processes, or even for livestock feed.
"Being university faculty and entrepreneurs at the same time gives us a niche to a marketable product that maybe large biotech companies will not have," said Myers. "We're basically experimenting to see what's possible."
