The Functional Grains Centre (FGC) is pleased to welcome a new Postdoctoral researcher Dr Wei Zou, who has research experience in China and Australia.

His research career began with a Bachelor of Science honours project isolating, purifying and structurally characterising non-starch polysaccharides from the seeds of Plantago asiatica, a perennial flowering plant native to East Asia.

This was followed by a three years Master of Science and Technology degree in South China University of Technology, developing starch-based biodegradable super-absorbents through graft copolymerization.

After that Dr Zou began a new research life in Australia, studying for a PhD in Food Science which was awarded in March 2017 by the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland. His PhD titled, ‘Mechanism of Reduction in Starch Digestion Rate of Durum Wheat by Protein’ aimed to explore the mechanism of durum wheat proteins in slowing starch digestion. This reduction in starch digestion rate is nutritionally advantageous.

Dr Zou’s research led to two first-authored and another four co-authored research papers published in quality, peer reviewed journals (Food Chemistry, Carbohydrate Polymers, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) and three oral presentations which were made to the American Association of Cereal Chemists International Conference and the Australasian Grain Science Association. His curiosity, enthusiasm and career goals are on nutrition research, especially in connection with agriculture.

Dr Zou’s current research at the FGC is to develop an in vitro rice starch digestibility assay for rapidly predicting the GI of rice cultivars and breeding lines, to meet the needs of breeding programs which require high throughput assays which can screen hundreds, if not thousands, of rice lines within tight timeframes.

Photo Caption Dr Wei Zou