The 2021 Summer Online Lecture Series: DigitalAgriculture and Future Food are established due to the severe COVID-19 pandemicprevailing in the world with the aim to promote international communication andbroaden the sight of students from the College of Biosystem engineering andFood science. On August 18^th, Dr. Yangchao Luo, an associateprofessor from the department of nutritional science at University ofConnecticut, gave a report entitled “Phytoglycogen: A Food-derived Carbohydratewith Natural Dendritic Nanostructure for Food Safety Applications”. The eventwas host by professor Hui Zhang’s research assistant Meiyu Chen.

Dr. Luo’ s research experience, focusing on: (1)nanotechnology and bio-delivery, (2) applies material science and engineeringprinciples to understand physical and chemical interactions among variousnatural biomaterials at the nanoscale and design novel edible nanocarriers fordelivery of bioactive compounds in functional foods. His report included hisrecent work on phytoglycogen, with emphases on extraction, functionalization,and application. He also gave a summary of his research projects at his lab,including lipid-biopolymer hybrids, hydrogels, high internal phase Pickeringemulsion, and development of nano-delivery systems.

Nanotechnology has been applied in foodresearch studies for decades. The construction of varieties of organic(solid-lipid nanoparticles, polyelectrolyte complexes, liposomes, micelles,dendrimers) or inorganic (magnetic nanoparticles, mesoporous silica)nanoparticles have been used for carriers to deliver micronutrients orbioactive compounds. Phytoglycogen (PG), a natural dendrimer with α-1, 4- and α-1, 6- linked glucose units, is a novel foodmaterial isolated from corn seeds. Due to its hyperbranched structure, it isbelieved to be used as a novel delivery system for bioactive compounds. Dr.Luo’s lab successfully developed a simple and ecofriendly extraction methodusing dehulling, pH adjustment and autoclaving to obtain PG nanoparticles witha yield of more than 98%. They modified PG with hydrophobic chains and comparethe efficiency of different encapsulation methods using curcumin as a model.Moreover, they design dendritic nanocomplexes via supramolecular interactionsbetween modified PG and other food biopolymers for encapsulation of naturalantimicrobial compounds, eugenol and thymol. They also explore the practicalapplications of obtained nanocomplexes in the preservation of fresh producesand successfully inhibited bacterial growth and biofilm formation.

Apart from research work, Dr. Luo shared hisexperience on submitting manuscripts to the publishers and introduced two newjournals named Journal of Agriculture and Food Research and ES Food andAgroforestry of which he is the founding editor-in-chief.

After report, Dr. Luo had a communication andinteraction with students regarding questions on the digestion fate of PGduring oral processing and grafting efficiency during PG modification usingdifferent anhydrides. Students all showed appreciation to Dr. Luo’ s lectureand his experience on submitting the manuscripts.