Alcine Chan

Delving into the unknown. Working on research that has never been done before is both exciting and satisfying.

NUS provides wide ranging opportunities and programs to enrich graduate life, beyond basic graduate research work. Be it opportunities for entrepreneurship, overseas conferences and competitions, postgraduate career guidance, library workshops etc. These opportunities were immensely useful in helping me develop life skills beyond basic research work.

My project involves imbuing coffee with live probiotics. The therapeutic benefits of live probiotics have been demonstrated in a wide range of health outcomes, especially related to diarrhoeal and gastrointestinal disorders. Therefore, my project aimed to diversify and increase consumer accessibility to probiotic foods, beyond the conventional yogurt or cultured drink. We first looked at coffee, which is very commonly consumed worldwide. However, culturing probiotics in coffee brews was no easy task, as several rounds of formulation had to be undertaken to ensure that coffee brews were a suitable medium to sustain probiotic growth and survival. The therapeutic benefits of dead probiotics are not as well established compared to live probiotics, so it was important that we sustained their viabilities in coffee. Nevertheless, we were able to sustain probiotic viabilities for longer than 3 months, in addition, our probiotic fermented coffee beverage retained major coffee bioactive components (e.g. caffeine, chlorogenic acid) suggesting that intrinsic health benefits of coffee were not compromised. Interestingly, probiotic fermentation also led to flavour changes, with hints of “yogurt”, “butter” or “wine”, depending on who you ask! Research is ongoing, and a provisional patent has been filed (10202000411V).