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Professor Emeritus Levente Diosady working in his lab, alongside his research team

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 600,000 perinatal deaths, and more than 100,000 maternal deaths are caused by iron deficiency each year.

Professor Emeritus Levente Diosady (ChemE) believes these numbers can be reduced by creating an ‘iron brew,’ or in other words, developing iron-fortified tea leaves for consumption.

He was recently awarded a $250,000 grant for his research idea from the prestigious competition, Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development. Professor Diosady was the lone Canadian among 22 grant recipients.

The international competition, now in its third year, calls on the brightest, most innovative minds across the globe to identify transformative prevention, as well as treatment approaches, for pregnant women and newborns in the developing world.

Professor Diosady was part of a team that was first to fortify salt with iodine, then later with iron. Speaking to The Globe and Mail, he said trying to fortify tea with iron was the next logical step.

“Tea is really consumed in South Asia by practically everybody, but the problem is the chemistry is much, much more difficult,” he said. “The last couple of years we’ve been working on the delivery system.”

According to Professor Diosady, the biggest challenge is overcoming a biomolecule in tea called tannin. When iron and tannin meet, a compound is formed that the body can’t absorb. The technology he has developed encapsulates the iron in a coating, preventing it from reacting with the tannin.

His goal is to get the encapulated iron to the intestines, where it can then be absorbed by the body. The Saving Lives at Birth grant will allow his research team to determine what kind of coating will work best with tea, as well as withstand hot water.

Professor Diosady hopes his research will be fully developed within the next five years.

To find out more, read about Professor Diosady’s research at The Globe and Mail and on the UK Government website.

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