Gerald Leong Shiey Chang from the laboratory of Microbial Interaction has received Best Presentation Award at the 78th SBJ Annual Meeting

Gerald Leong Shiey Chang (M2) from the laboratory of Microbial Interaction has received Best Presentation Award at the 78th SBJ Annual Meeting

Gerald Leong Shiey Chang (M2) from the laboratory of Microbial Interaction has received Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the 78th SBJ Annual Meeting (October 13, 2026).

Comments on the Award

I am deeply honoured to receive Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for Biotechnology, Japan. As this was my first scientific conference presentation, receiving this recognition is especially meaningful to me. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Associate Professor Daisuke Watanabe and Assistant Professor Naoki Akasaka for their continuous guidance and support since I arrived in Japan last year. This award is a great encouragement and a meaningful milestone in my research journey. I hope to build upon this experience and continue improving myself as a researcher.

Research Details of Awarded Presentation

Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) coexist in many traditional fermented foods, yet their interactions and effects on fermentation remain incompletely understood.
This study investigated the interaction between Saccharomyces cerevisiae X2180 and Leuconostoc mesenteroides LT38, a LAB associated with traditional sake starter fermentation, using a defined high-glucose co-culture model.
Compared with yeast monoculture, co-culture showed reduced CO₂ emission, lower ethanol production, slower glucose consumption, and reduced early yeast population expansion. Interestingly, lactic acid accumulation was higher in co-culture, but the addition of lactic acid alone did not reproduce the observed fermentation suppression.
Furthermore, preliminary experiments suggested that co-culture-derived supernatant affected subsequent yeast fermentation and LAB lactic acid production differently from monoculture-derived supernatants.
These findings suggest that co-culture-dependent changes in the extracellular environment may contribute to yeast–LAB interactions, providing a foundation for future transcriptomic investigations.