George diCenzo is an associate professor in the Department of Biology and cross-appointed to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University. He also holds an adjunct professor position at the University of Manitoba (UM) in the Department of Microbiology.

diCenzo completed his undergraduate and PhD studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, before moving to Italy for his postdoc at the University of Florence.

He lives in Kingston, ON, with his partner, Rebecca Doyle, who’s also a professor that studies rhizobia and rhizobial inoculants for agriculture.

Where did you work before Queen’s University?

Before joining Queen’s as an assistant professor, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florence in Italy.

What got you interested in this area of work?

It was partly by chance. I was always interested in biology, sciences and research. At one point, I thought I’d be more involved in medically related research. In my second year of undergrad, I was trying to get into a lab to do research in the summer and got one offer for a spot that following summer, Turlough Finan’s Lab, which studied rhizobia. It was more fundamental research, but it was with this agriculturally important bacterium. I took that position, worked in the lab that summer and I really loved working there and all the research we were doing.

I went back the summer after my third year, stayed for a fourth-year thesis and did my PhD thesis all in that same lab. So, in a way, I got into the broader area of working with rhizobia by chance; it was the one lab that gave me a spot when I first applied, and I really enjoyed it.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at Queen’s and the UM.

There are three main aspects of my research. One is fundamental work with rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing bacteria that interact with legume plants. We study their genomics, metabolism and diversity to build new knowledge that can support agriculture.

Another area is plastic biodegradation, which is separate from our agriculture work. We’re looking for microbes and enzymes that can break down different plastics for recycling. That’s where my cross appointment to the Department of Chemical Engineering comes in.

And then there’s my applied research in microbial agriculture, where we’re looking for bio-inoculants for different types of crops. Some of that is rhizobia for legumes like beans, some involves other potential microbes that might benefit non-legume crops. That’s the focus of the “Bio-inoculants for the promotion of nutrient use efficiency and crop resiliency in Canadian agriculture” (BENEFIT) project, which I co-lead with Ivan Oresnik at the UM.

The BENEFIT project is funded through Genome Canada by the governments of Ontario and Manitoba, and various grower groups including Manitoba Crop Alliance. It brings together 16 professors across six universities. Broadly speaking, the goal is to try and reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, or supplement their use, with microbial products, like bacteria and fungi. These microbes can help plants fix nitrogen, solubilize phosphorus, take up nutrients from the environment and some can even have effects on pests, diseases or stresses like cold temperatures.

Microbial inoculants already work well for legumes like soybeans, peas and lentils, where they form a specific interaction with the rhizobia to provide nitrogen to the plants. For crops like wheat and barley that can’t form this interaction with rhizobia, microbial products have historically been less effective. As part of this project, we’re tackling some of those challenges with hopes to develop new microbial products that are more reliable for growers.

To do this, we’ve generated a library of over 2,000 microbes isolated from Canadian soils. The idea is that microbes from Canadian soils are already adapted to our conditions and are more likely to succeed in Canadian fields. We’re now working on characterizing these microbes, looking at how well they’re able to promote plant growth, starting with lab trials and eventually moving to field trials.

We’re also looking at the economics and environmental impact, asking “what level of performance would make these bio-inoculants valuable for growers and for the industry to produce?” The main crops we’re focused on are wheat, barley, canola, beans and peas, with a smaller part on kale. The project is still in its early years. We only have preliminary results at this point; however, we are seeing some promising results for beans that I’m excited about.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

It’s essential. We don’t get core funding from the universities, so all of our research relies on funding from external sources. Support from farmers allows us to hire people and cover costs associated with doing the work.

Farmer funding is also critical because many government programs require matching dollars from industry. For example, with the Genome Canada grant every dollar from farmers helps us unlock another dollar from government. That leverage means their contributions go even further.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Our goal is always to make results public, so farmers or companies can use them to create products that directly benefit farms. If we find a new microbial product, for example, the goal would be to make it commercially available so farmers can access it.

That said, research is never guaranteed. We’re doing everything we can to develop bio-inoculants that can potentially help farmers, but sometimes science doesn’t deliver the results we hope for. It’s important to not overpromise, but with continued support, we’re optimistic that in a few years we’ll have exciting updates to share.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I like going for hikes with my dog, and I also like watching the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to get eliminated from the playoffs. I still cheer for them every year, regardless.

What is the best part about your job?

There’s lots I like about my job, but if I must pick one, it’s the discovery aspect. With research, we’re always asking questions and trying to find answers to those questions with experiments. I find it a lot of fun when we get results from new experiments, and sometimes answers to those questions, and we’re the first people in the world to know what that is. It’s a lot of fun to be able to do that and spend the time thinking about these things.

What is your favourite food or meal to cook?

Homemade pizza. I have a pizza stone for my barbecue, and making a nice Italian-style pizza on it is the best.

Follow @George_diCenzo on X or connect with him on LinkedIn.