Justin Pahara is a research scientist and project lead in nanotechnology (biotic stresses and adaptation) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge. He earned an undergraduate degree in immunology and infection and a master’s in cell biology (cancer research) at the University of Alberta before completing a PhD in chemical engineering and biotechnology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Pahara lives on one of the longest-running family farms in Lethbridge County, established in 1918.

Where did you work before AAFC?

Before AAFC, I was in commercial entrepreneurship at Amino Labs, an educational biotechnology company that creates kits and tools for high school teachers and home learners to learn about genetic engineering and biotechnology. I created the main core technology for the company.

What got you interested in this area of work?

When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor, but during undergrad I became more interested in how medicines were created and who created them rather than prescribing them. That led me more toward research.

I was drawn to a gap within the space: most labs focus on developing RNA, but few focus on how to reliably deliver it to targets. I already had a background in nanotechnology from my chemical engineering studies, and the bigger question became how to apply it to agriculture. This felt like an area where I could make an impact.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at AAFC.

We focus on molecular delivery, engineering nanostructures about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair to go into different organisms. A current project funded in part by Manitoba Crop Alliance is “Screening RNA penetration to achieve gene knockdown in plants for the development of Smart Crop Technologies.”

Most crop treatments today are broad-spectrum, like insecticides or herbicides, and can impact a lot of different organisms and plants in our ecosystem beyond the target. As part of our program, we are working on building highly targeted crop treatments that only target what we want.

That is where RNA interference comes in. Plants and cells have mini-immune systems that chop up harmful RNA, from a virus for example, to prevent it from replicating. By sending in smaller pieces of RNA with the nanostructures we’re developing, we can tell plants to knock down or lower the expression of specific genes.

The challenge is delivery. Our focus is getting these nanostructures into plants, insects and fungi so they could be used by farmers. We’re looking at crop treatments like seed coatings or sprays that could work in the field.

This project began in April 2025, building on past research and learnings within our programs. We are targeting two genes to show proof of principle within this project. One is green fluorescent protein from jellyfish in engineered plants, which glows green under UV light. The other is EPSPS, the enzyme targeted by glyphosate (Roundup). Kochia, a widespread weed across the Prairies, is becoming very resistant to glyphosate. By studying it, we’re hoping to find new approaches for controlling this highly resistant weed.

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

It’s important because farmers decide what matters most to them, and most of our research is externally funded by farmers. Our lab is engineering technology focused, and we want to build things that are useful to farmers.

Funding from producer groups is a step towards creating something useful, rather than “pie in the sky” research that may only be useful decades later. Our goal is to de-risk these sophisticated technologies so the industry can carry them forward. Ideally, we enable small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada to develop these technologies since they often lack the capacity or resources of multinational companies.

Without farmers, this research wouldn’t happen and we’d have to rely on multinational companies, who may or may not pursue these types of solutions.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Although the benefits aren’t immediate, we hope by the end of the decade to start getting some next-generation crop treatments out the door. We focus on crop treatments that farmers need, while navigating regulatory aspects, since nanotechnology and RNA applications are very new.

One of the cool things about RNA is that it can be tweaked like code. There’s a very high likelihood that we’ll be able to invent a system with RNA and the nanoparticle that goes into a target, and if that target develops resistance, we can adjust the code slightly and the overall product stays effectively the same. Regulators currently treat each change as a new or different formulation, so part of our work is learning more about regulation and opening dialogue to help pave the way for more efficient adoption.

I’m also open to hearing from farmers about their challenges. Feel free to email me at justin.pahara@agr.gc.ca. This helps us make our nano formulations more practical. For example, we’ve built specialized spray chambers that allow us to safely spray these nano formulations, and we used industrial nozzles like a farmer would. This allows us to develop treatments in a realistic context early on, rather than finding out later that something won’t work in the field.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

We do a lot of gardening and grow a lot of food we eat. I’m into clean energy, we have solar systems and I’m also writing a sci-fi novel for fun.

What’s the best part about your job?

Exploring the unknown. Our lab builds things that don’t exist. We don’t know how they’ll work or how to get there, which makes the little wins exciting. A big part of that is working with a great team.

Follow @jpahara on X (formerly Twitter).