A centre of excellence for brewing research is directed at the development of new processes and technologies and yeast biology. This is achieved by applying fundamental scientific knowledge of yeast cell biology and genetic stability, detection and identification of microorganisms associated with the brewing process and development of novel on-line mass spectrometry techniques for monitoring flavour generation during processing and fermentation, to the brewing process. Research in industrial biotechnology centres on biofuels research, which takes a multidisciplinary approach to address the challenges of biofuel production without compromising food supply. This work is focused on identification of wheat varieties with improved agronomic qualities that can be more easily broken down into sugars, and of yeasts which efficiently produce biofuel.