PULLMAN, Wash. — Graduate student Jayden Scott, working under Dr. Gülhan Ünlü, won third place at the 2026 GPSA Research Expo in the Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences category in which 16 students presented in. Jayden’s research is funded by BUILD Dairy of the Western Dairy Center and focuses on evaluating microbial, genomic, and biochemical characteristics of cheese that directly influence the sensory profiles of Cheddar, with an emphasis on understanding how these factors interact and may impact dairy and food systems. Jayden presented, “Taste and Texture Comparison Among White Cheddar Varieties Evaluated Through Descriptive Sensory Analysis”, which has been 6 months in the making, reporting on the sensory results that have been gathered so far.
“I was very excited and honestly grateful to have my work recognized,” Jayden expressed. “I was not expecting to place at the event as it was my first time and early in the project, but it was rewarding to see the time and effort I put into the project acknowledged in that way.”
Regarding the future of this research project, “the next steps are to continue aging the cheese and collecting samples monthly through 12 months to monitor changes in aroma, flavor, and texture development throughout the aging process,” Jayden explained.
“E-tongue measurements will be applied to track shifts in taste profiles over time and to correlate instrumental taste data with sensory, chemical, and microbiological results,” Jayden described. “In addition, metagenomic sequencing and analysis will be conducted to characterize microbial community dynamics and identify key taxa and functional genes associated with flavor and defect development. Lastly, peptide profiles generated during aging by proteolysis will be analyzed over the aging period and correlated with microbial activity and sensory characteristics.”
Congratulations to Jayden Scott for scoring third place!