St. Louis, Missouri
December 8, 2008
The Donald Danforth
Plant Science Center received two grants totaling $1.5
million from The Missouri Life Sciences Research Board as part
of a package of$13.1 million in research and commercialization
grants that were awarded throughout the state.
The first of the two grants will support a project in
collaboration with the University of Missouri Delta Center to
investigate developing Camelina sativa as a
nonfood crop and for the production of value-added biotechnology
products. There is a large and growing market for low cost
industrial proteins: if successful, this research can provide
new opportunities for Missouri farmers and producers. The
research will be conducted by Dr.s Eliot Herman, Monica Schmidt,
and Roger Beachy of the Danforth Center and Gene Stevens of UM
Delta Center.
The second grant will lead to the purchase of a state of the art
instrument that will establish a robust metabolomics
platform technology. The system will have the sensitivity,
resolution and dynamic range essential for the characterization
of small molecules from any biological organism. This
high-throughput mass spectrometric platform will help scientists
working to improve plants as sources of food, biofuels,
industrial enzymes, biomedicinals, among others to gain a more
in-depth understanding of how changes in metabolic pathways
affect the system as a whole. Changes could include
environmental stresses such as drought, as well as how adding or
removing specific genes would make a crop more nutritious, more
resistant to disease or a better biofuel. The new
instrumentation will be placed at the Danforth Center and will
be available as a service to scientists in the St. Louis region
as well as outstate.
Metabolics is the study of unique “chemical fingerprints” known
as metabolites that are produced by specific cellular processes.
Metabolic profiling can give an instantaneous snapshot of the
physiology of an organism. Mass Spectrometry is an analytical
technique that uses the analysis of electrically charged
particles known as ions to determine the composition of a
physical sample by generating a mass spectrum that represents
its components by their chemical or atomic mass.
“I am very pleased with the recognition of the importance of the
work at the Danforth Center, and in the region, through the
awards made by the Life Sciences Research Board. The funds
awarded will have great impact on the rate at which high quality
research can be accomplished and will further stimulate new
research efforts and commercial activities as a result,” said
Roger N. Beachy, president, Donald Danforth Plant Science
Center.
The Life Sciences Research Board approved 14 research projects
totaling $10.5 million and 4 commercialization projects totaling
$2.6 million. The research grant program is meant to improve the
quantity and quality of life sciences research at public and
private not-for-profit institutions, including but not limited
to basic research, translational research, and clinical
research. The commercialization grant program is meant to
enhance technology transfer and technology commercialization
derived from research at public and private not-for-profit
institutions within the Centers for Excellence.
The Life sciences Research Board’s newly-funded research
initiatives focus on the areas of: agriculture research, animal
science, plant science, medical devices, biomaterials and
composite research, nanotechnology related to drug development
and delivery, diagnostics, clinical imaging, and information
technology related to human health.
"This has been a highly-competitive process. The proposals were
weighed on their scientific merits and their abilities to
utilize this funding to provide statewide economic returns, and
the strategic alignment of the state,” said Dr. Roger Mitchell,
Chair of the Missouri Life Sciences Research Board. “These
newly-awarded grants will leverage substantial additional
investment in Missouri.”
The Missouri Life Sciences Research Board and Missouri Life
Sciences Research Trust Fund
Enacted in 2003, the statutory mission of the Life Sciences
Research Board and Life Sciences Research Trust Fund is to
provide funding in Missouri to be used strategically, in
cooperation with other governmental and not-for-profit private
entities, to enhance the capacity of the state of Missouri's
ability to perform research to better serve the health and
welfare of the residents of the state of Missouri as a center of
life sciences research and development by building on the
success of research institutions located in Missouri, creating
in and attracting to Missouri new research and development
institutions, commercializing the life sciences technologies
developed by such institutions, and enhancing their capacity to
carry out their respective missions.
About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a
not-for-profit research institute with a global vision to
improve the human condition. Research at the Danforth Center
will enhance the nutritional content of plants to improve human
health, increase agricultural production to create a sustainable
food supply, and build scientific capacity to generate economic
growth in the St. Louis region and throughout Missouri. For more
information please visit
www.danforthcenter.org. |
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