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The proposals submitted last month
in the Intramural Research Grants Program (IRGP) competition are now under
review. That process is new this year, says Anthony Wojcik, assistant
vice president for research planning, using panels instead of soliciting
individual faculty reviews for each proposal. Funding decisions are expected
in November.
But IRGP isn’t the only internal
funding program managed in the OVPRGS. Three others have awarded funding in
recent months. The articles on this page and at the links below this
link describe the results of those competitions.
“We expect all of our internal
funding programs to yield high quality results that lead to external funding
and enhance the scholarly reputation of our faculty,” says VP Gray.
We plan extensive internal reviews of these programs to ensure proper
accountability and progress. Renewal decisions will not be automatic."
Environmental Research
Initiative Health
and Biomedical Research Initiative |
Foundation awards Strategic Partnership
Grants
Three proposals survived
four reviews over four months to receive Strategic Partnership Grants from
the MSU Foundation (MSUF) in June. The funded proposals and their principal
investigators are
- Cellulose Biorefining to
Ethanol: Developing Generic Technology Platforms, Bruce Dale,
professor of chemical engineering and materials science
- Plant Metabolic
Engineering for Feedstock Production, Dean Della Penna, professor
of biochemistry and molecular biology
- A Next Generation
Genomic Sequencing Center for MSU, Andreas Weber, associate
professor of plant biology
The SPG competition started
with preproposals submitted last February. Panel review during March
recommended preproposals to be considered for full proposals. The Science
and Technology Committee (STC) of the University Research Council reviewed
the panel recommendations and, in consultation with the OVPRGS, invited full
proposals for submission in April. Of the eight full proposals received, the
STC selected half for presentation to the MSUF. After hearing those
presentations, the MSUF Grants Committee selected the three proposals,
summarized below, for funding.
Cellulose Biorefining to
Ethanol: Developing Generic Technology Platforms, Bruce Dale, PI
A serious U.S.
problem—addiction to oil—is Michigan State’s great opportunity, Dale’s
proposal argued. Ethanol is a major part of the solution, he noted. “At
current oil prices of $60 per barrel and greater, the cost of energy in oil
is about 5 times the cost of energy in cellulosic materials valued at $50
per ton.” But that energy “is tied up in complex, unavailable sugars called
cellulose and hemicellulose.” And they have to be pretreated to produce more
available sugars that are easy and efficient to convert to ethanol. The cost
of pretreatment can be the limiting factor.
However, MSU “has a
proprietary interest in an effective, economical pretreatment process called
Ammonia Fiber Explosion, or AFEX.” With this process, corn stalks will yield
nearly all of the available sugars compared to a mere 20 percent without
AFEX. Dale’s research team proposed starting with the AFEX process to
develop commercially feasible means of converting nearly all of the sugars
in cellulosic biomass to ethanol.
Plant Metabolic
Engineering for Feedstock Production, Dean Della Penna, PI
Reducing dependence on
fossil fuels will increase reliance on plant-based feedstocks and biofuels,
Della Penna wrote. “The existing depth and breadth of expertise in plant
metabolic engineering at MSU provides unique and enviable potential to
rapidly emerge as a national leader for federal funding of research in
plant-based feedstocks,” he added. So his team proposed research “to analyze
and understand the basis of metabolic plasticity in plants, as it is this
metabolic network that annually produces the billions of tons of
carbon-based compounds that the bio-economy will require.”
The effort will begin with
the basic work of advancing understanding of plant metabolism, the
foundation required for manipulating agricultural crops to produce the
desired feedstocks. The team will use a combination of genetic, genomic,
metabolomic, and molecular tools to explore the biochemical traits of
Arabidopsis thaliana.
A Next Generation
Genomic Sequencing Center for MSU, Andreas Weber, PI
Andreas Weber proposed
establishing “the first state-of-the-art high-throughput genotyping and
sequencing center in the State of Michigan.” Currently available equipment
for sequencing and examining genomes of plants, animal, and humans has
already transformed biomedical science, he noted. Information obtained from
genome sequencing illuminates mechanisms of diseases, helps identify genes
important for pharmaceutical or agricultural applications, reveals diversity
of microbial communities, and even shows ancient molecular relationships.
Genome sequencing can help make pet and livestock breeding more precise.
The new facility will do
even more and do it faster: sequence whole microbial genomes quickly,
analyze mRNA expression on a large scale, survey microbial diversity in the
environment or a biological sample. The new equipment will change the type
of experiments that can be done and shorten the time required for them from
months to days.
Researchers from numerous
departments will benefit, as the dozen co-PIs and their research on
bacteria, viruses, fungi, poultry, and even climate change demonstrate. The
proposal also proposes pilot studies to quickly qualify for external funding
and research symposia to broaden the base of users.
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