Science Market Update

Researchers from Ohio State University have pinpointed a tiny piece of RNA that plays a large role in embryonic tissue formation. Understanding such small, often overlooked pieces can help illuminate the biological processes of the earliest stages of life.

Algae research is a well-funded subject for science researchers, especially at Ohio State University. According to The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State University has received $8.7 million in federal funding for algae-related projects. The U.S. Department of Energy gave $7 million to researchers interested in using waste water to grow algae biofuels, while the National Science Foundation gave $1.5 million for a project concerned with discovering the environmental impact of hazardous algae on Lake Erie. The project researchers are specifically interested in algae’s effects on climate change. Ohio State University researchers also received $150,000 from the Ohio Sea Grant Program to study the liver toxin concentrations on Lake Erie due to blue-green algae.

If you were a bacterium attempting an invasion on a hostile immune system, would you be so bold as to consume the very cells that are trying to destroy you? At Ohio State University, researchers have just uncovered the methods of a strain of bacteria that does just that. This master spy, known as Anaplasma phagocytophilum, is only recently being understood and combatted against due to its insidious techniques.

It’s no secret that eating fruits and vegetables is vital to a healthy diet. After all, everyone knows an apple a day keeps the doctor away. A new study on apples from Ohio State University takes that paradigm even father. Besides serving as a delicious snack, juice, and pie ingredient, apples appear to have cholesterol-reducing effects as well.

Sometimes it makes more sense to start from scratch and get it right than to try and retrofit and modernize older lab buildings. That's just what Ohio State University in Columbus decided to do for its Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building (CBEC). The new 225,000 gsf lab building broke ground last month and will replace 4 older facilities that had deferred maintenance and lacked proper floor-to-floor height, structural dimensions, and environmental stability. The New Koffolt Laboratories will be LEED-certifiable (possibly Silver) and will constitute a substantial upgrade with their science wet labs, computational research spaces, shared core laboratories, instructional spaces, and offices. The $126M project is due to be completed in September 2014.

In the world of sustainable energy production and good environmental stewardship, Ohio is producing biogas from agricultural and food-processing waste through a successful partnership between the state university and business.  The Cleveland based Quasar Energy Group is working in collaboration with Ohio State's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) to turn 550,000 gallons of biomatter into energy at its flagship anaerobic digester at the OARDC's BioHio Research Park.

Ohio State University's Medical Center is undergoing a huge expansion and modernization effort with its ProjectOne $1Billion new medical facility.  Outdated buildings have been demolished and the concrete has been poured for the state-of-the-art Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute complex due to open in 2014.  ProjectOne is the largest development project in Ohio State's history and is expected to add $1.7 billion to Ohio’s economy.  Some of these gains will certainly include the purchasing of equipment, supplies and services for the medical center, as well as future gains through life science research funding and the commercialization of biomedical research discoveries.