Science Market Update

The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell University recently received $67 million in genetics funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design a wheat strain that can resist the devastating stem rust fungus.

Despite controversy surrounding stem cell research, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, partnering with SANYO corporation, are pressing forward with a new machine representing a breakthrough in the treatment of patients using stem cells.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have recently developed a stem cell technique that will greatly decrease the toxic side effects of chemotherapy for brain cancer patients. The method uses stem cells that have been genetically modified to resist chemotherapy to protect vulnerable bone marrow and blood cells while allowing the chemotherapy to kill brain cancer cells. This Hutchinson Center stem cell research was made possible by nearly $1.8 million in NIH funding. 

New science research at the University of Oregon has led to the development of a revolutionary genome sequencing technique. This new scientific breakthrough involved extensive research by top genomics researchers at UO.

Rochester, Minnesota's Mayo Clinic plans to develop a $10 million outpatient cancer treatment center in Northfield, Minnesota.  It will serve an estimated 200 million people.  

Mount Sinai School of Medicine is taking steps to establish itself among the best medical schools in the nation.  The university is developing the second phase of a strategic plan authored by the Dean, Denis S. Charney.  Currently the school is ranked 18^th by US News and World Report, and is making an active attempt to become a global leader in medical research. 

The University of Arizona has received a new $2.95 million competitively-awarded, NSF grant for a comprehensive study of the effect of monsoon weather patterns on the ecology of the Southwest. The study will integrate several diverse areas of study to give a comprehensive picture of the regions unique monsoon ecology. The grant was one of only two grants considered "outstanding" by the NSF during the application process.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison continues its fearless pursuit not only of knowledge, in the form of cutting-edge science research, but modern paradigms within which to conduct tomorrow's research and train tomorrow's scientists and thinkers.  Two weeks ago we reported on UW-Madison's reorganization of several of its basic science departments to keep up with new directions in research (read blog).  Now the Badgers are productively rearranging the field again with the announcement of a dual-degree Program in Neuroscience and Law, offering students the opportunity to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience and a J.D. in law at the same time.

Science Research at Washington State University, Pullman has led to a new imaging technology for prostate cancer as well as several potential treatments. The technology uses a protein found only on the surface of prostate cancer cells called PSMA (Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen) as a target for compounds that can lead to easy detection of tumors or even destroy the tumors themselves. 

A team of researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio have recently discovered a possible explanation for the high rate of pneumonia in the elderly. Community-acquired pneumonia is the leading cause of death among the elderly and this new UT research may have revealed a possible treatment.

We’ve blogged about the relationship between university research campuses and the communities in which they’re situated on many occasions, usually to talk about research technologies being commercialized in the form of start-ups, sometimes in university-sponsored business parks.  These new business ventures mean science talent stays local and new employment opportunities are created for locals and graduates as well.  In a town or small city the university may be the biggest (if not the only) game in town economically and culturally, even geographically if it sits on enough real estate.  But what is the role of the university --particularly a public university-- in a very large city with its own complex urban issues?  A city like, say, Los Angeles, California?

The Iowa First Campaign to raise $500 Million for medical research, care and training at the University of Iowa is well on its way to meeting its goal with $314M already pledged.  The 7-year campaign will run through June 2013 and is being managed by the University of Iowa Foundation to benefit the Roy and Lucille Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospital and Clinics.

The University of Southern California announced that it will be teaming up with Children's Hospital Los Angeles to develop a new research complex dedicated to improving medical devices and technology for children.  

In 1972 when Miriam Kastner was invited to join the faculty of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, she was the first female university professor at the then 69-year-old institute.  Opportunities for women in the sciences were few, and she was more than pleased with the "extraordinary possibilities to engage in new research with state-of-the-art facilities and great seagoing opportunities" as a Scripps researcher and UCSD university professor. (Quote from UCSD News Center)

Science research at the University of Alabama, Birmingham has led to a new, simple, and cost-effective test for the cytomegalovirus infection that may cause acute hearing loss in infants.

Originally published in June of 2011, we're reprinting this blog because watching thousands of people dance and sing makes us happy, and for those folks currently shoveling snow it's a reminder that summer will come again one day! --12/23/2011

Recently, stem cell researchers have been focusing their efforts on advancing the induced pluripotent stem cell transplant as an exciting new disease treatment. Pluripotent stem cell transplants take stem cells from a patient's skin and use them for treatment on another part of the patient's body. They have offered a promising method for fighting numerous diseases while avoiding the controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cell treatments. However, researchers at UC San Diego have recently found several potential autoimmune complications that could result from induced pluripotent treatments.

Even in the tailspin of a winter and spring the Midwest won't easily forget, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (UMN) scientists celebrate their accomplishments, students ride their bikes to shiny new green buildings on campus, and families look forward to a day in the park hunting for bugs.  It's May in the Twin Cities, and these are some of the highlights at UMN:

1. Genome Sequencing Success for Agriculture
2. $10M NIH Grant for HIV Research
3. New Science Building and Student Center
4. BioBlitz 2011 Announcement

In the world of plant pathology, UMN researchers Les Szabo, Marty Carson, and their international colleagues announced they have sequenced the genomes of two wily, destructive fungal rust pathogens that threaten wheat and tree crops.  Research was carried out at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service Cereal Disease Lab on the St. Paul campus.  The data, collected since 2004, is now available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information GenBank, the NIH's genetic database.

Update your Rolodex: the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School no longer exist.  With an eye to streamlining infrastructure costs and keeping up with the latest directions in biomedical research, the three former departments have been rolled into two new entities: the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology.