Michigan State University at East Lansing is priming plants to cope with two very different adversaries: hostile insects on Earth and the stressful conditions of space. Rather than furnishing them with armor or a spacesuit, researchers are working at the molecular level in order to make these plants more genetically hardy.
Tags: Michigan State University, Midwest, 2012, Michigan, Plant science, MI, Front Line event, East Lansing
Despite all the leaps and bounds we’ve seen in recent years in cancer research, there’s always more to improve on when it comes to detection and treatment of cancer. Take for example the case of Wayne Wentzel, who underwent eight biopsies over fourteen years, which all tested negative for cancer. It wasn’t until he reached The University of Cincinnati that he got the answers and treatment he was seeking.
Tags: Midwest, University of Cincinnati, 2012, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Cincinnati, OH, UCinci
Our sense of smell is something we often take for granted. Besides allowing us to take in such wonderful aromas as flowers or fresh-baked cookies, our olfactory receptors help us keep a healthy appetite and tell us when to steer clear of hazards like pollution or spoiled food. Therefore, it’s concerning that olfactory dysfunction affects one in every hundred Americans under the age of 65, and over 50% of the population over 65. Fortunately, researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have made recent breakthroughs in the restoration of smell to those who have lost it over time or were born without it.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, 2012, Michigan, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, UM
Wisconsin is universally known for its abundance of milk and cheese products, which establish its reputation as the “Dairy State.” Therefore, it stands to reason that the University of Wisconsin at Madison would have a fantastic Center for Dairy Research (CDR) at the forefront of cheese research. According to the CDR Homepage, this includes studying the functional and physical properties of cheese, create new flavors and varieties of cheeses, and investigate technologies for cheese production, safety, and quality.
Tags: Midwest, 2012, WI, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Madison, UW Madison, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Madison
One of the most prestigious scientific awards, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), has been awarded to not one University of Michigan Ann Arbor researcher, but three! This award, started in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, was founded to recognize "the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America's preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions," as per a White House press release. These scientists are nominated by eleven different US government departments and agencies including the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, as well as the National Science Foundation.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, Bioresearch, 2012, Michigan, scientific research, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research Funding, MI, research scientists, research scientist, UM
In the search for early life we are going where we have never gone before...with newly-funded astrobiology research at the University of Illinois.
Tags: Midwest, Bioresearch, Bioresearch funding, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2012, Illinois, biology research, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Research Funding, IL, genomics research, research grant, new research grants, UIUC
Construction of an exciting new research facility was recently announced for the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to a UIC news article, Illinois Governor Quinn declared the commencement of the Advanced Chemical Technology Building (ACTB), which will house researchers from chemistry, biology, and physics. The driving idea behind the building is to foster connections between the three broad fields to focus on specific fields like immunology, orthopedics, tumor growth, and nanoscience.
Tags: Midwest, University of Illinois Chicago, New research facilities, 2012, Illinois, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Chicago, IL, new construction, BRPF, UIC
While the NASA rover Curiosity explores the Martian surface, researchers from Washington University at St. Louis (WUSTL) are working behind the scenes, exploring the data that the rover sends back. WUSTL researchers also played a large part in getting Curiosity off the ground, literally.
Tags: Midwest, Washington University, Missouri, WUSTL, 2012, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MO, St Louis
Physics and nanotechnology research at the University of Minnesota has outgrown its 80-year old facility and prompted the construction of the 144,000 sf state-of-the-art building that is now rising on campus. (See the live webcam footage.) The previous home to the Physics Department, the Tate Laboratory, can no longer support the advanced research carried out by more than 150 faculty and graduate students there, nor is it adequate for a field (nanotechnology) that has only relatively recently come into being. The new $83M lab research facility will allow the physics and nanotechnology departments to move forward in this century as well as join forces in collaborative research projects.
Tags: Midwest, nanotechnology, New research facilities, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2012, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research, research laboratories, MN, new construction, BRPF, Minn, Twin Cities
Washington University in St Louis (WUSTL) has just received a $2M research grant that will go towards combating a disorder which afflicts, often fatally, nearly 5.8 million Americans each year: heart failure. Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death in the US and although many promising drugs have been introduced over the years, we have yet to find a definitive treatment for the variety of cases that doctors encounter. This $2M NIH award wil go to a team of WUSTL scientists for basic research that will contribute to our understanding of heart disease and ideally lead to more effective treatment. The end goal of this research project is the design and construction of artificial tissue models of the heart, which will allow scientists to more quickly and efficiently test new drugs.
Tags: Bioscience research, Midwest, biomedical sciences, biomedical research, Bioresearch, Washington University, Missouri, WUSTL, heart disease, 2012, Biochemistry, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research, NIH, MO, St Louis, BRPF, basic research funding

