News

The Evolution of Oak Trees
MSI PI Jeannine Cavender-Bares (associate professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) collaborated on a study that describes for the first time the evolutionary history of North American oak trees. The study describes the diversification of two lines, red oaks and white oaks, that split from a common ancestor. It was published recently in the journal New Phytologist.
MSI PI John Bischof to be Interim Director of Institute for Engineering in Medicine
MSI PI John Bischof, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been named to be Interim Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM). Professor Bischof has been associate director of the Institute and is also a member of the Masonic Cancer Center.
MSI PI Eric Watkins Receives USDA Grant
MSI PI Eric Watkins (Horticultural Science) has received a $5.4 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture. A type of grass called fine fescue needs less water and fertilizer than other grasses used for lawns, but has not gained popularity. Professor Watkins will study why homeowners don’t use fine fescues, and how new varieties can be developed that meet their needs and wants.
Patents Awarded to MSI PIs - Fall 2017
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has published a list of patents that have been awarded to University researchers during the past few months. Several MSI Principal Investigators, shown below, are on this list. The complete list can be found on the OVPR’s Inquiry blog, "Patent Roll Call, Fall 2017." The PIs' MSI group pages are linked from their names (PI names are in bold).
Institute on the Environment Celebrates Tenth Anniversary
The Institute on the Environment (IonE) is celebrating ten years of collaborative and interdisciplinary research. A unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), the IonE is a world leader in environmental research. An article about the IonE's work appears on the OVPR’s Inquiry blog: A Decade of Leadership Toward a Sustainable Future.
MSI User Lotus Lofgren Wins Research Award
PhD candidate Lotus Lofgren, who uses MSI resources as part of the group of Associate Professor Peter Kennedy (Plant and Microbial Biology), was recently awarded the J.L. Harley Medal from the International Mycorrhiza Society. This award is given to a graduate student for excellence in research and presentation at the Society’s annual conference.
Startup Company Founded by MSI PIs to Analyze Microbiomes
MSI PIs Kenneth Beckman (Director, University of Minnesota Genomics Center (UMGC)) and Dan Knights (Computer Science and Engineering; BioTechnology Institute), along with MSI user Daryl Gohl (Research and Development Lead, UMGC), have developed microbiome-analysis technology that is now being made available to the public through a new company,
Leaf Sizes and Temperatures
MSI PI Peter Reich (Forest Resources) is a co-author on a recent study that studied the factors that result in size of plants’ leaves. The study was the cover article on the September 1, 2017 issue of the prestigious journal Science. Professor Reich and his colleagues studied thousands of leaves from all continents, climate zones, and plant types. They discovered that cold, as well as heat, can be the main factor in determining how large a plant’s leaves can get.
A New Treatment to Cure Infection
MSI PI Michael Sadowsky and collaborator Alexander Khoruts have developed and tested a treatment for a serious gut infection that is showing excellent results. The infection, Clostridium difficile, which affects about half a million people every year, is debilitating and sometimes fatal. The treatment, called fecal microbiota transplantation, has a greater than 95% cure rate and has been adopted by medical practitioners around the country.
MSI PIs Receive Grants From Minnesota Partnership
Three MSI PIs are among the University faculty who have received seed grants from the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics. The Partnership is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and the State of Minnesota that supports biotechnology and biomedical research. The projects receiving grants include researchers from the University and Mayo. The PIs receiving awards are:
Studying Water Temperatures in Lake Superior
MSI PI Jay Austin (professor, UMD – Physics and Astronomy; Large Lakes Observatory) was interviewed recently on radio station WTIP in northern Minnesota about Lake Superior’s warming water temperatures. Listen to the interview: Lake Superior continues warming trend despite cooler summer in 2017.
September 2017 Maintenance
On Wednesday, September 6, 2017, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades to various MSI systems. During this month's scheduled maintenance period, Primary Storage, Mesabi, and Itasca will be unavailable throughout much of the day. September maintenance will include: Mesabi: Compute nodes will be upgraded from CentOS 6.8 to 6.9 Windows updates: Install Windows updates on all Windows machines CentOS and Debian updates for Lab machines Systems status is always available on our Status page.

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