A grant from the U of M’s Minnesota Futures program is funding research into chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal prion disease that affects thousands of deer in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The disease is a serious threat to Minnesota’s hunting industry. MSI PI Eric Seabloom (professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) is leading the research. He is interviewed about the project in an NPR story: U of M to fund more CWD research in Minnesota’s deer herds.
Professor Seabloom and his group use MSI resources for the Nutrient Network, a global scientific collaborative that conducts large-scale experiments in grasslands around the world. The Minnesota Futures program, which is administered by the Office of the Vice President for Research, funds projects that take a “bold, creative, and novel approach to addressing our biggest societal challenges.”