News

MSI PI Matthew Rouse (adjunct associate professor, Plant Pathology; USDA Agricultural Research Service) was named the 2018 winner of the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. The World Food Prize Foundation announced the award at the Sustainable Development Goals Conference in the Netherlands last month.

The University of Minnesota has been awarded a $1.43 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop machine-learning techniques that can be used to better monitor global agricultural and climate change. A team of researchers from the College of Science and Engineering, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Sciences, and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute will be working on this project.

Four MSI PIs have published a paper in the journal Nature Materials in which they describe a new material that may improve computer processing and memory capabilities. The PIs are Jian-Ping Wang (professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering); Mo Li (associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering); K.

The Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota has announced that it is forming a team to study microbes in the gut and their influence on the development and treatment of cancer. This team is the first project funded by a Chainbreaker Breakthrough Cancer Research Grant; the funds for this grant were raised by the first Chainbreaker bike ride, which was held in 2017. The 2018 Chainbreaker ride was held on August.

Research by MSI PI James Anderson (professor, Agronomy and Plant Genetics) is featured in a recent article on Wired.com. Professor Anderson is doing genetic research to find varieties of wheat that are resistance to Fusarium head blight and other diseases. This work uses mapping and genotyping software available through MSI. The Anderson group’s work was featured on the MSI website in June 2016: Identifying Rust Resistance Genes in Wheat.

MSI PI Michael Kyba (professor, Pediatrics and Stem Cell Institute) and colleagues have published a study in which the researchers were able to harvest cells from a benign type of tumor called a teratoma and purify some of them so that they can rebuild skeletal muscle in mice with muscular dystrophy. This research shows promise for generating cells that can be used for research.

Three MSI PIs are among the co-authors of a newly published paper that describes a 3D-printed device that could someday help repair some spinal cord injuries. A silicon guide is used as a platform for neuronal stem cells to be 3D printed on it. The guide is then implanted into a spine’s injured area, where researchers hope that it will act as a bridge between the cells above and below the injury. This might allow patients to recover some function. The paper was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The PIs involved in the research are:

MSI PI John Bischof has been named Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM). Professor Bischof has been the Interim Director for the past year. He is a faculty member in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, and is also a member of the Masonic Cancer Center. His current work using MSI involves the use of iron oxide and gold nanoparticles to enhance thermal therapies.

MSI PI Pinar Karaca Mandic, an associate professor in the Department of Finance, Carlson School of Management, and Academic Director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute, participated in a show on Minnesota Public Radio about drug prices and the role government should take in their control.