LSUS receives $165,000 GBI grant 11/21/02

LSUS has been awarded a $165,000 grant from the Governor’s Biotechnology Initiative.

Funded in the Regular Session of the 2002 Louisiana Legislature, Governor’s Biotechnology Initiative grants were awarded by the Louisiana Board of Regents to LSUS and only five other institutions – Tech, ULL, LSU A&M, UNO and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge.

The proposal submitted in September by the LSUS transgenic plant biotechnology research team of Drs. Stephen Banks, Dalton Gossett and Robert Kalinsky, all professors in biological sciences, was one of 41 received by the GBI fund.

“GBI funding will enhance LSUS’ already strong agricultural/environmental biotech research program and its potential to contribute to economic development in Louisiana,” said Virginia Lincove, LSUS vice chancellor for sponsored research. “The funding will support expansion and diversification of the research and development efforts focusing on agricultural/ environmental used of transgenic plants.”

A transgenic crop plant contains a gene or genes that have been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring them through pollination. The inserted gene sequence – known as the transgene – may come from another unrelated plant, or from a completely different species. For example, transgenic Bt corn, which produces its own insecticide, contains a gene from a bacterium.

GBI funding at LSUS will enhance two major activities:

• Advancing ongoing research in environmental stress tolerance in cotton and other crop plants that could lead to development of more stress-tolerant cultivars (cultivated varieties).
  
• Diversifying the research effort into emerging biotechnology areas, such as plant-based environmental biosensor research and development for biomonitoring applications.

The principal purpose of the Governor’s Biotechnology Initiative is to help departments and units at four-year public institutions with established research programs build upon existing capacity and expertise in areas of biotechnology that contribute to Louisiana’s economic development and diversification. Ultimately the funding will spur the elevation of the selected departments/units to national preeminence, directly impacting the economic development of Louisiana by making the state a hub for the highest quality research in biotechnology and consequently attracting businesses and industry, as well as top-quality scientists from around the world.