( with any plant or animal. The $4 mi...)MSU researchers receive $4 million grant to uncover gene functions

The $4 million grant begins Dec. 1 and will continue for four years. The project will create eight full-time jobs for technicians, graduate students, post-doctoral students and fellowships. An additional 10 positions will be created for undergraduate students enabling them to receive valuable research experience.

"MSU plant scientists have been in the vanguard in using Arabidopsis as the best-understood plant model," said George Leroi, dean of the MSU College of Natural Science. "Importantly, the project will provide opportunities for MSU undergraduates, graduate students and visiting researchers to become educated in modern genomic and bioinformatic techniques that will be widely applicable in the future."

This functional genomics research is a collaborative effort spanning several departments in the College of Natural Science, including the departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Plant Biology, Physics and the MSU-DOE Plant Research Lab.

Last is the project's principal investigator. Co-investigators, all MSU faculty, are Christoph Benning, Dean DellaPenna, Ken Nadler, John Ohlrogge, Katherine Osteryoung, Yair Shachar-Hill, Andreas Weber, Bill Wedemeyer and Curt Wilkerson.