Released: January 25, 2008

Kansas Wheat and K-State Receive Bioscience Authority Grant

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas Wheat and Kansas State University announced today that they have received a $200,000 planning grant from the Kansas Bioscience Authority for the purpose of developing plans for the proposed Kansas Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design: “Plants for the Heartland.”

The Kansas Bioscience Centers of Innovation program is designed to establish centers of excellence that will clearly define Kansas as an international leader in research and commercialization for one or more bioscience platforms that will have a substantial, measurable and sustainable positive impact on the state’s economy.

At the end of the six-month planning grant period, the Bioscience Authority will review all submitted proposals and may award contracts for the completion of proposed centers.

The Kansas Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design: “Plants for the Heartland” would focus on the emerging commercial opportunities for wheat, sorghum, small grains, and native plants and grasses. By coordinating efforts across the state, nation and the world, the Center would accelerate scientific discoveries and innovation in plant bioscience. The Center would be business collaboration among plant science industry groups and university research counterparts. The Kansas Wheat Commission of Manhattan and K-State will be the lead organization for founding the center. Facilities for the Center would be headquartered on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan, collaborating with existing research programs at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and elsewhere. The Center would unlock the power of plant genomes to create a host of novel products.

“The Center would be a pivotal opportunity for Kansas,” said Kansas Wheat chief executive officer Dusti Fritz. “World food security depends on three major (wheat, rice, maize) and several minor (barley, sorghum, millets) cereal crops. Kansas is a major producer of two of these crops (wheat and sorghum). The current global shortage of wheat and sorghum demonstrates the opportunity that exists for Kansas to be in a pivotal position to lead innovation in these crops and continue as the breadbasket of the world. These crops now have the opportunity to meet other energy and industrial needs as we transition from fossil fuels into renewable sources of energy and industrial goods. The genomic sciences offer unprecedented opportunity to identify genetic advantages to redesign plants for target uses. The establishment of this center would be a game-changing opportunity for Kansas to take the premier leadership role in this new economy based on high-tech science.”

The Center’s Native Plants Innovation Team will be led by Dr. Barbara Timmerman, University Distinguished Professor and Chair of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Native Plants Team members will include faculty and staff from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and the KU Medical Center. The Team’s efforts will focus on using advanced plant design techniques to produce novel therapeutic drugs derived from Kansas native plants.

“The Kansas Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design will build a strong new future for exploration, discovery and development of valuable natural product drugs that prevent and cure diseases in humans and animals,” KU’s Timmerman said.

Dr. Fred Cholick, Dean of K-State’s College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension said, “This center will position Kansas as the global leader in plant genetics by translating innovative research into value-added agricultural products delivered to the market place. For Kansas, this would create new jobs and attract the best and brightest minds in plant bioscience to Manhattan, Kansas. Overall, it will enhance the economy of Kansas and the region, particularly in rural areas.”

“There is a new era emerging in agriculture. Wheat and sorghum are currently losing ground to corn and soybean production. In spite of their lack of environmental compatibility for much of the state, corn and soybeans currently offer a short-term economic advantage to producers, and are more preferred by end users in the livestock and biofuel sectors,” said Kansas Wheat Commissioner Dean Stoskopf. “Because of this approach, profitability for dryland farmers is at risk and ground water resources are being depleted. Advanced plant design affords a sustainable, long-term solution to this challenge by improving the performance of wheat and sorghum, which are better suited for Kansas. Bioscience is the key to unlocking the maximum potential of crops grown for the benefit of the state’s economy and the world’s consumers.”

 

Kansas Wheat is the cooperative agreement between the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, joining together as “leaders in the adoption of profitable innovations for wheat.”

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Mary Lou Peter-Blecha
mlpeter@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News