The seven research teams that received funding through the Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research program presented their progress on May 9 in the Oak Room. This research initiative was started in September 2012 by President Leath after he introduced it in his installation address.

The goal of this initiative is to encourage collaborative research across academic disciplines and promote the growth of innovation and the research enterprise at Iowa State.

The first three teams that presented were part of the proof-of-concept program in the initiative for directing their research in emerging areas that could lead to great discoveries. These groups received between $50,000 and $100,000 to help them continue their research and apply for larger grants.

Daniel Attinger, associate professor in mechanical engineering, spoke first about his team’s ongoing research to design crops with better yields and tolerance to climate change. Nine Iowa State engineers and plant scientists are collaborating on this project.

Attinger said that the funding from the initiative helped organize an international workshop, dedicated towards the advancement of crops, in Des Moines and assisted his team in obtaining $250,000 in grants.

Carol Chapelle, professor in English and linguistics, spoke about her team’s vision to create a national center of scholarship for the study of academic and professional writing in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.

Chapelle said that her team has used the initiative’s funding to propose for two National Science Foundation grants over $1,000,000 in the foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education and Cyberlearning program.

Drena Dobbs, professor in genetics, development and cell biology, presented her team’s progress in their research of treating infectious diseases using ribonucleic acid-based therapeutic approaches.

“Our strategy is to try to identify post-cellular [ribonucleic acids] that our bodies may make to fight off viral infections,” Dobbs said.

The remaining four groups that presented have received $500,000 for the past three years to apply for large, competitive grants in research efforts that have the potential to change the world.

Michael Cho, professor in biomedical sciences, presented his team’s research in producing effective vaccines against viruses such as HIV and influenza.

Cho said that the initiative’s funding was used to enable some of his team members to do research and helped the team obtain $8,000,000 in grants.

Manjit Misra, professor in seed science, spoke about his team’s proposal for a global food security consortium, centered at Iowa State, to help feed the people and animals of the world by 2050 while reserving the Earth’s natural resources.

“This consortium is all about helping people feed themselves,” Misra said.

Balaji Narasimhan, professor in chemical and biological engineering, shared his team’s research on using nanovaccines to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of ailments like: influenza, cancer, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s Disease.

“Over the past 34 years, we’ve seen more new diseases,” Narasimhan said. “These new diseases are creating new challenges for us that just cannot be met, we cannot treat our way out of these diseases.

Martin Spalding, professor in genetics, development and cell biology, spoke last about his team’s proposal to develop a crop bioengineering consortium to address the challenge of providing enough food, biofuels and biorenewable chemicals for the world’s growing population.

Spalding said that the consortium’s focus is to use genome editing technology, as well as basic research, to engineer plants to improve its traits.

More information about the Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research program and the individual research teams can be found on the program’s website: http://www.president.iastate.edu/14/research.