Three research areas at Iowa State will receive funding because of a recent commitment from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.

The funds, totaling $800,000, will support research initiatives including biomolecules, science literacy in youth and medicinal compounds.

“This funding is extremely important,” said Michael Whiteford, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “They have come up with some very innovative ideas that caught the attention of the Carver Trust.”

Although the funding will give Iowa State an advantage in research, it is a large project to undertake.

“The grants are awarded over three years,” said Ann Wilson, senior communications director of the ISU Foundation. “Iowa State must submit progress reports throughout the term of this agreement.”

Wilson said the Carver Trust invited Iowa State to submit proposals for the funding. The board visited campus in the spring to see the presentations made by each group.

One of the studies will target advanced methods for treating brain tumors as well as try to improve the length and quality of life for brain tumor patients.

Aaron Sadow, assistant professor of chemistry, compared the brain tumor study to a Swiss Army knife. The idea, he said, is combining different functions into one medicinal agent that can perform multiple tasks. The proposal is intended to make new compounds that can be both a diagnostic and a therapeutic for cancer treatment.

“If you want an image of the tumor, you have an imaging agent,” Sadow said. “If you want to kill cancer, you have a chemotherapy or radiation therapy agent in the same molecule.”

This specific research initiative could be a 10-year effort.

“It’s exciting to have your ideas have a practical application, but it’s just a proposal,” Sadow said. “We still have to make the molecules and test them. Relief will come when we see the results.”

The Carver Trust is the largest private philanthropic foundation in Iowa. It has annual grant distributions of more than $15 million. It was made possible by Roy J. Carver, an industrialist and philanthropist from Muscatine, who died in 1981.

“We’re pleased that an entity like the Carver Charitable Trust awarded money of this magnitude to ideas that came from the university,” Whiteford said. “We have high expectations for this research.”