Researchers at Iowa State and the University of Iowa decided two heads are better than one when it comes to scientific discovery.

Beginning in July, the two universities joined forces in a year-long collaborative research project.

Diane Birt, ISU professor and chairman of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Robert Wallace, professor of preventative and internal medicine at U of I, headed the program to fund joint research between the universities.

Birt said the purpose of this program is to stimulate the interaction of nutrition sciences with medical sciences.

“Iowa State and the University of Iowa are two very fine institutions. If we combine our knowledge, we can do outstanding things,” she said.

Birt said when the project began she received six proposals for the program.

“We only had funding for two of the proposals, but the other four have many strengths, and we would like to see something done with them in the future,” she said.

Wallace said the proposals were a competition for pilot grants and certain standards had to be met for the project.

“An investigator from each university must be active on a given proposal,” he said.

James Olson, ISU professor in the Department of Biochemistry, is a co-principal investigator for one of the research projects. He is working on the project with Stephen McGowan, M.D., professor of internal medicine at U of I.

The purpose of this project is to observe therapies that could be devised to reduce lung damage that characterizes pulmonary emphysema, Olson said.

Birt said the two proposals for this project were funded through the Provost Office of both universities and also through the College of Medicine Research Office at U of I.

She said locating funds was not a problem for this project.

“[ISU Vice Provost] Pat Swan was very supportive of this project,” Birt said. “Usually when money is involved, there is not a very quick response, so we were surprised when Pat reacted so quickly and got us funding for the project.”

She said funds for the project total $86,000.

Swan said she supports this project for a couple of reasons.

“We very much like to see researchers collaborate with other institutions, and we also have experience that is complimentary to the University of Iowa,” she said. “This is a very productive area to do research in.”

Swan said a portion of the funding came from the ISU Research Foundation.

“The purpose of this foundation is to increase capacity for research at Iowa State,” she said.