Project Grant 201533522240991

This three-year, $999,856 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research program (CFDA 10.219) supports research to monitor and assess risk of resistance to Bt proteins in European corn borer populations. The Ohio State University will collect European corn borer samples across the northeastern and western US through 2025 to analyze Cry1F resistance alleles. The University of Guelph will conduct...

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $617,159 Project Grant under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research (CFDA 10.219) program to North Carolina State University (NC State). The grant supports research to characterize the impact of blended Bt corn refuge ("Refuge in a Bag") versus structured non-Bt corn refuges on the mating behavior, fitness, and resistance evolution of the Helicoverpa zea insect pest. Specifically, the research...

The University of Nebraska was awarded a $500,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research program to evaluate the impact of blended seed refuges and the VIP3A Bacillus thuringiensis toxin on western bean cutworm resistance management. Over a four-year period ending August 2025, the University will optimize artificial diets for western bean cutworm susceptibility monitoring and...

This Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program provides $750,000 to the Regents of the University of California at Riverside to develop novel insecticidal proteins derived from insect-parasitic nematodes. The goal is to characterize these toxins and assess their efficacy in controlling insect pests in agricultural systems, either through transgenic crops or foliar application. This...

This $649,847 Project Grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants Program (CFDA 10.219). The grant funds research to understand how pests overcome plant resistance traits conferred by engineered genes, and develop a monitoring framework to improve the durability of transgenic crops. The research focuses on characterizing the role of gene copy number variants (CNVs) in...

This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $659,112 will fund research at Dickinson College from June 2022 to May 2025 under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The research aims to investigate sulforaphane, a compound found in cruciferous plants like broccoli and cauliflower, as a potential "epigenetic weapon" against destructive insect pests through its ability to inhibit histone deacetylases in insect larvae. Specifically, the project will examine the impacts of...

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded a $649,818 Project Grant under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants (BRAG) program (CFDA 10.219) to the Old Dominion University Research Foundation (doing business as Odurf) to assess the potential for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from genetically engineered (GE) cyanobacteria to soil-environmental bacteria and risk group-2 microorganisms. The research team will measure the rates of HGT,...

The University of Maryland, College Park will receive $499,961 from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research program to conduct genomic monitoring of insect pest populations for emerging resistance to pest management technologies from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2025. The project aims to assess the strengths and limitations of genomic monitoring approaches for detecting emerging resistance in different pest...

Lepidext, Inc. was awarded a $100,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program / Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program (CFDA 10.212) to further develop an agent with potential to actively suppress populations of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) resistant pest insects. The SBIR/STTR programs support scientific excellence and technological innovation through federal...

This federal Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, under the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research (BRAG) Grants Program (CFDA 10.219), provides $650,000 to North Carolina State University (NC State) to develop and evaluate homing gene drive systems targeting three insect pests: spotted wing drosophila, sweetpotato pest drosophila, and the new world screwworm. The goal is to create dominant female-sterile gene...