Experience that will set them apart

Sonia Masih of Wooster wanted to dig deeper into science-- even more than she was doing in high school and, she hoped, as a step toward studying human pathology in college.

She took that step through OARDC's Research Internship Program (ORIP), which offers summer research internships to students--college undergraduates and high-school juniors and seniors-- interested in careers in science. ORIP taught her, she said, "responsibility and independence, working on my own for the first time."

Her mentor, plant pathologist Brian McSpadden Gardener of OARDC and OSU Extension, said ORIP's benefits go both ways. "It's good for my lab to have smart students who are motivated to accomplish something," he said, "and it's a great opportunity to show what OARDC is doing for the larger community."

ORIP director Parwinder Grewal said the program helps strengthen the teaching of the STEM disciplines-- science, technology, engineering, and math--in Ohio's schools. Participants work directly with OARDC scientists. ORIP gives students "experience that will set them apart from others for college applications and future career opportunities," Grewal said.

Participation has nearly doubled from the program's first year to its second: from 38 in 2008 to 75 this year.

OARDC's P–12 Outreach effort targets STEM teaching, too. Students of all ages--more than 2,000 from 71 schools in 17 counties last year alone--visit for tours and workshops. OARDC public relations director Jane Houin, who leads the program, said it opens "all kinds of new possibilities for us to reach and interact with students. We want them to know science is fun."

Ohio leaders call ramped-up STEM teaching key to the state's economic future.

Learn more at http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/orip/ and http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/visitor/ (click on "P-12 Outreach").

-- Kurt Knebusch and Mauricio Espinoza

Illuminating research

Investment in imaging system yields grants, new discoveries

OARDC's decision to invest in an in-vivo imaging system--a state-of-the-art digital device that shows in real time how pathogens infect and move through live plants and animals--has certainly paid off for the institution and the scientists using it for their research programs.

In only two years, the $130,000 equipment has attracted more than $700,000 in grants from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and industry sources.

Food-animal health specialist Gireesh Rajashekara is using the imager to study Campylobacter jejuni, a leading cause of foodborne illness in humans that is prevalent in chickens. Aided by a glowing gene, the imaging system maps out the progression of bacterial infection, allowing researchers to determine which genes are responsible for the spread of disease.

Rajashekara and plant pathologist Sally Miller are also developing a bioluminescent strain of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis-- the bacterium responsible for bacterial canker, the most important disease of greenhouse tomatoes.

"We are using this research tool to better understand how the pathogen infects and survives in seeds, moves from seeds to seedlings, and behaves during the tomato grafting process," explained Miller, noting that greenhouse tomatoes now account for 35 percent of all fresh tomatoes sold in supermarkets.

A patent for the C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis "lux gene" is pending.

-- Mauricio Espinoza

If you build it, industries will come …

Thanks to a $744,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, Pounden Hall on OARDC's Wooster campus is undergoing a major facelift. When construction is done, the building will offer office, lab, and prototype development space for private companies interested in partnering with Ohio State researchers--ultimately leading to technology development and commercialization, new business, and jobs. OARDC also partnered with the city of Wooster to improve Secrest Road (northern edge of campus) and provide utilities to the 95-acre future site of BioHio Research Park--an agricultural biosciences business and technology center. This project was made possible by a $3.4 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development's Job Ready Sites program and matching funds from the city of Wooster.

Land of opportunity

Project will build local food systems--and with them, northeast Ohio's economy

OARDC has received a $250,000 grant from northeast Ohio's Fund for Our Economic Future to accelerate the development of an "agricultural biosciences industry cluster" as part of a regional economic action plan.

The project aims to ramp up northeast Ohio's already strong sustainable food production to replace costly imports with local production; to transform it from producing lower-value commodities to higher-value specialty crops and bioproducts, including biofuels; and to grow locally owned and horizontally integrated businesses that propel the local food systems movement.

"We share a vision for building local economies in northeast Ohio starting with local food systems, leading to renewable energy and distributed manufacturing from the region's agricultural lands," said the project co-leader Casey Hoy, who leads OARDC's Agroecosystems Management Program (AMP) and holds Ohio State's W.K. Kellogg Foundation-endowed chair in agricultural ecosystems management.

The project will develop a comprehensive inventory of northeast Ohio's agricultural resources; create an investment portfolio of at least 10 business cases to serve as models (the project's second phase will add cases and move them toward businesses); establish an online infrastructure for networking and collaborating about opportunities in agriculture and biosciences across the region; convene a regionwide leadership council to guide further development; and outline a strategic planning process to build the cluster in the years ahead.

It will dovetail into the economic action plan called Advance Northeast Ohio, created and backed by some 90-plus regional partners, including OARDC, that launched in 2007. The new grant leverages an existing $2.26 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Regional Partnerships for Innovation grant to OARDC, also led by Hoy and AMP.

Of note:

-- Increasing the amount of food sourced locally to 10 percent -- a current regional goal -- would keep at least $1.3 billion more each year in northeast Ohio (based on regional food expenditures of $14.4 billion a year and just 1 percent of now locally sourced).

• Northeast Ohio farmers have a huge local market to tap: 4 million people plus 5,500 restaurants and 100 food processors.

• The Advance Northeast Ohio plan enfolds 16 counties: Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, and Wayne.

For more information:

Local Food Systems networking site, http://localfoodsystems.org/advancenortheast-ohio-partners

Advance Northeast Ohio, http://www.advancenortheastohio.org/

Agroecosystems Management Program, http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/amp/

-- Kurt Knebusch

New facilities across state boost OARDC's research operations

Convinced that modern infrastructure is key to addressing fast-evolving research and industry needs, OARDC has invested more than $8 million in four facilities throughout the state in the past two years that support a variety of research operations.

In August, OARDC dedicated its $5.5 million Feedstock Processing Research Facility on the Wooster campus--a state-of-the-art facility that replaced the outdated 1965 feedmill and will increase the quality, nutritional value, and mixing precision of feeds for OARDC's internationally recognized livestock and poultry research programs. This facility also has capabilities for processing oils and proteins from crops for bioproduct applications. Funding came from state of Ohio capital dollars, the Third Frontier-funded Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OARDC), and gifts from Sweet Manufacturing.

Three of OARDC's outlying agricultural research stations--Muck Crops (Huron County, July 30, 2009), Western (Clark County, July 8, 2008), and Eastern (Noble County, June 21, 2008)--also dedicated new buildings (an investment of $850,000 in each location), featuring offices, labs, workshops, greenhouses, and storage/pesticide-handling areas. Funding for these projects came from the state of Ohio through capital funds.

-- Mauricio Espinoza