HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BIOTECH CENTER

October 2006

Faculty Activities and Accomplishments

Biotech Center faculty member Ilya Raskin (Plant Biology and Pathology) and colleagues hosted a special program at the Rutgers Foundation on October 11 to unveil the Global Institute for Bioexploration (GIBEX), based in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (Cook College). Taking part in the program were Rutgers Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Philip Furmanski and Dr. Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town, South Africa representing GIBEX – Africa. GIBEX, a non-profit organization currently operating in 16 countries on five continents, conducts innovative, ethical pharmacological and biodiversity research. Its mission includes the advancement of natural product-based medicinal knowledge and the expansion of biochemical resources which benefit human health and economic development, especially in source countries.

Student Activities and Accomplishments

Biotech Center director Gerben Zylstra (Biochemistry and Microbiology) led tours of Foran Hall for the Cook College Parents Association-sponsored Parent's Day on Saturday, October 14. The tour included the biotechnology teaching laboratory, the biorobotics laboratory, the Chang Library, the computer laboratory, and the research labs. The parents and some of the high school-aged children accompanying them were impressed that the equipment used in the teaching laboratories was identical to equipment used in the research laboratories. This ensures that students pursuing an undergraduate biotechnology degree are trained in the use of the latest equipment and techniques, especially important for obtaining a position in industry or admittance to graduate school upon graduation.

Grants and Fundraising Activities

Phytomedics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company merging health care and plant biotechnology, has renewed its support for 5 more years of plant-based pharmaceutical research in the laboratory of Dr. Ilya Raskin, Biotech Center faculty member (Plant Biology & Pathology). This critical support provides $5.4 million over the next five years for the discovery and development of bioactive products from plants. The collaboration to date has yielded four botanical products which are being commercialized by pharmaceutical and consumer health care companies, as well as an anti-arthritis botanical drug which recently completed a successful Phase II clinical trial. Launched in 1996, Phytomedics is a privately owned company located in Jamesburg, NJ. Most of the company's R&D takes place at the Biotech Center at Rutgers University, under the leadership of Dr. Raskin, a company co-founder. Phytomedics signed a broad research and licensing agreement with Rutgers University that allows the Company to exclusively license its core technologies and products.

NSF/USDA recently awarded a grant to Don Kobayashi, PI, and Biotech faculty member Michael Lawton, Co-PI, (both Plant Biology & Pathology) to support the sequencing of the genome of the bacterial pathogen Lysobacter enzymogenes, which is emerging as a model pathogen of lower eukaryotes. This work will provide an important foundation for future studies that address mechanisms of pathogen virulence. The project was funded at $540,255 for two years beginning November 1.

Two awards from CAFT’s industry-sponsored research program were recently confirmed to Biotech Center members. Nilgun Tumer (Plant Biology & Pathology) and Research Assistant Professor Dr. Rong Di were funded for $14,000/yr on a three-year project entitled "Detection of Shiga-like toxins in food using surface plasmon resonance biosensor technology.” Dr. Di was also funded for a second project at $13,000/yr on a three-year project entitled "Anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic activities of mogrosides and momorgrosvin from the fruit of Luohanguo.” Dr. Di is collaborating with Dr. Chi-Tang Ho in CAFT and Dr. Mou-Tuan Huang in Pharmacy on the second project.

Conferences, Seminars, and Other Events

Biotech Center faculty member Michael Lawton (Plant Biology & Pathology) was an invited speaker at the Heidelberg Institute of Plant Sciences, Heidelberg Germany, as part of a symposium titled“Sulfur-containing defense compounds: Pivotal players in plants stress,” held Oct 4th-7th, 2006. His talk was entitled “Physcopathology.” After the symposium, he gave a seminar on Oct. 9^th at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany. The seminar was entitled 'Physcopathology: the genetic control of death and disease in Physcomitrella patens.' He also visited the Biozentrum in Basel, Switzerland to collect cryo-electron microscopy images of infected Physcomitrella plants.

Biotech faculty member Ilya Raskin (Plant Biology & Pathology) was an invited speaker at the 6th International Phytochemical Conference in Buena Park, California October 16-17, 2006. The title of his presentation was “Can an apple a day keep the doctor away?” Not previously reported, he was a plenary speaker at the 27th International Horticultural Congress, held August 13-19 in Seoul Korea. His presentation was titled “Plants as Medicine: Botanical Therapeutics.” On September 28^th he gave a seminar at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge Louisiana on plants and human health.

Research Assistant Hemalatha Saidasan won a prestigious fellowship to attend the 24th Stadler Genetics Symposium on the 'Genomics of Disease' held at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Oct 2nd-4th. Dr. Saidasan presented a poster of her research entitled 'Physcomitrella patens: a genetically tractable system for studying Fusarium Head Blight.' Dr. Saidasan works in the laboratory of Dr. Lawton.

Two members of the Biotech Center presented talks as part of the weekly seminar series in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. Professor Max Häggblom spoke on October 6 on “Bioprospecting for cool microbes in Finnish Lapland.” On October 20, Research Assistant Sinéad Ní Chadhain (Zylstra lab) spoke on “Use of metal binding motifs to assess functional gene diversity in the environment.”

Biotech Center member and Research Assistant Professor Rong Di was invited to give a seminar on Oct. 13 in the Dept. of Food Science, Rutgers. The title of her presentation was "Real-time PCR detection of E. coli O157:H7 in food".