Contact: Bob Ratliff
With a $1.2 million grant from a Jackson foundation, Mississippi State is establishing the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Institute.
The unit will enable the university to build on its strengths in the biological sciences and the use of biotechnology to improve agriculture, forestry, animal health, and environmental quality, said Charles Lee, vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine.
The Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation grant will be used both to establish the institute and to attract a highly qualified staff, including a director who is an "internationally recognized scientist with expertise in commercialization of science," he said.
The institute will be "a key factor in making biotechnology a strategic economic asset for Mississippi," Lee added.
Current MSU biotechnology research involves the areas of human and animal health, disease- and insect-resistant crop development, natural resource protection, and computational biology.
Earlier support from the Hearin Foundation has allowed the university to establish biotechnology collaborations with other institutions and agencies.
"The Hearin Foundation's confidence in Mississippi State provides encouragement for others to invest in our programs," Lee said.
The foundation bears the name of the late Jackson business leader and philanthropist who created it in 1965.