Texas A&M AgriLife projects are among those awarded by the Texas A&M University’s Advancing Discovery to Market, ADM, Innovation Awards program. The Texas A&M Division of Research announced $3.4 million in awards to 17 research teams in the first stage of its second full year of funding.

Texas A&M AgriLife in white against a maroon background

The awards support Texas A&M researchers as they translate discoveries into innovations with commercial potential. ADM is open to researchers, faculty, staff and students of Texas A&M University as well as three state agencies: Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

ADM receives funding from Texas A&M’s Office of the President and The Texas A&M University System’s Office of the Chancellor.

“The ADM Innovation Awards are crucial for empowering Texas A&M researchers to transform bold ideas into impactful solutions,” said Jack G. Baldauf, Ph.D., vice president for research at Texas A&M. “With this funding, the university and the system enable our research community to address pressing challenges, contribute to meaningful advancements and take their innovations and discoveries to the marketplace as useful products.”

ADM proposals undergo a three-stage selection process, with the final stage featuring pitch presentations to an external review panel of entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.

The program offers two award levels based on a discovery’s maturity.

Type 1 awards

Type 1 awards present $99,000 or less to research projects that have found an innovation but have yet to identify a specific application. Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences-related projects and principal investigators receiving awards are:

  • Amit Dhingra, Ph.D., professor and head of the Department of Horticultural Sciences, “Development of gene-edited high-value crops without genetic engineering,” with co-principal investigator Rishikesh Ghogare, Ph.D., postdoctoral scientist, $99,000.
  • Jason Gill, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Animal Science and co-director of the Center for Phage Technology, “A powerful phage-based technology for therapeutic protein overproduction and delivery,” with co-principal investigator Mei Liu, Ph.D., program director of the Center for Phage Technology and researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, $98,859.
  • Lawrence Griffing, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology, “Development of an organic, broad-spectrum pre-emergent herbicide,” with co-principal investigators Bob Whitney, Regents Fellow and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service organic program specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Stephenville, and Muthu Bagavathiannan, Ph.D., the Billie Turner Professor of Agronomy and AgriLife Research weed scientist in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, $98,000.
  • Seockmo Ku, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, “The next generation of meat preservatives and colorants: Monascus pigments and their derivatives as natural alternatives to sodium nitrite,” with co-principal investigator Wes Osburn, associate professor in the meat science section of the Department of Animal Science, $99,000.

Type 2 awards

Type 2 awards provide between $100,000 and $500,000 for projects closer to market readiness, where the concept is established but requires refinement and validation. Among the College recipients, principal investigators are:

  • John Cason, Ph.D., AgriLife Research peanut breeder and associate professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Stephenville, “Advancing high oil content cultivars: A revolutionary opportunity for peanut farming and renewable fuel production,” with co-principal investigators Mark Burow, Ph.D., AgriLife Research peanut breeder and professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Lubbock; Waltram Ravelombola, Ph.D., AgriLife Research organic and specialty crop breeder and assistant professor, and Emi Kimura, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension agronomist and associate professor, both in Vernon and in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; and Lileen Coulloudon, customer service manager, Vernon, $225,000.
  • Jean-Philippe Pellois, Ph.D., associate head of research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, “Innovative delivery technology for neuroprotective protein delivery in acute retinal injuries,” $500,000.

This story first appeared on Texas A&M Today

Print Friendly, PDF & Email