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Columns::October 28, 2002
Spreading the wealth: University announces plans to buy, sell properties
Open-enrollment period under way for health insurance
Hollowell to receive honorary degree at Commencement
Four named Fellows by American Academy of Advancement of Science
Dunning announces leadership changes at Georgia Center
Special delivery: Professor works to improve efficacy of cancer drugs
Senior public service associate makes workplaces work better
Administrative Changes
Kudos
Trying times
Into an artist’s world
Campus News
Dedication is held at new Center for Applied Genetic Technologies
By Maria Anderson and Kathleen Cason
rcomm@ovpr.uga.edu and kmc@ovpr.uga.edu
The Center for Applied Genetic Technologies on Riverbend Road was dedicated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 24. The building features state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment for faculty conducting genomics research on agriculturally important plants and animals, such as peanuts, pine trees and chicken.
“The UGA researchers in the new facility are involved in basic research discoveries that can be translated into new innovations and better technologies that will benefit all of us and stimulate the state economy,” says Gordhan Patel, vice president for research. “For example, scientists are looking for genes that make plants more tolerant to drought or resistant to disease.”
The new facility also houses the Georgia BioBusiness Center, an incubator for Athens-based bioscience start-up companies that commercialize technology developed in UGA research programs. The Georgia Research Alliance, which helped fund construction and equipment, also has an office in the building.
The center consists of three units: shared core laboratory facilities, UGA research laboratories and a business incubator. The core facilities--the genetic analysis facility and the plant transformation facility--provide advanced instrumentation for genomic analyses that can be used on a cost-recovery basis.
The center also is home to five UGA research laboratories for faculty with appointments in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Warnell School of Forest Resources and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. These scientists--experts in row crops, forages, trees, genomics and physiology--share an interest in research aimed at improving Georgia’s major crops through the study and use of genomics data.
“This is research that addresses the basic human need for food and sustenance, but which also may provide insight into curing disease or solving environmental problems,” says President Michael F. Adams. “The possibilities are endless.”
Center researchers are engineering crops that are better adapted to Southern climates. New varieties of forage, such as alfalfa, tall fescue and red clover, are being developed that are adapted to the region’s soils, climates and livestock production systems. New technologies are speeding the introduction of higher-yielding, disease resistant soybean varieties. UGA scientists also are compiling an extensive catalog of the genes expressed in loblolly pine and studying how those genes respond to stresses such as drought, lack of nitrogen and exposure to root pathogens.
Other scientists are determining the “spelling” or sequences of genes in plants and animals crucial to the state’s agriculture. They have started with Georgia’s most important agricultural commodities: chicken and cotton.
Still other scientists are developing the techniques that allow plants to be genetically engineered.
Unlike traditional lab settings where scientists often work in isolation, the new center promotes multidisciplinary collaborations among faculty, according to Jeff Dean, an associate professor in the School of Forest Resources.
CAGT also includes a business incubator, the Georgia BioBusiness Center, for private companies started by or closely linked to UGA faculty members. Currently, two companies occupy the center: AviGenics, Inc., and BresaGen Limited.
“The Georgia BioBusiness Center enables bioscience start-up companies to accelerate their early growth through access to management expertise and state-of the-art instrumentation,” says Margaret Wagner Dahl, UGA’s director of research development and technology alliances.
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