Validating an African Swine Fever Virus Subunit Vaccine 

Validation of Efficacy of a Protective DIVA-Compatible Prototype African Swine Fever Virus Vaccine 

African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) is a highly contagious, fatal disease in pigs that spreads rapidly. There is no commercially available treatment or vaccine for the virus, and the threat to U.S. swine production is significant. To protect U.S. herds, Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine researchers are developing and validating a vaccine to protect pigs from ASFV.

The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest 

Climate change is compromising highly nutritious, localized food grown by Indigenous societies, which has led to detrimental health disparities for American Indians, including higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson aims to ensure crop biodiversity and increase access to nutritious food through partnerships with tribal communities. Kotutwa Johnson is examining water conservation practices that increase Indigenous food production, analyzing Indigenous foods’ nutritional value to integrate these foods into USDA and other food programs and developing safeguards to protect Indigenous groups data rights.

Big Data to Improve and Sustain Wheat End-Use Quality in the Face of Increasingly Variable Climate Scenarios 

To maintain a competitive advantage, United States grain producers often focus on producing wheat with milling and baking qualities desirable in Asia and Latin America, the primary importers of U.S. wheat. However, climate extremes can destabilize wheat crops with these end-use qualities. Dr. Margaret Krause is supplementing end-use datasets assembled by the USDA by linking measurements of wheat milling and baking quality to climate and crop management data. Krause aims to determine which climate and crop management factors most affect wheat quality, whether end-use quality can be forecasted and what options might be available to producers to improve wheat quality.

Developing circular urban food systems for a rapidly growing desert city 

Using food waste-derived fertilizer in controlled environment agriculture can address urban food system challenges. Yet, limited information is available about fertilizer characteristics and application methodologies. Dr. Yujin Park is examining the nutrient content of food waste-derived fertilizer, determining procedures to increase its nutrient balance and evaluating the impact of its use with indoor and greenhouse production systems.

Evaluating the use of calcium silicate amendments to manage the bioavailability of organic carbon in agricultural soils 

Organic carbon greatly benefits soil health and functions such as crop productivity, limiting erosion and sequestering carbon dioxide. Dr. Itamar Shabtai is evaluating the interactions of calcium inputs, currently studied for sequestering inorganic carbon, on soil organic carbon. The project is examining how these inputs affect soil organic carbon and soil health and whether they change soils’ microbial community.

Advancing the Design and Fabrication of Biopolymer-based Nanocomposites for Sustainable Food Packaging 

Current food packaging still relies on non-biodegradable plastics, which persist in the environment for a long time and can harm wildlife. Dr. Zhaoxu Meng's research aims to design and fabricate high-performance packaging materials with sustainable, biodegradable biopolymers derived from renewable sources like food and agriculture waste and byproducts. Meng is using advanced technologies like computational modeling and artificial intelligence to guide the hypothesis-driven, bottom-up—linking molecular structure to materials' overall performance—design and fabrication processes.

Using a novel RNA therapy to tackle dual threat of tomato spotted wilt virus, a pandemic agricultural pathogen and its supervector, thrips 

Currently, producers manage the tomato spotted wilt virus through genetically resistant varieties of tomato and pepper as well as insecticides to control thrips, an insect that spreads the virus. However, novel strains of tomato spotted wilt virus have overcome the genetic resistance, and thrips have developed insecticide resistance. Dr. Kiran Gadhave is developing a type of RNA that can deliver targeted therapeutics, both preventative and curative, specifically tailored against the virus and thrips to the tomato and pepper, helping to develop a novel, sustainable, economical, eco-friendly tool for pest management.