East Lansing : In the News

Michigan State University (MSU) researchers are attempting to improve cellulosic biofuel processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to excerpts from the article:

Cellulosic biofuels would be an alternative to biofuel made from the simple sugars and starches found in corn and other grains.

"Unlike simple sugars or even starches in the grains of plants, such as corn kernels, cellulose doesn't dissolve in water,"said Val Osowski of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

"This is good for keeping plants healthy, but it's a problem for making biofuels," Osowski wrote on the school's Web site. "Before the complex sugars in cellulose and hemicellulose (from woody plants) can be converted into ethanol or other biofuels, they have to be broken down into simple sugars.

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East Lansing-based Enliven Software recently moved into a larger space within the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center (TIC) and is now expanding into west African and Australian markets.

According to excerpts from the article:

A map would tell people Nigeria and East Lansing are worlds away. Bunmi Akinyemiju would tell people they share a border.

The international expansion wouldn’t be possible without MSU’s commitment to global initiatives and reputation as a worldly university, he said.

“MSU is one of the top global universities in the country,” said the MSU alumnus, who was born in Michigan when his parents came to MSU from Nigeria to earn their master’s and doctoral degrees. “I think that (MSU has) invested in really making sure the education that students get here is global.”

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2009 was a good year for the Capital region, which welcomed several important economic investments including the $550 million FRIB facility, the Technology Information Center (TIC) and IBM’s move to East Lansing.

According to excerpts from the article:

While Michigan felt the pain of the highest unemployment in the nation, the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler, a tanking housing market and a sharp slowdown in commercial sales, East Lansing could point to the following developments:

1.) FRIB, okay, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. The $550 million Department of Energy-funded nuclear physics research facility will be a science facility dedicated answering complex questions about the structure of matter, about the stars, about basic elements on our plan, event how the planet came into existence.

Its practical benefits, as well: $1 billion economic impact over the first decade, 180 new jobs for scientists, 5,800 one-year construction jobs, 220 spin-off jobs.

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Discover magazine placed Michigan State University (MSU) researcher A. Mahdi Saeed’s vaccine development for a strain of E. coli on its list of top stories in 2009.

According to excerpts from the article:

Saeed, professor of epidemiology and infectious disease in MSU's colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Human Medicine, has studied enterotoxigenic E. Coli — which is responsible for 60 percent to 70 percent of all E. coli diarrheal disease — for 25 years. The disease also causes health problems for U.S. troops serving overseas and is responsible for what is commonly called traveler's diarrhea.

"A working vaccine has the potential to save millions of lives," said Saeed, who hopes human clinical trials will begin in early 2010. "This strain of E. coli has a huge impact on humanity."

As part of its year-end issue on newsstands now, Discover magazine counted down 100 of the year's top stories; Saeed's work on the vaccine came in at No. 36. Other featured stories include one on tropical heat speeding up evolution and another on the Hubble Space Telescope's new abilities.

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Julielyn Gibbons, president of i3 Strategies, used the East Lansing Technology and Innovation Center (TIC) to launch a social media business that’s becoming a household name in the Capital region.

According to excerpts from the article:

In 2009, she decided to start her own business, because she realized that very few people could do what she could; and because instead of getting pigeonholed into being a politico, she wanted to make the biggest impact possible working with the biggest number of people possible.

Therefore, even though the economy seemed to be screaming “NO,” after she met “a great group of people in the area, that emboldened [her] to become entrepreneurial,”as well as Jeff Smith, who runs the Technology Innovation Center (TIC) in East Lansing.

Total capital required? “Less than $1,000,” she answers with a smile.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky because since I’ve started, all of my business has been word of mouth,” she says. Her most notable recent work has been for Capital Area Michigan Works! for whom she coordinates and presents monthly workshops for job seekers on how to use social media to find a new job. She said the work “hits home on a multitude of levels,” because at one time or another in the past two years, both of her parents and siblings have lost their jobs.

A good portion of her work is done in the form of workshops and presentations on social media. “I’ve gone all over the country: Boston, Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Detroit. It’s really something. ”

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Michigan State University (MSU) professors have discovered a link between diabetes and bone marrow nerve damage that may help treat one of the disease's most common and potentially blindness-causing complications.

According to excerpts from the article:

The key to better treating retinopathy — damage to blood vessels in the retina that affects up to 80 percent of diabetic patients — lies not in the retina but in damage to the nerves found in bone marrow that leads to the abnormal release of stem cells, said Julia Busik, an associate professor in MSU's Department of Physiology.

"With retinopathy, blood vessels grow abnormally in the retina, distort vision and eventually can cause blindness," said Busik, whose research appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. "There has been a lot of progress in treating the complication, but most treatments use a laser that is painful to the patient and destroys parts of the retina."

"This opens up new avenues to better treatments outside of the retina that focus on stem cells and the causes of the nerve damage in bone marrow," said Busik, whose collaborators included other researchers from MSU and the University of Florida. "We know what happens in the retina and have treatments that are very invasive; we now can look at a host of other options."

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The Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) is using $1.7 million in federal funds to determine how to improve public transportation through the region’s main business corridor.

According to excerpts from the article:

The money was made available to CATA in February, and the Michigan/Grand River Transportation Study Group was formed four months later. It's goal is to figure out what the business corridor could become.

"What we're looking for here: Is there a better way to handle transportation in the corridor, making it more attractive?" said Jon Coleman, executive director of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission.

About 1.5 million people use CATA public buses in the Michigan/Grand River corridor each year. That represents more than 13 percent of CATA's ridership in the area.

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Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) received a $1.7 million grant from the federal government to work with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center to study the environmental benefits and consequences of cellulosic biofuel crops.

According to excerpts from the article:

The Department of Energy awarded a total of $8.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to the center, which includes partners University of Wisconsin-Madison and MSU. About half of that money will be used to enhance and accelerate sustainability research, and the other half will research plant cell wall imaging technology.

The money allocated to biofuel sustainability research will be used to study carbon cycling, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions associated with biofuel cropping systems, as well as develop more complex modeling technology, said Phil Robertson, MSU professor of crop and soil sciences who leads GLBRC sustainability research.

“Quantitative models, together with the underlying field research, will allow us to design biofuel cropping systems that are both profitable and environmentally sustainable," he said. "We need to ensure the crops we’ll be using for cellulosic energy do in fact contribute to climate stabilization and cleaner air and water, as well as provide biodiversity benefits such as habitat for birds and beneficial insects.

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The Discovery Channel has taken note of a recent Michigan State University (MSU) study that shows green roofs will help absorb greenhouse gasses.

According to excerpts from the article:

While green roofs certainly won't solve the global warming problem, their ability to sop up greenhouse gases — even just a little bit — bolsters the case for planting them on city buildings, despite extra costs on the front end, said lead researcher Kristin Getter, of Michigan State University in East Lansing.

"The key to fighting global warming is capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in new reservoirs that weren't storing carbon before," Getter said. "In the whole scheme of things, green roofs are not the one answer to sequestering carbon, but they will certainly help."

Green roofs offer a long list of known benefits. They lower air-conditioning costs in the summer by absorbing and reflecting heat. They lower heating costs in the winter by adding extra insulation.

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Northern Technologies International Group is working with Michigan State University (MSU) to expand solutions for bioplastics packaging and technology.

According to excerpts from the article:

Northern Technologies International Corporation (Nasdaq:NTIC) announced that it has been awarded two National Science Foundation (NSF) awards — one in June 2009 as a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant for $150,000 on Advanced PLA Materials for biobased and biodegradable products. The second last week as a Phase I SmallBusiness Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for an additional $150,000 on "Biobased coatings for corrosion protection."

These NSF grants will help NTIC develop biobased technologies for new innovative applications in the Zerust(R) and Natur-Tec(R) business areas. The research and technology development will be conducted in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU), Lansing, MI. NTIC plans to use modified polylactic acid (PLA) chemistries and soybean oil based coatings formulations developed at MSU to expand its product portfolio with enhanced solutions for bioplastics packaging and corrosion management respectively. Phase II grants for further development and commercialization of these technologies would potentially bring in $1,000,000 in additional funding to NTIC.

Prof. Ramani Narayan, University Distinguished Professor at MSU and developer of PLA technology for Cargill Inc., will be collaborating with NTIC in this work. Prof. Narayan stated, "MSU and NTIC have worked together in the past to successfully commercialize biodegradable and biobased products. The NSF projects will reinforce stronger ties among the two organizations and serve as a classic example of university-industry symbiosis." NTIC, in particular, will benefit from the specific expertise that Prof. Narayan brings to the table in the area of bioplastics.

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A Michigan State University (MSU) study conducted by horticulturist Kristin Getter and Professor Brad Rowe finds that green roofs could help fight global warming.

According to excerpts from the article:

Kristin Getter and Professor Brad Rowe found replacing traditional roofing materials with green plants in an urban area with a population of about 1 million, would be equivalent to eliminating a year's worth of carbon dioxide emitted by 10,000 mid-sized sport utility vehicles and trucks.

The researchers said their study is the first of its kind to examine the ability of green roofs to sequester carbon, which may impact climate change.

Getter and colleagues say scientists have known green roofs also absorb carbon dioxide, a major green house gas that contributes to global warming, but nobody had measured the impact until now.

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According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the many innovative partnerships between local businesses, the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University are jumpstarting business and creating a bright spot in a tough economic climate.

According to excerpts from the article:

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The East Lansing Amtrak station could benefit from a $3.6 million improvement slated for the Battle Creek Amtrak station as part of a proposed high-speed rail connecting Detroit to Chicago.

According to excerpts from the article:

An environmental assessment released earlier this month of a proposed high-speed rail connecting Detroit and Chicago details major renovations planned for the Battle Creek station, which links East Lansing to the rail.

East Lansing’s Amtrack station would connect to the high-speed rail at the Battle Creek station, said Lori Mullins, East Lansing’s community and economic development administrator.

The assessment includes information about $3,620,552 that would be used for interior and exterior renovations for the Battle Creek station, which has not had major renovations for about 20 years. Renovations would create a more modern and user-friendly facility.

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