DEHS will now oversee everything from protocol submission and DEA registration to purchase, use and disposal of materials.

All U of M employees using controlled substances in research must comply with federal and state regulations, as well as institutional guidelines. Consolidating management to a single unit will provide several benefits and ease the compliance process.

To learn more, visit Controlled Substances in Research on the DEHS website.

Contact cshelp@umn.edu or call 612-624-6836 with further questions about controlled substances.

This is the question asked by celebrated University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios, in an article published on The Hill’s Congress Blog.

In the article, Kakalios cites recent polls conducted by the American Physical Society that have found most Americans do not see the connection between basic research and the many technological innovations that are an integral part of modern life. And the fact that most of these innovations were developed with the support of federal funding entirely escapes most people.

Citing an open letter to Congress signed by more than 50 Nobel Laureates, Kakalios argues that a decrease in funding to federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and others, will be a severe blow not just to science but to our nation’s economic future.

Kakalios makes another critical observation: Regardless of whether scientific research yields marketable products, such as the pacemaker or Honeycrisp apples (two U of M inventions), it always results in more highly trained scientists and engineers who ultimately contribute to the American workforce and grow our nation’s economy.

In light of the recent sequestration, which mandates across-the-board cuts to federal funding, Kakalios points out that we cannot “grow our way” out of our current financial woes without “proper seeding and cultivation.” Federal funding for scientific research is one way to ensure a continual crop of innovative new technologies and a skilled workforce to see those technologies to fruition.

As research institutions, we need to do a better job of getting that message out.

How would you make the case for funding scientific research?
Please share your thoughts in a comment below.

Highlights include:

• No change to the existing salary cap, to National Research Service Award stipend levels or to other legislative mandates for FY 2013
• FY 2013 research and non-research continuation awards that had previously been cut to 90 percent may see partial restoration but will likely not be restored to 100 percent of the original commitment level
• FY 2014 and beyond out-year commitments are not being reduced at this time
• There will be fewer competing awards made in FY 2013, but the average size of awards will be targeted to FY 2012 levels
• NIH is not expecting to fund out-year inflationary increases (same as the present policy)

Each individual NIH institute and center is also in the process of posting FY 2013 Funding Strategies, which address sequestration and other fiscal constraints. For the most targeted guidance, research faculty should review the strategy posted for agencies funding awards in their specific areas. However, it is always prudent to review the actual Notice of Award first before making plans to use funds.

Visit the Sponsored Projects Administration for additional information about sequestration.

Submitted by Pamela Webb, associate vice president for research, Sponsored Projects Administration

Reblogged from Business @ the U of M:

A biospecimen can be anything from DNA and proteins to tissues and bodily fluids used for diagnostic, therapeutic and epidemiologic purposes. Since biospecimens are often collected at one location and used later in another location, preservation during transit and storage is critical. In fact, collection and storage of biospecimens has become a priority for several countries, some even establishing national biorepositories or biobanks.

Read more… 152 more words

Bioremediation–the use of microorganisms to remove pollutants from the environment– is a growing and powerful field of scientific research. It presents new opportunities for researchers to partner with industry to develop sustainable solutions for increasingly complex and costly environmental challenges.

At the University of Minnesota, faculty from the biological sciences, engineering, public health and medicine (to name just a few) are currently collaborating on several promising interdisciplinary projects involving the use of bioremediation to address a range of critical environmental and public health issues facing our world and our state.

For example, one project uses a novel technology to clean water polluted by hydrofracking, a rapidly expanding form of natural gas extraction. Another transforms sewage from a wastewater treatment plant into safe drinking water using bacteria that is already present. Another project transfers bacteria from one human body to the next to provide new, life-saving treatments for people with serious infectious diseases.

Advancing industry and conserving the environment is one of the focus areas identified in the U of M’s MnDRIVE initiative, which outlines a series of focus areas in which the U aims to partner with state-based companies to advance Minnesota’s economy, position the state as a leader in key industries, and improve quality of life for all Minnesotans.

Over the next few months, we will be publishing a series of stories that will highlight examples of how bioremediation is harnessing the power of tiny, naturally-occurring organisms to solve some of our biggest environmental problems.

Related stories:
Purifying bad water with good bacteria

Most of the food you eat is made possible by oil and gas. It’s not just that these fuels power the harvesting, transport and electric components used in agriculture. Oil and gas make fertilizers that nurture crops, too.

“We use five trillion cubic feet of gas in the process that makes fertilizers world-wide,” explains Larry Wackett, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics. “Without it, we could only feed three billion of the world’s seven billion people. We need to keep using hydrocarbons to meet that demand.”

But gas and oil create numerous environmental and health problems, from global warming to air pollution and water contamination. A recent collaboration among university biotechnologists is breaking new ground in treating the water portion of this challenge.

University researchers are on the cutting edge of a novel process that harnesses natural bacteria to purify water contaminated by hydrofracking—the process of pumping water underground to open up ancient stores of natural gas and oil.

Scientists discover new way to clean hydrofracking water

Water used in the hydrofracking process is polluted with some 1,500 hydrocarbons. Currently, the only ways to treat this waste water are to evaporate it, condense the remaining chemicals and landfill them as hazardous waste, or to pump the contaminated water deep underground into injection wells. These approaches are bad for the environment and unsustainable. The process under development at the U of M’s BioTechnology Institute would enable industry to reuse the water and return it to the environment free of contaminants. This is especially important as we face increasing water shortages and in oil-rich but arid zones where water is difficult to obtain.

“The idea,” says university mechanical engineer Alptekin Aksan, Ph.D., “is to borrow the water, use it in the industrial process, clean it and return it in the state you found it.”

Aksan and Wackett, both part of the BioTechnology Institute, are collaborating on the project. Wackett specializes in biodegradation and bioremediation. He explores the processes by which living matter breaks down and how those natural systems can be employed to clean up waste products. Aksan specializes in biostabilization. He studies methods of preserving proteins, living cells and tissues through processes such as cooling, drying and the development of synthetic organic biomaterial devices.

Bacteria, meet silica sponge

Mention bacteria, and most people think of germs and disease. “But,” says Wackett, “in fact there are only a handful of disease-causing bacteria as compared to millions that do good in the environment. Some are in the soil and water and chew up organic material naturally, including oil and industrial chemicals.”

For example, bacteria helped clean up the oil spilled in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. “Some of the same oily chemicals in the Deepwater spill are present in the produced water derived from oil and gas hydrofracking,” continues Wackett. “We want to take advantage of the natural ability of bacteria to eat these compounds by adding an engineering component. Because we need to treat drilling waters from different locations; we need control over the process.”

Aksan’s lab has developed a process called “bioencapsulation” that captures the tiny oil-munching bacteria within a sponge made of silica, the same material that sand is made of. This sponge is essential to gaining control of the cleaning process. Aksan says, “You can’t just dump these bacteria into the water and hope they’ll take care of the pollutants. You won’t know if they’ll survive, you can’t recapture them, you can’t know if you reach the concentrations needed to efficiently remove the chemicals, and the water continuously dilutes the mix.”

Moreover, degrading the 1,500 types of contaminants that occur in hydrofracking water requires a combination of different types of bacteria. The complexity that occurs as contaminants interact with each other and the bacteria presents many bioengineering problems. The silica sponge or matrix can act as a sort of filter through which polluted water is passed. The bacteria are trapped within spaces in the sponge that are just large enough for the cells to move around without escaping. They break down the contaminants into safe byproducts.

Collaboration leads to discovery

Aksan and Wackett began their collaboration about two-and-a-half years ago. Over lunch one day, they discussed possible connections between their different areas of research. This led to the realization that Wackett’s expertise in biodegradation could be combined with Aksan’s in biostabilization.

Aksan explains, “We saw that we could make engineered systems using the spongy matrix and the bacteria. Our first application was herbicide remediation using genetically modified E. coli bacteria. It was extremely efficient at removing herbicides and pesticides from water over a long duration.” Next they developed the idea of applying the process to water polluted through hydrofracking.

Professor Michael Sadowsky of the BioTechnology Institute and College of Biological Science Dean Robert Elde are part of the project funded by National Science Foundation (NSF). Sadowsky’s role has been to investigate the bacteria found naturally within produced water obtained from hydrofracking. The bacterial populations are very diverse and could provide new bacteria and knowledge to aid the overall goals. Dean Elde’s role in the project is to help advance the commercialization of the research. The Dean has been an active promoter of biotechnology both within and outside the state of Minnesota.

Exploring commercial applications

Silica microspheres

In 2012 the project received grants from the NSF’s Partnerships for Innovation and the Minnesota Futures Award. The scientists working on the project believe there are many applications for the technology. Wackett notes, “Our NSF grant was for cleaning oil and gas contaminants, but we pointed out that this was a platform technology. Depending on what bacteria you use, you can treat contaminated water from many sources, including agricultural runoff, sand mining runoff, and so forth.”

Though the project has been successful in the lab, there is a huge amount of work to be done to scale it up for commercial application. The filtering system must be robust, must withstand temperature extremes from arctic chill to desert heat, must be economical, must be transportable, and must be tolerant of human error in application. Says Aksan, “This is an industrial problem. We are shooting for a post-lab system at larger scale to show that we can clean water in way that can be scaled up. We have a lot of people giving us advice, including university alumni who are getting us in touch with people in the field who can use this product once it is scaled.”

Wackett envisions other applications, such as an absorbent material filled with bacteria that could be spread over chemical spill sites. “Currently, we have to scrape up contaminated soil and put it in a hazardous waste landfill. If this substance could be used to absorb and degrade the pollutants, we could simply spread it on the spill.” After the material had consumed the toxins, it would break down naturally and become part of the soil.

A university team has assembled around various aspects of the project. Others involved include: Jeffrey Beileicki of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs; Lynda Ellis, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Steve Heilman, BioTechnology Institute; and Elizabeth Wattenberg, Environmental Health Sciences.

Learn more

Minnesota Futures Award
Lawrence Wackett, Wackett Lab
Alptekin Aksan, Biostabilization Laboratory
BioTechnology Institute

This is the first story in a series on bioremediation highlighting how U of M researchers apply biotechnology to address a wide range environmental challenges.

Post by Vincent Hyman, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, Minn.

Silica photos courtesy of Professors Wackett and Aksan

Autoclaving is the preferred way to decontaminate biohazardous waste and laboratory items at the U. When done correctly, autoclaving is highly effective, better for the environment and less expensive than “red-bagging” for removal by outside vendors.

Here are some helpful tips for autoclaving biohazardous materials on campus.

What can be autoclaved?

• Cultures and stocks of infectious agents
• Recombinant DNA (rDNA)
• Human and infectious animal tissue waste
• Cages and bedding of infected animals
• Contaminated labware, gloves, and other personal protective equipment (PPE)

What cannot be autoclaved?

• Do not autoclave items contaminated with volatile or corrosive chemicals or solvents

General rules for autoclaving

• Review the operator’s manual for instructions as different makes and models of autoclaves have different controls.
• Wear appropriate PPE while loading and unloading the autoclave, including heat resistant gloves, lab coat and eye protection. A face shield should be worn if a splash hazard is present
• Check the autoclave drain and clear it of debris
• Only use clear autoclave bags
• Use a heat resistant secondary containor to retain any leakage that may occur
• Do not overfill bags or autoclave chamber as this decreases its effectiveness
• Leave bags unsealed (at least one inch diameter) to allow for steam penetration
• Fill liquid containers only three-fourths full and loosen caps or use vented closures
• Do not autoclave liquid and dry material together
• Segregate autoclave loads (infectious waste, liquid or lab ware)
• Remove material from the autoclave in a timely manner
• Place autoclaved waste in appropriate waste collection bins

Removing items from the autoclave

• Allow materials to cool down for 15 to 20 minutes prior to their removal
• Always make sure the pressure has gone to zero before opening the door
• Use extreme caution when opening an autoclave door – steam may billow out

Quality control

Autoclave effectiveness must be tested monthly by placing a chemical or biological indicator/integrator in the center of the bag. Monthly quality control testing results must be recorded in an Autoclave Test Log.

For more information, see the DEHS Autoclaving Fact Sheet or call Department of Environmental Health and Safety at 612-626-6002.

Submitted by Cherie Lemer, training coordinator, Department of Environmental Health and Safety

The goal of Agriculture Awareness Day is to showcase the critical role American agriculture plays in maintaining a strong economy, especially as the world population continues to grow. The event features interactive booths that give people the chance to see dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, lambs and goats. Visitors also get the chance to learn more from a range of experts, including agricultural producers, associations, corporations and government agencies.

Click on the photos below to view a slideshow complete with interesting facts provided by the Agricultural Education Club.

Photos by Andria Waclawski

“During the past decade, social computing has helped elect presidents and topple governments and created the largest encyclopedia in history,” says Riedl. “My research aims to create new ways for groups to work and play together.”

Riedl, a U of M computer science professor who is best known as the inventor of recommender systems—the powerful Web-based tools that identify user preferences—conducts research in the broad field of social computing. He is interested in understanding how this new social reality impacts the fabric of our society and the nature of our relationships. He studies the ways in which computer-mediated interactions, and the user interfaces that support them, either help us to succeed or allow us to fail. His goal is to develop “intelligent” user interfaces that enhance the functioning of social computing systems in order to improve user prospects for success.

The power of personal preference

If you’ve ever heeded suggestions for a book on Amazon, created a channel on Pandora or clicked on a Google ad, you have John Riedl to thank. The recommender system technology first developed by Riedl is now so pervasive that it’s hard to imagine a world without the seemingly magic recommendations that influence so many of our online decisions and social interactions.

In 1996, Riedl took what he learned about recommender systems and founded the startup Net Perceptions. During the eight years that the company was in business (until 2004), it developed and licensed online shopping solutions for Amazon, 3M, Best Buy, Kmart and JC Penney. Heralded as one of the most successful startups in U of M history, Net Perceptions grew to 300 employees and won a World Technology Award during its short but highly influential life.

By the time Riedl launched Net Perceptions, the power of recommender systems to transform online commerce was clear. In 1999, the company and Riedl’s research program at the U were featured in an ABC Nightline episode. That same year, Malclom Gladwell wrote about Riedl’s discoveries in an article for the New Yorker:

“Riedl recognized early that people’s preferences cannot be determined accurately based solely on broad demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, income, and neighborhood.”

Gladwell’s article emphasized the way in which collaborative filtering allows people access to expert opinions based on personal taste. Unlike like resources such as Consumer Reports, which analyzes factual information about products to make a recommendation, collaborative filtering is based on personal taste, which is subtle, specific and highly suggestible.

“What [users] tell us about what [they] like is far more predictive of what [they] will like in the future than anything else we’ve tried,” Riedl says. “It seems almost dumb to say it, but you tell that to marketers sometimes and they look puzzled.”

Improving recommender systems

Outside of the U, the field of recommender systems has remained relatively stagnant for more than a decade. But Riedl is confident that even a marginal improvement to these systems could mean monumental advances for online services like Netflix, iTunes and Amazon.

Riedl conducts the majority of his research through his U of M lab, GroupLens, which explores recommender systems, online communities, mobile technology, digital libraries and mapping. The lab’s primary mechanism for testing new recommender system algorithms is MovieLens, an open-source software tool that introduces its 150,000-plus users to movies they may like or dislike. Users are grouped into “neighborhoods” of like-minded users based on their preferences.

Working off the 18 million movie ratings the site has collected, Riedl is fine tuning the accuracy of recommender algorithms. Data from MovieLens is used to understand both the computational and human-interface aspect of recommender system design.

Another GroupLens project, Cyclopath, is an interactive “geo-wiki” mapping tool that helps users find the best bike routes and contribute to shared information about bike paths and trails in the area. The site is currently being used in the Twin Cities to help plan the regional cycling system.

The Wikipedia landscape

Riedl is again taking a pioneering role in the advancement of these technologies, this time to support volunteer communities. As the principal investigator of a $2.4 million National Science Foundation grant, he is overseeing a large interdisciplinary effort to understand how online community interface design can be adjusted to better support community goals and volunteer development.

As part of the project, Riedl is carrying out some of the most extensive experimental research on enhancing Wikipedia, including work on helping to identify and nurture promising new contributors.

“Wikipedia’s brilliance and curse is that any user can edit any of the encyclopedia entries,” says Riedl. “Social computing is always a dance between technological and social processes.”

Riedl’s close study of user behavior on Wikipedia has revealed some interesting trends: Only nine percent of edits made on Wikipedia are done by women. Intentionally misleading edits—or vandalizing an entry—are infrequent but increasing steadily. Frequent editors’ content is more likely to be seen by Wikipedia visitors.

These findings are the tip of the iceberg. Riedl’s team is using datasets from Wikipedia to map new ways to reduce conflict and improve cooperation on the site. He’s borrowing techniques from the online encyclopedia to foster synergy in real-life teams like volunteer organizations, universities and companies.

The data paint a vivid picture of existing social science theories, and Riedl is studying them in richer detail than ever before.

Related stories:
Invention spotlight: recommender systems

Photos by Richard Anderson

Imagine looking at a live animal the same way you use Google Maps. Start with a bird’s-eye view and zoom in, past the hair, through the skin, down to an organ. Zoom again; now you see the vessels feeding the organ. Another zoom and you see the individual cells. Keep going, and you’re inside the cell, watching individual organelles at work, in real time.

That’s the vision for the University Imaging Centers, where, as program director Mark Sanders says, “the university sees the future.” Though the Google Maps of microscopes is not a reality yet, the Imaging Centers is approaching its vision.

A national center of excellence

The University of Minnesota’s Imaging Centers was recently acknowledged as a Nikon Center of Excellence–one of a select group of centers in the country. The designation recognizes the Imaging Centers for exemplary performance and as an integral component of fundamental research on imaging technology. Another plus: the Imaging Centers will evaluate and test cutting-edge imaging technology and expand its role as an international learning resource center.

Remarkably, as a business unit, the University Imaging Centers is just over three years old, consolidated from several imaging labs across the U. Since consolidation, the Imaging Centers has received three significant funding awards totaling more than $11 million, allowing it to improve facilities, add needed expertise and purchase new equipment.

The Imaging Centers’ state-of-the-art equipment allows it to work on an extraordinary variety of  projects and collaborate with researchers and institutes across the U. Because many of the digital files generated are so large (up to 20GB), the Imaging Centers partners with the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute for data storage.

Director Sanders notes, “We can use the same tools to solve all kinds of research problems. We work with animal and plant tissues, study crop pathogens, cancer mechanisms and treatments, everything from very basic research to business applications.”

For example, the Imaging Centers has helped anthropologists study the past by evaluating the material left on stone-age tools. “We could observe at the microscopic level the changes that took place in tools and look for signs of biological material on the tool,” Sanders explains. This information helps anthropologists determine the intended use of the tool, the materials being used by ancient humans and the foods being consumed.

Specialized service and training

Looking to the future, companies come to the Imaging Centers for a variety of purposes. Sometimes business research involves trade secrets or competitive concerns, so the Centers’ staff can train the business’s staff to use the imaging equipment, or the Centers can consult and collaborate with the business.

The Imaging Centers also hosts international guests who are training on and using the equipment. At a recent symposium, only two of twenty-four participants were from the university. Sanders notes, “The national and international outreach brings attention to the university as a center of excellence.”

Sanders is enthusiastic about the Imaging Centers and what it means to research. “Biology is the study of life. Before, we could only view tissue at the cellular level if it was no longer living. In the past 10 years, new technology has enabled us to view living tissues at increasingly refined levels—down to a hundred nanometers.”

By the numbers

The University of Minnesota Imaging Centers:

• Operates two facilities but will soon open a third for a total of 13,000 square feet
• Has over 450 active users, about 10 percent of whom are from outside the university
• Has about $7 million in hardware and 25 high-end instruments
• Has 8 staff, 4 of whom have PhDs
• Annually provides several symposia and many training sessions, training some 200 individuals
• Is guided by a 13-member advisory panel representing chemistry, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, plant pathology, cell biology and development, neuroscience, cardio-cancer and more

Visit the University Imaging Centers to learn more.

Post by Vincent Hyman, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, Minn.; photography by Andria Waclawski