Agronomy Prominent Among AgSEED Recipients for 2024

The Agricultural Science and Extension for Economic Development program, or AgSEED, is the Purdue University College of Agriculture’s internal competitive grants system focused on advancing Indiana’s leadership in plant and animal agriculture and rural development. The grants are funded with money awarded​d to Purdue Agriculture by the Indiana Legislature in the Crossroads program. Crossroads is part of Indiana’s commitment to furthering agriculture and rural development. Faculty and staff in the colleges of Agriculture, Health and Human Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine are eligible to apply for grants to fund basic research or applied research/Extension.

This year, three faculty from the Department of Agronomy were chosen as recipients of AgSEED funding. They included Dr. Shaun Casteel, Dr. Sidd Paul, and Dr. Cankui Zhang. These awards are intended to serve as seed money to help researchers lay firm research foundations that can be built upon.​​ You can find the titles for each of their research projects below, along with all of the other 2024 recipients.

Annabel Biruete, NUTR

The effects of dietary fiber on the gut microbiome and indole derivatives in chronic kidney disease

Shaun Casteel, AGRY

Can Sulfur Control Sudden Death Syndrome of Soybeans?

John Couture, ENTM/FNR

Assessing genetic variation in black walnut physiological responses to drought stress for climate resilient tree breeding

Marxa Figueiredo, VET MED

Investigating anti-microbial compounds for treating multidrug resistant infections and enhancing endogenous tissue repair

Ann Kirchmaier, BCHM

Fumarase Interactions & Chromosome Organization

Christian Krupke, ENTM

Bringing soil health to life with fireflies: using Indiana's state insect to develop awareness of key measures of soil health and reslience in agricultural systems

James Markworth, ANSC

Implications of Skeletal Muscle mobilization in early lactation dairy cattle on myofiber remodeling

Gerarld Miller, BPP

Innovative Plant Pathogen Surveillance: Continuous Groundwater Monitoring in Plant Production Systems

Kameron Moding, HDFS

Identifying Opportunities to Culturally Adapt Nutrition Education Programs for Latino Children and Adults in Rural Indiana

Christopher Oakley, BPP

Understanding the regulation and costs of cold acclimation in poplar, a model for the study of potential climate resilience in forest trees

Siddhartho Shekhar Paul, AGRY

Case study on Purdue ACRE farm: Geospatial modeling to understand the interactions between soil carbon credits and crop yield variability

Deepti Pillai, VET MED

Accelerating and Improving Antibiotic Selection for Farm Animal Treatment: A Novel Approach

Aaron Smith, ENTM

Revision and identification of Pantrini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) darkling beetles using phylogenomics and machine-learning

Weicang Wang, FS

Unveilling the Impact of Fat Constituents in Deli Meats on Listeriosis: Pioneering Strategies for Advancing Food Safety and Disease Prevention

Patricia Wolf, NUTR

Understanding associations between rural food environments and microbial cysteine metabloism as risk factors for early onset colorectal cancer

Cankui Zhang, AGRY

Increase sucrose export of soybean leaves to overcome photosynthetic limitations under high CO2

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