An unprecedented partnership of academic and industry organizations at the North Carolina Research Campus has launched a groundbreaking $1.5 million program to engage college students from across the state in a first-of-its-kind education and research endeavor.

Called the Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P2EP), the program teams university scientists, industry leaders and college students, who together will explore plant pathways to answer why and how plants, like fruits and vegetables, benefit human health. P2EP aims to foster scientific discoveries, provide educational opportunities and create a vast knowledge base of plant pathways research.

Read more | http://tinyurl.com/lnr247s

Dr. Mike Burchell & engineers in the CALS Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering are designing a canal complex intersecting with farmland in Hyde County. Pumps & weirs will redirect rain stormwater into a created wetland, protecting the Albemarle & Pamlico Sounds of North Carolina. Read more | http://tinyurl.com/kgb7ucg

Hepatitis A outbreak: How frozen berry, pomegranate mix could sicken 97 | Food safety experts in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State University -- Dr. Ben Chapman & Dr. Lee Ann Jaykus -- explain how water, supply chain, and global trade can affect food safety. Read more | http://tinyurl.com/m2zqr5s

CALS Food scientist, Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, helped develop method to speed response to foodborne illnesses \ Read more | http://tinyurl.com/kapf3e9

CALS Food scientist, Dr. John Sheppard launched the CALS' brewery, which created 3 of 4 top quaffs in 2012 NC Brewer's Cup. Read more | www.technicianonl... | AND we're also working on hops! | http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/specialty_crops/

Dr. Danesha Seth Carley, Director of Sustainability Development for the Collete of Agriculture & Life Sciences at North Carolina State University,  talks small solutions, with big impact. Read more | http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/perspectives/cals-sustainability-office-hosts-leadership-triangle-program/

Extension researchers in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciencees at North Carolina State University helped research & develop local freshwater prawn production for a North Carolina aquaculture facility. Read more | http://www.jdnews.com/news/business/aquaculture-crop-grown-here-headed-to-california-clients-1.145352

Peach Genome Offers Insights Into Breeding Strategies for Biofuels Crops: Dr. Bryon Sosinski of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State University is part of the research team which has sequenced Prunus persica, a close relative of potential biofuel crops, poplar and willow. The new sequence data is expected to be helpful in breeding such crops. Read more | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130324152303.htm

NC State University has gained US Army support to create functional food ingredients from fruits & vegetables that will be used to develop healthier, more portable combat rations. Researchers with CALS' Plants for Human Health Institute (PHHI), at the NC Research Campus, in Kannapolis, are infusing protein powders & flours, the kinds found at health & nutrition stores, with health-promoting compounds from greens kale & muscadine grapes. Read more | http://plantsforhumanhealth.ncsu.edu/?p=8971

CALS researchers Dr. Coby Schal, Dr. Jules Silverman & Dr. Ayako Wada-Katsumata report in the prestigious journal, Science, that roaches can change their taste chemistry, making usually appealing sweet food become bitter. So they avoid baits containing glucose. Result: Failed cockroach control!  Now we know why, and how they do it. The innovative research also has implications for control of other insects, such as mosquitoes. Read more & watch the little buggers flee jelly | http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/science/a-bitter-sweet-shift-in-cockroach-defenses.html

Dr. Slavko Komarnytsky, Asst. Prof. of Pharmacogenomics at the Plants for Human Health Institute searches for plant-derived compounds from Thunder God Vine, blueberries and blueberries to address these diseases, along with PHHI collaborators, such as Dr. Mary Ann Lila and Dr. Allan Brown. Read more: http://www.ncresearchcampus.net/partners-and-research/latest-research/tracking-parallel-pathways-of-obesity-diabetes-and-inflammation

Dr. Dennis Werner, JC Raulston Distinguished Professor of Horticultural Science, has won the American Horticultural Society’s Luther Burbank Award. Given in odd years, the award recognizes extraordinary achievement in plant breeding. It is named for legendary plant breeder Luther Burbank & is one of the society’s Great American Gardener awards. (Dr. Werner is pictured with the weeping redbud, Ruby Falls, he developed. |  http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/media-releases/werner-honored-with-burbank-award/

Only one other university course is Audubon cerfified; and there are only 92 other Signature certified sanctuaries. The designation is awarded for environmental sustainability.

Dr. Danesha Seth Carley, Dr. Charles Peacock, & Dr. Tom Rufty Fostered the Certification Effort.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/lf5xmna

Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie's team at the Plants for Human Health Institute is investigating plant-based compounds as produce washes, for food safety & longer shelf life, with acceptability for organic food labeling. Read more | http://tinyurl.com/oyj4te5

Mapping the great indoors: Dr. Rob Dunn's Your Wild Life Project is among research efforts to catalog, understand the microbiology of the human built environment discussed in this New York Times article. Dr. Dunn is a faculty member in the Collete of Agriculture & Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. | Read more | http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/science/getting-to-know-our-microbial-roommates.html? | Visit the web site for the Your Wild Life Project | http://www.yourwildlife.org/

Agriculture brings science & math to life for NC high school students: Strawberry breeder, Dr. Jeremy Pattison at the Plants for Human Health Institute, part of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State University, helps create a real-world research experience for Rowan County high school students Watch the video here: http://www.producenews.com/index.php/90-videos/10333-agriculture-brings-science-and-math-to-life-for-north-carolina-high-school-students

NCSU College of Agriculture & Life Sciences students will be able to learn on the latest equipment thanks to the generosity of a farm equipment manufacturer and a farm machinery dealer. AGCO, a farm machinery designer, manufacturer and distributer, has provided the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory with a new Massey Ferguson tractor through a no-cost lease agreement, said Curtis Powell, field lab superintendent. The Massey Ferguson 7620 tractor was provided by C&R Implement Company in Williamston.

The tractor will be used for classes and demonstrations and normal work around the field lab, which is just south of the Raleigh city limits on Lake Wheeler Road.

Read more ... http://tinyurl.com/lmsfmos

Researchers trying to identify, catalog every species in Moore County preserve | Entomologist, Dr. Clyde Sorenson, of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State University took several of his students to scout for insects in the 24-hour Weymouth Woods bio-blitz last weekend. Read more about their adventure in this special wildlife refuge here | http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2013/05/27/1256089

Dirty dogs: Home with pooches loaded with bacteria: Dr. Holly Menninger & researchers of CALS' Your Wild Life Team at NC State University find that dog owners and their homes carry bacteria from their pets. But that may not be a bad thing for human health. Read more | http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/22/18427037-dirty-dogs-homes-with-pooches-loaded-with-bacteria