News

Michigan State University researcher Acer VanWallendael, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Plant Biology, is helping highlight the very real and diverse ways microscopic fungi affect crops. His team’s recent paper in the journal PLOS Biology explores the complex relationships fungi have with switchgrass, a promising biofuel crop.

March 15, 2023

How biofuel crops harness fungal defenders

Tags:

KBS, biofuel, fungal infection, plant biology, switchgrass

In a world where switchgrass could cut our fossil fuel dependency, can communities of fungi help grow more potent plants? Michigan State University researcher Acer VanWallendael, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Plant Biology, is helping highlight the very real and diverse ways microscopic fungi affect crops. His team’s recent paper in the journal PLOS Biology explores the complex relationships fungi have with switchgrass, a promising biofuel crop.

Illustration of invasive fungal infection to lungs.

February 12, 2023

MSU chemist receives $1.9 million NIH grant for antifungal research.

Tags:

NIH grant, antifungal therapeutics, chemistry, fungal infection, nuclear magnetic resonance, ssNMR

Michigan State University chemist Tuo Wang was recently awarded a 4-year, $1.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant. The funds will support the development of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) technology that allows enhanced understanding of the nanoscale structure of the fungal cell wall to promote development of antifungal therapeutics.