Purpose of Minority Serving Institute (MSI) Partnership is to build inter-jurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in scientific focus areas consistent with the NSF and EPSCoR priorities (NSF 21-078 – https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21078/nsf21078.jsp?org=NSF).
Under this program, the following two supplemental fundings for MSI partnerships and a fellowship (Navdeep Gill, UAF) were awarded to the active NSF- EPSCoR RII Track-2 FEC: Systems Genetics Studies on Rice Genomes for Analysis of Grain Yield and Quality Under Heat Stress (NSF Award # 1826836).
Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University (AAMU)
AAMU in collaboration with the current RII Track-2 project will be involved in furthering the current project through multi-omics data integration to model genotype to phenotype predictions. The following faculty at AAMU are part of this effort
Dr. Tyesha Farmer: Dr. Farmer is an early career faculty in genetics at AAMU and has expertise in developing strategies for genetic analysis that would help for association of phenomics, genomics, and transcriptomic data for overall integration.
Dr. Ed Pearson: Dr. Pearson is an early career faculty and has expertise in software engineering and building networks. He will help constructing the network for dissecting the biological pathways contributing to heat stress tolerance in rice using data integration strategies.
Dr. Venkata Atluri: Dr. Atluri is an Associate Professor in the department of computer science with experience in leading interdisciplinary machine learning and bioinformatics projects. He will contribute towards developing new models for data integration using computer science skills.
As a part of this collaboration, STEM participation enrichment will be encouraged in the under represented minority populations and workshops will be conducted for introductory bioinformatics and large scale data analysis.
University Of Arkansas, Pine Bluff (UAPB)
UAPB is involved in the current RII Track-2 project through a supplemental grant. The project involves faculty from Department of Agriculture at UAPB, Drs. Sathish Ponniah, Emmanuel Asiamah, and Grace Ramena. UAPB faculty and students will actively participate in the study on unraveling genetic/biochemical pathways associated with heat-induced chalkiness. Additionally, UAPB will conduct outreach through their 4H program to engage primarily underrepresented minority in STEM activities.