| Abstract. As the 21st century
unfolds, discovery in the life sciences is accelerating
at an unprecedented rate. Simultaneously, fiscal
constraints at the state and national levels require
that research universities, like Colorado State
University (CSU), reexamine their "portfolios"
with an eye to identifying critical scientific gaps
in order to establish 21st century research niches.
Towards this end, faculty, representing at least
11 departments and 4 colleges at CSU, propose that
agriculture sciences focused on functional foods
and metabolic disease research be merged into an
interdisciplinary research effort. The technology
that will drive this effort is mass spectrometry-based
Metabolomics, defined as the global study and identification
of metabolites in biologic samples. This emerging
technology, which is not currently available at
CSU, has the capacity to provide comprehensive insight
into the metabolic state of an organism by detecting
the full suite of metabolites that are expressed.
Our objectives are to establish 1) a Metabolomics
research facility including equipment, supplies
and personnel, and 2) an interdisciplinary research
consortium in agriculture and metabolic diseases,
that capitalizes on the power of this technology
through a pilot research grant program, annual research
meeting and partnerships with industry and the University
of Colorado Health Sciences Center. This Consortium
will undertake a focused, interdisciplinary research
effort that will seek to identify metabolites 1)
in humans that serve as biomarkers for or causes
of metabolic diseases and 2) in foods from plants
and animals that help prevent the development, delay
the onset or reduce the severity of metabolic diseases.
This comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach will
lead to new and increased external research grants,
an externally funded interdisciplinary graduate
training program, and a Center for Interdisciplinary
Studies in Agriculture and Metabolic Diseases. |
