Virginia Tech researcher receives $1.8 million to study "Arabidopsis" genome

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) researcher Vladimir Shulaev has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the collaborative "Arabidopsis" 2010" research project. Through such projects, the NSF hopes to determine the function of 25,000 genes in "Arabidopsis thaliana" by the year 2010. The research conducted at VBI will examine parts of the "Arabidopsis" genome that are involved in essential functions of the plant, leading to improvements in crop yield and nutritional value.