International Programs

International initiatives at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences are coordinated by Biotech Center member Dr. Lily Young, who was appointed Dean of International Programs by SEBS Dean Robert Goodman in September 2008. Dr. Young is undertaking a comprehensive survey of international programs at SEBS, expanding the variety of study abroad programs geared to the interests of SEBS students, and bringing more international students to SEBS to complete their studies. She is also working with faculty to develop new international relationships and collaborations that support and build on the SEBS mission. Dr. Young is assisted by the SEBS International Programs Committee, whose members include Biotech faculty Michael Lawton, Ilya Raskin, and Gerben Zylstra. Additional members are Ramu Govindasamy (DAFRE), Bingru Huang (Plant Biology and Pathology), and Mark Robson (Entomology).

At the Biotech Center, faculty collaborate actively with many institutions and scientists around the world through their research projects, professional societies, and student exchanges. Many international faculty, students, and visiting scientists enrich the cultural diversity of the Center and bring their talents to bear on global problems. There are many opportunities at all levels to participate in international projects and to work in the laboratories of collaborating faculty abroad. Some of the major programs are described below, but there are many more collaborative efforts organized by individual faculty.

ICBG: Building New Pharmaceutical Capabilities in Central Asia

The International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) Program addresses the issues of drug discovery, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable economic growth with funding from NIH, NSF, and USDA. The Central Asia ICBG program facilitates the development of the natural product-based pharmaceutical capabilities in Central Asia while encouraging biodiversity conservation and exploration, building research and economic capacity, developing ecologically-sustainable harvesting means and enhancing training and international cooperation. The Rutgers-based program, underway since 2004, is led by Dr. Ilya Raskin and involves faculty from Rutgers, the University of Illinois, North Carolina State University, and institutions in three Central Asian countries.

Global Institute for BioExploration

The Global Institute for BioExploration (GIBEX) is a global research and development network that promotes ethical, natural product-based pharmacological bioexploration to benefit human health and the environment in developing countries. GIBEX does not remove any natural resources from partnering countries. Instead, it trains and equips local scientists and students with innovative, cost-effective, and portable drug-discovery tools and technologies that can be directly deployed into forests, savannas, deserts and marshes. In addition to adapting the process of drug discovery and commercialization to the needs of partnering countries, GIBEX promotes sustainable infrastructure and capacity improvements, local intellectual property ownership, conservation, educational opportunities, and entrepreneurship. Led by Dr. Ilya Raskin, GIBEX was established by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. GIBEX works with partners globally who are the backbone of the operational successes of the organization around the world. They include GIBEX-Africa, the largest component of GIBEX partnering with 10 universities in 9 African countries, and GIBEX-Americas with 3 South American countries. Current projects under the GIBEX umbrella include:

Pharmaceutical Bioexploration in Tanzania

GIBEX is partnering with the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to build sustainable infrastructure for natural product-based pharmaceutical discovery, development, and manufacturing, with funding from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. After training in the use of the Screens-to-Nature technology, plant collecting trips were made to some of the "hotspots" of biodiversity in Tanzania. A workshop was held in June 2008 on "African Natural Products and Health: From Research to Commercialization" with experts from a variety of scientific, legal, and business areas. After the completion of the initial collecting phase, another workshop will be held in mid-2009 to develop industry partnerships and finalize strategies to make the GIBEX-Tanzania program fully self-sustaining within three years.

Chilean Botanical Research Consortium

An agreement was recently signed to fund a Chilean research consortium that will assist in research and development of two promising botanical leads from plants endemic to Chile. The targets are maqui berries, whose anthocyanin compounds may be effective in the treatment of Type II diabetes; and lucuma fruit, whose flesh has wound healing properties. Work is underway in Dr. Raskin's lab and with the collaboration of North Carolina State University to isolate and structurally characterize the bioactive compounds and validate the therapeutic effects. Additional goals are to develop laboratory-scale extraction processes and biochemical standardization methods. If these efforts are successful, the consortium may expand its focus to other promising medicinal plants from Chile.

U.S./South Africa Anti-Malarial Drug Consortium

A new program got underway in November 2008 to evaluate plants with anti-malarial properties, following up on a major anti-malarial screening effort undertaken during World War II by Merck and the New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Raskin is collaborating with partners from GIBEX-South Africa at the University of Capetown and North Carolina State University. The US/African team will use in vitro and in vivo assays to isolate and characterize novel compounds, with the goal of identifying 3-5 promising leads with the potential to become future anti-malarial drugs. Support for this program comes from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a Swiss non-profit public-private partnership with the mission of discovering, developing, and delivering drugs to treat poor populations infected with malaria in endemic countries. MMV members include the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other major donors.

Exchange Programs with Brazil

These programs build on a long-term collaboration between the University of Sao Paulo, Rutgers University, and also include Ohio State University as a third partner. The University of Sao Paulo (USP) has a Memorandum of Understanding with both Rutgers University and Ohio State University supporting these exchange activities.

Undergraduate Programs

Based on informal exchanges dating to the 1970s, Rutgers University and the University of Sao Paulo (USP) began an undergraduate exchange program in 1995/1996, and Ohio State University joined the collaboration in 2001. In November of each year, Ohio State and Rutgers send a delegation of undergraduate students to participate in the USP Research Symposium, which hosts over 4,000 student presenters every year. In April, USP sends a delegation of students to participate in undergraduate research forums at Ohio State and Rutgers, which collectively include 500-600 undergraduate scholars from various honors programs. In 2006, a new four-year undergraduate exchange program was funded in the U.S. by the Department of Education. These undergraduate programs are expected to provide a pipeline into the Tripartite Graduate Program.

The U.S.-Brazil undergraduate biotechnology student exchange program funded by the Department of Education and led by Dr. Gerben Zylstra brings together four internationally recognized institutions of higher education in the U.S. and Brazil to develop an educational partnership in the area of biotechnology, with a specific focus on agricultural and microbial biotechnologies. The participating Universities are Rutgers University, Ohio State University, University of Sao Paulo at Piracicaba, and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. The U.S. undergraduate experience at the Brazilian participating institutions is characterized by a heavy emphasis on practical experience, whether in the lab, field, research station, or industrial setting. This proposal thus extends the experiential nature of the existing Rutgers biotechnology training programs to include problems that transcend national borders. Students emerging from this program will understand how international teams of scientists can work together to solve research problems. U.S. students will be immersed in Brazilian culture through course work in the U.S. as well as cultural activities in Brazil before and during the exchange semester. The long-term goal is to develop extensive education and research ties between the partner institutions. The Brazilian government agency Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior is funding a reciprocal exchange program to send Brazilian undergraduate students to Rutgers University to study biotechnology at SEBS. Rutgers undergraduate students interested in studying in Brazil for a semester under this program should contact Dr. Zylstra (zylstra@sebs.rutgers.edu) for more information.

Tripartite Graduate Program

A tripartite Ph.D. graduate program was initiated in 2007 in Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, and is expected to expand and encompass additional disciplines in the future. The program is designed to provide adjunct faculty status for faculty members on one another's graduate programs and joint mentoring of graduate students. The graduate students participating in the program have the opportunity to conduct research at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Rutgers, and Ohio State University, and can qualify for a Ph.D. degree from two of the three partner institutions. Students enrolled in the program would be expected to demonstrate language proficiency in both English and Portuguese. Interested students should contact Dr. Michael Lawton (lawton@sebs.rutgers.edu) for more information.

Tripartite Biennial Research Workshops

Every two years, workshops have been organized by the tripartite universities to exchange ideas and stimulate collaborative research projects. Hosted in rotation by each institution, the events provide opportunities for faculty and students to visit their collaborators' labs and absorb new ideas and approaches. Initially the meetings focused on biotechnology related to agriculture and the environment. This was expanded in April 2007 at the Fifth Tripartite Workshop on Biotechnology and BioEnergy hosted by Rutgers. The three-day event demonstrated ten years of continuity, commitment and growth of both the research and educational exchange programs.

Microbiology of Arctic Tundra Soils in Finland

Dr. Max Häggblom is leading a project studying the microbial communities active in Arctic tundra soils. The study is funded by the Academy of Finland and is a collaboration between the Finnish Forest Research Institute, the University of Jyväskylä and Rutgers University. The focus of the study is to examine the role of different bacterial groups in carbon and nitrogen cycling in Arctic soil environments in northern Finland and assess the selection mechanisms promoting the dominance of key species in changing temperature regimes. Climate fluctuations in the Arctic are expected have a major impact on the microbial community that is active at different temperatures and this will greatly affect carbon and nitrogen turnover in Arctic soil environments. Field and laboratory experiments are combined to elucidate the metabolic fingerprints of the dominant bacterial species and identify the key organisms involved in carbon and nitrogen cycling. The research is advancing our knowledge of the relationship between microbial community composition and activity and environmental conditions in Arctic soil environments. This study will also have broader impact by providing a basis for predicting the effect of long-term temperature changes and global warming on microbial activity in Arctic soils.

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