Folic acid is consumed by millions and frequently prescribed at high doses to patients with blood disorders or cancer. However, excess folic acid supplementation has been associated with increased DNA damage, raising concerns over the safety of high-dose intake.
RIO Moonshot Seed Grants
The CALS Research and Innovation Office (RIO) and the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) are pleased to fund the CALS Moonshot Seed Grant Program. Recipients of the seed grants are advancing the frontiers of science, technology and community wellbeing, and leverage innovative theories and cutting-edge technologies to tackle critical challenges and create transformative impacts in three strategic areas:
- AI in Agriculture, Food Security, Sustainability, Health, and Life Sciences
- Food is Medicine
- Regenerative Agriculture and Science
New York Soil Health Challenge
We are piloting the New York Soil Carbon Challenge, a participatory soil health monitoring and interpretation framework that combines scientific rigor with peer learning and social norm influences.
Rethinking Whole-Produce Processing: Advanced Nano-Milling for Nutrient-Dense Smoothies
Traditional produce processing treats structural plant components—skins, seeds, and fibrous cores—as low-value waste, stripping essential dietary fibers and polyphenols from final food products.
A probiotic that degrades imidazole propionate, a proinflammatory histidine metabolite common to numerous chronic diseases
Imidazole propionate (ImP), a gut microbiota-derived metabolite of histidine, has emerged as a key player in multiple chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes (T2D) obesity and hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease and neurodegenerative diseases such as...
Establishing a Transient Expression System for Key Bioactive Compounds in N. benthamiana Through Virus Vectors
The aim of this project is to provide proof of concept for production of crocin metabolites in our transient expression system using N. benthamiana plants.
Deploying Artificial Intelligence to Develop Precision Soil Health Assessments for Perennial Fruit Crops
Healthy vineyard and orchard soils are needed to sustain the $7.2 billion apple and grape industries in NYS.
Adapting RNA-guided Transposition Systems for Genome Editing in Eukaryotes
Current CRISPR-based gene therapies have demonstrated gene therapy as a viable tool for curing previously uncurable genetic diseases, however, current technologies are limited in the size of the edits they can make, low efficiency editing in certain cell types, and unintended off-target mutations.