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Two new MSU-developed technologies available for licensing

A naturally occurring organism that protects sugarbeets from disease and a manual for studying clumps of bacteria called biofilms are two new technologies developed at Montana State University-Bozeman.

University News

Both technologies are available for companies to license. The deadline for submitting proposals to the MSU Technology Transfer Office is Jan. 31.

The first technology–called BAC J–is a bacterium from the bacillus family that, when sprayed on sugarbeets, encourages the plant to switch on natural disease control mechanisms. During several years of field testing, the bacterium protected sugarbeets from Cercospora leaf spot at levels near or equal to those of commercial fungicides, said inventor Barry Jacobsen, a plant pathology professor at MSU-Bozeman.

An advantage of BAC-J, however, is its effectiveness against strains of Cercospora that are resistant to commercial fungicides, Jacobsen said. Montana sugarbeet producers spend nearly $15 million each year on such fungicides.

Another advantage is the way the bacterium stimulates the plant’s own disease fighters much like a vaccine does in humans, said Jacobsen. That mechanism could mean greater resistance to a variety of plant diseases. The non-chemical origins of the agent might also make it a candidate for use on organic farms.

Jacobsen said he discovered the bacterium several years ago while studying an outbreak of Cercospora disease in sugarbeets in eastern Montana. He isolated hundreds of organisms from plants that managed to stay healthy during the epidemic. Bacillus mycoides, or BAC-J, proved the most effective in years of lab, greenhouse and field experiments.

Montana farmers grow about 60,000 acres of sugarbeets that are processed at plants in Billings and Sidney.

The second new MSU technology is a collection of research methods developed by the university’s Center for Biofilm Engineering.

Biofilms are sticky groups of bacteria that can cause chronic infections in humans. They create trouble in industrial settings, too, by clogging oil pipelines or corroding municipal water systems. In some instances the biofilms are helpful, such as the ones harnessed to stop the spread of hazardous chemicals in soils.

The Biofilm Protocol Manual developed at MSU would be useful to researchers in industry, government labs or testing facilities, said CBE research engineer Darla Goeres. Specifically, the manual would save a researcher from hunting through volumes of scientific literature in order to find current biofilm research methods.

The biofilm center at MSU is one of just a handful of places in the world that specialize in the slimy bacteria now thought to be the culprit in a number of human diseases.
For more information on the technologies or to submit a proposal, contact the MSU Technology Transfer Office, 900 Technology Blvd., Ste A, Bozeman, MT 59718-4011; (406) 994-7868.

To date, MSU has licensed about 40 technologies developed on the Bozeman campus. More than half have been licensed to Montana companies.

Contact: Annette Trinity-Stevens, (406) 994-5607 or [email protected]

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=681

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