Biotechnology
Biotechnology can be as simple as developing plant hybrids and as complex as genetic engineering. A combination of “biology” and “technology,” biotechnology uses living systems and organisms to create or modify products or processes. Commonly understood examples include the development of plant-based medicines and the selective breeding of plants or animals for specific traits. Less understood types of biotechnology include genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and mapping genomes. Biotechnology is used to treat waste, create biodegradable plastics, produce biofuel, develop pharmaceutical products, and more.
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Veterinarians at the Mississippi State University Veterinary Specialty Center (VSC) are using 3-D printer technology to make models of spinal and skull injuries that help them develop better treatments for their animal patients.
The VSC purchased a Lutzbot Taz 4 3-D printer last year, and it is now one of the center’s most valuable pieces of equipment. Three-dimensional models from the printer allow specialists and practicing veterinarians to view internal trauma without the use of invasive procedures.
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University scientists are working to find out why some pregnancies are successful and others are not.
Jean Feugang, a research assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, is studying the reproductive stage that remains one of the most mysterious -- the time just before conception.
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Their classmates may be taking the summer off, but two undergraduate students at Mississippi State University are spending long hours in a laboratory conducting studies that would challenge seasoned researchers.
Their supervisor, Erdogan Memili, is not surprised. He nominated Alexis Parisi and Kate Thompson for National Science Foundation research programs for elite undergraduates.
MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University researchers successfully promoted egg laying in threatened Boreal toads when they moved the amphibians out of the refrigerator and into the wine chiller.
Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researchers at MSU are working with a group of 52 threatened Boreal toads native to the Colorado Rockies. The toads are housed in a special lab in the MSU Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology.
MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University has joined the ranks of conservationists trying to increase the population of one of the most critically endangered species living in North America.
Mississippi gopher frogs are native to south Mississippi, and for a time, the only known colony living and breeding in the wild was living in one Harrison County pond. They have since been found living near three other ponds in the DeSoto National Forest, bringing the total known wild population to an estimated 100-200 gopher frogs.