LSU’s flagship campus has surpassed $600 million in annual research activity, an 11% growth over the previous year. Chancellor Jim Dalton says the research is happening across the board.
“Think about research dollars in the STEM field: That can be engineering, biomedical sciences. We do a lot in agriculture, as I mentioned, especially in energy. We’re growing greatly,” Dalton said.
Dalton says there’s exciting research underway on fighting back against invasive species, clinical trials involving cancer research and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center is on the forefront of the development of the GLP-1 Weight loss drug.
He says the LSU AgCenter has been heavily involved in breeding programs for the best rice, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes. He says the LSU AgCenter is leading the regional research effort to fight back against invasive species that cause $120 billion in damage to the U.S. each year.
“Again, when you’ve got the faculty expertise, it puts us in a position to be successful for grants and, more importantly, to fight these invasive species; to learn about them, to understand what makes them tick,” Dalton noted.
Dalton says LSU is also involved in cutting-edge clinical trials that help improve the care and outcomes of cancer patients. He says Pennington Biomedical researchers in Baton Rouge have helped develop the GLP-1 weigh loss drug currently on the market to fight obesity and diabetes.
“And when you’ve got that type of expertise on the faculty, that attracts pharmaceutical partners; and it makes us more competitive for federal grants and other private grants and things like that to keep studying that,” Dalton explained.
LSU says the research generates an estimated $1.65 billion in economic impact.
Comments