By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

URBANA, Ill. — Scientists have said it is just a matter of time before the agriculture industry turns out some of its biggest production developments using extremely small technology.

Now the University of Illinois, along with the National Science Foundation and a group of 15 companies and organizations, likely will help speed those developments with the startup of the country’s first nanotechnology center based at one school.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of material measuring between 1-100 nanometers to create new materials and products. (For perspective, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter; one human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.)

The eventual applications of nanotechnology on the ag industry will change production from the ground up, said Jozef Kokini, an associate dean of research in UoI’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
“Nanotechnology has already found applications in pharmaceutical delivery systems and building better IT (information technology) chips. Now we’re bringing agriculture into the arena,” said Kokini, who served as one of the USDA’s advisers on nanotechnology.

“Corn growers will be able to encapsulate nutrients in nanoparticles. The particles can be tagged with molecules that attach to the root system and receive signals from the plant to release nitrogen as it is needed in the plant’s life-span. So, instead of applying nitrogen and phosphorus in a brute-force sort of way … more of the nitrogen added to the soil is released when the plant needs it, avoiding over-fertilizing and reducing the cost of the applications, while increasing the effectiveness of the nutrients.”

The UoI’s new collaboration will be called the Center for Agricultural, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, with each company or organization contributing $25,000 annually and the National Science Foundation adding $125,000.

The university’s ag and engineering colleges will collaborate on proposals for research projects, with representatives from each company serving on an oversight board that selects projects for funding.

“Clearly scientific merit will be part of the selection process as well as the relevance of the project,” Kokini said.

The entities already committed to participating include Advanced Diamond Technology; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Mayo Clinic; Tate & Lyle; Abbott; Fox Development Co.; A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics; Intel; SRU Biosystems; U.S. Army TATRC; Dow AgroSciences; Elanco Animal Health; Illinois Soybean Assoc.; Embrapa; and NanoSi.

Brian Cunningham, from UoI’s College of Engineering, will serve as the center’s director while the ag college’s Irfan Ahmad is its co-principal investigator. Robert Hauser, the school’s ag dean, called the setup a “a natural fit for our institution because of our prominence in both agriculture and engineering.
“The collaboration … has gotten us off to a great start, and I believe that this partnership will create a leading research program in many areas of nanotechnology.”

Assistant professor Kaustubh Bhalerao is eager to begin. “We have current projects using nanotechnology to develop the next generation of agricultural chemicals,” he said. “We’ve also been working in the area of understanding the environmental impact of nanotechnology, which will be important in determining judicious use in the future.”

Kokini noted that nanotechnology can be used in animal digestion for livestock, and how nanosensors might be used in a corn or soybean field, among other examples.

“Microfluidic devices are already being used to locate a single cancer cell in humans. With a ‘lab on a chip,’ you can take the DNA and RNA out of that cell and diagnose cancer. In agricultural research, we want to be able to isolate the RNA and DNA from a cell of a leaf,” he explained.

“Using a grid of micro-fluidity devices in a field, farmers will be able to monitor the health of the plants and make corrections during the plants’ development. The key will be to make it producible and affordable.”