Agilent Technologies and FAPESP Announce Support for Life Science Research Projects

Agilent Technologies Inc. and FAPESP, the São Paulo Research Foundation, have announced the selection of two jointly funded research projects. FAPESP, the principal funding agency for academic research in the State of São Paulo, and Agilent are working together through the Partnership for Technological Innovation to further multinational collaboration and promote academic research in São Paulo.

The two projects, approved following a joint call for submissions, will provide financial support to advance instrumentation and measurement techniques related to metabolomics in plant microbiology, mass spectrometry and bioenergy. Launched in October 2011, the call for submissions aims to identify, select and support world-class research projects to create knowledge and communicate results in the international scientific community. This will be done through close technical collaboration between leading faculty members in the State of São Paulo and Agilent researchers.

One of the approved projects will involve the systematic study of the metabolites resulting from cellular processes under specific environmental and physiological conditions, specifically a study of the physiological response of Eucalyptus in the presence of high CO2 concentrations and temperature variations.

The second study will identify volatile compounds produced by Brazilian cyanobacteria and explore their effects on other organisms in the ecosystem.

“Agilent’s partnership with FAPESP underscores our commitment to multinational research and to Brazil, a strategic growth area for us,” said Mike McMullen, president of Agilent’s Chemical Analysis Group. “We look forward to our collaboration with leading researchers at the University of São Paulo and State University of Campinas and the resulting advances in fundamental understanding of important plants and microbes indigenous to Brazil.”

The ultimate goal of these and any future projects is to create new scientific knowledge of interest to the wider academic community. Approved projects will run for up to 36 months.