Sandia National Laboratories And Monsanto Company Announce Cooperative Research Agreement

11-08-2006: Sandia National Laboratories and Monsanto Company announced a three-year research collaboration that is expected to play a role in both organizations' interests in biology and bioenergy. The arrangement is aimed at aligning Sandia's capabilities in bioanalytical imaging and analysis with Monsanto's research in developing new seed-based products for farmers, including corn products that may be able to produce more ethanol per bushel. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The research, which falls under a five-year "umbrella" cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), will initially focus on hyperspectral fluorescence imaging and spectral analysis. Researchers from the two organizations will apply Sandia's hyperspectral imaging and multivariate image analysis technology to aid in the study of plant tissue samples of interest to Monsanto.

The research is expected to enhance current crop analytical technologies, offering an additional technological resource to support Monsanto's robust product discovery engine and development pipeline. Monsanto's crop analytics research program has recently played a role in discovering new seed-based products for farmers, including corn hybrids that offer more ethanol-output per bushel and soybean varieties that produce more nutritious oils for consumers.

Sandia researchers in New Mexico will investigate, develop, and further advance the lab's hyperspectral imaging and multivariate data analysis methods and capabilities for agricultural product discovery and development applications. Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced scanning technology that provides significantly more information on a subject of interest than other scanning technologies commercially available today, by detecting microscopic images using a continuous spectrum of light.