RESEARCH TEAM RECEIVES $7.5 MILLION TO STUDY CASSAVA COLUMBUS,
Ohio – Ohio State University will lead an interdisciplinary team
of scientists in a multi-million dollar project to help improve
one of the most important food crops in Africa, cassava. The
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation selected the BioCassava Plus
project as a recipient of one of the foundation's “Grand
Challenges in Global Health” program grants. Created two years
ago, the goal of the $450 million program is to fund innovative
solutions to global health problems. Leading the $7.5 million,
11-institution cassava project is Richard Sayre, a professor of
plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State . The grant
runs for five years. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the primary
food source for more than 250 million Africans – about 40
percent of the continent's population, Sayre said. And the
plant's starchy root is a substantial portion of the diet of
nearly 600 million people worldwide. Cassava is the fourth-most-
important crop in the tropic