During the next two years, 20 researchers from MSU, the University of Kentucky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Texas A&M University, Iowa State University, Purdue University and the University of Mississippi will work together on the project. The research is funded by a $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

DellaPenna said the research is similar to creating an encyclopedia that researchers can use in the future and possibly lead to the ability to produce more effective medicine and improve the product.

“It’s like having all 30,000 pages, but all mixed up. The job now is how to make one particular book volume — a medicinal plant volume,” said DellaPenna, a co-principal investigator for the project. “It’s like having all the paragraphs, but you don’t know how to put it together.”

DellaPenna said about one-third of current medicines used for treating various diseases use the biochemical compounds found in plants.

“We have found out, over thousands of years, that certain plants can improve your health,” DellaPenna said. “What modern medicine does is find the exact compound that is responsible.”

By looking at gene expression in each plant, Robin Buell, an associate professor in plant biology, will determine the genes responsible for the medicinal purposes of plants. Buell said this is a great opportunity for current and future researchers.

“We hope this is something to help pharmaceutical research,” Buell said.

DellaPenna said the research will allow scientists to isolate genes that produce useful chemicals and in the future, aid faster and cheaper medicine production.

“I hope it will open up this area not just for MSU, MIT and University of Kentucky, but for all of the plant biochemist globally,” DellaPenna said. “This will be a resource and for them to use and hopefully to drive our understanding on how these compounds are produced in plants, to produce (the medicine) more cheaply in higher quantities, modifies quantities and improve them and have them target activities in body better without as much side affect.”

Joseph Chappell, a molecular genetics professor at University of Kentucky and a co-principal investigator for the project, said the driving force behind the research is to add to therapeutic values.

“If it’s successful, then it’s great,” Chappell said. “We’ve got an opportunity to really change how things are done.”