  {"id":29506,"date":"2025-05-06T11:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/?p=29506"},"modified":"2025-06-10T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T18:04:20","slug":"biology-professor-receives-nifa-grant-to-stop-citrus-crop-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus\/research-news\/biology-professor-receives-nifa-grant-to-stop-citrus-crop-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology professor receives NIFA grant to stop citrus crop disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>51ÁÔÆæ Biological Sciences Professor Ching-Hong Yang was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to support his research on a novel compound that suppresses disease in citrus crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The National Institute of Food and Agriculture presented Dr. Yang with a $1,496,399 award for his project, \u201cBringing RejuAgro to Market: Development of a Groundbreaking Trunk Injection Biopesticide for Huanglongbing (HLB).\u201d HLB, also known as \u201ccitrus greening,\u201d is a bacterial infection of citrus plants and is among the most serious citrus diseases in the world. Left unchecked, the disease can devastate millions of acres of citrus crops. Dr. Yang\u2019s novel compound RejuAgro A (RAA) has shown significant results in combatting the disease.&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-biologist-awarded-2-4-million-for-an-antibiotic-alternative-for-treating-crop-diseases\/\">You can read more about Dr. Yang\u2019s work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Combined with the $2.4 million in NIFA USDA grants awarded to Yang in 2023 for developing organic strategies to manage apple fire blight and citrus HLB, his total federal research funding now exceeds $3.9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This funding from NIFA represents a critical step forward in translating our laboratory discoveries into real-world agricultural solutions,&#8221; said Yang. &#8220;With this support, we can accelerate the development and commercialization of RejuAgro A\u2014a sustainable, natural compound that has the potential to protect citrus crops globally from the devastating effects of Huanglongbing. Our ultimate goal is to provide growers with an effective, affordable tool that supports both plant health and long-term agricultural resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project represents a major step toward commercializing an innovative, natural solution for one of the most devastating citrus diseases in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters &amp; Science<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>51ÁÔÆæ Biological Sciences Professor Ching-Hong Yang was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to support his research on a novel compound that suppresses disease in citrus crops. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture presented Dr. Yang with a $1,496,399 &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":29507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1648,1846],"tags":[1855],"class_list":["post-29506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-research-news","tag-may"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters &amp; Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus\/research-news\/biology-professor-receives-nifa-grant-to-stop-citrus-crop-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biology professor receives NIFA grant to stop citrus crop disease\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"51ÁÔÆæ Biological Sciences Professor Ching-Hong Yang was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant to support his research on a novel compound that suppresses disease in citrus crops. 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