NSRI, MIT Lincoln Laboratory announce strategic partnership, results of student R&D

The joint initiative brings together the scientific expertise, cutting-edge capabilities and student capacity of the University of Nebraska System and MIT for critical issues within global health and agricultural security and aims to develop groundbreaking solutions to detect and neutralize emerging biological threats before they can endanger American citizens.

"In an era of rapidly evolving dangers, we must stay ahead of the curve through continuous innovation," said David Roberts, NSRI research director for special programs. "This partnership harnesses a unique combination of strengths from two leading academic institutions and two research institutes to create new paradigms in biological defense."

With funding from a DOD agency, the partners conducted a pilot project at MIT throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. The challenge: Current methods to rapidly screen for novel biosynthetic capabilities are limited by the lack of standardized, high-throughput devices that can support the culture of traditionally “uncultivable” microorganisms, which severely limits the cell diversity that could be probed for bioprospecting or biomanufacturing applications.