{"id":12709,"date":"2025-07-24T10:04:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=12709"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:04:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:04:58","slug":"uw-milwaukee-biology-professor-receives-grant-to-combat-devastating-citrus-crop-disease","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-milwaukee-biology-professor-receives-grant-to-combat-devastating-citrus-crop-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Milwaukee biology professor receives grant to combat devastating citrus crop disease"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

UWM 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<\/div>\n

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The award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture supports a project aiming to bring to market a biopesticide that fights huanglongbing, also known as HLB or citrus greening disease.<\/p>\n

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\"Photo<\/a>
UWM professor Ching-Hong Yang and his business partner Daniel Burgin. They created the startup, T3 Bioscience, and a series of genetically modified plants that are able to survive fire blight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HLB 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. Yang\u2019s novel compound RejuAgro A (RAA) has shown significant results in combatting the disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Combined with the $2.4 million in National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) USDA grants\u00a0awarded to Yang in 2023<\/a>\u00a0for developing organic strategies to manage apple fire blight and citrus HLB, his total federal research funding now exceeds $3.9 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis funding from NIFA represents a critical step forward in translating our laboratory discoveries into real-world agricultural solutions,\u201d Yang said. \u201cWith this support, we can accelerate the development and commercialization of RejuAgro A \u2014 a 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<\/div>\n

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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Written by Sarah Vickery<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/biology-professor-receives-grant-to-combat-devastating-citrus-crop-disease\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UWM 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 award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture supports a project aiming to bring to market a biopesticide that fights huanglongbing, also known as HLB or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[107],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-12709","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-milwaukee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/12709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=12709"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=12709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}