The United Soybean Board (USB) approved $4.8 million in research funding to support 16 projects involving ISU researchers for fiscal year 2025. Following are projects that involve eight ISRC faculty affiliates serving as PI (principal investigator) or co-PI and five additional ISU researchers who are not affiliates of the ISRC.

Madan Bhattacharyya, agronomy, will serve as PI on a project titled "Introgression of Drought and Flood Tolerance Genes into Four Elite Soybean Cultivars through Backcrossing."

Michael Castellano, agronomy, will serve as PI on a project titled “Reducing Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Soybean through Early Planting and Cover Crops.”

Leonor Leandro, plant pathology, entomology and microbiology (PPEM), will serve as PI with Daren Mueller, PPEM, and Danny Singh, agronomy, as co-PIs on a project titled "Biology and Management of Soybean Stem Diseases."

Mark Licht, agronomy, will serve as co-PI on a project titled “Multi-State Validation of Management Methods for Sustainable Soy” led by Joe McClure, Iowa Soybean Association. 

Daren Mueller and Leonor Leandro, PPEM, will serve as co-PIs on a project titled “Seedling Pathogens in Soybean: Disease Management and Farmer Education” led by Febina Mathew, North Dakota State University.

Daren Mueller, PPEM, will serve as PI on a project titled "Crop Protection Network: Delivering Soybean Research Results to Farmers through National Partnerships." 

Daren Mueller, PPEM, will serve as co-PI on projects titled “Better Together: Bridging Soybean Disciplines to Collaboratively Deliver Soybean Best Management Practices” led by Rachel Vann, North Carolina State University and “Breeding and Screening Soybean for Resistance to Mature Seed Damage” led by Tessie Wilkerson, Mississippi State University.

Jamie O'Rourke, USDA-ARS, will serve as co-PI on a project titled “Increasing Resistance to Iron Deficiency Chlorosis through Gene Discovery and Multi-regional Coordinated Breeding” led by Robert Stupar,University of Minnesota.

Alison Robertson, PPEM, will serve as co-PI on a project titled “Developing Perfect Molecular Markers and New Germplasm for Rapid Incorporation of Resistance to Soilborne Pathogens of Soybean” led by Leah McHale, The Ohio State University.

Danny Singh, agronomy, will serve as co-PI on projects titled “Discovering and Deploying Genetic Solutions Across Maturity Groups for Durable Resistance to Multiple Nematodes” led by Zenglu Li, University of Georgia, “Yield Limitations of Soybean Varieties Under Drought: Identifying and Overcoming Weaknesses by Team Drought via Breeding, Genomics, Phenomics and Physiology” led by Ben Fallen, USDA-ARS and “Understanding the Role of Root System Architectural Traits in Nutrition Acquisition and Carbon Sequestration in Soybean” led by Aaron Lorenz, University of Minnesota.

Additional Iowa State researchers involved in USB-funded projects for 2025 include the following:

Nicholas Gabler, animal science, will serve as PI with Laura Greiner and David Rosero, animal science, as co-PIs on a project titled “Evaluation of Feeding Conventional and High Oleic Full Fat Soybean in Grow-finish Pig Production.”

David Rosero, animal science, will serve as PI with Laura Greiner as co-PI on a project titled “High Soyhulls Inclusion in Gestational Sow Diets: A Comparative Analysis to Improve Sow Survivability.”

Laura Greiner, animal science, will serve as PI with Dalton Humphrey, Nicholas Gabler, Kayla Miller and David Rosero, animal science, as co-PIs on a project titled “Effects of Increasing SBM Inclusion With or Without Adjusted Essential Amino Acid Supply on the Growth Performance of Health Challenged Nursery Pigs.”