New Research Center Targets Rural Drug Addiction

aaqswzRural Issues – Research at Nebraska 2018-2019 Report

2018 - 2019 Report

From the Vice Chancellor Mapping Genome Promises to Enhance Ancient Grain Read more

Mapping Genome Promises to Enhance Ancient Grain
Humanity has finally gotten to know one of its oldest, most water-efficient crops on a genetic level.
Nebraska’s James Schnable and an international team have sequenced and mapped proso millet’s genome. This information is essential to increasing the drought-resistant crop’s yields in Nebraska’s Panhandle and semiarid regions worldwide, where population growth foreshadows food shortages.
Because millets can grow in poor soils and need less water than other cereal crops, several have become popular among subsistence farmers in ever-hotter, drier swaths of Africa and Asia. But millet’s relatively low yields and traits that make harvesting difficult limit its viability as a food, feed or fuel staple.
James Schnable
To inform future breeding efforts, Schnable and colleagues sequenced more than 90 percent of the genetic code in proso millet, a species grown mostly in the American Great Plains, northern China and parts of Europe.
The ability to pinpoint the location, composition and size of proso’s genes should help researchers rapidly improve traits and tailor varieties to climates around the world, said Schnable, associate professor of agronomy and horticulture.
“This will have a huge potential impact on the rural economy of the region.”
Dipak Santra
“There’s potential to grow it on a much larger scale and take a significant bite out of the amount of additional grain we need to meet the demand for feed and food and ethanol,” he said.
Nebraska’s farmers will benefit from that genome-guided work, said Dipak Santra, associate professor of agronomy and horticulture at the university’s Panhandle Research and Extension Center.
Researchers reported their findings in Nature Communications. Schnable’s collaborators were from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Iowa State University, Henan University, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Purdue University, Dryland Genetics LLC and Data2Bio LLC.

“This will have a huge potential impact on the rural economy of the region,” said Santra, the lone public-sector proso millet breeder in the Western Hemisphere. “Proso millet’s direct value to (the semiarid High Plains) is $45 million per year, but considering its benefits to the dryland production systems, its total value to the region’s economy could be closer to a billion dollars.”
Agriculture Agronomy and Horticulture Dipak Santra Food Energy and Water Systems Food Security Health James Schnable Panhandle Research and Extension Center Plant Genetics Plant Science Proso Millet Rural Issues Water
Additional content
Nebraska news release: Sequenced genome of ancient crop could raise yields
From the Vice Chancellor Collaboration Aims to End Homelessness Among Rural Youth Read more

Collaboration Aims to End Homelessness Among Rural Youth
Homelessness in rural America, while less visible than its urban counterpart, is equally pervasive and just as difficult to overcome.
Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families and the Law leads a collaborative effort to prevent and end homelessness among young adults in rural Nebraska. It’s one of 11 projects funded nationwide in 2018 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration program.
“There’s homelessness in all parts of Nebraska,” said Jeffrey M. Chambers, CCFL project director. “Emergency shelters are extremely limited so there’s nowhere to go if you find yourself without a place to stay.”
People often end up couch surfing or living in a car, which typically are unstable conditions that focus attention on daily survival, not the future.
CCFL partnered with numerous state and local entities as well as youth who have experienced homelessness to develop a coordinated plan to prevent homelessness and support 18- to 24-year-olds in rural Nebraska who are already homeless.
Young people who experience homelessness are more likely to become homeless later in life, Chambers said. Transitioning into adulthood is difficult, particularly for those without family support. Nearly 30% of homeless young adults spent time in foster care.
The plan includes programs to find stable housing based on need and available resources, including identifying host homes, providing rapid temporary housing and finding permanent solutions for people with disabilities.
Other programs help recipients learn to navigate community services, access available rentals and meet educational and employment goals.
“To the extent we can keep youth from becoming homeless and get them on the right track with education, employment and permanent connections, the better off they’re going to be long term,” Chambers said.
Since 2003, CCFL has provided planning, training, database support, analysis and reporting to support state and local agencies combating homelessness. This extensive background provided valuable guidance for this new statewide effort.
HUD provided $3.28 million for the plan’s development and a year of implementation. Successful projects may receive ongoing HUD support and national promotion.
Center on Children Families and the Law Homelessness Jeffrey M. Chambers Public Policy Public Safety Rural Issues U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Additional content
Nebraska news release: Husker initiative aims to end youth homelessness in Nebraska
From the Vice Chancellor New Research Center Targets Rural Drug Addiction Read more

New Research Center Targets Rural Drug Addiction
Even as the rate of drug overdose deaths slows nationally, death rates in the Midwest continue to soar.
To better understand and address the region’s drug addiction crisis, Nebraska created the multidisciplinary Rural Drug Addiction Research Center, or RDAR.
The university received a five-year, $11.85 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence program to establish the center in 2019. The COBRE program funds health-related research and fosters faculty development and research infrastructure.
RDAR faculty conduct cutting-edge research to understand the extent and nature of rural addiction, develop evidence-based treatment methods, and support outreach and policy efforts to help reduce addiction and overdoses.
“The patterns of drug use addiction in the Midwest are so different from those on either coast or in Appalachia,” said center director Kirk Dombrowski, John Bruhn Professor of Sociology. “This will be the only major research center in the country that focuses specifically on rural drug use in the Midwest.”
Unlike other regions, Midwestern drug users tend to consume a combination of drugs, complicating prevention and treatment.
“The patterns of drug use addiction in the Midwest are so different from those on either coast or in Appalachia.”
Kirk Dombrowski
The center established the Longitudinal Network Core Facility, which studies rural drug users through pioneering cellphone survey software developed at the university. This research helps identify social patterns of abuse and is the only long-term drug use study outside of Appalachia, Dombrowski said.
The center supports a range of research on the neuroscience and cognitive implications of drug use through pilot project funding, new faculty hires and early career faculty mentoring.
RDAR also hosted the National Rural Addiction Research Symposium. The inaugural symposium brought experts to Nebraska to discuss advancing research. It is expected to become an annual event.
To promote effective treatment options through outreach and advocacy, the center will launch a second core facility in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“Better understanding the actual psychopathology and biochemistry of addiction can help us understand other kinds of treatment options that may be available,” Dombrowski said.
The center fosters interdisciplinary collaborations across the university as well as with researchers at UNMC and Boys Town National Research Hospital.
RDAR is the university’s fifth NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.
Addiction Center of Biomedical Research Excellence Education and Outreach Health Kirk Dombrowski Longitudinal Network Core Facility National Institutes of Health National Rural Addiction Research Symposium Public Health Public Policy Public Safety Rural Drug Addiction Research Center Rural Issues Sociology
Additional content
Nebraska news release: Rural drug use is focus of $11.5M NIH Grant
Media mention: 600 rural drug abusers will be tracked by UNL researchers studying addiction, overdoses (Omaha World-Herald, 4/25/2019)
Media mention: New UNL research center to study rural Midwest drug addiction (NET News, 4/24/2019)