{"id":486,"date":"2026-03-05T15:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/?page_id=486"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:01:45","slug":"research-and-funding","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/research-and-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrappper text-block stylized lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <h3><em>Research Interests<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>One of the most intriguing challenges for plant biologists is to understand how plants interact with microbial pathogens to result in resistance or disease. Research in the Leach lab has tackled this challenge from both the plant and pathogen sides by integrating physiological, molecular, genomic and genetic approaches performed in the laboratory and field. Our goals are to identify sources of long-lasting, broad-spectrum disease resistance (effective against pathogens), allowing for the development of ecologically sustainable forms of plant disease control. In recent years, we have begun to uncover the genetic basis of other complex traits in rice, such as those contributing to biomass and benefiting human health.<\/p>\n<p>A more comprehensive description of our biomass work can be found\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/research\/biomass\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->\n\n\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrapper video-block stacked lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <!-- component -->\n    <div class=\"video\">\n\n        <!-- image container -->\n        <div class=\"object-container responsive-embed widescreen\">\n\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Groundbreaking Research Underway in CSU&#039;s Leach Lab\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t7VSp8N8IIk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/div>\n        <!-- END image container -->\n\n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END component -->\n\n    <!-- text -->\n    <div class=\"text-content\">\n\n        \n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END text -->\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->\n\n\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrappper text-block stylized lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <h3><strong><em>Current Funding<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>Development of molecular diagnostics for an emerging bacterial disease of maize,\u00a0<\/strong>USDA-APHIS<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>QTL Engineering,\u00a0<\/strong>NSF<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>Self killing turned outward? Investigating the function of a\u00a0<em>Xathomonas<\/em>\u00a0secreted protein and parallels with a toxin anti-toxin system<\/strong>, USDA-NIFA<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>A Deep Sequencing-Based Genome Discovery Pipeline to Link Genotype to Phenotype in Rice,\u00a0<\/strong>US-AID-IRRI Linkage<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.colostate.edu\/Release\/6557\" target=\"_new\">Dietary Rice Bran Supplementation for Gut Mucosal Immunity and Healthy Rice Crop Improvement<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>Phase II Grand Challenges Explorations- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cpr.org\/category\/colorado_matters#load_article|Getting_More_from_a_Grain_of_Rice\" target=\"_new\">Colorado Public Radio Report<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->\n\n\n<!-- block -->\n<div class=\"custom-block-wrapper video-block stacked lite top-spacing-default bottom-spacing-default\">\n\n    <!-- component -->\n    <div class=\"video\">\n\n        <!-- image container -->\n        <div class=\"object-container responsive-embed widescreen\">\n\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Plant Pathology: Taking you further than you ever imagined.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mzTE3StOHlQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/div>\n        <!-- END image container -->\n\n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END component -->\n\n    <!-- text -->\n    <div class=\"text-content\">\n\n        \n    <\/div>\n    <!-- END text -->\n\n<\/div>\n<!-- END block -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-486","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/486\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.agsci.colostate.edu\/leach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}