Shan Jiang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, recently received an Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER), funded by a partnership between the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Jiang and his team will investigate methods of using CRISPR-Cas9, a sequence of DNA that is able to cut DNA strands to make edits, to create varieties in crops.