At the beginning of the school year, University of Missouri System President Mun Choi announced a series of investments in research and creative works that will help the system’s four universities achieve excellence through innovation. Many of those innovations will germinate and take root at the Institute of Nano and Molecular Innovations (INMI) building across the street from the MU Research Reactor (MURR) on the Mizzou campus.

Dave Robertson, a professor of chemistry at MU and the director of MURR, is leading a team to refurbish the INMI building. That facility will provide the critical infrastructure and collaborative expertise to researchers at all four campuses who have ideas that can attract national funding but may lack the personal expertise or laboratory facilities to fully develop a radiopharmaceutical product.

The UM System and MU (50/50 split) is providing approximately $2 million of the initial infrastructure funds for INMI through a Tier 1 grant. Robertson is joined in this effort by MURR Professor of Radiology Jeff Smith, Chemistry Professor Silvia Jurisson, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Jeffrey Bryan, and Professor of Biochemistry Tom Quinn.