NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana will use $1.3 million from the US Department of Agriculture — through funding from the recently signed Fiscal Year 2009 budget — for agriculture genomics projects, according to Senator Richard Durbin (D - Ill.).

Under the grants, provided through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, the university will use $745,000 to study soybean genomics and $564,000 for livestock genome sequencing projects, Durbin said in a press statement last week.