Tobacco sponsors tomato work, too

The New York Times linkurl:reported;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/health/research/26lung.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp&adxnnlx=1206540626-U/Hi/ilxjsfY10QFkfyPCg today (March 26) that a major tobacco company -- the Liggett Group -- sponsored a controversial lung cancer study last year totaling about $3.6 million in grants. Interestingly enough, I got an Email a couple of weeks ago from linkurl:Stanton Glantz,;http://cancer.ucsf.edu/people/glantz_stanton.php University of California researcher and spokesperson against tobacco research funding, pointing me to a linkurl:story;http://cornellsun.com/node/28477 in the Cornell Daily Sun reporting that Cornell had received a nearly $1 million grant from Philip Morris USA. A press officer for Philip Morris International declined to say how much the grant was for, but confirmed that PMI had entered a research agreement with Cornell in 2006 aimed at constructing comparative genome maps of tobacco and other solaneceous species, like tomato, eggplant, potato, and coffee, among others. PMI's interest in this research project is to "use the knowledge to potentially enhance leaf properties such as flavor, reduce the...