A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led by Christopher Voigt, the Daniel I.C. Wang Professor of Advanced Biotechnology, is working on significant and longstanding research to develop nitrogen-fixing cereal crops. The researchers in the Voigt Lab targeted specific genes in the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that operate symbiotically with legumes to develop nitrogen-fixing cereal grains, called the nif genes. These genes create the expression of the protein structures (nitrogenase clusters) that help to eradicate nitrogen from the air. This research obtained groundbreaking results, moving closer to fertilizer independence through nitrogen-fixing cereals.