BTI Welcomes 2023 Undergraduate Student Researchers

BTI Welcomes 2023 Undergraduate Student Researchers

On June 5, Boyce Thompson Institute welcomed 39 undergraduate students from colleges across the country to experience the life of a researcher for 10 weeks. Now in its 23rd year, BTI’s NSF funded Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) and USDA funded Innovations in...
BTI promotes faculty member Fay-Wei Li

BTI promotes faculty member Fay-Wei Li

The Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) is delighted to announce that faculty member Fay-Wei Li has been promoted to Associate Professor on January 13. Li was evaluated on his achievements to date and likelihood of continued success in the future. Since joining BTI in...
Finding genes to help fruit adapt to droughts

Finding genes to help fruit adapt to droughts

As climate change is expected to lead to more frequent periods of drought, researchers are increasingly working to make discoveries that can help plants adapt to prolonged water stress. Researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University have completed...
Jane Silverthorne, a giant of plant science

Jane Silverthorne, a giant of plant science

Dr. Jane Silverthorne, Chair of BTI’s Scientific Advisory Board and member of its Board of Directors, died unexpectedly on August 15, 2022. Jane’s rich biography and programmatic contributions have been remembered by UC Santa Cruz, where she held her first faculty...
New insights into how serotonin regulates behavior

New insights into how serotonin regulates behavior

Rates of anxiety and depression have been increasing around the world for decades, a trend that has been sharply exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. New research led by the Boyce Thompson Institute’s Frank Schroeder could ultimately lead to new therapeutics to help...
Breedbase software to help speed crop improvement

Breedbase software to help speed crop improvement

To help plant breeders speed crop improvement around the world, Lukas Mueller of the Boyce Thompson Institute worked with an international team of 57 people to create Breedbase, a database software that was described in the July issue of G3. “In the current era of...
PlantGENE to catalyze plant biotechnology improvement

PlantGENE to catalyze plant biotechnology improvement

As the global population booms and climate change continues, improving crops to produce more food, use less resources like water and pesticides, and survive harsher environments will be needed to feed the planet sustainably. For example, fungal diseases are...
Worms as a model for personalized medicine

Worms as a model for personalized medicine

Tailoring a person’s diet or medicine based on their genomes has been a goal of the medical community for decades, but the strategy has not been widely successful because people metabolize chemicals differently. A drug may work differently for two patients because...
Phosphate biosensors could lead to more efficient fertilizer usage

Phosphate biosensors could lead to more efficient fertilizer usage

Shiqi Zhang spent many months sitting alone in a dark room, staring intently into the lens of a confocal microscope as she focused a laser beam on plant cells mounted on a glass slide. She was measuring changes in the intensity of fluorescent light emitted by the...
The missing links: Finding function in lincRNAs

The missing links: Finding function in lincRNAs

Genomes contain regions between protein-coding genes that produce lengthy RNA molecules that never give rise to a protein. These long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are thought to have important functions, such as regulating responses to environmental change....
Wild tomato genome will benefit domesticated cousins

Wild tomato genome will benefit domesticated cousins

Wild relatives of crops are becoming increasingly valuable to plant researchers and breeders. During the process of domestication, crops tend to lose many genes, but wild relatives often retain genes that could be useful – such as genes that confer resistance to...
New species of alga named for poet Amanda Gorman

New species of alga named for poet Amanda Gorman

“And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.” – Amanda Gorman, from “The Hill We Climb.”   In 2020, a group of researchers in Fay-Wei Li’s lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) had done what many scientists dream of...
BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

On May 31, Boyce Thompson Institute welcomed 41 of the country’s brightest undergraduate students from universities around the country to experience the life of a researcher for 10 weeks. Ten more research interns from local area high schools will join the Institute...
Congratulations to BTI’s Spring 2022 Graduates!

Congratulations to BTI’s Spring 2022 Graduates!

We are pleased to announce that three BTI researchers received their degrees during the Cornell University commencement ceremony on May 28. Congratulations to our newest alumni! Alex Ogbonna, Mueller lab, PhD in Plant Breeding & Genetics, Dissertation title:...
BTI’s Greg Martin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

BTI’s Greg Martin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Greg Martin, Boyce Schulze Downey Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell University, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Martin is one of 150 new members announced on May...
New software to help discover valuable compounds

New software to help discover valuable compounds

As a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of BTI faculty member Frank Schroeder, Max Helf saw his labmates continually struggle when they were analyzing data. So, he decided to do something about it and developed a free, open-source app called Metaboseek, which...
Professor Dan Klessig retires after 48 years of research

Professor Dan Klessig retires after 48 years of research

After 48 years of performing molecular biology research, including 22 years at Boyce Thompson Institute, Professor Dan Klessig retired on December 31. The former BTI President will remain associated with the Institute as an Emeritus Professor. A self-described “farmer...
Secrets of quillwort photosynthesis could boost crop efficiency

Secrets of quillwort photosynthesis could boost crop efficiency

The humble quillworts are an ancient group of about 250 small, aquatic plants that have largely been ignored by modern botanists. A group of researchers, led by Boyce Thompson Institute’s Fay-Wei Li, have sequenced the first quillwort genome and uncovered some secrets...
David Stern to Step Down as BTI President

David Stern to Step Down as BTI President

After leading the Boyce Thompson Institute for 17 years, David Stern has decided to step down as president. He will retain the role during the search for his successor, and plans to lead the Stern lab well into the future. A remarkable example of ascending through the...
NSF Launches $25 Million Digital Biology Center

NSF Launches $25 Million Digital Biology Center

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $25 million over five years to four participating institutions to create the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), which will develop new methods for observing, recording and modulating plant...
Alex Ogbonna Wins Borlaug Scholar Award from NAPB

Alex Ogbonna Wins Borlaug Scholar Award from NAPB

Boyce Thompson Institute is proud to congratulate Alex Ogbonna for receiving a 2021 Borlaug Scholar Award from the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB). Ogbonna is a Cornell University graduate student in Lukas Mueller’s lab at BTI, where he works to leverage...
Sarah Evanega Joins BTI Faculty

Sarah Evanega Joins BTI Faculty

Boyce Thompson Institute is pleased to welcome Professor Sarah Evanega as the newest addition to our faculty. Sarah is a science communicator whose research and outreach efforts focus on the nexus of plant science and society, and strive to ensure that plant science...
BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

On June 1, Boyce Thompson Institute welcomed 28 of the country’s brightest undergraduate students from universities around the country to experience the life of a researcher for 10 weeks. Seven more interns from local area high schools will join the Institute for six...
New Cyanobacteria Species Spotlights Early Life

New Cyanobacteria Species Spotlights Early Life

Cyanobacteria are one of the unsung heroes of life on Earth. They first evolved to perform photosynthesis about 2.4 billion years ago, pumping tons of oxygen into the atmosphere – a period known as the Great Oxygenation Event – which enabled the evolution of...
Sarah Evanega Wins Borlaug CAST Communication Award

Sarah Evanega Wins Borlaug CAST Communication Award

BTI adjunct faculty member Sarah Evanega has been awarded the coveted Borlaug CAST Communication Award. Evanega is the founding director of the Cornell Alliance for Science, a global communications effort that promotes evidence-informed decision-making across a range...
Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients

Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients

A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point the way to cost-effective and eco-friendly methods of enriching soil and improving...
Gene discovery may help peaches tolerate climate stress

Gene discovery may help peaches tolerate climate stress

A BTI-led team has identified genes enabling peaches and their wild relatives to tolerate stressful conditions – findings that could help the domesticated peach adapt to climate change. The study, co-led by Boyce Thompson Institute faculty member Zhangjun Fei,...