2023 PGS Triad Mini-grant Awardees

2023 PGS Triad Mini-grant Awardees

We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2023 Triad funded PGS Mini-grant Program. Congratulations to all the awardees and thanks to all the participants! The committee of PGS members along with a faculty advisor reviewed a total of 8 proposals and have...
BTI Researchers Unlocking Hornworts’ Secrets

BTI Researchers Unlocking Hornworts’ Secrets

Hornworts are a little-studied, ancient group of plants with some very unique biology, including their methods of securing carbon and nitrogen. Unlocking these secrets may help researchers boost agricultural output and use less synthetic fertilizer, as well as provide...
BTI Scientists Create New Genomic Resource for Improving Tomatoes

BTI Scientists Create New Genomic Resource for Improving Tomatoes

Tomato breeders have traditionally emphasized traits that improve production, like larger fruits and more fruits per plant. As a result, some traits that improved other important qualities, such as flavor and disease resistance, were lost. Researchers from Boyce...
BTI’s Maria Harrison Elected to National Academy of Sciences

BTI’s Maria Harrison Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Maria Harrison, William H. Crocker Professor at Boyce Thompson Institute and Adjunct Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell University, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Harrison is one of 100 new members announced...
BTI’s Big Red Anniversary: 40 Years at Cornell

BTI’s Big Red Anniversary: 40 Years at Cornell

The Boyce Thompson Institute of Corvallis, Oregon? It almost happened. April 24 will mark the 40th anniversary of the dedication ceremony for BTI’s current facilities on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. The Institute’s researchers and staff will celebrate...
BTI Promotes Faculty Member Fei

BTI Promotes Faculty Member Fei

David Stern, president of the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), is delighted to announce that faculty member Zhangjun Fei has been promoted to Full Professor on February 27, 2019. Fei was evaluated on his achievements to date and the potential he possesses. Fei has made...
Cassava experts gather to champion ‘orphan crop’

Cassava experts gather to champion ‘orphan crop’

It’s a dietary staple for millions of Africans, but cassava has traditionally received little attention from scientists and plant breeders in comparison to cash crops such as wheat and maize. However, researchers have recently been working to find cassava a scientific...
Plant–Fungal Interface Gets Tubular

Plant–Fungal Interface Gets Tubular

For hundreds of millions of years, plants and fungi have formed symbiotic relationships to trade crucial nutrients, such as phosphate and fatty acids. This relationship is extremely important to the growth and survival of both organisms, and solving the mystery of how...
CRISPR tames the wild groundcherry

CRISPR tames the wild groundcherry

ITHACA, NY – You might not have heard of the groundcherry, or at least, never tasted one. But that could soon change thanks to research from the Van Eck Laboratory at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI). The groundcherry (Physalis pruinosa) is approximately the same size...
NSF awards BTI $1M to study plant-bacteria symbiosis

NSF awards BTI $1M to study plant-bacteria symbiosis

Professor Dr. Fay-Wei Li has been awarded a $1.1 million NSF grant to study hornwort/bacteria symbiosis. The hornwort plant relies on nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria to give it life and unlocking the secrets to how that works may help reduce agricultural dependence on...
New ‘Tomato Expression Atlas’ dives deep into the fruit’s flesh

New ‘Tomato Expression Atlas’ dives deep into the fruit’s flesh

Researchers at BTI, Cornell and USDA published a spatiotemporal map of gene expression across all tissues and developmental stages of the tomato fruit – the genetic information underlying how a fruit changes from inside to out as it ripens. Their data is available in the new Tomato Expression Atlas (TEA).

Pumpkin genomes sequenced revealing uncommon evolutionary history

Pumpkin genomes sequenced revealing uncommon evolutionary history

For some, pumpkins conjure carved Halloween decorations, but for many people around the world, these gourds provide nutrition. Scientists at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and the National Engineering Research Center for Vegetables in Beijing have sequenced the genomes of two important pumpkin species, Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita moschata.

$9.4M NIH grant funds chronic fatigue syndrome center

$9.4M NIH grant funds chronic fatigue syndrome center

Cornell will receive close to $9.4 million over five years to establish the Cornell Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Collaborative Research Center, which will span Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Weill Cornell Medicine, Ithaca College, the Boyce Thompson Institute [Schroeder Lab], the Workwell Foundation, EVMED Research, the SOLVE ME/CFS Initiative and private ME/CFS medical practices.

Bioreactors on a chip renew promises for algal biofuels

Bioreactors on a chip renew promises for algal biofuels

This week, researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute and Texas A&M University report in Plant Direct exciting new technology that may revolutionize the search for the perfect algal strain: Algal droplet bioreactors on a chip.

Hot tomatoes! MPMI Cover features BTI research

Hot tomatoes! MPMI Cover features BTI research

This month, the cover of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions features a publication by Simon Schwizer from the Martin Lab at BTI that furthers our understanding of how tomatoes are able to resist infection by Pseudomonas syringae, the causal agent of bacterial speck, a common disease in upstate NY.

Newly-published spinach genome will make more than Popeye stronger

Newly-published spinach genome will make more than Popeye stronger

Today in Nature Communications, researchers from BTI and the Shanghai Normal University report a new draft genome of Spinacia oleracea, better known as spinach. Additionally, the authors have sequenced the transcriptomes (all the RNA) of 120 cultivated and wild spinach plants, which has allowed them to identify which genetic changes have occurred due to domestication.

Feeding fat to fungi: evidence for lipid transfer in arbuscular mycorrhiza

Researchers from the labs of Dr. Maria Harrison at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Dr. Peter Dörmann at the University of Bonn have produced the first experimental evidence to suggest that AM fungi also get lipids from the plant. AM-induced FatM and RAM2 may play specific roles in the biosynthesis of 16:0 βMAG, which cannot be produced by the fungus, providing a clue to understanding the obligate nature of AM fungi.

Global partnerships for improving cassava

Global partnerships for improving cassava

Cassava geneticist Ismail Yusuf Rabbi from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria visited BTI and Cornell University last week to discuss his ongoing collaboration with NextGen Cassava.

Cilia receives Presidential Early Career Award

Cilia receives Presidential Early Career Award

Michelle Cilia has been selected to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which recognizes outstanding, government-funded scientists who show great potential for becoming leaders in their field and for expanding the frontiers of scientific knowledge.