News - Boyce Thompson Institute

Nov 2020 2

Silk Road Contains Genomic Resources for Improving Apples

The fabled Silk Road – the 4,000-mile stretch between China and Western Europe where trade flourished from the second century B.C. to the 14th century A.D. – is responsible for one of our favorite and most valuable fruits: the domesticated apple (Malus domestica)....

Medium close-up shot of Zhangjun Fei standing under an apple tree, facing the camera

Oct 2020 28

Summer Intern Blog Week 7: How a Bee is like a Moose

As I’m writing this, tomorrow is the first day of my final year of college. Even as a senior, I can feel a little bit of nervous anticipation creeping in. There’s so much potential in a beginning. Anything can happen. So much left to learn and so little time to...

A close-up selfie of Emily Humphreys wearing a gray mask and over-the-ear headphones in a field of yellow goldenrod.

Sep 2020 18

Michelle Heck Receives Grant to Study Devastating Crop Viruses

Plant viruses in the Luteoviridae family devastate many crop varieties, including potatoes, small grains and cotton. The viruses are spread by sap-sucking aphids, which transmit the pathogen into a plant’s vasculature as they feed. Unfortunately, no adequate...

A medium shot of Michelle Heck in a field of crops, smiling and wearing a sun hat.

Sep 2020 4

Plant Science Research Network Releases Decadal Vision 2020-2030

Plant science research has tremendous potential to address pressing global issues including climate change, food insecurity and sustainability. However, without sustained investment in plant science, the necessary research to generate innovative discoveries that...

An image of the cover of the Decadal Vision 2020-2030 report. The cover has a blue background with the title in the middle, and the eight goals in blubbles around the perimeter.

Aug 2020 31

Newly Identified Gene Grants Tomatoes Resistance to Bacterial Speck Disease

Bacterial speck disease, which reduces both fruit yield and quality, has been a growing problem in tomatoes over the last five years. Because the culpable bacterium, Pseudomonas syringae, prefers a cool and wet climate, crops in places such as New York State have...

Two small tomato plants in green, four-inch pots. The plant on the left is healthy, and the plant on the right is withered and nearly dead.

Aug 2020 7

Summer Intern Blog Weeks 5 & 6: Digging Beneath the Surface

By the fourth week of BTI’s Professional Development Series, I was beginning to fall into a bit of a routine. Every Wednesday, I made myself a cup of tea, grabbed a blanket, and settled down to watch one of BTI’s scientists present their research. Over the weeks, I...

A rocky hillside with trees and grasses. In the distance is BTI summer intern Emily Humphreys sitting on a giant rock.

Aug 2020 4

NSF Backs Bioinformatics Approach to Understanding Plant RNA Modifications

RNA perform a variety of functions in cells, helping with everything from regulating genes to building proteins. In recent years, it has become clear that chemical modifications to RNA help guide these functions, but only a handful of these modifications have been...

Medium closeup photo of Andrew Nelson smiling and holding a four-pack of small plants, Eutrema salsugineum. He is sitting on table in a greenhouse. Behind him are larger specimens of Eutrema salsugineum, which reach slightly above his head.

Jul 2020 29

Magdalena Julkowska Joins BTI as Newest Faculty Member

Boyce Thompson Institute is excited to welcome Magdalena Julkowska to Ithaca, where she becomes our newest Assistant Professor. Magda’s main research focus is how environmental stress affects plant development and architecture, and she also plans to build an...

A medium closeup picture of Magda Julkowska holding a small plant in her left hand. The plant's roots are still in a clump of dirt in a way so that you can see the natural root architecture.

Jul 2020 23

Summer Intern Blog Weeks 3 & 4: Demystifying Grad School

For a long time, I’ve avoided thinking about grad school. It’s not too hard to do at my small, undergrad-only college. During my first few years, it simply didn’t seem relevant. I was focused on athletics, classwork, and research. Graduate studies seemed like a...

A full photo of BTI summer intern Emily Humphreys sitting on a rocky outrcop in Shenandoah National Park. The sky is blue with a few puffy clouds, and there are mountains in the distance.

Jul 2020 13

Ascribe Bioscience receives $750,000.00 SBIR Phase II award from NSF

Congrats to Ascribe Bioscience for being awarded a $750,000.00 SBIR Phase II award from NSF. The proposed project seeks to develop a novel control for plant pathogens by leveraging a class of small, naturally occurring molecules that elicit specific immune...

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