News
Reflections on Sorina Popescu (1969 – 2022)
17We at BTI were saddened to hear that former faculty member Sorina Popescu passed away at the end of last year after a long battle with cancer.Born in Romania, Sorina received a Master's degree in biology from the University of Bucharest, a Ph.D. in molecular...
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
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
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...
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...
Reflections on Jay Jacobson (1934 – 2022)
We at BTI were sad to hear of the passing of Dr. Jay Jacobson, a plant physiologist who spent 35 years conducting research in the Environmental Biology group at the Institute. During the 1960s and 1970s, scientists began to recognize that the most serious and...
Reflections on Vladimir “Vlado” Macko (1930 – 2022)
We at BTI were sad to hear of the passing of Dr. Vladimir “Vlado” Macko, a plant biochemist who spent nearly 30 years conducting research at BTI. After joining BTI to work on rust fungi in December 1969, Macko and his colleagues discovered the chemical nature of...
BTI Celebrates Another Year of Successful Summer Internship Programs
Boyce Thompson Institute celebrated its 22nd annual Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP) summer internship program with an award ceremony at the George and Helen Kohut Symposium, which was held at the Institute on August 4. BTI also concluded the fourth year of its...
Interstellar: Interview with Dr. Greg Martin, newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
Interview of Dr. Martin conducted by Haesong Kim, PhD student at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea.
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...