NC State Teams Up with SAS and Microsoft to Predict Plant Disease and Tackle Food Recalls

Oct 27, 2020

NC State Teams Up with SAS and Microsoft to Predict Plant Disease and Tackle Food Recalls

The North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative has teamed up with technology leaders SAS and Microsoft to predict plant disease and tackle food recalls. Several research teams will use cloud and internet of things (IoT) services from SAS and Microsoft for their interdisciplinary projects.

Oct 12, 2020

Grant Continues Support of Crop DNA Replication Research

A new NSF grant will allow two Plant and Microbial Biology professors to continue their work of 17 years unraveling how plants control DNA replication and how this influences agronomic traits.

A small, red fly on a blueberry, against a black background.

Aug 31, 2020

A New IDEA: Pairing Trainees with Computational Experts During the Pandemic

This spring in the midst of a pandemic, a committee of CALS faculty members matched graduate students and postdocs with data they needed to analyze or model computationally to computational experts with the necessary expertise. Learn more about how the collaboration is going for three trainees.

Jun 29, 2020

Using Leaf Fungi to Improve Crop Resilience

An interdisciplinary team led by Christine Hawkes is identifying beneficial fungi found in five key crops with the aim of using them to help plants fend off diseases and tolerate drought stress.

A group of students in a corn field as the sun sets. (From Summer 2019)

Jun 22, 2020

CALS Researchers Return to the Bench and Field

As NC State ramps up the Research Restart process, here’s how three researchers from across the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are returning to the lab bench and test field after time away due to COVID-19.

Seedlings with mutations in genes involved in making a plant growth hormone have curly cotyledons, the first two “leaves” of a plant shoot, or short roots. (Labeled seedlings on black)

Jun 3, 2020

Complementary Mutations: A Rollercoaster of Scientific Discovery

NC State researchers discover a new genetic mutation that could “fix” another mutation in the same gene, an enzyme involved in making a plant growth hormone — after a rollercoaster of ups and downs.

Boxes of gloves, safety goggles and masks in a lab.

Apr 8, 2020

CALS Donates Protective Equipment, Supplies to Area Hospitals

CALS researchers donated truckloads of personal protective equipment including disposable gloves and N95 masks to area medical systems. Learn why two of them decided to give.

Aerial of tractor spraying fields at Lake Wheeler farms.

Mar 30, 2020

Fertilizer of the Future

An interdisciplinary team led by Katharina Stapelmann is setting out on an ambitious three-year project to completely rethink how nitrogen-based fertilizers are produced and used. From on-farm fertilizer production to on-demand, precision irrigation, their project aims to cut energy use, protect the water supply and increase yields.

Dec 16, 2019

Salty Algae Leads to Sweet Success

NC State University professor Heike Sederoff started studying saltwater algae more than a decade ago as part of a project to use algae to make biofuel. This research led to a recent paper in the journal Nature and a biofuels patent application.

Anna Stepanova and Jose Alonso in a room for growing plants.

Nov 8, 2019

New Genetic Engineering Toolset Produces Better-Modified Plants Faster, Easier

NC State profs Anna Stepanova and Jose Alonso share a new set of genetic engineering tools that makes recombineering large plant genes faster and easier in a paper published in the journal Plant Cell. The toolset will improve the precision and reliability of fundamental plant science, which forms the foundation for innovations in pest resistance, yield increases and growing season extensions.

Mollie Rappe