Talking Biotech with Dr. Kevin Folta

Florida is the canary in the coalmine for mosquito-transmitted disease in the USA.  The Florida Keys are especially vulnerable.  Traffic through this sensitive string of islands allows infected insects to be rapidly vectored to other areas of the keys, as well as to the mainland.  Over the last decade there have been notable incidents of Zika, Chikunguna, Denge and other mosquito-borne diseases. O...

Penguins are charismatic, flightless, diving birds.  While typically associated only with Antarctica, their center of origin, radiation and speciation has been widely debated.  Dr. Juliana Vianna is part of an Antarctica Genomics Group at the Catholic University of Chile.  Her team has analyzed the genomes of penguins and compared it against other data, including the fossil record. They have provi...

Most experts agree that the COVID19 pandemic will not end until a vaccine is available.  But traditionally, vaccines take a decade to develop and test.  The crisis has ignited efforts from over 130 companies, all racing to develop vaccines to render the population immune to the virus.  One exciting new development is the mRNA vaccine, a case where humans are injected with the genetic material of t...

A number of strange, devastating and lethal diseases are caused by prions. The most famous of these disorders in animals is Bovine Spongiform Encelapathy,  or “Mad Cow Disease”. Unlike other infectious agents like viruses, bacteria or fungi, prion-based diseases are caused by a misfolding of proteins resident in the body.  Essentially, this is your own chemistry turning against itself.  In this we...

 Male cattle (bulls) convert feed calories to weight gain more efficiently than females (cows). If more bulls could be put into beef production, the process would be even more sustainable. Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam and her research team attempted a clever trick to skew the ratio of males to females in cattle offspring.  Sex determination in mammals is driven mostly by a single gene on the Y chromos...

In 2001 the Earth Liberation Front bombed the office of Dr. Toby Bradshaw at the University of Washington.  The damage was massive, especially toward non-targeted labs.  This is a great story of how misguided activism can have damaging collateral effects, and work against the efforts of scientists that are performing great work for people and a planet. # COLABRA Talking Biotech is brought to you b...

Most organisms on earth evolved under constant intervals of light and darkness. The regular intervals led to the evolution of internal clocks that are trained by the light/dark patterns, and condition responses from gene expression to higher physiology and morphology.  Dr. Eva Farre of Michigan State University has a notable career in circadian rhythm research in plants. Today she joins the podcas...

Dr. Alan McHughen has been a leader in biotechnology education for decades, and has served in public academic research as well as an advisor to the State Department in the Obama Administration.  He has assembled a book about DNA, the basics of DNA biology and some of the modern applications from ancestry to biotechnological solutions. We have a discussion about the content of DNA Demystified. # CO...

The documentary space is littered with videos that misrepresent science, especially around agriculture. Dr. Hidde Boersma is a trained scientist that has taken up the mantle of making high-quality documentary films and other media to tell the real story, without the hyperbole and fear found in most video efforts.  The plan now is to tell the story of the activist and attorney assault on glyphosate...

Analysis of populations of animals can be problematic, especially when individuals of different species share similar visual characteristics. Dr. Melinda Baerwald has developed a field-friendly way to identify individual species with great sensitivity and specificity, without a complicated DNA prep or temperature cycling equipment.  The application of the SHERLOCK method was used to monitor popula...

Dr. Ilaria Capua is one of the world’s most prominent virologists, and a Professor at the University of Florida and the Director of the One Health Center of Excellence.  In this week’s podcast she updates us on the current state of COVID19 with some important philosophical approaches as to how we should think about the virus. In the second half we discuss her new book, Circular Health, a concept t...

Today’s podcast marks five complete years of podcast episodes, and there’s no better guest than someone on the Mount Rushmore of plant genetic engineering.  We’re joined today by Dr. Robb Fraley, who was at ground zero of the first transformed plants.  He recalls the race to transform plants, his time as a leader in the Monsanto company, and his vision for the future. Follow Dr. Fraley on Twitter:...

Aflatoxin is a natural poison emitted by several species of fungi. They infect grain, and exploit insect damage.  Millions of people are affected by these toxins that invade world food staples, mostly with a higher incidence of specific cancers, like liver cancer.  IITA is an organization committed to improving food staples in the developing world.  Dr. Ranjit Bandyopadhyay and his team have disco...

Today’s podcast starts with answering your questions, covering biodynamic farming, cover crops and my financial transparency.  The second part discusses a battle between sensitivity to endangered species and farmers’ freedom to operate.  Environmental policy designed to protect a regional fish species has called for strangling limitations on water use for farmers in the Klamath River Basin in Nort...

Vance Crowe has a background that shifted between the Peace Corps in Kenya, a deckhand on an ecotourism ship, and a position with the World Bank. All had a common thread of situational communication and unique challenges.  The biggest challenge came as an opportunity to work for Monsanto as the Director of Millennial Engagement. Vance discusses work inside the company, as well as his experiences w...

Throughout the COVID19 pandemic we have heard various opinions about wearing face coverings and protective masks. Some see them as critical components of public health. Others see them as a senseless violation of their personal freedom, and claim the masks have absolutely no effect on infectious disease. This week’s podcast is an interview with a world expert, Dr. Raina MacIntyre of the Kirby Inst...

Leah McGrath is a Registered Dietitian with a great presence in social media. She is the corporate dietitian for a major grocery chain, and has had an important role in shaping the messaging around the multitude of food issues. She has been instrumental in debunking bad information in social media space.  In this podcast we discuss how the COVID19 crisis has reshaped shopping and consumption patte...

From the dawn of the pandemic there  has been a notable rise in false information that clouds public perception and harms trust in scientific guidance.  To remedy this situation it is critical that we step into conversations with the best possible information.  Dr. Natalie Dean is a biostatistican that studies emerging infectious disease at the University of Florida. In this episode we discuss the...

The wartime response of the Manhattan Project streamlined production of weapons to revolve World War II.  The plan involved massive redundancy, streamlining and parallelization of approaches to ensure the most rapid progress in technology development.  Dr. Hannu Rajaniemi of HelixNano called for the development of a Vaccine Manhattan Project in a recent article on Medium, suggesting a pathway to w...

Weeds are a tremendous problem in agriculture, costing farmers billions a year in crop loss and the cost of control.  In Europe one of the critical weeds is black grass, which causes great losses in wheat and other grass crops.  However, little is known about this weed, especially the molecular basis of herbicide resistance. Dr. Dana MacGregor came to the daunting task of attacking the molecular b...

Cattle are currently used for meat, milk, hide products and as work animals.  Where did they come from?  Who are the wild relatives?  Dr. Hans Lenstra from the Utrecht University describes the domestication of cattle, their radiation throughout the world, and the traits that humans have selected.  We discuss the current state of genomics as well as how genomic selection, artificial insemination an...

Western Africa holds many nations of substantial population and an emerging economies.  The nation has recently approved the use of the Bt cowpea to farm without applied insecticide, and with the new technology comes the need to ensure that it is used correctly.  Today’s podcast features Francis Onyekachi, Program Officer, West African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).  AATF helps with tr...

The meta-analysis is traditionally considered to be a high synthesis of extant scientific literature. Their implicit power places them in headlines and they are used to sway policy and reshape fields of research.  However, over the past three decades there has been an explosion in meta-analyses. There are many reasons for this increase, but like everything, as more people are involved, we see a te...

In this special edition of the Talking Bitotech Podcast Dr. Kevin Folta covers recent topics in COVID19.  These topics are pulled from the headlines and distilled to that you can better communicate the current state of this health crisis. # COLABRA Talking Biotech is brought to you by Colabra – an R&D platform that brings your lab’s world-changing research together in one shared space. Learn m...

Grafting is an age-old practice of connecting a set of roots to an aerial portion of a separate plant.  Together they typically exhibit enhanced productivity, disease resistance, or other trait that makes grafting a useful practice.  But why does it work? How does it work? What happens at the cells in the junction where different plants collide?  Dr. Charles Melnyk from the Swedish Agricultural Un...