News & Events

In the wake of community coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission in the United States, there is a growing public health concern regarding the adequacy of resources to treat infected cases. Hospital beds, intensive care units (ICUs), and ventilators are vital for the treatment of patients with severe illness. To project the timing of the outbreak peak and the number of ICU beds required at peak, we simulated a COVID-19 outbreak parameterized with the US population demographics.

Natural photosynthetic systems and photocatalysis share several fundamental processes in common including light energy conversion and utilization, such as exciton (excited state) generation/splitting and charge migration. The high efficiency of light conversion to chemical redox equivalents in natural photosynthesis is achieved by an electron transfer cascade resulting in a long-distance hole and electron separation across the membrane.

Carbon pricing is often presented as the primary policy approach to address climate change. We challenge this position and offer “sustainability transition policy” (STP) as an alternative. Carbon pricing has weaknesses with regard to five central dimensions: 1) problem framing and solution orientation, 2) policy priorities, 3) innovation approach, 4) contextual considerations, and 5) politics

The potato/tomato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli (Šulc) transmits 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum' (Lso) (also known as 'Candidatus Liberibacter psyllaurous'), the bacterium associated with zebra chip disease (ZC) in potato. When disease incidence is high, ZC causes large economic losses through reductions in potato yield and tuber quality. No commercial potato variety has been found totally resistant to the pathogen

The ongoing health crisis around COVID19 has affected all walks of life. Protecting lives of people suffering from the disease as well as frontline health responders have been the priority of nations. Governments have swung into actions since the Corona virus attack created an unprecedented situation. India declared a three-week nation-wide lockdown till mid-April in the initial phase, which has subsequently been extended till May 3  for achieving satisfactory containment of the virus spread.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Union (AU) and international partners today described the food and agriculture system as "an essential service that must continue to operate during periods of lockdown, emergency, curfew and other containment measures". In a joint declaration, they committed to supporting access to food and nutrition for Africa's most vulnerable; providing Africans with social protection; minimizing disruptions to the safe movement and transport of essential people

Identification of agronomically important genes is a critical step for crop breeding through biotechnology. Multiple approaches have been employed to identify new gene targets, including comprehensive screening platforms for gene discovery such as the over-expression of libraries of cDNA clones. In this study, random genomic fragments from plants were introduced into rice and screened for drought tolerance

Making sure that the collections of beans, cassava, bananas, and forages remain alive, even during the quarantine, is an essential job of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in order to preserve the world’s biodiversity and food safety. From its work sites in laboratories, greenhouses, and experimental fields in Palmira, Colombia, and at the University of Louvain

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and Canada’s Minister of International Development Karina Gould discussed ways to meet emergency and development needs in agriculture during the COVID-19 crisis, and beyond, at a virtual meeting today. The meeting was held in anticipation of this Friday's UN Member States briefing on food insecurity and COVID-19 in New York.

Xanthomonas species are primarily known as a group of phytopathogens infecting diverse plants. Recent molecular studies reveal the existence of potential novel species and strains of Xanthomonas following a nonpathogenic lifestyle. In the present study, we report whole-genome sequences of four nonpathogenic strains from citrus (NPXc). Taxonogenomics revealed the surprising diversity,

Kuleana's founder Jacek Prus came up with the idea to initially address problems caused by the high demand for tuna. For instance, overfishing is one of the major factors that contributed to the dwindling number of bluefin tuna species, not to mention the decreased fish stock levels in the market. Another factor is the health concerns posed by eating raw tuna.

Current regulatory approaches rely on added DNA sequences for the identification of GM plants. The fact that gene-edited crops can be indistinguishable at the molecular level from those that occur in nature or are produced by mutation breeding presents a conundrum for regulators.¹