Talking Biotech with Dr. Kevin Folta

This week’s Talking Biotech features discussion of Huanglongbing (HLB) also known as Citrus Greening Disease.  The disease is devastating Florida citrus, and is causing a massive hardship on the State’s iconic industries.  We are joined by Ricke Kress from Southern Gardens Citrus, one of the largest producers and processors.  Southern Gardens has experienced massive losses from citrus greening, losing over 800,000 trees.  They are now in the process of deregulating the first genetically engineered citrus variety.  A gene from spinach moved to citrus trees confers tolerance to this disease, and the plants are asymptomatic and productive so far.  This is another excellent example of how these technologies, developed by small companies or universities, can solve issues that help ensure future delivery of fresh, healthy fruit.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

This week I had to address the elephant in the room. What’s up with the recent flack about Monsanto funding a science communication outreach program?What is happening with FOIA?  What is the future of the Talking Biotech science communication program? Yes, I actually went on a vacation-vacation, first time since April 2002. And it was in a place with no cell signal or internet access.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

This week’s podcast discusses Kevin Folta’s public records situation for 60 seconds.That is followed by a talk with Dr. Andrew McKemey from Oxitec in Oxford, England.  Oxitec has a technology that allows rearing of male mosquitoes that transmit a gene that disrupts offspring from developing.  This technology has been show to work field situations, providing potential solutions to mosquito-borne disease.  Dr. McKemey describes the technology and addresses ecological concerns.In the second part Dr. Phil Stewart from Driscoll’s Strawberry Associates talks about careers in plant breeding.  There is a desperate need for plant breeders in both industry and academia.  These high-paying, satisfying careers outnumber the supply of graduating students to fill the positions. Dr. Stewart discusses his job, the required preparations, and how interested students can target these lucrative and fulfilling career paths.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

This week’s podcast is an important analysis of two published reports. First, the results from the famous Rothamstead wheat trial show that their transgene does not confer resistance to aphids, inconsistent with their laboratory findings.  While this outcome was considered to be a successful, reliable answer, it was billed as an abject failure on anti-biotech activist websites. Today we revisit the issues of publication and peer-review, and the story of the threats of vandalism against the experiment.  We then will speak with Prof. John Pickett from Rothamstead Research Institute. We’ll discuss the lab work the trials, and future directions.The second part of the podcast discusses the recent publication from Adyydurai et al that claims transgenic soy produces abnormal amounts of formaldehyde, relative to non-transgenic controls.  The conclusion comes from a computational approach that was never experimentally validated.  Since, I have extended an offer to test their hypothesis, yet they have not accepted the opportunity to examine if their prediction is in fact correct.  Meanwhile, they are using this paper as a warning about transgenic crops.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

This Talking Biotech Podcast features Dr. William Powell from SUNY, where he is co-Director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project.  The American Chestnut was a dominant forest tree in Appalachia until the late 1800’s when it was destroyed by disease. Dr. Powell’s project has used a transgenic approach to confer resistance to the disease, with the goal of repatriating the forest with this dominant tree species.  Dr. Richard Michelmore from UC-Davis talks about lettuce history, genetics, genomics and breeding, with surprising information about lettuce that will make you never look at a head of lettuce the same way again.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

Ag professionals know their businesses and on-farm practices better than anyone. However, they don’t tend to share their story in public space, allowing others (including unscrupulous hucksters and activists) to warp their reality.How do we get the real experts excited about communicating about new technology, and how it is used on the farm?  New innovations in crops and animals stand to improve productivity and quality of farm products, with benefits to farmers, the consumer and the environment.This is the topic of Dr. Kevin Folta’s presentation to the Florida Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Symposium in Naples, FL, July 18, 2015.  An accompanying slide show is available at www.slideshare.net/kevinfolta . Please use it to talk to others, especially family, concerned friends, and people that need to understand the value of biotech innovations.Innovation goes to application with communication.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

Salmon is an outstanding food for protein, and undeniably great table fare. The AquaBounty company has produced the AquaAdvantage salmon, a fish that grows to production size in less time. This means the same amount of healthy fish using less food, labor, water, and other limited resources. Dave Conley speaks about the salmon, how the trait works, it’s deregulation, and addresses questions about safety and containment.  The second part of the podcast visits with Professor Pat Heslop-Harrison, where we discuss banana origins, applications and the challenges to modern cultivation– with an eye on how breeders and biotechnologists might impact the future of this important fruit.  Special Guest Host, Ms. Val Swenson.# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.

This episode of Talking Biotech features stories of genetically engineered chickens that do not spread the avian influenza virus. This year over 45 million birds have died or have been euthanized because of illness from the avian flu. Prof. Helen Sang of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland is part of the research team that engineered chickens using a clever strategy– they can catch the virus and become ill, but they do not transmit it. She discusses the technology and its hurdles to commercialization.  In the second segment Dr. David Spooner from the USDA ARS and University of Wisconsin talks about the origins of potatoes, the evidence of his path to domestication, and aspects about the future of potato biotechnology.  Special guest co-host Amira- Executive Chef.Download / Subscribe on iTunes Download / Subscribe from Stitcher Download / Subscribe from Player FM# COLABRATalking 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 more at https://www.colabra.app/# TALKING BIOTECHTwitter: https://twitter.com/talkingbiotechWebsite: https://www.colabra.app/podcasts/talking-biotech/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colabrahqThe Talking Biotech podcast is distinct from Dr. Kevin Folta's teaching and research roles at the University of Florida. The views expressed on the show are those of Dr. Folta and his guests, and do not reflect the opinions of the university or Colabra.