Wide Angle: Genetically Engineering a Virus-Resistant Grapevine

September 25, 2009

Wine lovers, take note of this research. You may not know it, but one of your greatest enemies is something called the grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV). The results of the virus aren't pretty on the eye (deformed, yellow leaves), or the palette (complete crop loss!). The common way to battle GFLV? Pesticides. Again, the discerning wine consumer may not like that so much, right? Enter the Frauenhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology  in Aachen, Germany. Dr. Stefan Schillberg and his team are working with model plants (at right) to try to genetically engineer, eventually, a grapevine that is resistant to GFLV. You can see some good results. The plant (again, a model plant, not a grapevine) on the far left of the picture wasn't engineered, the other two were. The middle one is more than 50% resistant to GFLV, and the one of the right almost 100% resistant. In this Wide Angle podcast, I got Dr. Schillberg on the line to talk about his work. He started by talking about the unique way they've found of introducing the genetic changes into the plants.

(Photo Credit: Fraunhofer IME)

Wide Angle: Retinal Implants to Battle Diabetic Retinopathy

August 18, 2009

Granted, the title of this post is truly a mouthful. But, stick with me here, because this podcast will introduce you to some very, very cool technology and some interesting scientific research. All you have to do, as they say, is keep your eye on the ball. Bad joke, sorry...not enough coffee yet this morning. Anyway, our current Wide Angle coverage is all about tissue engineering. My contribution is not quite engineering; perhaps better to call it a bit of re-engineering. The story starts with a somewhat chance meeting a decade ago between Elias Greenbaum, who is currently a Corporate Fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and retinal surgeon Mark Humayun of The Doheny Eye Institute. Greenbaum's background is in the physics and chemistry of photosynthesis. Humayun was interested in developing retinal implants. However far apart those two areas of science sound, the two quickly realized there was overlap. A lot of overlap. Greenbaum studies how plant cells convert light energy into electrical energy. Humayun's work involved applying voltages and currents to the surviving retinal cells of blind people to see if it could stimulate macular regeneration. Together, they started work on developing retinal implants that would use photosynthetic style "reaction centers," instead of electrical current. That work continues.

But along the way, the team branched out a bit. They started to look circulatory complications that happen in diabetics. And that's where Greenbaum picks up the story in this Wide Angle podcast. Click here to download and take it with you, or simply listen using the player below.

(Eye schematic by Rhcastilhos via Wikimedia Commons)

Wide Angle: Leaf Albedo Bio-Geoengineering

April 15, 2009

My podcast contribution to this week's Wide Angle: Engineering Earth seems ever so slightly humble compared to some of the amazing geo-engineering projects being dreamed up. I mean, just check out the video of the giant sun shield! No, instead, I speak with a scientist who is investigating whether or not it might be possible to tame global warming through millions and millions of smaller sunshields. Yep, the leaves of crop plants like corn, or what the Brits call maize. Andy Ridgwell of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom has been working with some climate models, and he suggests "a bio-geoengineering scheme in which crop canopy albedo is increased to help mitigate climate change - choosing crop varieties or species having specific leaf glossyness and canopy morphological traits, and ultimately, genetically modifying the structure and composition of plant leaf waxes." That is, admittedly, a mouthful. So, I got Andy on the line to help me understand it all a bit better.

I started by asking him, what exactly is "albedo?"

Right, that was a start. So, what, exactly, did he have in mind by re-engineering the albedo of plants?

 

(Photo by Jonathunder via Wikimedia Commons)

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