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Some pie-oneering research happened in the Potting Room yesterday... Congratulations to the winners of this year's BTI Pie Party contest! 🥇 1st Place: Melanie Filiatrault with Old Fashioned Custard 🥈 2nd Place: Magda Julkowska with Berry Serious Pie A huge thank you to our greenhouse team for organizing! Also thank you to everyone who baked a pie and attended.

Week 3 check-in! Our Summer REU students are making the most of their time in Ithaca, exploring its iconic lake, gorges, and waterfalls.

Week 3 check-in! Our Summer REU students are making the most of their time in Ithaca, exploring its iconic lake, gorges, and waterfalls.

Week 3 check-in! Our Summer REU students are making the most of their time in Ithaca, exploring its iconic lake, gorges, and waterfalls.

Science had one of the world's most invasive plants misidentified for decades. The fern Salvinia molesta spreads across ponds and waterways in a smothering green mat, doubling its biomass every 36 hours. It has reached freshwater bodies in more than 60 countries. For all that time, its fundamental biology was misclassified. New research from BTI's Fay-Wei Li revealed that the species carries just two sets of chromosomes – not five, as scientists had long believed. Its two subgenomes are so structurally different that the plant cannot reproduce sexually at all. It clones itself instead. Endlessly. Sequencing 100 individuals across five U.S. populations turned up almost no genetic diversity. Every invasive S. molesta in the country likely traces back to a single plant, with identical copies spreading from there. That means a single effective treatment should work no matter where it shows up. The research, published in PNAS, is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about fern genome evolution, too. Full story: cstu.io/a7411f

On Wednesday and Thursday, 7 youth from the NYS 4-H Career Exploration event joined researchers from CROPPs and BTI to learn more about cutting-edge research in plant science. Students spent time with researchers and staff from CROPPs to learn about programmable plants and grafting, and in the afternoon, learned more about phenotyping from Dr. Magda Julkowska. Students toured BTI's Phenotype facility and then learned more about how phenotyping can be utilized in robotic and automatic agricultural systems. Afterward, with Dr. Cristina McGuire and Megan Truesdail, Education and Outreach staff at BTI, they continued to explore agricultural tools by learning more about gene editing and GMOs by studying Norfolk Health Produce's 'Purple Tomatoes.' #4HCareerEx26

Checking in on week 2 through the eyes of our Summer REU students—and as you might expect, there are plants everywhere!

Checking in on week 2 through the eyes of our Summer REU students—and as you might expect, there are plants everywhere!

Checking in on week 2 through the eyes of our Summer REU students—and as you might expect, there are plants everywhere!

BTI's Summer REU program is off to a fast start! From conducting research to exploring Ithaca, our researchers have jumped right into the experience. Take a look at photos from their first week and then click the link to learn more about the program: btiscience.org/bti-welcomes-2…

Innovation starts with bold scientific questions, and that’s exactly what drives BTI postdoctoral researcher Laura Gonzalez Garcia. We are proud to announce that she has been named a 2026 Pew Latin American Fellow. One of just 10 researchers selected, Laura will develop new approaches to study RNA modification and its roles in biology, with applications spanning plant science and human health. Pewtrusts btiscience.org/bti-postdoc-la…

We also welcome our 2026 Pew Latin American fellows! These 10 outstanding biomedical scientists from across Latin America will conduct cutting-edge postdoctoral research in U.S. labs—and inspire the next generation in the process. pew.org/en/about/news-…

“Mefenoxam Sensitive Isolates of Phytophthora infestans Can Quickly Acquire and Lose Resistance to This Fungicide,” by Melissa Regnier et al.: doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-0… Read the press release from @BTIscience to learn more: eurekalert.org/news-releases/…

Let's get to know our 2026 summer REU students!

Huge congratulations to the team at Ascribe Bio on their new collaboration with Syngenta! It is incredibly rewarding to see a company that was founded on BTI technology taking such massive steps toward global food security. Read more about how their natural crop protection product, PHYTALIX®, will be reaching farmers across Asia: businesswire.com/news/home/2026…

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to our summer REU students! We're thrilled to have them at BTI and can't wait to share their research, discoveries, and summer adventures in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned for updates as they explore, learn, and contribute to cutting-edge science.

For more than 100 years, BTI has been a place where bold ideas take root — and sometimes grow into something even bigger. BTI alumnus Pedro Rodrigues has co-founded PrecizionIQ, an India-based health technology startup developing non-invasive prenatal diagnostics that recently earned top honors at the PanIIT Bangalore Summit 2026. The company is also advised by former BTI employee Murli Manohar and BTI emeritus faculty member Daniel Klessig, highlighting the lasting connections and collaborations that grow from the BTI community. Read how BTI's culture of discovery, mentorship, and innovation is helping shape the future of global health innovation: btiscience.org/from-discovery…