Boyce Thompson Inst

BTI researcher Isako Di Tomassi just received a national award – and the movement she helped build is worth knowing about. Di Tomassi, a Ph.D. candidate in the Restrepo Lab at BTI, co-led The McClintock Letters: a grassroots campaign that mobilized over 600 scientists to write opinion pieces in their hometown newspapers defending the importance of federal research funding. More than 200 pieces were published across 45 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. On March 10, she and Cornell colleague Emma Scales received the "Meeting the Moment for Public Health" award at Research!America's 2026 Advocacy Awards at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The initiative was named after Barbara McClintock – the Nobel Prize–winning geneticist who spent decades defending curiosity-driven research before her discoveries were recognized. Di Tomassi's own work studies the pathogen behind late blight disease, the same pathogen responsible for the Irish Potato Famine, which continues to threaten food systems today. "As scientists, and particularly as agricultural researchers, we work for the public," said Di Tomassi. "It is part of our job to communicate with the people that we work for, and to share why our research matters and how it helps people." We couldn't be more proud. Read the full story here: btiscience.org/explore-bti/ne…

We want to extend a sincere thank you to Congressman @RepRileyNY (D-NY-19) and Congressman @RepJimBaird (R-IN-4) for their leadership in introducing H.R. 7949 - NSF Plant Biology Act. This bipartisan effort to increase NSF funding for plant and microbial biology research is vital for the future of science and innovation. We are proud to support this initiative! 🌿 congress.gov/bill/119th-con…

A tiny plant with big potential for the future of food Check out the recent news coverage of the latest research from BTI Associate Professor Fay-Wei Li and his collaborators. It explores how an odd plant called hornwort could help scientists improve photosynthesis in crops. The research team uncovered a unique way in which hornwort concentrates CO₂ around rubisco, the key enzyme that powers photosynthesis. Because rubisco is naturally inefficient—especially in higher temperatures—this finding could help scientists develop crops that grow faster, use less water, and require fewer fertilizers. The research is an exciting step toward boosting crop yields and improving food production with fewer resources. 🔗 Read the full story to learn more about this exciting research. grist.org/food-and-agric…

Isabelle Jacqmotte-Parks, from the Translational Science lab, and Megan Truesdail participated in the annual Girls Day Out event hosted by the Cortland YWCA. Held yearly, the event allows girls to explore new career opportunities, skills, and activities during a fun, all-day event. BTI participated in the career panel portion of the day, which allowed girls to engage with local organizations and professionals to learn more about careers in STEAM and other fields. They learned more about BTI’s plant science research by conducting a hands-on experiment, learning about photosynthesis in plants, and seeing plants photosynthesize in real time.

This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields. 🌱 Scientists have been trying to give crops a photosynthesis upgrade for decades. A new discovery just made that goal look more achievable than ever. Here's the challenge: an enzyme called Rubisco is responsible for capturing CO₂ during photosynthesis–it's essentially the engine behind all plant growth, including our food crops. But Rubisco is slow and inefficient. Many algae solve this by using a specialized compartment that floods Rubisco with CO₂, helping it work faster and use less energy. Transferring that system into crops like wheat, rice, or soybean has been the dream. But algae machinery has proven stubbornly difficult to transfer. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, and the University of Edinburgh found a simpler way to get there, hidden inside hornworts, tiny plants that most people have never heard of. Hornworts are the only land plants with this kind of CO₂-boosting compartment. Instead of requiring a separate protein to cluster Rubisco, hornworts built the function directly into Rubisco itself. When the researchers moved that component into a standard lab plant, Rubisco formed dense clusters that don't exist in normal plants. The potential for agriculture: even modest improvements in photosynthetic efficiency could meaningfully increase crop yields while reducing agriculture's resource footprint. It's not a finished solution; there's still engineering work to do. But it's the kind of foundational breakthrough that changes what's possible. The research was published in Science. Learn more: btiscience.org/explore-bti/ne…

What if crops could signal when they need fertilizer? @Cornell researchers built a system where plants detect nitrogen stress and automatically trigger precise nutrient delivery, aiming to cut waste and reduce runoff. Read more: bit.ly/4aWLVwH

🌱 Now Hiring: Controller 🌱 The Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) is seeking an experienced Controller to lead financial operations, reporting, compliance, and budgeting in a mission-driven nonprofit research environment. ✔️ CPA required ✔️ 5–10 years of accounting/financial management experience ✔️ Nonprofit, research, or higher ed experience preferred Competitive salary + comprehensive benefits. Join a team advancing plant science and global food security. Learn more & apply recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/Job…

@SamCTalbot you got it!

@BTIscience Testing weightless environments and measuring gravitropic responses! Pretty cool.

Throwback science! 🌿We found this fascinating piece of equipment while digging into the BTI archives. Think you know what it was used for? Take a guess in the comments!

Glad to share our recent paper on SV dynamics during cucumber breeding, revealed through a graph-based pangenome constructed using 27 newly assembled and 12 previously published genomes.⁦⁩⁦@BTIscience⁩ ⁦@CornellCALS⁩ nature.com/articles/s4158…

Roses are red, violets are blue, our research keeps growing, and so does our love for you! 💚 Happy Valentine’s Day from BTI.

Today we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science by recognizing the scientists at BTI whose curiosity, creativity, and leadership are shaping the future of plant science and agriculture. Their work drives discovery, innovation, and real-world impact.

Pop quiz: What's the world's third most-produced vegetable? 🥒 It's the cucumber. (Tomatoes and onions take the top spots.) Despite its popularity, breeding better cucumbers has been surprisingly difficult. Now, BTI scientists have created a powerful tool to help. They built the most detailed genetic map of cucumber ever assembled—cataloguing 172,000 large DNA variations, rearrangements that have shaped the evolution of this important vegetable crop and can have dramatic effects on agronomic traits. This can help breeders develop better varieties more efficiently. Better cucumbers incoming! Read the full story: cstu.io/004865

Good neighbors show up even in snow and cold. We were delighted to welcome the @Wegmans Food Markets sustainability team and Organic Farm & Orchard leaders to BTI last Friday. Traveling from Rochester to Ithaca, they braved the winter weather to meet with our scientists, learn more about our research, and tour our facilities. From sustainable agriculture to resilient food systems, it was energizing to share ideas with partners who care deeply about where food comes from and how it’s grown. Here’s a glimpse of a great day spent with neighbors who share our commitment to a healthier, more sustainable future.

Our Research Experience for Undergraduates program offers a 10-week summer opportunity for undergraduate students to engage in hands-on research, professional development, and mentorship within a vibrant research community. Applications are open for the 2026 program and close February 2nd! Watch this video to get an inside look at the program and hear directly from participants as they reflect on their experiences and how the summer shaped their academic and career paths. Learn more and apply: reu.btiscience.org

What if crops could get more nutrients while needing less fertilizer? 🌱 The key lies in a 450-million-year-old partnership. Soil fungi deliver phosphorus to plant roots. In return, plants provide fungi with sugars and fats. About 80% of Earth's plant species depend on this exchange—including the crops that feed us. BTI Professor Maria Harrison's team developed new tools to see exactly which proteins make this partnership work, verified in living roots. These tools are now available to the scientific community to study this widespread, agriculturally important collaboration. Understanding the molecular machinery means scientists can now work toward crops optimized for fungal partnerships. More efficient nutrient uptake. Less synthetic fertilizer. Better for farms and the environment. btiscience.org/explore-bti/ne…

Our 2026 Research Experiences for Undergraduates application is now open! This 10-week experience provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in research and professional development with a community of researchers. Visit reu.btiscience.org to learn more and apply! Applications are open until February 2, 2026.

Join @plant_gene and experts from industry and research for a live Zoom workshop on Automation for Plant Bioengineering: Opportunities, Considerations, and Emerging Solutions. Feb 5 10:30 AM–12:30 PM ET Includes a 30-minute interactive discussion Register: cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Our 2026 Research Experiences for Undergraduates application is now open! This 10-week experience provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to engage in research and professional development with a community of researchers. Visit reu.btiscience.org to learn more and apply! Applications are open until February 2, 2026.