Annual Event 2024
ABOUT THE EVENT
The Annual Event is a time to learn from experts, hear about new updates on PlantGENE activities, and provide input on future initiatives.
Three speakers will present at this year’s meeting.
Fredy Altpeter
Professor, University of Florida
Fredy Altpeter is Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology in the Agronomy department of the University of Florida/IFAS. He received a vocational degree in farm management from the chamber of agriculture in Germany, a Dipl. Ing. agr. degree in Crop Science and a Dr. sc. agr. degree (PhD. equivalent) in Plant Breeding from the University Hohenheim, Germany. Dr. Altpeter is internationally recognized as an authority in crop biotechnology. He has authored 87 peer-reviewed publications, 13 book chapters and more than 400 conference abstracts.
Sugarcane provides 80% of the world’s table sugar and 40% of the global biofuel. However, its highly polyploid genome (2n = 100-120; x=10-12) has made crop improvement via traditional breeding and genome editing challenging. When considering targeted mutagenesis, co-editing of all copies/alleles is often desired to obtain a loss of function phenotype. While RNA guided nucleases show great promise for this approach, challenges, including gRNA design, optimization of recombinant DNA constructs, gene transfer, and cost for analysis of editing outcomes need to be overcome. Data comparing different approaches for generation of genetically modified sugarcane will be presented, including field performance of the events.
Shan Jiang
Associate Professor, Iowa State University
Dr. Shan Jiang, an Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted postdoctoral research on drug delivery at MIT’s Langer Lab. He later worked as a research scientist at Dow Chemical before returning to academia, applying his expertise in cancer gene delivery to plant cells. Dr. Jiang has authored over 70 peer-reviewed papers, and his research is funded by NSF, USDA, DOD, and DOE. He has received multiple awards, including the ACS-PRF New Investigator Award, Miller Faculty Fellowship, and 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award.
In this presentation, we will cover the fundamental concepts of biolistic delivery. We will demystify the inconsistency and difficulty in using biolistic devices, often blamed on the complexity of biology. Through illustrations of flow dynamics within a “gene gun” and recent findings from our lab, we will highlight key factors that influence delivery performance and share best practices for sample preparation and operation. Additionally, we will introduce some useful tools developed in our lab to enhance the consistency and efficiency of biolistic delivery.
Connor Thorpe
Graduate Student, Iowa State University
Co-presenter
Connor Thorpe is a Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. He has received the prestigious F. Wendell Miller Scholarship from Iowa State University and a NSF Graduate Traineeship. He has multiple patent applications and provisional patents regarding advancements in biolistic delivery. He has tremendous experience in biolistic delivery for various applications.
In this presentation, we will cover the fundamental concepts of biolistic delivery. We will demystify the inconsistency and difficulty in using biolistic devices, often blamed on the complexity of biology. Through illustrations of flow dynamics within a “gene gun” and recent findings from our lab, we will highlight key factors that influence delivery performance and share best practices for sample preparation and operation. Additionally, we will introduce some useful tools developed in our lab to enhance the consistency and efficiency of biolistic delivery.
