In late May, TPSC held its Annual Retreat at Mountain Lake Lodge, bringing together our community to celebrate recent successes and collectively envision the road ahead. The retreat emphasized mindfulness, science outreach and impact, and the future of plant sciences.

Funded by an $800,000 U.S. National Science Foundation grant, TPSC faculty member Dr. Leisner will seek to better understand how pepper plants respond when simultaneously infected with the pathogen Xanthomonas and experiencing extreme heat. Read more: news.vt.edu/articles/2025/…

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved promotions, tenure, and continued appointments at its June 3rd meeting. Congratulations to TPSC affiliates Dr. Song Li, Dr. Clay Wright, and Dr. Sasha Marine!

Recent graduate April Sayers from the Wright Lab was featured in a Virginia Tech News article detailing her time as an undergraduate research assistant, where she focused on studying the biosynthetic pathways of auxin production in fungi genetics. Read more: news.vt.edu/articles/2025/…

Jessica Dodson, an undergraduate researcher from the Wright Lab, was featured in a Virginia Tech News article detailing her involvement in an innovative research project that bridges the gap between synthetic biology and space exploration. Read more: news.vt.edu/articles/2025/…

The Leisner and Cladis Labs visited the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center for the Berry Crops Field Day in early June. Drs. Leisner, Cladis, and Samtani have a Virginia Tech CALS seed grant to establish blueberry plantings for research in Hampton Roads. #vtberrybites

Four undergraduate students have joined the David Schmale in Austria to research ice nucleation as part of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program, which supports hands-on global research opportunities for undergraduates.

Dr. Song Li hosted a summer coding workshop for plant single-cell data analysis at the Inn at Virginia Tech in late June. Participants spent the week learning about cross-species comparison and cell type identification through presentations and hands-on challenges.

TPSC affiliates Dr. Cridland and Dr. Reed taught middle school students about plant science and genetics as part of SEE VT, a residential summer camp that gives students the opportunity to learn, examine, and reflect on what it means to live (and thrive) in rural communities.

Ph.D. students Nathanial Boeckman and Manisha Chaudhary attended the 4th International Symposium of Fire Blight on Rosaceous Plants in Richland, WA in June. Manisha presented her research poster, and Nathanial won first place in the graduate student oral presentation contest.

In the Li Lab, undergraduate and graduate students are using the I2Grow Robot to explore food waste as a nutrient source for hydroponic farming. The robot uses two different nutrient reservoirs to test food waste from VT Dining Services as a biostimulant to help the plants grow larger.

Learn more about the I2Grow Project: sites.google.com/vt.edu/i2grow/…

Kelsey Reed, TPSC Postdoctoral Researcher, and Abby Masri, TPSC Lab Technician, had the opportunity to attend the 2025 In Vitro Biology Meeting held in Norfolk, Virginia, from June 7 to 10. Their attendance was made possible through the support of the TPSC Non-PI Seed Grant.

TPSC affiliates Dr. Bargmann, Dr. Wright, Lili Zebluim (Wright Lab), and Dr. Neres (former Wright Lab member) attended the International Plant Growth Substances Association Conference in CO. The week-long event focused on plant hormones and other substances that regulate growth.

Ph.D. student Shabneek Kaur from the Acimovic Lab was awarded the VT School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Bruce W. Perry Scholarship! The award will help further her research in the development and application of Viability-Droplet Digital PCR (v-ddPCR) to detect and quantify Erwinia amylovora in pear cankers.

This summer, undergraduate student Chanera Brown joined the Leisner Lab to learn more about cloning and molecular biology with a focus on genetic manipulation in potatoes. 🥔

For the second summer in a row, undergraduate student Devonte Wiley joined the Scharf Lab. He is researching interactions between phages and their hosts in order to be able to incorporate phage therapy in clinical settings to treat bacterial infections.

Dr. Brenda Winkel was an invited plenary speaker at the 32nd International Conference on Polyphenols, held from July 7-10 in Turku, Finland. Her talk detailed her group's findings on the connections between flavonoids and the circadian clock in plants.