researchers bring biotech to farmers worldwide with plant-dx

in 2018, family farming generated about 80 percent of the earth's food. as climate change raises global temperatures and prompts extreme weather events, these small-scale operations will...

researchers at northwestern university are transforming complicated biotechnology into a simple an easy tool for farmers to test for crop disease with plant-dx.

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in 2018, family farming generated about 80 percent of the earth’s food. as climate change raises global temperatures and prompts extreme weather events, these small-scale operations will face surges in pests and crop disease.

in response, researchers at the northwestern university lucks lab have developed plant-dx, a mobile platform to help farmers test crops quickly and on-the-go. this november, the bill & melinda gates foundation awarded the lucks lab with the grand challenges explorations grant to further develop plant-dx into an accessible solution for farmers around the world.

graduate student matthew verosloff, leader of the plant-dx project, warms a plant sample with his body heat. farmers will be able to test their crops within hours using the same simple technology. (molly glick/northwestern university)
this visual read-out for plant and water samples hooks up to sensors and can alert farmers to the presence of multiple viruses at once. (molly glick/northwestern university)
samples from the lucks lab, where researchers also are also developing affordable water testing techniques for individual households (molly glick/northwestern university).

 

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agriculture, biotechnology, climate change, farming, lucks lab, pfcorrespondent, storyfest

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