Discovery inspired by plants. Click the link to explore more about BTI and for our “House Rules” for Social Media Comments. linktr.ee/BTIScience
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Let's get to know our 2026 summer REU students! youtu.be/DXhY68CYQ_Y
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.
BTI PhD candidate Elizabeth "Lizzie" Trost is digging into the powerful partnership between plants and mycorrhizal fungi. With support from the Triad Foundation, Lizzie is exploring the molecular biology behind this underground teamwork and helping pave the way for stronger, more resilient crops.
PhD candidate Yu-Heng Hsieh is studying the signaling compounds that help plants recruit nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, research that could one day help reduce the need for agricultural fertilizers. Thank you to the the Triad Foundation for helping to make this work possible!
Today we took a "paws" from our normal activities for some very important research on ear scratches, belly rubs, and treat distribution. Thanks to Cornell Companions for helping BTI take a Paws for a Break today!
This week, we were proud to welcome the BTI Board of Directors for an engaging and productive visit focused on the future of the Institute. Discussions around BTI’s Strategic Plan highlighted the strong community, collaboration, and leadership driving our mission forward.
Beneficial fungi have been growing through plant cells for hundreds of millions of years. Scientists still don't know how – without destroying the very cells they depend on. BTI's inaugural Jane Silverthorne Fellow, Dr. Natalie Hoffmann, intends to find out. https://cstu.io/5c7080
Centuries of breeding gave us sweeter watermelons but cost disease resistance. In Nature Genetics, Dr. Zhangjun Fei's BTI team published a 7-species super-pangenome (138 genomes) mapping sweetness, color, and resistance—a blueprint to bring wild resilience back to crops. https://cstu.io/d59eb0
For more than 100 years, BTI has been a place where bold ideas take root. Alumnus Pedro Rodrigues co-founded PrecizionIQ, a health technology startup developing non-invasive prenatal diagnostics that recently earned top honors at the PanIIT Bangalore Summit 2026. btiscience.org/from-discove...
Congrats to the 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. www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
Fungi and plants have been trading nutrients underground for hundreds of millions of years. But one basic question has never been answered: how do beneficial
Watermelon is a quintessential summertime fruit, evoking images of warm, sunny afternoons and cookouts with friends and family. You can easily picture its
cstu.io
Since its founding more than a century ago, the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has been a place where bold scientific ideas take root.
