Wolfgang Busch

Wolfgang Busch is Professor and holds the Hess Chair in Plant Science at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He studies genetic and molecular processes underpinning root growth and its responses to the environment. His major interest are root processes that can facilitate carbon storage in soils or otherwise can mitigate climate change and he has co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of the Salk Harnessing Plants Initiative that develops plant varieties with enhanced carbon sequestration capabilities for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, thereby counteracting climate change. To realize this goal, he has also co-founded the AgriTech company Cquesta, which develops carbon sequestration traits and their co-benefits in crops, as well as works on opportunities for farmers to access revenue from carbon credits. Dr. Busch has published more than 90 scientific papers, many of them in world-leading top scientific journals and received several international awards.

Christine Shyu

Christine Shyu is the Regulatory Science Genome Editing Enablement Lead at Bayer Crop Science. In this role, she leads internal and external-facing efforts to shape the regulatory environment around genome editing in crop science and enable Bayer’s genome editing product development pipeline. Christine was trained as a plant molecular biologist at Michigan State University’s Plant Research Laboratories (PRL) and developed her scientific career around utilizing different genome engineering technologies to study gene function and improve crop performance.  She joined Monsanto/Bayer in 2017 as a genome editing scientist and transitioned to the Regulatory Science Organization in 2020 to develop regulatory strategies for genome editing pipeline projects.

Christine is based in St Louis, MO where she lives with her husband Tom and two young children. She is passionate about good food, good ideas, and bridging cultures through meaningful conversations.

Jeff Bennetzen

Jeff Bennetzen received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Washington for studies of yeast molecular genetics, did postdoctoral work for one year, worked in industry for two years, and then joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 1983. He rose to the positions of Professor in 1991 and Umbarger Professor in 1999.  Since 2003, he has been the Giles Professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia.  Dr. Bennetzen was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2004.  He was the founder or co-founder of the International Grass Genome Initiative, the Maize Genetics Executive Committee and the McClintock Prize.  His research investigates the dynamic processes that determine the structure/function of plant genomes, the diversity in developing world crop genomes, the genetic basis of tea palatability, and the role of microbiomes in plant fitness.

Jamie Saxon

Jamie Saxon is the Head of Sustainability and a member of the Science Leadership Team at Inari.  She leads Inari’s sustainability and external innovation strategies, including overseeing Inari’s technology scouting, licensing, and collaborations.  Prior to her current role, Jamie held other roles within Inari, including Corporate Portfolio Director and Director of Operations.  Before joining Inari, Jamie was a fellow at Flagship Pioneering and a postdoctoral fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School.  Jamie holds a doctoral degree from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.

Ian Jepson

Ian Jepson is Site Head for Syngenta Research Triangle Park (RTP) Innovation Center and serves as Global Technology Lead for Syngenta Seeds Research and is accountable for developing strategies that progress new advanced breeding, genome editing, and other crop improvement technologies.

Ian joined Syngenta in 1989 and has dedicated more than 35 years partnering and serving growers across a multitude of research and development roles. He has held several roles of increasing responsibility across biotech traits, animal nutrition, biofuels, and plant performance. Ian also served as Global R&D Sugar Cane Crop Head responsible for the coordination of sugar cane projects and the portfolio across crop protection, planting technologies, biotech, and breeding.

Before his move to the U.S. in 2004, Ian was located at Syngenta’s Jealott’s Hill International Research Station in the U.K. where he held R&D management positions supporting biotech and chemical lead discovery.

Amanda Pierce

Amanda Pierce is a Senior Advisor in the Emerging Technologies Branch in the Office of Pesticide Programs at EPA where she evaluates and ensures the safety of novel applications of recent discoveries in genetics and molecular biology to real world pest control problems – e.g., genetically engineered microorganisms and plant-incorporated protectants. At EPA, she focuses on advancing ecological risk assessment and policy initiatives for these biotechnologies within the United States government and internationally.

Patrick Doyle

Patrick Doyle is Vice President of Product Development & Regulatory at Plant Health Care, a leading provider of proprietary biological products to global agricultural markets. Patrick has ~ 35 years of industry experience with roles in R&D, Product Management, Business Development, Regulatory, Corporate, and Government Affairs within various large & small teams across Canada, Switzerland, and now in the USA. Patrick is a graduate of both the University of Saskatchewan (B.Sc. & M.Sc.) & University of Guelph (Ph.D. Molecular Biology) with each dissertation focused on the development and evaluation of Biological Products as inputs for Commercial Agriculture. Patrick calls Raleigh, North Carolina home, but is never too far away from various family farming operations in Western Canada.

Noel Sauer

Dr. Noel Sauer is the Senior Vice President of Research at Cibus. She is responsible for leading the Research team towards the development of non-transgenic traits in commercially relevant crops through advancements in the field of precision plant breeding.

Dr. Sauer earned her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California, and a doctoral degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University. For her postdoc, Dr. Sauer joined Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, studying host-pathogen interactions.

Marc Libault

Dr. Marc Libault is a Professor in the Division of Plant Science and Technology at the University of Missouri-Columbia (USA). He received his Ph.D. degree in 2004 from the University of Paris-Sud in Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology. In 2005, he the University of Missouri-Columbia as a post-doctoral associate to study the symbiotic interaction between the soybean root and the nitrogen-fixing bacteria. In 2011, as a faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Libault developed a system biology approach on the root hair cell, the first cell infected by Rhizobia in legume plants. In 2018, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and pioneered the field of plant single-nucleus technologies to analyze the differential use of the genomic information between plant cells. As a faculty at the University of Missouri-Columiba, he is expanding the use of plant single-nucleus biology to study the symbiosis between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Subray Hegde

Subray holds a Ph.D. in genetics and has spent 17 years teaching genetics and researching plant population genetics in various universities. In 2007, he joined the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) where he currently serves as the Director of Biotechnology Regulatory Services. In his current position, Subray is responsible for ensuring the safe deployment of genetically engineered plants, insects, and microorganisms (GMOs) that do not pose a risk to agriculture and the environment. Subray is an expert in his field and has been involved in several national and international conferences where he has delivered regulatory and scientific presentations.

Jane Fife

Dr. Fife’s research focuses on improving formulation and delivery of biologics for more effective application of beneficial microbes to promote plant growth and biological disease control. Prior to joining 3Bar Biologics, she has more than 15 years of expertise in application technology and agricultural biologics through her leadership role managing technology development in agribusiness at Battelle Memorial Institute. Dr. Fife holds a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from The Ohio State University, where she currently serves as an Adjunct Faculty and teaches courses in engineering design.

Alexander Bucksch

Alexander Bucksch is an Associate Professor in the School of Plant Sciences (SPLS) at the University of Arizona. He obtained a PhD from Delft University of Technology and he was a Postdoc at Georgia Tech. He develops computational approaches to understand and characterize the function of natural variation in plants and its relation to plant cooperation. He released the phenotyping platforms Digital Imaging for Root Traits (DIRT) and PlantIT, which are used by over 1000 plant researchers worldwide. He chairs the working group “The Science of Plant Phenomics” within the International Plant Phenotyping Network, and serves as a co-chair for the Gordon Research Conference on Collective Behavior. Alexander Bucksch’s research was recognized with an NSF CAREER Award, the Early Career Award of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network, and the Fred C. Davison Early Career Scholar Award.

Andrew Bent

The Bent laboratory is deciphering mechanisms of soybean resistance to soybean cyst nematode, the most economically damaging disease of soybean. As a postdoc Andrew helped set up the Arabidopsis-Pseudomonas syringae interaction as a vehicle for plant pathology research and discovered that plant R genes encode NB-LRR (NLR) proteins.  The new Bent lab discovered cyclic-nucleotide gated ion channels that impact plant disease resistance and HR cell death, defined widely used floral dip transformation methods for Arabidopsis, and then contributed multiple insights regarding the structure and function of the plant flagellin receptor FLS2 and other LRR-containing proteins.  Subsequent work uncovered pathogen-induced host DNA damage and roles of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation in plant defense.  Their findings about soybean resistance to SCN have uncovered causal genes for multiple QTLs important in plant breeding, and new mechanisms of plant disease resistance.

Keith Matthews

Keith Matthews has practiced environmental law focussing on the regulation of chemical substances for over 30 years. He has practiced in the private sector, and for over 13 years was a staff attorney and Assistant General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — first in the Air and Radiation Law Office, and then in the Pesticides and Toxic Substances Law Office. He also served for four years as the Director of the Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division (BPPD) in EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. Since 2013, Keith has been in private practice, counseling and representing ag biotech companies as they navigate the U.S. regulatory system. As Principal of Matthews Law LLC, Keith’s practice focusses on the regulation of chemical products and genetically engineered organisms regulated by EPA, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Keith counsels and advises his clients using his breadth of knowledge on a variety of statutes, including FIFRA, the FFDCA, the Endangered Species Act, and the Plant Protection Act

Lisa Zannoni

Lisa Zannoni, pharmacist and attorney, is an internationally recognized leader in the regulation of biotechnology and gene editing technologies used in food and agriculture.  She has held executive positions in multinational companies, including Syngenta, BASF and Inari, supporting global authorizations for innovative products.  Lisa has held appointments to government, corporate, academic, and non-profit advisory boards She has held leadership positions in international industry groups, including Global Industry Coalition and Global Alliance on Biotechnology in Trade.  Her experience includes: law practice at Hogan Lovells (Brussels); administrator at OECD (Paris); senior executive at USDA; trade association in-house counsel; and retail pharmacy practice.

Jiarui Li

Jiarui Li received MBA and Ph.D. in plant biology. Jiarui is an accomplished scientist and agtech industry leader. He worked in K-State as Research Assistant Professor, and then worked in Bayer CropScience and Simplot as a scientist. Starting from 2020, as Innatrix CEO, he has been leading the Innatrix team to develop eco-friendly biological products for crop protection. Till now, he has raised over $3 million in non-dilutive and capital funds, published over 30 peer-reviewed publications and 2 patents.

Michael DiLegge

Michael DiLegge, MSc, serves as the Director of Microbiology at Impello Biosciences, Inc. He earned his MSc degree from Colorado State University, where his research explored various aspects of plant-microbe interactions including rhizosphere microbiome systems, legacy effects of replanting on soil microbiota, and the caterpillar-gut microbiome. At Impello Biosciences, Michael spearheads bioprospecting initiatives, delving into the intersection of biological and biochemical processes to identify novel agricultural inputs. His research focuses on enhancing crop and soil health by developing innovative solutions to address the current and upcoming challenges faced by modern agriculture.

Morgan Carter

Morgan Carter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and CIPHER Center at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has a B.S. in Biochemistry from North Carolina State University and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Cornell University. She has received fellowship funding from the USDA and been spotlighted in early career sessions by the American Phytopathological Society. Her research program studies how bacteria and fungi interact within microbiomes altering host health outcomes. As one of the only labs in the world focused on how bacteria colonize and manipulate fungi, her research group aims to understand the rules for endofungal bacteria, a surprisingly common and understudied symbiotic interaction that may hold the key to new fungal control strategies.

Tamara Meragelman

Tamara Meragelman is the Senior Director of Research at Sound Agriculture. She has over 20 years of research experience in the area of discovery and development of products using natural products. In the last 13 years, Tamara found her passion in agriculture and food production, particularly developing new solutions that balance efficacy with environmental and financial sustainability. Tamara had contributed to the discovery of biologicals and small molecules for crop protection and crop enhancement, leading multidisciplinary teams in the implementation of agile ways to screen efficiently for customer centric solutions. She held multiple roles in startups and large corporations like Bayer Crop Science, AgraQuest and Zymergen.

Henry Squire

Xinnian Dong

Xinnian Dong received her B.S. in microbiology from Wuhan University in China in 1982 and Ph.D. in molecular biology from Northwestern University in Chicago in 1988. She began her study of plant immune mechanisms as a postdoc at MGH, Harvard Medical School. Dong is currently an Arts & Sciences Professor of Biology at Duke University. Dong became a HHMI investigator in 2011, an AAAS fellow in 2011, a member of US NAS in 2012, and an AAM Fellow in 2013. Dong received the Chinese Biological Investigators Society (CBIS) Ray Wu Award in 2018, named the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers in 2018-2023. Awarded the Stephen Hales Prize by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) in 2022, and recognized as a Pioneer of ASPB in 2024.

Wusheng Liu

Dr. Liu obtained his PhD degree in Botany at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He finished his postdoc training in Molecular Genetics and Plant Biotechnology in Dr. Neal Stewart’s lab at UTK, and worked there as a non-tenure track assistant professor in Plant Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology. Then he moved to NC State University as a tenure track assistant professor in Translational Genomics and was promoted to associate professor recently. His program studies computational tool-assisted de novo motif discovery and synthetic promoter engineering, development of novel approaches for non-GMO, genotype-independent delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system into crops for gene editing, understanding of the molecular mechanisms of agronomic traits including seed size, tomato fruit lycopene content, and tomato bacterial wilt resistance, and crop trait engineering using genetic engineering and gene editing such as modified flowering patterns and rose rosette virus resistance.

Kiran Mysore

Dr. Kiran Mysore is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Agricultural Biosciences, Oklahoma State University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (India), Master’s degree in Horticulture at Clemson University and Ph.D. in Genetics at Purdue University. He did his postdoctoral training in plant genomics at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Cornell University. He later joined Noble Research Institute as an Assistant Professor and rose up to the rank of Full Professor before joining Oklahoma State University in 2021. His research interests center on molecular plant-microbe interactions, abiotic stress tolerance, and plant genetic resource development. He has authored over 270 peer-reviewed manuscripts in international journals. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Academic & Professional Excellence Award and Ruth Allen award from the American Phytopathological Society.

Mary Grantham

Dr. Mary Grantham is a Technical Applications Scientist at Azenta Life Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, Genetics and Genomics from the University of Rochester where she studied the molecular and evolutionary basis of the wing polyphenism in pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum). Pea aphids are a highly successfully crop pest largely due to the discreet morphs of wing polyphenism: migratory winged females that can invade new crops and highly fecund wingless females that can quickly establish large populations. Dr. Grantham has provided consultative and project design support of next generation sequencing projects for the last 6 years. She joined Azenta Life Sciences in 2021 with expertise in transcriptomics, epigenetics, and genomics.

Rao Uppalapati

Rao grew up in farming family in Southern India and did his PhD from Japan. He started his professional career as a post-doc at Oklahoma State University and Noble Research Foundation (NF). His research mainly focused on biotechnology, molecular plant pathology of fungal and bacterial diseases. Rao then transitioned to industry and joined the heritage DuPont Pioneer in 2012. He led and helped launch Arabidopsis programs on Ag traits discovery for DuPont in India. He moved back to DuPont Crop Protection in Newark, DE and was biology team leader responsible for discovery, characterizing and development of fungicides and HTP chemical library screening and established infrastructure for Asian Soybean Rust fungicide discovery in USA and Brazil. At Corteva he is currently a program leader responsible for strategy and R&D directions for transgenic and gene-edited disease management solutions in Soybean (Latin America) and Corn. Rao was named Corteva Laureate in 2023.

Harsh Bais

Harsh Bais is a professor of Plant and Soil Interface at Universioty of Delaware. Bais lab rhizosphere biology research is focused on understanding the biological significance of root exudation. Though root exudation clearly represents a significant carbon cost to the plant, the mechanisms and regulatory processes controlling root secretion are just now beginning to be examined. Root-root, root-microbe, and root-nematode communications are continuous occurrences in the rhizosphere, but due to the underground nature of roots, these intriguing interactions have largely been overlooked. Bais’ lab research is taking a multidisciplinary approach by interfacing plant biology, microbiology, and chemistry to unravel the underground communication process.

Chris Wooley

Chris Wooley is the Specialty/Active Portfolio Manager for Wilbur-Ellis Company. In this role he helps develop new EPA registered products and manages the existing EPA registered products approved for conventional and organic production in the Wilbur-Ellis Company Branded Technology and Branded Solutions Team. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Agronomy and a B.S in Soil Science, and Iowa State University with a M.S in Agronomy Crop Production and Plant Physiology with a focus on Weed Science. Prior to joining Wilbur-Ellis Company, he has held product management, marketing research, marketing communications, sales and technical development roles within agricultural basic manufacturers, distributors and retail companies for North America.

Wiebke Striegel

Wiebke Striegel is a Senior Scientist in the Emerging Technologies Branch at EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. Her work focuses on a broad range of product characterization, human health risk assessment, and related policy questions for pesticide products derived from biotechnology. These products include plant-incorporated protectants, genetically engineered microorganisms, and topically applied dsRNA. Wiebke joined BPPD in 2016 after completing a one-year AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship in the same Division. Prior to joining EPA, Wiebke held a postdoc position at the University of Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in molecular plant biology from Colorado State University and her M.Sc. in Biology from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.

Yuri Mizuno

Yuri graduated from Nagoya University in 2019 with Ph.D. in Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, with a specialty in majored in plant pathology. She joined Manda fermentation Co., Ltd. in 2020 and working as a researcher in the Research and Development Department for three years. Currently, she is engaged in research on elucidating the mechanism of MFBP in the plant business.

Trupti Joshi

Dr. Trupti Joshi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics and Medical Epidemiology (BBME) in the School of Medicine (SOM), with a joint appointment with Department of Plant Sciences and Technology (DPST) at University of Missouri-Columbia. She also has Core Faculty appointments with MU Data Science and Informatics Institute (MUIDSI), Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG), Christopher S. Bond Life Science Center (LSC), and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).

Dr. Joshi served as Director of Translation Bioinformatics with School of Medicine from 2015-2020 and currently serves as a Faculty Lead for Translational Bioinformatics for the NextGen BioMedical Informatics. She has over 20+ years of experience and has published more than 160 scientific papers and co-developed several bioinformatics software systems, methods and tools. Her expertise is in the areas of bioinformatics and its application to biomedical sciences, plants sciences, animal sciences, and genomic epidemiology fields.

Peter Selby

Peter Selby has been the BrAPI Project Coordinator, stationed at Cornell University, since 2017. As BrAPI Coordinator, Peter is responsible for maintaining the BrAPI project and organizing the large and diverse BrAPI community. He is the primary software developer making enhancements to the BrAPI specification and the main point of contact for anyone who has questions about the BrAPI project. He also promotes the usage of BrAPI across organizations and is available to help architect and design solutions for exchanging data between systems.
Peter has a BS in Software Engineering from Clarkson University. Prior to his work with BrAPI, Peter had many years of industry experience in all aspects of enterprise software development including system architecture and design, UI development, web service development, backend development, dev ops, testing and project management.

Deepika Chauhan

Dr. Deepika Chauhan is the Associate Director of Transformation at Pairwise. She leads a team of accomplished researchers focused on evaluating gene editing tools delivery methods and developing plant transformation platforms to enable product development in multiple crops. With a deep-rooted passion for plant biotechnology, she has pioneered research in plant transformation of difficult plant species and translated cutting edge scientific discoveries into farmer and consumer preferred products. Her expertise lies in genetic transformation of a variety of plant species, namely Caneberry, Cassava, Corn, Soy, Canola, Wheat, Eucalyptus, Poplar, Pomegranate, Rose, Sweet potato, Teff, Soybean, and more. She was awarded 2019 Young Scientist Award and 2024 Fellow Award by The Society For In Vitro Biology recognizing her outstanding contributions to the field of In Vitro Biology and service to the society. Deepika is passionate about driving innovation and excellence by developing novel methodologies, scientific strategies, and leading teams to achieve impactful results while adapting to changing research and development landscape.

Akira Endo

Dr. Akira Endo received his PhD in 2006 from the Tokyo Metropolitan University. His work focused on the regulatory mechanism of a phytohormone, abscisic acid biosynthesis under drought stress condition. After post-doc at National Agricultural Research Organization in Japan to apply genome editing tools such as Cas9 and Cas12a for crop breeding, he moved to Kaneka Corporation in 2018 and joined new plant breading technology unit to contribute the development the in planta particle bombardment (iPB) combined with gene editing tools. His work focused on iPB technology transfer and development of maize iPB. In 2022, he has started to establish US station of NPBT unit for research and business development activities at Michigan State University as a senior manager in Agri-Bio section in Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc.

Adrian Percy