Grant to expand self-cloning crop technology for Indian farmers
Grant and Award Announcement
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2026 20:15 ET (20-Jun-2026 00:15 GMT/UTC)
Venkatesan Sundaresan, a Distinguished Professor of plant biology and plant sciences at UC Davis, has been awarded a Gates Foundation grant to develop self-cloning crops for Indian farmers. The five-year, $4.9 million project is a collaboration with researchers Myeong-Je Cho at UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), Viswanathan Chinnusamy at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi and Ravi Maruthachalam at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER-Thiruvananthapuram). The project aims to sustainably improve agricultural productivity by producing high-yielding crops that clone themselves, allowing farmers to save their superior seeds from one season to the next.
Lipstick vines get their name from their bright red, tube-shaped flowers. But one member of this group of plants has lost its lipstick-like appearance— its flowers are shorter, wider, and yellowish green in color. It also attracts shorter-beaked birds than its crimson cousins do, and it’s found in different places. Scientists wanted to know how this plant evolved from its lipstick-like relatives. After observing birds visiting hundreds of plants and examining the plants’ DNA, the researchers found that the story of the green flower’s evolution contradicts a long-standing scientific “rule” about how plants evolve into new species.
Researchers at AppliedPhysics.org report early evidence that cells respond selectively to mathematically structured sound, not just acoustic power. In an exploratory Biosystems study, Fibonacci based acoustic signals triggered distinct responses across different cell types, suggesting sound can be tuned to cellular size and mechanics rather than applied as brute force.
The findings point to a potential new direction for cancer research: using low intensity, physics driven acoustic design to target physical differences between cancer and healthy cells. While preliminary and based on model organisms, the work opens the door to a future of more precise, less invasive, mechanically selective therapies.
A pioneering study establishes a standardized CT angiography protocol for systematically mapping the vascular anatomy of the submental island flap, characterizing common anatomical patterns and providing surgeons with a critical preoperative planning tool to enhance the safety and reliability of this reconstructive technique.