Tag Archives: plant science

AudioHelicase Special: How researchers at Whitehead Institute are building a more sustainable future



Making our world more sustainable to preserve it for future generations will take not just one but many solutions. Researchers at Whitehead Institute are exploring how the natural world could teach us how to improve the sustainability of how we produce food, how we make medicines, how we make products more durable, and potentially how we remove carbon from the atmosphere.  In this special episode of AudioHelicase, we’ll hear from researchers at the Institute that are pursuing creative solutions to sustainability that combine a passion for making a difference with boundless curiosity for the living world.

 

Interviews by Greta Friar and Eva Frederick. Music by Pierce Murphy (CC BY 4.0) and Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 3.0). Produced and hosted by Conor Gearin.


Whitehead’s Jing-Ke Weng on COVID-19 treatments taking root in plant science



Plants have been used as medicine for thousands of years; could they contribute to a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic? This is what Whitehead Institute Member Jing-Ke-Weng set out to address in a new paper, published May 20 in the journal Molecular Plant.

We talked to Weng about an herbal treatment being used to treat COVID-19 in China derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine, the work necessary for such a treatment to be translated to an FDA-approved drug, and why the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for basic, fundamental research in plant science and beyond.

Music: “Versailles” by Pierce Murphy (CC-BY 4.0), “The Minutes” by Scott Gratton (CC-BY-NC 4.0) Produced by Eva Frederick and Conor Gearin.