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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(3/3) Michael brings his expertise in precision phenotyping and remote sensing to our work on disease resistance in rice. At the moment, he is evaluating the agronomic performance of our latest rice lines in the field under real environmental conditions.

#IamHealthyCrops #RiceResearch #PlantScience

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(2/3) His work helps improve drought and nutrient efficiency screening in crops like cassava and rice. Why does this matter?
Boosting efficiency in how we observe plants means faster, more accurate crop improvement. It’s essential for meeting global food demands under pressure from climate change.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 17

(1/3) 🌾 Meet Dr. Michael Gomez Selvaraj, senior scientist at CIAT (@bioversityciat.bsky.social ) in Colombia, and one of our PIs at Healthy Crops.

Michael leads CIAT’s plant phenomics platform in Colombia, where he develops cutting-edge tools for monitoring plant traits.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 15

The HHU Ideas Competition, organized by CEDUS promotes entrepreneurship at HHU by encouraging creative thinking and spotlighting start-up ideas from students, researchers, and staff across all disciplines.

Picture Copyright: Amir Ouadahi, paint the town studios

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 15

🥳 Healthy Crops was awarded 3rd place in the 2025 @hhu.de Ideas Competition! 🏆

Out of 100+ submissions, our concept to create disease-resistant crops using genome editing was recognized for its innovation and impact!

Thanks to everyone supporting our efforts!
#GenomeEditing #PlantScience

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 15

Wolf Frommer presents work from @healthycrops.bsky.social, a global collaboration to work on bacterial blight of rice.

They are transferring transgene-free, genome edited rice to different countries, with legal frameworks in place, to test resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.
#2025ISMPMI

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

CEPLAS - Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences @ceplas.bsky.social · Jul 11

Great to see two teams from the Plant Science and #QBIO communities making it to the podium at yesterday’s HHU Ideas Competition by #CEDUS! 🌱🧠
Exciting projects and well deserved — very curious to watch these ideas grow! 🚀👏 @healthycrops.bsky.social @plantgen-hhu.bsky.social

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 9

📚 #PaperTrails - How can we better manage crop diseases?
In a recent publication, we argue for better pathogen monitoring, clearer resistance reporting & smarter deployment of resistant varieties.
Big thanks to @elizaloopi.bsky.social & everyone involved!
#plantpathology #bacterialblight #rice

Closing the Information Gap Between the Field and Scientific Literature for Improved Disease Management, with a Focus on Rice and Bacterial Blight | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions®

A path to sustainably reduce world hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is to close the crop yield gap and, particularly, lower losses due to pathogens. Breeding resistant crops is key to achievi...

apsjournals.apsnet.org

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

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Why is she working on this? "Cereals make up the bulk of the energy sources of food, a basic need for everyone. Food insecurity is a real threat in Sub-saharan Africa including Kenya. Through my research, I hope to contribute to a food secure nation and region."

#IamHealthyCrops

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

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She is also working on advancing nitrogen fixation in finger millet. Emily is currently leading field trials under real world conditions for some of our blight-resistant rice lines, testing how them under the local pathogenic pressure they were created for.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 4

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Meet Dr Emily Gichuhi, researcher at KALRO and one of our PIs at Healthy Crops. Her current research focuses on enhancing rice yields under stress conditions, aiming to make rice cultivation more resilient to climate change and improving disease resistance & abiotic stress tolerance in rice.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jul 2

#LabtoLeaf: What causes blight in rice?
The bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) highjacks the plant's sugar transporters to promote its own growth instead. This leads to leaf lesions up to total yield loss, affecting farmers world wide.
Read more about it here: buff.ly/uvyDt0u
#RiceBlight

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 26

🌾 #LabtoLeaf: Not all rice is the same!
Oryza sativa, the global staple, from Basmati to Swarna and IR64.
Oryza glaberrima, Africa’s resilient rice, rooted in tradition and adapted to tough soils and drought.
At #HealthyCrops, we're working with lines like Komboka & IR64.
What’s your go-to #rice? 🍚

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 16

To kick things off, we’re launching:
👋 #IamHealthyCrops – meet the team
🌱 #LabtoLeaf – insights into plant biology
🧫 #PetriandPlots – the how of our science
📚 #PaperTrails – deep but digestible takes on key papers

Follow along and let us know what interests you!
#HealthyCrops #PlantScience

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jun 16

We’re stepping up our outreach! 🌾
Expect more from us in the next weeks: more about who we are, what we do, and what’s happening in crop science. Whether you're into genes, greenhouses, or ground-breaking research, or just like fun facts, there's something here for you.
👇

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Apr 28

For a more detailed profile on Wolf's work you can visit the Healthy Crops website:(www.healthycrops.org/healthycrops...)

Wolf B. Frommer elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

We are delighted to announce that Wolf B. Frommer, Scientific Leader of the Healthy Crops project, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States. Election...

www.healthycrops.org

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Apr 28

We are proud to announce that Wolf B. Frommer (@research-science.bsky.social ), Scientific Leader of Healthy Crops, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (@nasonline.org)! A tremendous honor recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to plant science!
#Science #HealthyCrops

Wolf B. Frommer is honored during the U.S. National Academy of Sciences ceremony. A slide in the background shows his name, affiliation with Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, and a photo of him examining plants in a greenhouse. Three people are present on stage, surrounded by plants and banners with scientific motifs.

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Mar 24

Congratulations to Dr. Bing Yang, recipient of the James B. Eads Award from the Academy of Science of St. Louis! 🌱 An internationally recognized expert in plant genome engineering, Bing has made groundbreaking contributions in CRISPR/Cas-based crop resistance. #PlantScience #CRISPR

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

Nick Talbot @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social · Mar 10

Congratulations! Great to see this recognition of the contributions of Jeff Dangl, Jonathan Jones & Brian Staskawicz to our understanding of plant immunity.

The Sainsbury Laboratory @thesainsburylab.bsky.social · Mar 10

TSL is thrilled to celebrate the incredible achievement of @jonathandgjones.bsky.social, now a 2025 Wolf Prize Laureate in Agriculture along with Jeffery Dangl and Brian Staskawicz "for groundbreaking discoveries of the immune system and disease resistance in plants"

www.tsl.ac.uk/news/jonatha...

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Feb 20

🌾 A major milestone for Healthy Crops!
We will transfer our bacterial blight-resistant rice varieties to our team members at KALRO in Kenya. Next steps are field trials under local conditions with the ultimate aim of combating rice diseases! 🚀🌱
#GenomeEditing #PlantScience
https://buff.ly/3Xam8Ln

Disease-resistant rice varieties created by means of genome editing

The “Healthy Crops” consortium, an international team of researchers, which includes Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), has – in collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock…

buff.ly

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

Informationsdienst Wissenschaft - idw @idw-online.de · Feb 19

Approach to combating bacterial rice diseases in East Africa
Disease-resistant rice varieties created by means of genome editing

The “Healthy Crops” consortium, an international team of researchers, which includes Heinrich Heine University ...
weiterlesen

Scientists from KALRO take samples from the vast rice fields in Kenya to examine them for pathological organisms. - Copyright Emily Gichuhi

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Reposted by Healthy Crops

Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) @zalf.bsky.social · Feb 18

🌍🚜 Women farmers in The Gambia struggle with climate adaptation due to their limited access to resources and advice. A study shows: Targeted support is key! 🔍

www.zalf.de/en/aktue...

#ClimateChange #Agriculture #Equality

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Feb 11

Thanks a lot for all the applications that we received. We will close the application process and review and inform the candidates.

Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jan 29

🌾 Postdoc Opportunity! 🌾

Join Prof. Dr. Wolf B. Frommer’s research team at @hhu.bsky.social for an exciting postdoc position in disease resistance in rice!

📩 Apply now! Send your CV & motivation letter to [email protected]

RT & share! 🌱
#Postdoc #PlantScience #RiceResearch

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Healthy Crops @healthycrops.bsky.social · Jan 27

🌟 Excited to share "Edit a Genome", developed by the Institute of Molecular Physiology at University of Düsseldorf 🧬✨
This platform offers insights into genome editing techniques, and provides an overview of global regulations in genome editing for crops 🌾

Check it out now! 👇
🔗 www.editagenome.org

Edit a Genome

www.editagenome.org

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