Researchers embark on work to reduce plant diseases that threaten food security

Through its science program, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation recently gave more than two million dollars to the Two Blades Foundation who will work with four world-renowned researchers to investigate plant immunity in an effort to reduce diseases that can radically alter the production and quality of food. 

With a rapidly growing global population, losses to important food crops, like potatoes and wheat, can be disastrous. Not only can plant disease have an economic impact, it can affect our health and natural ecosystems. Look no further than the recent warnings by scientists about wheat crops facing a serious threat from a fungal disease that could wipe out the crop if not contained quickly, threatening our global food security. Or from a more historical time, the Great Famine in Ireland that took the lives of more than one million people, and the migration of another one million or more, due to a disease in potatoes commonly known as potato blight.

“This research has the potential to be a game-changer in our understanding of how plants combat pathogens in the face of continual evolution,” said Gary Greenburg, program officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “If it is successfully carried out, the project will result in an unprecedented level of fundamental knowledge about the genes that control disease resistance in plants.”

Read the full press release here.