ATHENS William Flatt served as the dean of the University of Georgias College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences from 1981 to 1994. Coming in as dean, Flatt recognized that college enrollment was low and tackled the challenge of recruitment using his problem-solving skills and charisma.

This years Nesbitt-Flatt Outstanding Senior Award recognized a student with the same charisma and determination as Dean Flatt. Arjun Bhatt was recognized as this years recipient during the 2021 Student Awards and Leadership Celebration held on YouTube. Bhatt recently graduated with bachelors degrees in both applied biotechnology and psychology.

Bhatt originally entered UGA as a biochemistry major in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, but he wanted to study something more tailored toward his interests of translational science, synthetic biology and genetics. After skimming through the UGA Bulletin, he found exactly what he was looking for applied biotechnology. Bhatt also decided to add a psychology major because of his interest in understanding the human experience.

The way we think, feel and behave is inextricably bound to the way we are built at a molecular level psychology helped me bridge the gap between the hard sciences and the soft sciences, Bhatt explained.

Through his involvement across several campus organizations and labs, Bhatt dived deeper in his chosen field of study. In Brian Kvitkos lab in the Department of Plant Pathology, Bhatt was president and lead researcher of UGA iGEM, an undergraduate-led research team that uses genetic engineering and synthetic biology to solve real-world problems. As he led the team to its first-ever silver medal, Bhatt learned to use both what is known and unknown to solve a problem and in the process, he discovered his true passion.

My passion is problem-solving, Bhatt said. Thats what keeps me up at night. Thats why I work in translational research. I enjoy using what we know and dont know to solve problems. That process helps someone, a community or a cause.

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Identifying the core of what made him tick was one big step forward for Bhatt, helping him to put things into perspective and leading to a philosophical revelation.

While reflecting on his time at UGA, Bhatt realized that for a portion of his college career he was in a rat race seeking external glorification and prestige. While mentoring freshmen, Bhatt noticed they were entering the same rat race he had escaped, and he wanted to help them realize there is more to success than external reward. His realization is what Bhatt calls the prestige trap, which he defines as chasing what others think is important rather than what we actually think is important.

This idea this thought led Bhatt to scrap his original idea for a TEDxUGA talk he was scheduled to submit just two days before the due date. He unveiled his prestige trap concept at the 2021 TEDxUGASalon series in a presentation called Escaping the prestige trap: How to reshape our definition of success.

Outside of his academic pursuits, Bhatt found comfort and support from the familylike environment he found in CAES as well as organizations like the Indian Cultural Exchange, Georgia Saazish and the Chess Dawgs.

Now a strategy consultant for Deloitte, a global professional services firm, Bhatt is excited to trade medical diagnostics for business diagnostics. He will be working in the companys government and public services branch, helping large federal, state and local organizations improve productivity, efficiency and overall performance. Much as Flatt brought skills and charisma to his challenges at CAES, Bhatt is ready to apply his passion and experiences to a new industry, motivating and aiding societal institutions as Flatt did the college.

Stacker explores the 100 top-rated TV shows of all time.The shows with the highest IMDb score are ranked the highest, with #1 being the best TV show of all time, as rated by IMDb users, and with ties broken by the number of votes. Click for more.

Courtney Cameron is a digital marketing intern for the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Marketing and Communications.

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UGA grad named winner of Nesbitt-Flatt Outstanding Senior award - Henry Herald

Cantils, so named for their cantilever function of supporting the flower-bearing stalk, are newly reported plant structures that develop in wild-type Arabidopsis as a consequence of delayed flowering under short-day lengths. The image shows a FLOWERING LOCUS T mutant strain (ft-10) flowering under a long-day length. One long and two short cantils are visible. Credit: Timothy Gookin

For many, the Thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) is little more than a roadside weed, but this plant has a long history with scientists trying to understand how plants grow and develop.Arabidopsiswas first scientifically described as early as the 16th century and the first genetic mutant was identified in the 1800s. Since the 1940s,Arabidopsis has increased in popularity within the scientific community, which continues to use it as a model system to explore plant genetics, development, and physiology to this day.

One might expect that after decades of scientific scrutiny the structure ofArabidopsishad been fully documented, but a new study from scientists from The Pennsylvania State University, USA, has revealed that this humble plant still has some surprises. The researchers describe a previously unreported structure called the cantil, which connects to the stem at one end and hangs in the air to hold up the flower-bearing stalk, similar to the function of a cantilever in structural engineering.

I first observed the cantils in 2008, said Dr. Timothy Gookin, a postdoctoral researcher working in the group of Professor Sarah Assmann. I initially didnt trust any of the results; I thought it must be an artifact of genetic contamination, perhaps combined with environmental contamination of the water, soil, fertilizer, or even the building air supply.

How have cantils eluded scientists for so long? First, cantils are rare; they only develop under certain conditions that cause the plant to delay flowering, such as short day lengths, and cantils only form at the precise point at which the plant begins to flower. In addition, as Dr. Gookin discovered, some popular Arabidopsisstrains have genetic mutations that make them incapable of producing cantils at all.

Nonetheless, Dr. Gookin set about the gargantuan task of proving that cantils are a naturally occurring structure and not an artifact of mutation or contamination an effort that took more than a decade. It took over 12 years of experimentation to really get a grasp on what we were seeing and to understand how cantils were regulated. This study required the growth of 3,782 plants to full maturity and the manual inspection of over 20,000 flower-bearing stalks in 34 unique plant lines, explained Dr. Gookin. I finally deemed the cantils a natural phenomenon after identifying them in wild-type (non-mutant) plants from different sources, which were growing in independent locations and diverse conditions.

During his extensive research, Dr. Gookin identified a number of mutant plants in which cantils appear more frequently, revealing some of the genetic factors that control cantil development. The discovery of cantils is not only a lesson in the virtues of perseverance, but their development also provides important clues for understanding the conditional growth of plant structures in response to their environment. One speculative interpretation is that the cantil represents a highly repressed ancestral linkage between different types of flowering plant architectures; the multiple layers of genetic and environmental factors that regulate cantil development are certainly quite striking, said Dr. Gookin.

Reference: Cantil: a previously unreported organ in wild-type Arabidopsis regulated by FT, ERECTA and heterotrimeric G proteins by Timothy E. Gookin and Sarah M. Assmann, 15 June 2021, Development.DOI: 10.1242/dev.195545

Timothy Gookin is a postdoctoral researcher, and Sarah Assmann is the Waller Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University. Timothy Gookin is the lead corresponding author of the article.

Funding: National Science Foundation, NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

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Scientists Discover Unreported Plant Body Part "I Thought It Must Be an Artifact of Genetic Contamination" - SciTechDaily

Ness Ziona (Israel) (AFP)

It looks like chicken and tastes like chicken, but diners in Israel are tucking into laboratory-grown "meat" that scientists claim is an environmentally friendly way to feed the world's growing population.

In a small restaurant in a nondescript building in a science park in the central Israeli town of Ness Ziona, diners munched burgers and minced meat rice rolls made with "cultured chicken" -- meat grown in the adjacent SuperMeat production site.

"It was delicious, the flavour was great," said Gilly Kanfi, a self-described "meat eater" from Tel Aviv, who had signed up for the meal months in advance.

"If I didn't know, I would have thought it was a regular chicken burger."

The Chicken, as the eatery is called, is a testing ground of sorts for SuperMeat, hosting periodical test meals to generate customer feedback while waiting for regulatory approval.

- Rapid growth -

The restaurant's dark and elegant interior is framed by large windows looking onto a bright-lit laboratory, where technicians monitor large stainless-steel fermentation vats.

"This is the first time in the world people can actually have a taste of a cultivated meat product, while observing the production and the manufacturing process in front of their eyes," said Ido Savir, SuperMeat's chief executive.

Here, at least, the laboratory has made redundant the age-old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first.

The process involves cultivating cells taken from a fertilised chicken egg.

Cell cultures are fed a plant-based liquid including proteins, fats, sugars, minerals and vitamins.

With all the feed going directly into production, it grows rapidly, with the mass doubling within a matter of hours, the company says.

Savir, a vegan with a background in computer science, sees himself as being at the "forefront of a food revolution" trying to help supply food while limiting the impact on the planet.

Developers said they are working to provide more ethical and sustainable ways to create cruelty- and slaughter-free meat, with the product grown without using genetic engineering or antibiotics.

The company is currently able to produce "hundreds of kilogrammes" each week, Savir said.

- 'Game-changer' -

But he hopes to earn regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, and would then increase production to a "commercial" scale.

"This way we'll be able to reduce the amount of land, water use and so many other resources, and keep the product very healthy and clean," he said, noting the high prevalence of diseases among chickens produced in factory-style production.

Global meat production is projected to rise 15 percent by 2027, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

SuperMeat is not the first to develop the technology. In December, a Singapore restaurant made history when it became the first to sell lab-grown chicken meat.

The Israeli firm has developed a versatile product, blending muscle, fat and connective tissue cells to create different cuts -- even including pet food.

Zhuzha, a white bull terrier attending the meal along with its owner, enthusiastically devoured the SuperMeat dog food it was handed.

"Pets love our meat as well," Savir said with a smile.

The human diners said the product was as good as the real thing.

"It really surprised me," said Lisa Silver, a regular meat-eater. "If I can get that in a restaurant, I will go vegan, totally. It's a game-changer."

For her sister Annabelle, it was the first time in years she had eaten meat.

"One of the reasons that I became vegetarian originally was because it's not ethical, it's not sustainable," she said.

"To get meat minus the cruelty is just amazing, it's perfect, I could eat this every single day."

- Vegetarian-friendly? -

But the question whether the product should be considered meat is one faced not only by vegetarians -- but also Jewish rabbinic authorities.

Producing meat in a cruelty-free way that does not harm the environment is a positive development that will "save the world problems", said Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz, a member of Israel's Chief Rabbinate Council.

While rabbis would have to learn the novel process and supervise it, Weisz said he expected the product would eventually receive a kosher designation.

Tal Gilboa, a prominent veganism activist who served as an adviser to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was leading the way on cultured meat technology.

Gilboa would like the world to turn to a plant-based diet, and sees cultivated meats as a pragmatic way for people to take the first steps to vegetarianism.

"The world population is increasing at a break-neck speed," she said, adding that the only way to keep up will be "through technology".

Savir believes the technology could change humanity for the better.

"Like we saw with the revolution of the smart phone, once this is available, we'll start producing so much meat," he said.

"It would increase food security for nations around the world, a very sustainable, animal-friendly and efficient process."

2021 AFP

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Israelis taste the future with lab-grown chicken 'food revolution' - FRANCE 24

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kytopen., a transformative biotechnology company offering non-viral delivery that links the discovery, development and manufacturing of engineered cell therapies, today announced it was awarded a SBIR Fast Track grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the National Institute of Health (NIH). Kytopen is eligible for up to $2M over the course of the 3-year award as project milestones are successfully completed within the Phase I and Phase II portions of the grant.

Natural killer (NK) cells represent a high impact population for cell therapy, but due to limitations in current methodologies for gene delivery, NK cells remain a largely untapped resource. This SBIR grant will be used to demonstrate that non-viral delivery via Kytopens Flowfect platform can alleviate this limitation on NK cell gene editing at both research and manufacturing scale, which is needed for pre-clinical and clinical studies. Due to the major potential impact NK cells represent in a clinical setting, non-viral Cas Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) gene knockout will allow for novel therapeutic applications in infectious disease, autoimmune disorders, and immuno-oncology.

Paulo Garcia, Kytopens CEO and Co-Founder will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on the grant. Dr. Garcia explains that engineered NK cells have tremendous therapeutic promise including the potential to treat solid tumors in an allogeneic modality. The Flowfect platform will facilitate high-throughput target discovery while providing a clear path towards clinical manufacturing of next-generation cell products.

NK cells are a subset of innate immune cells that can respond to threat without antibody priming. This quick response to stimuli makes them an ideal immunotherapy candidate. Yet, genetic modification in NK cells has proven to be difficult using conventional viral and non-viral transfection methodologies. Alternative delivery methods are necessary in order to make genetic modifications at reproducible and efficient rates, while maintaining high cell viability and functionality.

The awarded study leverages continuous fluid flow coupled with low energy electric fields for transfection via a proprietary Flowfect platform (Figure 1). This platform represents a novel approach to non-viral delivery in historically hard-to-transfect human cells. The current research proposes to engineer non-activated NK cells with Cas RNPs for gene editing using the Flowfect platform. To achieve this goal, Kytopen has outlined a two-phase research strategy which focuses on stability and functionality of edited NK cells both in vitro and in vivo.

NIH sponsored grant programs are an integral source of capital for early-stage U.S. small businesses that are creating innovative technologies to improve human health. These programs help small businesses break into the federal research and development arena, create life-saving technologies, and stimulate economic growth. Kytopen is honored to be a recipient of this competitive award from the NIH/NIAID and looks forward to unlocking biological capabilities of engineered NK cells for improving patients lives during the performance of this project.

About the Flowfect Technology

Kytopens proprietary Flowfect platform eliminates the complexity of gene editing and integrates discovery, development and manufacturing in one flexible and scalable non-viral delivery solution. The Flowfect technology utilizes electro-mechanical energy to disrupt the cell membrane and introduce genetic material (such as RNA, DNA, or CRISPR/Cas RNP) to a wide variety of hard-to-transfect primary cells. During the Flowfect process, a solution containing cells and genetic payload suspended in a proprietary buffer flows continuously through a channel while the solution is exposed to a low energy electric field. Due to the continuous flow and low electrical energy required, cells engineered using Flowfect exhibit high viability while also exhibiting high transfection efficiency post-processing. The Flowfect technology utilizes relatively high flow rates enabling cell engineering in minutes for discovery and optimization (e.g. 96 well plate in <10 minutes) and direct scale up to manufacturing volumes of >10mL, engineering over 2 billion cells per minute in a single channel.

About Kytopen

Kytopen, an MIT spin-out, is a transformative biotechnology company that offers a customizable yet scalable multi-solution platform, which seamlessly links the discovery, development and manufacturing phases of cell engineering. Flowfect, a gentle, non-viral delivery method unlocks new therapeutic approaches, by engineering immune cells with minimal disruption, preserving the functionality and viability of human cells and enhancing the cells biology. The Flowfect platform accelerates therapies from the bench to clinical through flexibility and scalability, which drives higher cell yields, faster approvals, and better outcomes from potentially curative cell-based treatments. Kytopens goal is to enable simple and efficient non-viral manufacturing of cell therapies in days versus weeks to increase access to many more patients. For more information, visit: http://www.kytopen.com

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Kytopen Awarded NIH Grant of Up to $2M to Unlock the Power of Engineered Natural Killer (NK) Cells via Flowfect Platform - Business Wire

New research from a University of Minnesota team shows T cells can be engineered to migrate more effectively inside tumor microenvironments, raising hopes of reproducing the remarkable outcomes seen for certain hematological cancer patient subsets in broader populations and indications.

T cells have been key to two promising families of cancer immunotherapies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and immune checkpoint inhibitors. After two new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals earlier this year for Bristol Myers Squibbs Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel) and Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel), there are now five marketed CAR T cell therapies for a range of hematological cancers, including large B-cell and mantle cell lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and multiple myeloma. These therapies are patient-derived T cells engineered to express a CAR that directs them to a specific tumor.

By contrast, immune checkpoint inhibitors function by targeting sets of natural immune system brakes, either on a tumor or directly on immune cells. The seven FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitors allow T cells to kill a growing list of hematological and solid tumors, and show impressive outcomes but in a fraction of patients.

Both approaches have been more effective in hematological cancers, and one obstacle in solid tumors is a literal barrier. T cells have to migrate through the complex, dense, and rigid tumor microenvironment, which can misdirect and slow down the immune cells.

The new paper, published in Nature Communications, shines a light on how T cells move within these physical features, informing new methods to rationally engineer the cells for more effective therapies.

T cell engineering has focused on cancer identification and targeting, said Paolo Provenzano, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center and an author on the paper.

Were trying to add on a piece to that: they know what to kill, how do they get there? he said.

The researchers looked at pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a particularly fibrotic cancer known for limited cytotoxic T cell infiltration. Provenzano and colleagues had previously shown that antifibrotic therapies could improve immune cell infiltration in PDAC, but the group is now focused on rationally designing physical attributes of the T cells themselves.

Provenzanos team started by testing T cell migration on specialized artificial 2-D nanotextured platform that mimicked elements of the stromal extracellular matrix of tumors. T cells use lamellipodia and filopodia to sense biophysical cues and guide migration, and can switch between more flexible and stiffer phenotypes, to adapt to different conditions.

Theyre never all or one, theyre on this sliding scale, mediated by the muscle-like contractions of microtubules, Provenzano said.

The researchers found that while in a more amoebalike phenotype, cells had enhanced speed and motility, improving how quickly and effectively the cells could navigate the matrix. The researchers used the chemotherapeutic nocodazole, known to destabilize microtubules, to increase contractility and induce more amoebalike phenotypes, and another chemotherapeutic, paclitaxel, for the inverse. Cells with the nocodazole-induced amoebalike phenotypes could contract into smaller balls, and could shoot out protrusions faster, allowing for better motility than the paclitaxel-induced stiffer ones, and migrating between 50-100% faster in artificial 3-D matrices and mouse PDAC model tumor slices.

Thinking about personalized combination approaches to cancer treatment, this raised a red flag for Provenzano, as taxane agents are commonly used to treat solid tumors like breast and pancreatic cancer. The findings suggest certain chemotherapies might not be right if youre trying to elicit the bodys own immune response against these tumors, or mixing with a T cell therapy, he said.

The effect of chemotherapies on T cell microtubules is transient, so next the researchers explored a genetic engineering approach, using CRISPR technology to engineer T cells lacking GEF-H1, a gene they hypothesized mediates cell contractility. In a 3-D matrix, the knockout lines migrated 50% compared with controls.

Provenzano envisions different T cell engineering tweaks as part of the increasingly personalized approach to cancer treatment. Cells engineered to migrate faster have promise particularly in fibrotic tumor microenvironments, where T cells move about half as fast.

They get to sample less volume before they become exhausted, he said.

T cell exhaustion is a key limitation for CAR-T therapies and combining them with T cells that are physically optimized for faster migration could be synergistic in these patients.

If tumors are like unique obstacle courses for T cells, though, then different athletes or teams might be suited for different cancer types and patients.

Maybe we engineer five different T cells that navigate different obstacles, then mix them in cocktail and bring them back in. Thats what were thinking as our ultimate goal, he said.

Provenzanos lab is now using physics-based mathematical models to predict what the optimal cell would be.

We dont know the most physically optimized cell looks like yet, he said. But the paper represents just the first foray into the optimization process for just the first athlete. This will be what at least half my lab will be publishing on for the next decade.

There is active interest in the approach, but Provenzano said the work is not yet being commercialized. He hopes to find a partner with an ongoing T cell therapy clinical trial that could add an arm with his groups physically optimized cells, but trials are probably still years away.

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Tumors Next Target for T Cell Therapies with U Minnesota Research - BioSpace