A group of academically gifted high school students visited the Peanut & Mycotoxin Innovation Lab offices this week to learn about peanut research.
The students, part of the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP), are nearing the end of a course focused on developing new varieties of crops via marker-assisted selection, transgenic and gene-editing approaches, specifically for extension to subsistence farmers.
The students are from across the Southeastern U.S. and dedicated three weeks of their summer break learning about food security through topics like CGIAR research sites, molecular genetics labs, creating new scientific instruments with Arduino, and international extension services.
Director Dave Hoisington gave students an overview of the importance of peanuts and work of PMIL researchers, and Assistant Director Jamie Rhoads demonstrated the Mobile Assay tablet reader aflatoxin testing system using kabob powder purchased in Ghana.