Prem S. Paul Innovator of the Year - Don Weeks
University Communications
Author
10/31/2016
Added
47
Plays
Description
University of Nebraska scientist Don Weeks receives the 2016 NUtech Ventures Prem S. Paul Innovator of the Year award.
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:00.261](contemplative music)
- [00:00:05.186]What if you could target a gene
- [00:00:06.963]and turn it off, or replace it?
- [00:00:09.776]That's what's going on at the University of Nebraska.
- [00:00:13.232]The gene editing technology that is being developed
- [00:00:16.732]is going to have great potential in agriculture,
- [00:00:20.672]in industry and in medicine.
- [00:00:22.981]This technology allows us to very precisely
- [00:00:26.922]go into the genome of a particular plant
- [00:00:30.271]and target one gene, either for knock-out, to inactivate it,
- [00:00:35.749]or to substitute new nucleotide sequences
- [00:00:39.181]to potentially change the function of that gene.
- [00:00:42.969]Weeks and his colleagues
- [00:00:44.241]have used gene editing
- [00:00:45.781]to improve the oil seed crop camelina.
- [00:00:49.413]It's similar to canola, or flax.
- [00:00:53.072]It has the advantage of being able
- [00:00:54.928]to grow on relatively poor soils, and in harsh conditions.
- [00:01:00.198]So, there will be a niche for this crop
- [00:01:03.440]if it can be improved to the point
- [00:01:05.683]where farmers are interested in it.
- [00:01:08.027]As a scientist, Dr. Weeks creates
- [00:01:10.266]knowledge by conducting basic research.
- [00:01:12.883]His discoveries led to the development of crops
- [00:01:15.491]that are resistant to a common herbicide,
- [00:01:18.259]giving farmers an effective option for
- [00:01:20.645]controlling weeds without damaging the crop.
- [00:01:23.978]New tech and new tech ventures
- [00:01:25.763]have been very instrumental in allowing us
- [00:01:29.828]to bring our technology to a patentable state,
- [00:01:33.434]and then work with these companies
- [00:01:36.039]to license that technology so that it can be used
- [00:01:39.529]by bi-industry and dispersed to the farming community.
- [00:01:43.868](contemplative music)
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/6395?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Prem S. Paul Innovator of the Year - Don Weeks" allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments