Historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama is the latest institution to join the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), a National Science Foundation-funded research initiative led by Cornell University. The other partnering institutions include the Boyce Thompson Institute, the University of Arizona, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
CROPPS aims to address the impacts of crop-based agriculture on the environment and human health through research in the field of digital biology. Launched in 2021, the interdisciplinary collaboration has brought together scholars in life sciences, engineering, computer science, and social sciences to study and develop tools that can communicate with plants and their microbiomes.
Tuskegee University’s current agriculture faculty have expertise in plant bioengineering, crop improvement, and agriculture management and measurement technologies that can add to CROPPS’ current research endeavors. As Tuskegee University is the first HBCU partner and the only participating institution from the Southeastern United States, CROPPS will benefit from Tuskegee’s expanded agricultural context regarding crops native to that region, as well as the unique perspective of students and scholars from African American communities.
