The new EPiC (Engineered Plants in Culture) project at UC Davis will explore technology for growing plants and plant tissues in bioreactors with minimal use of resources. The technology could be used ...

Imagine if our bodies could grow new organs throughout our entire lives. Plants do this constantly, thanks to tiny, powerful reservoirs of stem cells. But how do these cells know when to divide, and ...

Plants are a rich and renewable source of compounds used in medicines, food ingredients, and cosmetics. Since growing an entire plant just to extract a few specific compounds is rather inefficient, ...

Plant cells are surrounded by an intricately structured protective coat called the cell wall. It’s built of cellulose microfibrils intertwined with polysaccharides like hemicellulose or pectin. We ...

Artistic rendering of cellulose biosynthesis with zoomed in view. Individual cellulose chains (dark brown) are synthesized by plasma membrane-bound (purple) cellulose synthase enzyme complexes (cream) ...

Many everyday foods and seasonings—such as herbs, spices, and aromatic plants—contain natural compounds called phytochemicals that can regulate inflammatory pathways. For centuries, these ingredients ...