(Posted 3-16-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Laurie Gengenbach, 336-334-5371

UNCG BOTANIST SPEAKS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY
AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ADVISORY GROUP
 
GREENSBORO — Dr. Neal Stewart, associate professor of Biology at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, spoke at a Defense Studies Research County study in Arlington, Va. Feb. 9.

Stewart's talk, "The Potential of Using GFP Transgenic Plants as Biosensors," focused on his research, which  involves placing green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jellyfish into plants which can then serve to identify the presence of other chemicals or toxins present in the environment.

The council is an advisory group which identifies worthy programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an organization chartered with investigating forefront research and assessing its potential military application for the Department of Defense.

The purpose of the meeting was to explore the broad opportunity for engineering plants to serve as sensors for biological pathogens, particularly those that are likely biowarfare agents.

Stewart  joined the UNCG faculty in 1995 after two years of post-doctoral work at the University of Georgia. He is a Winston-Salem native and received his doctoral degree from Virginia. His work with GFP proteins was published in the November 1999 issue of Nature Biotechnology and he was an invited participant at the Nature Biotechnology conference in London in November of 1999.

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