By Karen Buckelew
Kathleen and Frank Turano want to build a greener plant. No, not a
power plant or a manufacturing plant, like everyone else. The Turanos have
their own take on this whole ?green? phenomenon. They?re talking about
actual plants - the kind that grow in sunlight and occasionally sprout
flowers or fruit.
In their laboratory at the techcenter@UMBC incubator, the home of
their new company, Plant Sensory Systems, the husband-and-wife team is
genetically engineering plants to be better for the environment.

If their idea works, their plants will absorb more nitrogen, one of
the chemicals to blame for those algal blooms that kill off plant life in
the Chesapeake Bay.

The weeds they?re growing in a corner of their lab - baby Arabidopsis
plants, all spindly arms reaching up to the light - don?t look any greener,
but the Turanos are crossing their fingers they could cut pollution in the
bay and around the world.

?We?re concerned about the negative impact agriculture can have on the
environment,? said Kathleen Turano, who was a professor of ophthalmology at
the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine until last fall, when she resigned to
work full time at the company.

Her husband, a plant molecular biologist and biochemist at the United
States Department of Agriculture, said he is leaving his job in the spring
to join her.

?We wanted to actually do something that can have a larger impact,?
said Frank Turano.

The founding of the company is, in itself, an experiment for the
Turanos.

Other than raising their two grown children, it?s the first time the
couple, married for 25 years, have worked together. It?s also the first
foray into entrepreneurship for both.

?We actually had tossed the idea around,? Kathleen Turano said. ?A
year ago we said, ?Why don?t we do it???

The concept at the root of their company is to prevent so much
nitrogen - a key component in the fertilizer farmers lavish on their crops -
from washing into the bay or leaching into groundwater.

Plants - particularly corn, known for its inefficiency in using
nitrogen - only absorb and process about half the nitrogen in their soil.
The rest remains in the dirt.

Engineering a plant that is more efficient at absorbing nitrogen would
mean farmers could include less of it in their fertilizer and still get the
desired result, said Frank Turano. That would leave less to wash into the
bay.

When nitrogen reaches the water, it affects plants, including algae,
just as it would on land, said Beth McGee, senior water quality scientist
for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Boosted by nitrogen - and phosphorus, another chemical used in
fertilizer - algae grows at exceptional rates. That creates large algal
blooms that block light from reaching the plants and grasses below.

Those plants and grasses are critical food sources for crabs, oysters
and fish, which die off without them.

Then, in the summer, the algae dies and decomposes, sucking oxygen
from the water. That creates large dead zones in the bay - and worldwide,
including in the Gulf of Mexico - with no plant life, fish, crabs or
oysters.

?In an average year, we?re putting into the bay two or three times as
much nitrogen and phosphorus as the bay would need,? McGee said.

About 40 percent of that nitrogen comes from agriculture, but 20
percent comes from sewage treatment plants, she said.

Redesigning sewage treatment plants and creating buffers of trees
between farm fields and the bay are a few solutions, according to McGee.

?Having the kind of technology these folks are working on is one
answer,? she said.

By summer, the Turanos expect to know if their idea is working.

If not, ?we tweak it,? said Frank Turano.

The company also is exploring ways to create better plants for use in
biodiesel, but that has taken a backseat to their nitrogen-use efficiency
project, the Turanos said.

The couple has funded their work from their own pockets since founding
Plant Sensory Systems on July 25. They have applied for two federal Small
Business Innovation Research grants, and expect to hear about those next
month.

If their technology works, they hope to license it to the seed
companies that supply farmers. Kathleen Turano said they already have spoken
to interested firms.

They recognize that starting their own firm was ?risky,? she said.

But as academics, Frank Turano noted, ?we both had the feeling that
what we?re doing is very theoretical.?

?We wanted to take something and see it to fruition,? Kathleen Turano
added.


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