By Sarah Arkin

Inside the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, biologists,
botanists and other researchers are hard at work.
In what looks like a series of high-tech kitchens - the Institute for
Sustainable and Renewable Resources - they?re cooking up new plants and
technology that build upon the agricultural past of the Piedmont, and that
will be able to use tobacco greenhouses and fields for economic development
in the future.

Director Dr. Barry Flynn leads a team of 13 researches working in three
fields of focus: High-value horticulture and forestry crop development;
high-value compounds and technology; and molecular breeding for bio-fuel and
bio-energy production.

In simpler terms, the first area looks at ways to develop and enhance crops
and plants for commercialization; the second explores genetic potential in
plants, and the third researches new bio-fuel possibilities.

Some research from the first category could easily end up on people?s front
lawns.

Initial experiments with flowering plants including daylilies, orchids and
impatiens have been promising. Working with the plant tissue, researchers
have been able to develop daylilies with longer flowering periods, for
example, and impatiens with more resistance to certain viruses.

Flynn said there have been talks with major international companies
interested in purchasing the flowers.

Similar research is underway in other flowering plants.

Flynn used the daylilies to outline how their research could enhance
economic development - a production facility could employ people and provide
a new tax base.

Some of the fruits of their labor may eventually end up grocery stores, too.

?Strawberry nutrigenics? is one of the projects that fall under the
?high-value compounds and technology? studies category. Researchers are
looking at simple strawberries, basically to see what genetic potential the
berry might have.

With sensationalized reports of genetically modified foods, Tammy Ferguson,
who devotes her time to the summer fruit, said people often get nervous when
they hear about what she does.

?I?m not making Franken-fruit,? she insists. Ferguson explained her work as
figuring out what?s already in the fruit to enhance it. In that way,
hopefully, they might be able to grow a whole crop of fruits with extended
ripe periods, for example. Or, they could grow strawberries with higher
levels of antioxidants.

What they?re doing with strawberries could serve as a model for other fruits
including apples and pears, she said.

In the bio-fuel realm, researchers are working with a variety of possible
energy sources, from switchgrass to Jerusalem artichokes. On Friday, Dr.
Javed Iqbal had just returned from their artichoke field in Clarkesville to
report that the plants had grown to incredible heights. Which is good news,
considering much of their research has been trying to genetically modify the
plants to have longer stalks. The stalks contain a large amount of soluble
sugar, Flynn said, which is great for making ethanol. In addition, after the
sugar has been extracted through a fairly simple process, the leftovers can
be used for animal feed, Iqbal added.

Flynn emphasized that as with all efforts of the IALR, one of the underlying
goals of the ISRR is help foster economic development in the region. They?ve
collaborated largely with Virginia Tech, but also work with schools and
organizations in Southside. They?re interested in science, Flynn said, as
well as ?what we have the capacity to do and the impact we can have on
regional economic development.?
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