Pamela Ronald, UC Davis to Speak at Innate Immunity Conference, Jan 29-31, 2014, San Diego, CA

San Diego, CA, September 20, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Pamela Ronald, professor and director of the Laboratory for Crop Genetics Innovation and Scientific Literacy Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis, and Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute will give a featured presentation at the Inaugural Innate Immunity Conference to be held in San Diego, CA on January 29-31, 2014 by GTC.

Dr. Ronald’s laboratory studies the plant response to disease and environmental stress. Her laboratory led the isolation of the rice XA21 immune receptor and the rice Sub1A submergence tolerance transcription factor. In 2012, over 2 million farmers planted Sub1 rice. Xa21 is being used to engineer banana for resistance to Banana Xanthomonas wilt, a serious disease that affects 100 million people in Eastern Africa.

In 2012, Ronald was awarded the Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food and the Tech Award 2012 for innovative use of technology to benefit humanity. In 2011, Ronald was selected as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company Magazine. Ronald and colleagues are recipients of the USDA 2008 National Research Initiative Discovery Award for their work on submergence tolerant rice.

For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com/conference/innate-immunity-overview