Lab news and publications:

Plant wars:

In Planta, former Vivanco post-doc Jun Horiuchi reports on the phytotoxic properties of snapdragon scent. Look out, gardeners!! Also, Jun's fantastic photography appears on Planta's cover. In BioMed Central (BMC), Vivanco PhD candidate Amanda Broz reports on an EST analysis of the invasive weed Centaurea maculosa. Finally, research associate & PhD candidate Tiffany Weir reports on native plants' resistance to invasive weed's phytotoxin in Planta--and is noticed by Science.

Lab members have discovered that root exudates affect soil microbes, with potentially disastrous results; this research is discussed in the November 23rd issue of the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute:

Jorge Vivanco, in conjunction with Eric Cosio at the Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), will be hosting a PASI, "Interdisciplinary Studies in Tropical Chemical Biology," at the Tambopata Chemical Ecology Institute (TCEI) in Tambopata National Reserve, Peru, from May 26 - June 5, 2008.

Tambopata-Bound

Dr. Vivanco is currently in Peru at the Tambopata Chemical Ecology Institute to pursue sabbatical studies in tropical chemical biology. His work there in conjunction with the Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP) will be funded by NSF, the Guggenheim Foundation, and a Fulbright Scholar award.

Middle-Schoolers Tour the Lab

A group of State Science Fair participants recently toured the Vivanco lab, learning about plants, roots, and how scientists conduct business. A big hit was the newly-purchased portable gas chromotagraph (a.k.a. the Z-nose).