Inside IALR

A Day in the Life of a Researcher

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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In this episode of Inside IALR, we sit down with two of our most experienced research associates, Amy Turner and Rob Chretien. 

Each has more than a decade of hands-on experience in IALR's research labs. They've witnessed significant changes in agricultural research, from theoretical plant genetics to cutting-edge applied science, during that time. 

Learn about their work with beneficial plant bacteria (endophytes), precision agriculture and controlled environment systems that promise to revolutionize food production. Hear stories of unusual experiments, like rearing black soldier fly larvae, and discover how partnerships with industry are turning research into real-world solutions. 

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Caleb Ayers:

Alright, welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for being here for joining us today. We have a research division that does a lot of very cool work centered primarily around agriculture, and that's a mix of research services that we provide to companies as well as our own research publications and things that we're publishing. So today we have two of our longtime research associates, Rob Creeshan and Amy Turner. Thank you guys for being here. You guys have both been here for more than a decade. But to start, if you just kind of want to give us a rundown of kind of how you ended up at IALR, whatever previous experience you want to talk about, and then kind of how you ended up here.

Amy Turner:

Okay, so um I've been here almost 15 years, uh, started in 2011. Um and I first heard about IELR, I was actually at a soccer practice amongst other soccer moms, and we had just moved back to the area and I was looking for places to work, and one of the other moms mentioned the institute, and she mentioned ag research, and that was what my background was in. So um, so yeah, it was just a conversation, and I was so grateful to find a place that um that I could apply my skills and um was real happy to find the institute. Um I live in North Carolina, so I'll drive over the line into Virginia to work. So uh I felt very fortunate. So 15 years.

Robert Chretien:

That's awesome. What about for you, Rob? So I came in October 2012 for a startup company. One of the labs, well, it was uh it used to be office space and it was converted into lab space for a startup company. And so that lasted for a year and a half, the startup company, and then there was an opening at the institute, so I just transitioned from the startup company to working for the institute. So that was in June of 2014, is when I became an official institute institute employee.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, there are um so for those who don't know, you know, we've been around, I guess, 23-ish years as far as the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. That's when we were founded. We've been in this building, um, or our our main building for 21 years. There are not there are a lot of people who have been here less than you all have. We'll we'll put it that way. You guys are are some of the veterans on the block. So what's kind of been, I guess, in that time that you've been here? I know this a lot of the specifics of our research have changed during that time, but kind of big picture, talk about kind of some of the stuff that you've worked on, the projects that you've worked on uh during that time.

Amy Turner:

Well, when I first got here, we were mainly doing theoretical research. We were doing a lot of plant uh genetic transformation uh and a lot of tissue culture. And I was originally hired as a tissue plant tissue culture technician, so mainly lab work. Um over the years, we have evolved uh evolved into precision agriculture, and um we consider our program an applied research program, meaning um we would like for the things we're working on to be directly applicable to what our growers need and want. And um that's done through our precision ag program and um our plant endophyte research, and um, which is really exciting, and uh and we also now of course controlled environmental ag. So we've we're we've moved in that space also.

Robert Chretien:

So when I started, I was working with another um scientist, and he since left. So I was doing some molecular stuff for him and um doing some pro running some protein gels, and then he left, and then I started to work with Dr. May. And so then we started um our focus was whittled down to just working with plant endophytes, and so um I started working off with Dr. May um another scientist was isolating the endophytes, and then me and Dr. May would characterize them um to see if they had growth promotion properties and then test them and the greenhouse, and so now we've kind of stopped collecting the endophytes, now we're just focusing on working with them, and now we have the CEA center, and so we're using the endophytes predominantly to test growth promotion um in hydroponics in the CEA center.

Caleb Ayers:

On the endophytes, either one of you, can you kind of give the the 30-second elevator explanation of what what a plant endophyte is and kind of what you guys are working on to do with those?

Robert Chretien:

Beneficial bacteria that live in plants, like our gut bacteria. Initially people thought bacteria and plants were all pathogens, but there's actually beneficial bacteria that help them grow, acquire nutrients. So um we focused on those as opposed to there's other bacteria that are in the soil. Our focus is on those bacteria that are live inside the plants.

Caleb Ayers:

I know now, yeah, as you said, you know, we're not collecting them, we're using this library we have. What was that process like of kind of going through? We have 2,000 of these things. Like, what was that process like of characterizing and going through and test doing all that kind of testing?

Robert Chretien:

Well, the Amy's property was used to gather plants, so they would you can talk about that.

Amy Turner:

Yeah, so we um actually went out into the field and collected plants. We tried to select for plants that might be growing under extreme environments. You know, you sometimes you'll see a weed growing in the middle of a parking lot. How you know, how is that possible? Why why is that plant able to survive that environment? Sometimes there may be a bacteria within that plant that can help it uh survive that environment. So we um actually collected plants from the field, weeds, uh, field crops. Um we also collected some plants from Dr. Lohmann's property, and then the plants are brought into the lab, and then it's separated into roots, stems, and leaves. Through a process in the lab process, you can actually extract that bacteria. And then um, so Robert's got a lot more knowledge as far as uh the microbial work, um, and he can talk about what they do once that bacteria is extracted, what what kind of process it's yeah.

Robert Chretien:

So the I didn't do most of it, but there was another person here. She would crush up the um grind up the roots and the leaves and stems, and then you um centrifuge the the large material that don't centrifuge down the bacteria. Then you take the supernatin, and then you have to dilute it down so that when you plate it, you'll get individual colonies. And then she would just look for physical differences, so like different colors or different shapes to try and distinguish different ones so you don't keep you know culturing the same bacterium. And so then you just look for phenotypic differences and then isolate those and put them, and then we put them in the minus 80 and store them and then characterize them to see um what they could do to help the plants. So we have like five different assays. It's like phosphate solidization, uh hormone synthesis um called IAA, um uh siderophore activity of binds iron, uh nitrogen fixation.

Amy Turner:

And what am I forgetting? Well, we have we can also do we have a plant pathologist on staff, and he also utilizes the bacteria to see which ones are effective against disease development.

Robert Chretien:

Yeah. And ACC DMase was the fifth one that I forgot.

Caleb Ayers:

I've heard Scott Lohman talk about the the phosphate one, some of some of those other things you said.

Amy Turner:

I have no clue what they mean, and we're gonna they're all they're all beneficial for plant growth. Got it. Yes, that I I just think. And that's the important part. And it and it's interesting because it, you know, you find different bacteria in the roots that that may not be growing in the the upper portion of the plant. So that's why we divide the the plant up to see, you know, what's living in the roots, what's living in the the shoots, and what's in, and then also different times of the year. So you may collect a plant in the spring, and you've it's got a certain reservoir of bacteria in the spring, you go back in the fall and try and collect some of the similar plant material in the same location and see if you've got a different um a different microbial community within the plant. It can it can change that much.

Caleb Ayers:

That's interesting. What does a typical day look like for our two best laboratory research associates?

Robert Chretien:

And the only the only ones.

Caleb Ayers:

I was gonna leave that part out for my guys.

Robert Chretien:

So lately it's mostly germinate seeds, wait till they grow, inoculate them with endophytes, grow them in hydroponics, the CEA, and then harvest them, weigh them, collect data to see if there's growth promotion, whatever. So that's kind of like repeat over and over again. Yeah.

Amy Turner:

And when you've got plants growing in the greenhouse or in the growth chambers, your first priority every every day is go check your plants. And you might go out there and check them two or three times a day just to see make sure everything's growing well, doing well. And then we do a lot of cleaning. Our day uh involves a lot of cleaning because uh greenhouse sanitation is important, and of course, lab laboratory cleanliness is especially doing microbial work. Um, we do you do a lot of cleaning, but that's that's just part of the job.

Caleb Ayers:

What's something you do that most people would be surprised that someone in your position would do? What's one one task or one type of project or Amy covered that?

Robert Chretien:

I was thinking about that and um cleaning. We use the dishwasher to clean our glassware and stuff, so we do a lot of wait, is there a dishwasher up in the labs? Yes. I have not noticed.

Amy Turner:

It's a lab great uh dishwasher that uses resins to to get the glasswork clean.

Robert Chretien:

We do lab work, but a good percentage of our time is cleaning things.

Caleb Ayers:

I know during the summer we have a lot of interns come in for our research team and you all obviously work closely with them. When you're talking to these students who are, you know, obviously interested in in some level of research career. What's kind of the what messages do you share with them? What are kind of the things that you share with them as far as what this career is like, why they should should or shouldn't pursue a research career?

Amy Turner:

Really enjoy the opportunity to work with with students. And we um we'll have high school students through college students come in and working in um in the labs, and I think it's a really good opportunity for kids in the region. And I love to see that spark of interest, especially if if they hadn't considered uh a career in ag research. So it's it's a lot of fun to to see somebody think, hey, yeah, this this might be something, or the or maybe they're interested in environmental sciences. That that's a lot of fun. Mainly, I think, is just you know, look for those opportunities through internships. Anything you can do to get some job skills is always my my main piece of advice for students.

Robert Chretien:

Yeah, we get we get students that aren't necessarily interested in plant stuff. So they might be medical students or something, so they settle for doing an internship with us. So they're not quite as passionate about plants as some of us are, but so they're just they want just want lab skills.

Caleb Ayers:

Right. What is y'all's favorite part about your job? Obviously, Rob, you just mentioned I could hear the passion when you said we're passionate about plants. So I would imagine that that that factors in. But what are some of the the favorite some what are some of y'all's favorite parts of your job?

Robert Chretien:

We produce edible crops, so like we get to after if we don't have to dry them down, whatever, we get to eat some of the stuff that we grow. So I like growing stuff and watching it start off small and get bigger and then harvest it.

Amy Turner:

We have a lot of variety in our day-to-day. I enjoy that. Um with each new project, you can you may be learning something new. I enjoy learning something new, um, especially in CEA. We're looking at a lot of uh new and novel crops. Um, we've had a greenhouse full of edible flowers. It was beautiful, it smelled great. It was a great place to walk into every day to see those beautiful flowers. Um, so I enjoy the variety. I I like being in a bright, sunny greenhouse on a cold winter day. It it can be 40, 50 degrees outside, but if it's bright and sunny, it's 70, 80 in the greenhouse. It was a great place to be. So those are some of my favorites.

Robert Chretien:

Yeah, in the wintertime. Right. In the summertime, you don't like being in the greenhouse very well.

Caleb Ayers:

Amy, you mentioned at the beginning that you know a lot of what you guys did in the beginning was more theoretical research. And now, I mean, uh the whole division is called applied research. Like that's that's very much the focus is how can we use these things now? I think that's cool to see. And clearly, as you guys have talked about, like you've worked on a ton of different things over your career here as the focus has shifted as the, as you said, bringing in endophytes, bringing in precision agriculture, bringing in CEA. What has been the process like of learning? I would imagine a lot of new skills and new techniques. What has that process been like of having to essentially work on different projects during during your time here?

Amy Turner:

That's true. And and somewhat of my generation, sometimes I struggle with the technology, but but and and that's really exciting thing is a technology. Precision ag technology, um, looking forward to you know how are we gonna incorporate AI. Um, we've talked a little bit about that with uh I've had a discussion with Dr. Lohman about how to to utilize that and what we're currently doing. So there's there's a lot of exciting stuff. Um, hopefully, all this technology is gonna make ag more competitive. You know, we've got to grow more more food for more people on less available land. So uh, you know, how are we gonna do it better in the field uh to help us cover that is uh our is CEA is you know using these indoor vertical farms to help feed people. Um yeah, that's that's an exciting part of what we're doing is is trying to utilize technology to accomplish the things we need to do in ag.

Robert Chretien:

Yeah, when I first started, we would do stuff in the lab characterizing the bacteria, and then we would move to the greenhouse to see the enhanced growth, but we were growing in um you know soilless mix. And now we're mostly just growing in hydroponic systems. So that was interesting to learn because I had never worked with hydroponics, so I got to learn um and utilize that.

Caleb Ayers:

Right. And for for anyone listening who doesn't know hydroponics, that means the plant is essentially the roots are put directly in the water. What's your what's your either your favorite or your most uh most used tool? And explain it because I probably won't know what it is.

Amy Turner:

Well, currently it's an ECPH meter. So when you're working with hydroponics, it's very important to check your um your nutrient solution and your the pH and the concentration of your nutrient solutions.

Caleb Ayers:

So out there versus basic, is that correct? I remembered something from biological.

Amy Turner:

Plants grow healthiest at a certain you know, certain pH. We have multiple units out there in the greenhouse and in the vertical farm with multiple reservoirs and uh each one of those reservoirs have to be checked for ECPH. So if we spend a lot of time doing that, so uh that's an important piece of equipment that we're utilizing daily.

Robert Chretien:

I would say that was gonna be my answer. But I also but I also have another one as a pipette. Every day I'm gonna do it.

Caleb Ayers:

Keep it simple, yeah. Yeah, so like, and even using the pipette to change the pH. Give me one good story, one good funny thing. It could be funny, it could be sad, it could be um I don't know, whatever you want it to be, but one one kind of memorable good story during your time here.

Amy Turner:

Yeah, I think originally you were saying it was a funny lab story. There's nothing funny in the lab. No funny business lab. One thing I was saying, but the most humorous thing I could think of was, you know, when the big talk was the next great cash crop for growers is going to be industrial hemp. And Virginia legalized industrial hemp. People were so excited about it. And um, the institute felt like we needed to be looking at and studying industrial hemp. And so we started doing that. And then out of our research and interests, uh, we had what we call industrial hemp summit. And it the first one was it was crazy. People went, it went sold out. It was quite an event. People were crashing the gate. There were people sneaking in trying to get in. And and so we were like standing at the doors, you know, do you have do you have a past? Can you and it was um it was funny just to to see how uh enthusiastic people were about him.

Robert Chretien:

And they had to have a security guide first year.

Amy Turner:

Right. And after that first year, we we had to have a person, uh, a security guard here to help us keep people out that hadn't paid uh registration. But um that's why that was one of the most humorous things I could think about because we just were astounded that people were that enthusiastic about it that they would actually sneak into an event.

Caleb Ayers:

But so there's really no funny business allowed in the lab. That's what you're saying. Nothing funny ever happens in the lab.

Robert Chretien:

Well, we also a lot of times we work by ourselves, so we're not interacting with anybody. So there's not like a lot of like you know, if I'm in a in the greenhouse by myself, I'm not joking around with anybody because there's no one else I need to joke around with.

Caleb Ayers:

So you're not you're not in there talking to yourself, cracking jokes, no, talking to the plants. Aren't you supposed to talk to plants? Isn't that a thing?

Amy Turner:

It is the theory out there, but really I've also heard that it's because you're breathing CO2 onto the plant as you're talking to it. It's not that the plant's actually benefiting from the words we're saying.

Caleb Ayers:

Interesting.

Amy Turner:

So yeah. Huh. That's or it could be the fact that you're actually paying them attention. Right.

Caleb Ayers:

Um, what is the most unusual experiment you have ever had to work on?

Amy Turner:

Black soldier fly larvae. Oh, yeah. Did you see those?

Caleb Ayers:

I don't think so.

Amy Turner:

Um recently, um, it's been in the last four or five years. Originally, Virginia Tech. Dr. Mike Evans wanted to look at black soldierfly larvae, um utilizing the larvae to get rid of greenhouse waste. And then another company that we frequently do um contract research with, they found out we were working with black soldier fly larvae, and they wanted to look at using the larvae to consume food waste. So you've got the the larvae, which are maggots, and they're in these large incubators, and you're introducing either your greenhouse waste or your food house race, and they consume it. And then those larvae are extremely nutrient-rich. And then you can either sell the product, if you're a grower and and you're interested in this, you can either either sell the larvae to other growers, and it's a very high, high protein creature, and that can be fed to livestock. A lot of some people will have this nice circular system where you know you've got a greenhouse that's producing excess material that you can feed to the larvae, and then the larvae can be fed to your chickens. So it's a it's it's a nice system, but they stink to high heaven, and they were maggots, and they were big, fat, juicy maggots. But but it was interesting. It was just one of those, like you said, a new project. I had to completely start from scratch. Um, eventually I got to where I could rear my own, you know, the the larvae would eventually hatch into the black soldier fly, and um, and then I was able to get those flies to lay more eggs and produce more larvae. So I kind of got to look at the whole cycle, which was which was interesting, but they were smelly.

Caleb Ayers:

Where was this happening?

Amy Turner:

In the greenhouse. So I had the incubators in the greenhouse.

Caleb Ayers:

Man, I'm sad I missed that.

Amy Turner:

That's yeah, I've got pictures. I have pictures.

Caleb Ayers:

I was not expecting to hear the term big fat juicy maggots on this on this interview. So I that's a change up.

Amy Turner:

That was one of my most interesting.

Robert Chretien:

Um mine, I'd say Scott wanted to see if we could use the endophytes for various purposes, and one of them we wanted to see if we could use them to as an herbicide. And so I I'd worked with some the endophytes in tissue culture, and some of them just like killed the seedlings. So then I tried growing that bacteria up and spraying um germinated seedlings with the bacteria. It didn't work, but um it killed them in tissue culture, but when I tried it in the greenhouse, just spraying spraying them with the bacteria, it didn't work either.

Caleb Ayers:

Didn't work no. Because pretty much the research we're doing now is we're inoculating. You're we're you what you're talking about earlier, you're inoculating the seeds. We're not doing anything. There's no other ways to apply those at this point, right?

Robert Chretien:

Yeah, we're inoculating, well, we let them germinate. We typically um she does it a little bit differently sometimes. Typically we let them germinate, but then we add a mill of the inoculum to the um it's like a growth, like a foam. So they grow in this it's like almost like a sponge and it absorbs the nutrients. That's where the roots grow in. So we add a mill of the inoculum into that sponge. Okay. But also Amy does it where she just puts the inoculum on a seed. She do makes a little divot for the seed and then puts the bacteria.

Caleb Ayers:

But it's always early in the process. Like it's it's what you guys are describing as well. Either right away or a week after what they've germinated. Yeah, that's all the questions that I think we'll we'll get to today. I think you guys clearly have some some good. I mean, you've been here a while, have great institutional knowledge. And I think, you know, the the work that this research team does as far as obviously we're, you know, you all are um working on these experiments or on these um on this work that you know, we've we've had plenty of papers published in scientific journals and things like that um that you guys have have worked on, but also, you know, working directly with companies on on specific projects and joint research. There's a lot of, I guess, a lot of partnership opportunities for companies who are working in agriculture in um in this area. So is there anything else that you all would want to add? Anything that you think that's especially interesting about working here or or your job?

Robert Chretien:

Uh there was one on something people probably don't know that we do, or or something unusual that we do. Um we probably don't know that we sift uh dirt. So Amy gets dirt from uh locally. And then we sieve it to get out the um large chunks of clay or stones uh before it can be used. So that's this is non-um hydroponic growth. Sounds very fun.

Amy Turner:

Um well one thing I think it's is interesting is out of our endophyte research project, um we actually have companies that have licensed some of our bacteria to develop uh biopesticides. I think one of the questions you had that we were gonna talk about was, you know, what are some of the things that that we've accomplished that we might be most uh proud of? And um I think there's and there's a large interest in biopesticides for these large ag chemical companies. And um, a few of those companies have approached us um because they've seen what we have. And so they're working on products, and that's really exciting. And hopefully they'll develop some great the next great product and it'll be something good for the environment and hopefully be good good for the institute also.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, no, absolutely, and yeah, uh that's a great way to tie that together that you know the the work the work that you all are doing is having an impact, you know. That's to again to bring it back to that applied research. These are things that are going to be relevant either very in the next very soon or are already you know relevant right now. These you guys aren't aren't doing research for things that might theoretically be be applicable to industry in ten years. We're we're looking at things that can be used right now. So thank you guys for sharing your stories. I appreciate it.

Amy Turner:

Thank you. You're welcome.