Accurate seed testing to ensure the quality of crop is essential to global agriculture — and the methods developed at the Oregon State Seed Lab in the 1970s are still used today. The Seed Lab is now working with statistician Yanming Di, with funding from the USDA through the Oregon Department of Agriculture, to incorporate new advances in robotics, computer vision, machine learning and stochastic modeling into testing. The multidisciplinary research group aims to develop a computer vision system for real-time, onsite seed analysis — a tool that could revolutionize farming in Oregon and beyond. This innovative approach aims to improve seed quality assessment, increase efficiency and provide valuable insights to farmers in the seed industry.

Virginia Lesser, emeritus professor of statistics, brought her survey expertise to a National Academies committee assessing the Need for Native Seeds and the Capacity for Their Supply. Native seeds are vital for ecosystem restoration and biodiversity, yet the U.S. lacks a coordinated supply system. The committee’s 2023 report outlines the fragmented state of native seed supply and recommends creating a national native seed strategy, increasing investment, and improving data collection on seed needs and availability.

RNA molecules are central to biology, and their function often depends on how they fold. Developed by biochemist Dave Hendrix and his team, bpRNA-1m is a comprehensive, open-access database that makes RNA structures easier to analyze and compare — opening insights into health, disease and how life works. Version 1.0 catalogs the secondary structures of over 28,000 RNA molecules, detailing how each one folds to do its job in the cell. Built using the bpRNA tool, the database provides consistent annotations of key structural features. For scientists, it’s a powerful resource for understanding RNA function, improving structure prediction, and advancing RNA-based treatments.