Author Archives: bergerlab@UVA

Check our our new website, and thanks to the Central Virginia SBDC for all their help! Great group of people to work with! https://lytostech.com

We’re excited to be awarded a Grants4Ag grant from Bayer to support our ongoing research in sustainable agriculture and crop protection! Learn more about our work and the program here: https://www.halo.science/blog/bayer-crop-science-2021-grants4ag-awardees/

We’re looking forward to working with communities in southwest Virginia to develop and bring technologies that improve hemp and botanical processing and grow rural economies. Read more about it here: https://news.virginia.edu/content/through-stem-education-and-botany-app-fellows-look-boost-appalachias-future?utm_source=DailyReport&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

Enjoyed talking with Ralph Sampson about research and upcoming challenges with COVID. Check out ‘COVID conversations: A scientists perspective’ to hear more: https://bleav.com/podcast-show/center-court/

We’re excited to work with Air Products to investigate the use of cryogenic processing to improve industrial hemp processing, extraction and chemical integrity. Learn more about it here: https://www.airproducts.com/company/news-center/2020/07/0720-air-products-and-uva-professor-research-on-cryogenic-freezing-of-industrial-hemp

Dr. James Tang is leading efforts in the lab on a recently-awarded NSF EAGER award investigating how COVID accessory proteins modulate host immune response. Read more about it here: https://news.virginia.edu/content/rapid-responders-engineer-helps-battle-covid-19-science-funded-cares-act

Lytos Technologies is an early-stage biotech start-up based in Charlottesville, Virginia founded by Bryan Berger. The mission of Lytos is to develop green, organic and effective solutions for pre- and post-harvest protection of high-value crops such as cannabis, as well as for microbial control and removal in homes, processing facilities and humidity control systems. Lytos recently received a highly competitive, $500,000 Virginia Catalyst grant awarded annually by the Commonwealth to the top university start-ups that year in Virginia. Lytos also recently won a highly competitive Commonwealth Foundation Commercialization Funds award from the Center for Innovative Technologies (“CIT”), and also was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Central Virginia/Charlottesville Business and Innovation Council (“CBIC”) ‘Innovator of the Year’ based on their success and positive impact on improving organic, sustainable agriculture.

Read more about it here:

https://staging.engineering.virginia.edu/uva-cheme-professor’s-agricultural-biotech-startup-reaps-competitive-grant-virginia-catalyst

Nate Sallada received a competitive 2020 NSF INTERN award to work at Merck with their pre-formulation group to develop new biosurfactants to improve drug bioavailability. Read more about it here:

https://staging.engineering.virginia.edu/phd-student-lands-national-science-foundation-intern-funding-research-merck

Madison Mann is developing biomolecular tools and technologies to combat PFAS.

Learn more about her research and the variety of ways she is trying to solve the problem of PFAS contamination here:

https://engineering.virginia.edu/news/2019/11/natural-solutions-manmade-problem