UTIA awarded $7.5 million to lead study of potatoes as sentinel plants

(University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture) Researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture will lead an effort worth up to $7.5 million to use plants to detect environmental threats to deployed troops and help protect civilians living in post-conflict settings. The goal is to innovate a new, revolutionary sensor platform. The DARPA-funded project is a 4-year effort that will combine the expertise of plant biologists, biochemists and engineers.