Joint Seminar featuring Davide Sosso on "The Curious Case of the Silicon Strawberry"

Event Type

Seminar/Symposium

Sponsor

The Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA), the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

Location

NCSA (1205 W. Clark St. Urbana, IL, 61801) | Room: 1040

Date

Oct 13, 2025   1:00 - 2:00 pm  

Speaker

Davide Sosso, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Heritable Agriculture

Registration

Register here

Contact

Center for Digital Agriculture

E-Mail

digitalag@illinois.edu

Views

139

Originating Calendar

Center for Digital Agriculture Events

The Curious Case of the Silicon Strawberry

Strawberry breeding has traditionally been a slow and labor-intensive process, relying heavily on phenotypic selection. However, this field is being revolutionized by recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the availability of extensive germplasm collections, and the emergence of curious breeders and savvy growers equipped with cutting-edge tools.

This talk will explore how AI is being used to analyze vast datasets of phenotypic and genotypic information, enabling breeders to identify superior genotypes with greater efficiency and precision. We will discuss the role of comprehensive germplasm collections in providing a rich source of genetic diversity for breeding programs, facilitating the development of novel varieties with improved traits such as yield, flavor, and disease resistance.

Finally, we will highlight the emergence of "curious breeders" who leverage AI, advanced genomic technologies, and data analytics to accelerate the breeding process and create strawberries that meet the demands of both consumers and producers. The "silicon strawberry" represents the future of strawberry breeding, where data-driven decisions and innovative technologies converge to deliver a new era of berry excellence.

Register to attend here

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About Davide Sosso

Davide Sosso is an AgTech and FoodTech enthusiast with 20 years of experience working on plant physiology and agronomy. He holds a Double PhD in Plant Biology from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (France) and the University of Milan (Italy). He did his postdoc studies at Stanford University in California, then helped build 4 different startups: (i) SweetSeeds, a plant biotech startup in collaboration with Syngenta and the Carnegie Institution for Science; (ii) Inari Agriculture, currently a unicorn based in Boston, working on gene editing in agriculture; (iii) Agricola Moderna, a profitable vertical farm in Milano and (iv) Heritable Agriculture, a spin out of GoogleX, that deploys the latest AI in agriculture genetics.