Noah+Filkins

= MicroproX =

About Us:
MicroproX is based in Albany, NY where it started in 2005 as a relatively small business that researched the uses of tissue culture and now has several locations nationwide and is looking to spread to other places throughout the globe. MicroproX now not only researches the uses of tissue culture but also turns the research into reality.

Who Am I:
I am the founder and CEO of MicroproX and am currently 32 years old and living in New York City. I always had an interest in science all throughout middle school and high school especially in the field of biology. After high school I attended Brown University for it's highly rated biology program, and I earned my Ph.D. After coming out of college I decided that I wanted to be more than just a scientist so I started MicroproX.

History of Tissue Culture:
Tissue Culture goes back as far as the beginning of the 20th century when the studies of a German scientist named Gottlieb Haberlandt led to root cultures, embryo cultures, and the first tissue cultures. Between 1940s-1960s new and improved tissue culture technology was created and the 1990s saw more use of vitro technologies with more and more plant species being used for tissue culture.

Science of Tissue Culture:
Tissue culturing must be done in a sterile environment with the specimen plant sterile of all bacteria and fungi. The first step when doing a tissue culture is to obtain an explant by cutting a very small piece of leaf or steam tissue and place them in a tissue culture container which has an agar gel in it that has all the sugar, nutrients, and hormones a plant needs to live. The tissue then starts to grow into a big blob called a callus, new plantlets then begin to grow from the callus. Once the plantlets develop some of them can be removed and put into other tissue culture containers where another "forest" starts to grow, this is how thousands of plants can be formed from one original plant. Finally when the plantlets are large enough they can be put into pots with soil and grow in greenhouses just like any other plant.

Current Uses:
Tissue Culture is currently being used to improve plants. An example of this would be making it so the plants you are creating are resistant to the cold or being resistant to catching a certain disease. The things that tissue culture can improve in plants help humans as we farmers can now have food that does not die easily so there will be a much smaller risk of famine in the world.

MicroproX Future Uses:
MicroproX looks to have many uses for tissue culture technology. One use we have is using tissue culture to supply lots of food to places that have a harder time growing food. We hope that it will help stop famine around the world. Another future use of tissue culture is that after a natural disaster such as a wildfire that destroys a forest we could use tissue culture to make thousands of new and perhaps even better trees that can replace the ones that were just burnt down.

References:
"History of Plant Tissue Culture." //NCBI.// 22 Jan 2012. Web. www.ncbi.nlm.gov/pubmed/1791478 "Cloning Plants: Tissue Culture." //Youth Adventure Program.// 22 Jan 2012. Web. generalhorticulture.tamu.edu/YouthAdventureProgram/TisueCulture/TissueCulture.html Lineberger, Daniel. //The Many Dimensions of Plant Tissue Culture Research.// Texas A and M University. Web. 22 Jan 2012.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tisscult/pltissue/pltissue.html www.plant-culture.com/tissue-culture-plant-propagation.html (picture below)