The Danforth Center was awash in interns, grad students and post-docs from across the country, gathered to forward their research into all kinds of things associated with the pennycress plant. The eurasian weed that’s only been in the Americas for a few hundred years, is hearty and highly modifiable — something a few scientists saw as potentially useful about a decade and a half ago — with the oil producing winter cover crop called CoverCress being the first product brought to market.
And it was to this throng of excited young researchers, joined by a few investors and several university professors, that CoverCress CEO Mike DeCamp announced that Bayer acquired a controlling interest in the company — a liquidity event as much as confirmation that this plant is going places.
Caught Schmoozing:
- Tim Ulmasov, CoverCress; M. David Marks, U. of Minnesota
- Win Phippen, Western Illinois University; Mike DeCamp, CoverCress; Steve Csonka, CAAFI
- Nikhil Jaikumar, Illinois State University; Jason Thomas, Carnegie Institute
- Ellen Aulbach, CoverCress; Kayla Cormack, CoverCress
- Tori Jones, Auburn University; Haley Reuter, University of Wisconsin
- Ellen Owuso Adjeiwaa, University of Minnesota; Frank Forcella, University of Minnesota
- Serena Giesvold, University of Minnesota; Krishan Rai, CoverCress