Allan Wenck, JD, PhD recently took on a new position with INARI Agriculture as a Patent Attorney. Formerly he had already moved out of direct science management into intellectual property strategy and management as a director of intellectual property for the Traits Company.
His message to students and early career (and even late career!) colleagues in the SIVB – it is never a bad time or too late to take on new and exciting challenges! One does not need to abandon early learnings and exciting roles to shift gears. As a long time member of SIVB, he went from a post-doc in academics, to an industry position where he was an individual (technical contributor). From there, he continued on the technical side while taking on group leadership rolls. At one point he had supervision of teams responsible for all aspects of transgenic and edited plant delivery: from vector design and delivery to cell biology and transformation to molecular plant analysis and to greenhouse where plants were further phenotype observations were made as well as seed production and delivery for downstream field evaluation.
Yet, through all of the science, he became interested in further aspects of industry importance – intellectual property. He attended an evening law school program and obtained his JD at night while managing and doing science during the day.
More recently he studied for and passed the patent bar which is a test open to both scientists and lawyers and allows one to submit and prosecute patents with the United States Patent Office. If one is not a lawyer, a scientist can still become a patent agent.
He passes on his career journey (to date) as but one example of how your career in science can evolve. He has seen many others do as himself – patent lawyer or patent agent. He has seen many move from early-stage research to field research. He has seen many move from the bench to regulatory where they are helping interpret the science to global regulatory agencies. It all connects with a constant desire to learn exemplified by what he observes with members of the SIVB and a network of diverse colleagues cultivated within the SIVB.
He is always happy to connect and discuss career paths with SIVB colleagues at any time.
Dr. Akshaya Kumar Biswal has recently joined the University of Georgia (UGA), Tifton Campus, as an Assistant Research Scientist, where he is leading an innovative research program focused on advancing peanut genetics and breeding. His work aims to improve peanut disease resistance, yield, and quality, directly addressing the needs of the peanut industry and the agricultural priorities of the state of Georgia.
With over two decades of experience, Dr. Biswal is a recognized expert in molecular plant breeding, biochemistry, and precision genetic technologies, including genetic engineering and genome editing. Prior to joining UGA, he developed a highly efficient genetic transformation protocol enabling seamless genome editing in elite wheat varieties, published in Frontiers in Plant Science.
His current research focuses on elucidating the functional mechanisms underlying host resistance to peanut diseases such as stem rot (white mold), tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) and root knot nematode. In parallel, he is working to develop high-yielding cultivars with multi-disease resistance.
Beyond his research, Dr. Biswal actively contributes to academic and professional communities at UGA. He has been selected as a graduate faculty member in both the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics (IPBGG) and the Plant Center at the University of Georgia. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has also been nominated for Full Membership in Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society.
Peyton Werner, Junior, Cloquet High School, Cloquet, MN
Peyton Werner was profiled in the ‘Student Body’ section of the premier quarterly magazine, Winds of Change, published by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), with her research poster at the 2025 AISES National Conference in Minneapolis. Her poster was titled “Hot Defense: The effect of hot sauce made from peppers with different levels of capsaicin on Lactobacillus acidophilus growth”. This study was done to determine the effect of the capsaicin content in hot sauce with different Scoville levels (serrano, jalapeno, and habanero) on the growth of the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus. If peppers have a higher capsaicin level, then the fermented hot sauce will enhance Lactobacillus acidophilus growth. Hot sauce was made from the three peppers used. Whole milk was used as a basal media incubated with the bacteria and hot sauce at concentrations of 0, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 ug/L for three days. The whey containing the bacteria was separated from the milk curd using a centrifuge and the optical density was measured using a spectrophotometer. The hypothesis was partially supported. When the optical density levels of the control with only Lactobacillus acidophilus and no peppers were compared to the optical density levels of samples incubated with habanero and serrano hot sauce, Lactobacillus had significantly lower optical density levels (p<0.019). Yet, there was no significant difference in optical density when the control was compared to the samples incubated with jalapeno hot sauce (p<0.073). Furthermore, the chemical that makes peppers hot, capsaicin, is also considered a prebiotic. It is a chemical that also promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria and suppresses the harmful ones. Making it so that hot pepper fibers and their capsaicin give a one two punch (Mahalak, 2022; Rosca, 2020).
Riya Nayana Singh, Junior, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, Rolling Hill Estates, CA
I was honored to receive the Society for In Vitro Biology Special Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ability and Creativity in In Vitro Biology at the 2026 Palos Verdes Peninsula Science and Engineering Fair for my project “High Fructose Exposure During Neural Stem Cell Differentiation Alters Neuronal Lineage and Polarization: Implications for Hippocampal Neurodevelopment and Epigenetic Regulation”. I worked with The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Research at Harbor-UCLA, and my project investigated how metabolic stressors affect neural stem cell differentiation, with a focus on changes in neurite outgrowth and astrocyte development.
Ava Vaillant, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Ava won the INI (Iowa Neuroscience Institute) Summer Scholar Award for the summer of 2026, and was additionally named the Kwak-Ferguson Summer Scholar, an award for her research on neurodegenerative disease. She also won the UI-IINSPIRE Alliance Fellowship at her university for the fall of 2026, which provides presentation opportunities and pays $1500 over the course of the semester. Ava works in the laboratory of Ryan Boudreau, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine. The lab’s focus is post-transcriptional responses in diseased and developing hearts and brains. Ava is pursuing research on the neuronal members of the SCN gene family, which encode for voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels. Mutations in neuronal SCNs and NaV expression levels are linked to neurological conditions including autism and epilepsy.
