The future of plant chemistry
Chemical engineer Beth Sattely studies the intricate chemistry of plant life.
Plants are more than food, she says: They are living chemical factories churning out molecules that help plants do everything from adapting to climate change to fighting infections – or even producing valuable new cancer drugs. Lately, Sattely’s lab is working on ways to make crops more resilient to engineer more sustainable foods and environments. Some of our most exciting technologies already exist in nature, we just have to find them, Sattely tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Russ Altman: This is Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything, and I'm your host, Russ Altman. I thought it would be good to revisit the original intent of this show. In 2017 when we started, we wanted to create a forum to dive into and discuss the motivations and the research that my colleagues do across the campus in science, technology, engineering, medicine, and other topics. Stanford University and all universities, for the most part have a long history of doing important work that impacts the world, and it's a joy to share with you how this work is motivated by humans who are working hard to create a better future for everybody. In that spirit, I hope you will walk away from every episode with a deeper understanding of the work that's in progress here, and that you'll share it with your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers as well.
[00:00:48] Beth Sattely: What I've come to understand is that there's a lot that we're starting to dissect. Once you are sensitized to a food, how does an allergy progress? What is the response, the allergic response? What does that look like on a cell and molecular level? But there's this big open question about why do you develop allergies in the first place? The sensitization part. And so my lab's trying to contribute our understanding of the chemistry of plants. A peanut, after all, is a bunch of proteins and small molecules and lipids all bundled together. It's the, you know, the embryo of, of the peanut. So what about that is resulting in sensitization at much higher frequencies compared to other foods?
[00:01:33] Russ Altman: This is Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything, and I'm your host, Russ Altman. If you're enjoying The Future of Everything podcast, please hit follow in whatever app you're listening to right now. That will guarantee that you never miss an episode and you're clued in on The Future of Everything. Today, Beth Sattely from Stanford University, will tell us that plants are amazing little chemical factories. Those chemicals we need to understand to optimize the environment, human health, and lots of other things. It's the future of plant chemistry. Before we get started, a reminder to follow The Future of Everything in whatever app you're listening to right now, so you're always clued in on The Future of Everything.
[00:02:19] Plants are around us everywhere and they're amazing. We use them as food, we use them as shade. We use them to create chemicals like medicines, even cancer chemotherapy medicines, uh, as part of our healthcare system. And we need to worry about them. We need to make sure that they are adapted to climate change. We need to make sure that they don't get infections that ruin their fruit or their plant products. It all comes down to chemistry. Plants are little chemical factories. They make a diversity of chemicals that is quite amazing and that have uses across many aspects of human endeavors. Well, Beth Sattely is a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and an expert at plant chemistry. She's using it to look at human health, making plants more robust, as the world around us changes and many other applications.
[00:03:10] Beth, let's start out with a basic question. Why and how did you decide to devote all of your professional work to plant metabolism and plant engineering?
[00:03:21] Beth Sattely: Wow. The reason I decided to focus on plant metabolism is because it really united two pieces of me, two personas. One is as a chemist. Um, my PhD is in synthetic chemistry. Um, I study molecules. Um, and at the same time on the weekends, I really liked spending time in the garden. And so it really united these two passions where I figured out you could think about all these molecules, and you could think about them in the context of plants.
[00:03:51] Russ Altman: Great. So it brings together all many of your interests.
[00:03:53] Beth Sattely: Exactly.
[00:03:54] Russ Altman: So, so, so what is the challenge, what is the, what are the challenges that like drive you in your lab every day in terms of, we need to work on this because there's some, um, challenges on the horizon that we want to kind of anticipate?
[00:04:08] Beth Sattely: Sure. I think there's, there's two parts to that one too. The one big challenge for me is, uh, how do we treat the planet better? Um, and at the same time take care of ourselves. So, you know, environmental health and human health. Um, and I think that plants are a critically important part there. Um, and our expertise is in plant chemistry and plants use their chemistry, uh, to cope with all the same challenges that we have. So I think that's sort of the big overarching question. But the second part for me is just curiosity of how the natural world works. And I think that some of our most exciting technologies going forward are things that already exist in nature. We just have to go out and find them. So that's the other driver.
[00:04:53] Russ Altman: So I know that one of the things, and I know there are many aspects, and I hope to hit some, a bunch of them in our conversation, but one of the things that's driving you recently is the idea of making crops that are more robust and uh, to climate change, to all kinds of things. So can you give us a sense of what's the scale of that challenge and how are you approaching it?
[00:05:14] Beth Sattely: Yeah, this is something that we've shifted to, um, more recently and I think the scale is, is global and the challenge is breaking it down into small parts that a lab like mine can start to address, right? We wanna think about how do we produce our food in a way that, again, uh, optimizes human health. We think about environmental stewardship, and we're also distributing that food equitably. But that, you know, that's not a research project. So I have to back it all the way out to, you know, what are the micronutrients that a plant might need? How does a particular crop get them right now? How could we make that better, easier, um, and more sustainable going forward?
[00:05:58] Russ Altman: Yeah, so, so, um, uh, when we look at crops, um, I know you've written about this, that, you know, they've been through husbandry, uh, mostly. Like old fashioned evolution, if you will, where, where the farmers and the, just kind of,
[00:06:10] Beth Sattely: It's a directed evolution, I would say.
[00:06:12] Russ Altman: Exactly. Where they just get what they want through mating and, and, and selection. And so some of the challenges could presumably be done in the old-fashioned way where, where the farmers say, okay, I'm having some trouble and I'm gonna select, um, I'm gonna select like species and variants that are well suited to my, my land. But I know that you've written that sometimes when you do that, it leaves them not robust to changes that might happen on much faster timescales. So can you tell me about this trade-off between old fashioned husbandry and modern biotechnology and how you think about when it's time to deploy the, the, the big new technologies versus they don't need us. They'll be fine.
[00:06:54] Beth Sattely: Sure. So I think in your question, there's, there's a piece about how do you make a change in a plant? Do you breed them, or do you use, um, you know, new tools in modern molecular engineering? Um, and I think those new tools are incredibly powerful. But the second part is when do we deploy them and what kind of traits are we trying to, um, instill in the crops that we'll work on? So I think there's a lot of questions to be asked on the individual plant level. One plant, you know, one particular crop might have been bred for yield or size of fruit, or ease of harvesting, but maybe we need to think a lot more about pathogens. Um, and especially given changing climate conditions, um, and, and transport of plants across the world. How susceptible are they to blights and, and essentially pandemics just like humans. So yeah, we need to think about the individual plants, but then we also have to think about the system in which plants are grown. It's not just each plant in and of itself. It's what is the ecosystem that we're creating when we're growing crops and how do we make that really robust, um, to changes that might come down the pipe.
[00:08:04] Russ Altman: Is the industry worried? So, um, you, you're an engineer and you build stuff, and you create methods. Um, uh, are the people in the industry of food and of plants, are they telling you that, um, that you and your colleagues need to get on the ball because they're seeing kind of looming problems? Or are you just doing this, um, to create the capabilities that we may need in the future?
[00:08:27] Beth Sattely: Yeah, I think, um, we're trying to figure out what are the concerns both from the industry side, but also from the consumer side. And from the people side. And then we're trying to figure out what are the concerns from the planet side, which is an even harder, um, because we've really gotta listen very closely to understand those environmental needs. Um, so I think folks in industry of, of course, are always trying to come up with the next, um, iteration of a crop. But my understanding is that those are largely driven towards, you know, the short term, not necessarily the long term from what I've heard in regards to, you know, climate change and stability of food systems. That's just not what businesses are, how they're built to operate.
[00:09:13] Russ Altman: Right. Can you tell me about some of the crops or plants that you're focusing your attention on these days?
[00:09:19] Beth Sattely: Yeah. Um, I think we, we think about plants all across the plant kingdom. I mean, often we're following the interesting chemistry rather than one particular crop. And just to be clear, we don't just work on crops. We work on a lot of different kinds of, um, medicinal plants, um, that have really fascinating chemistry. One we've worked on for a long time, uh, in collaboration with the Mudgett Lab at Stanford is tomatoes, um, and,
[00:09:45] Russ Altman: Love tomatoes.
[00:09:46] Beth Sattely: Yeah, me too. I think it might be one of my favorite foods actually.
[00:09:49] Russ Altman: And there's the hugest difference, uh, if we can go with just a small little sidebar. There's the hugest difference between homegrown delicious tomatoes and the ones that are typically available like commercially. Like that's one of the ones where you really are aware of the differences, in my opinion.
[00:10:05] Beth Sattely: Yeah. And it's all their chemistry, right? It's, um, what are all the molecules, is it just packed with water, or does it have all those flavorful molecules that make it taste great? And then there's other really fascinating things with not just where did it grow, but how do you store it? You know, one of the things that we never really think about is when you purchase a tomato in the grocery store, it's not necessarily dead. It's still alive, right? Um, those cells could still be carrying out metabolism, and if you put it in the refrigerator, it could really change what's happening there versus you leave it on your counter.
[00:10:38] Russ Altman: Oh, so, okay. So what are you doing with these? What, what are your latest tomato dreams and hopes?
[00:10:43] Beth Sattely: Yeah, my latest tomato dreams actually have to do, um, not with what happens to a tomato when you put in the fridge, although I think that's important when you're making a salad. I'm more, right now, focused on these specific lipids that are made when pathogens touch a tomato leaf. So I'm really interested in this chemistry that gets essentially turned on, um, only on very, under very certain conditions. So normally when a tomato plant's looking healthy, everything's fine. It's not making these molecules. But then if a fungus comes along on the plant leaf, all of a sudden it starts producing all of these interesting metabolites. One that we're studying with the Mudgett Lab are these interesting lipids that get produced, um, and that have an important role in the infection process.
[00:11:28] Russ Altman: Now sometimes I know, so lipids, for many people know, is, are types of fats. Sometimes fats are associated with things that are delicious. So what is the effect of these lipids on the tomatoes taste?
[00:11:41] Beth Sattely: Yeah, so, uh, great question. No effect that I know of, right now, on the tomatoes taste. The plants, I would say in general, don't really care about us so much. They're more concerned, um, you know what, the pathogen, well, I should say that they do care about mammals and mammalian herbivory. Who's gonna be eating them? What time and what stage
[00:12:03] Russ Altman: To spread the seeds and whatnot.
[00:12:05] Beth Sattely: Yeah. Yeah. Like there's these other molecules that we've looked at in tomato that actually change over the course of ripening. So there's one form that's there when the tomatoes are green, but then they get converted into a different form when the tomatoes turn red. No one knows why this happens, but we think it's because it's sort of altering, you know, how enticing those tomatoes are to herbivory during the course of development.
[00:12:26] Russ Altman: Yeah. Um, and, and, and I've, I've heard, I've heard that you're working on, uh, or that, that there are vaccinations for tomatoes. So it, what is that all about?
[00:12:36] Beth Sattely: Yeah. Uh, that's a, a play on words I would say a little bit. But basically, um, again, you know, plants are doing a lot more than we realize. I think, uh, you know, if there's anything you remember from today, they might be sitting there very innocently as you walk by. But there's metabolism going on constantly. You know, for example, when that fungus comes on a leaf, all these fatty acids are made. And the, the question of the vaccines, plants have an immune system just like humans, right? And so if there's an infection in one part of the plant, the whole rest of the plant actually responds and there's a heightened level of defense. And so one of the molecules that we've worked on actually triggers, um, this systemic response across the plant body. So, uh, there's ways for the plant to signal from one leaf or branch all the way to the other side of the plant when a pathogen arrives.
[00:13:27] Russ Altman: So and so, and so the, the, these lipids in the tomatoes have caught your attention. Um, are they a risk to the tomato population? Uh, what, what made you and your colleagues, uh, concerned and interested in them?
[00:13:40] Beth Sattely: So often, uh, when I get interested in something, it's because of that chemist hat. I think the structure looks cool on paper. And it's kind of unusual and I think about like the way the atoms are bonded together, and I think this is not like your polyunsaturated fatty acid. This is like a different kind of lipid. So this is a very unusual structure, um, that we first were drawn to. And then when we found out that it's basically dark until you put a pathogen on the plant and then it gets produced, made us think that perhaps it has an important role in the infection process.
[00:14:14] Russ Altman: Gotcha. Gotcha. So before we move to some other topic I did, I know you've worked on limonoids.
[00:14:21] Beth Sattely: Limonoids. Yeah.
[00:14:21] Russ Altman: Which are some of these things that I think are responsible for citrus, uh, flavors. And I, I did want, I've heard recently, and I don't know if you work on this, about citrus greening.
[00:14:30] Beth Sattely: That's right. Yeah.
[00:14:31] Russ Altman: Um, so can you tell me just a little bit about that? 'Cause I think it's an important thing that a lot of people are not aware of.
[00:14:36] Beth Sattely: Yeah. So, um, this is a, a great question. I actually, I taught a class this spring, um, that was all about, uh, how do we define some of the big challenges in the food space when we think about really reinventing the food system and how do we break that down to, um, some of the big problems that we could go after, um, in a practical way. And one of my student groups chose to focus on citrus greening. So even though it's not something I work on, it was really exciting to learn a lot about it through this class. Um, so citrus greening is, uh, uh, a pathogen, a bacterial pathogen, that affects citrus trees and essentially destroys the, the quality of the fruit and can ultimately kill the tree.
[00:15:17] It's transmitted through a psyllid, which is a, uh, insect can land on the tree and then, um, deliver the, the bacteria. So the, the insect is the vector. Um, and it's really, uh, devastated the citrus, uh, citrus growth in production in Florida. However, it's not yet, I would say, um, a big issue in California. Um, although experts predict based on my student's conversations with, uh, farmers and um, growers across the state, that it's, there's, um, it's starting to appear and there's a strong likelihood that it'll emerge in California as an important pathogen as well.
[00:15:55] Russ Altman: Yeah, so this is what I've heard as well, and that it actually could threaten global, not only global citrus, but because of that, global access to things like vitamin C where the citrus fruits are the main source. So I just wanted to highlight it 'cause I knew, I, I, I knew you worked a little bit on, on, on the, on the limonoids, uh, which, uh, who knows, maybe your expertise there might eventually, I mean, you are circling a lot of these things in your expertise, so I wouldn't be surprised if when you're on The Future of Everything for the third time, you're, you're a citrus, here's a prediction from Russ Altman. You're gonna be getting involved in citrus greening.
[00:16:30] Beth Sattely: Yeah, that would be awesome if the molecules that we've studied in citrus ultimately have an important role. I mean, just, you know, to, to very briefly say, limonoids are these really fascinating, super complex molecules that are present in citrus trees, also in citrus fruit. They can lead to a bitter taste in fruit, but that's what, we really actually don't know, uh, what their function is. And there's lots of different cousins in the same molecule class, so they're probably doing a lot of really, uh, interesting and cool things.
[00:16:59] Russ Altman: Yeah. So I saw that on your CV in preparation for our chat, and I did Google it and I read like the Wikipedia entry and, and I have a little bit of a chemistry background as you may know. And so I, I saw that these were very interesting looking molecules, and I said, okay, this explains why Beth would be interested in them. And that is, that's what triggered my, my citrus greening. I wanted to move to the idea of plants as factories for chemicals. You, you've kind of said you're, you're, they bring together your love of chemistry and your love of, of plants. And, and I think you've written that there are some of the best chemists in the world are plants. Uh, and one of the things you're doing is looking at plants as a, as a factory for medications, uh, even like cancer medications. So can you tell us about that?
[00:17:39] Beth Sattely: Yeah, so most recently, um, we've done some work to try to figure out how do plants make molecules that are used in the clinic and, uh, already have been discovered and used as, uh, for example, chemotherapeutics. So leading example is Taxol, which is produced by, um, Taxus tree or the Yew tree. Um, so, we figured out how does a plant make this molecule. But that's, you know, just the tip of the iceberg. Um, this is, uh, a super important drug that's been around for a long time. There was a huge race to make it chemically, like how could, um, scientists make it at the bench? Now we're trying to figure out how does nature do it? How does the tree do it?
[00:18:19] I think that could be an important, uh, way that the molecule's produced. But again, I think the story is much bigger there. These trees live literally for thousands of years. They make, um, you know, over five hundred, six hundred different versions of these metabolites, all different structures. We use one in the clinic. So I think that, um, the other molecules, the other four hundred and ninety-nine, are also worth investigating, understanding what are they doing for these trees that are able to live for thousands of years? And then furthermore, how could they be leveraged perhaps as medicines for human disease.
[00:18:57] Russ Altman: Yeah, I'm glad you said that. 'Cause it kind of buries the lead. Like why is a, is a Yew tree making a cancer drug? So can you give, what is known about what it's doing? Uh, presumably trees don't get cancer. Well actually, who knows? But, um, do we have any insight as to why it's making, because these are very complicated molecules. And my understanding is it took a long time for humans to figure out how to make these molecules kind of from scratch.
[00:19:22] Beth Sattely: Yeah. Often, I think when we use a molecule, um, in the clinic for treatment, uh, of humans, um, that it's sort of a coincidence that there's something about the target in humans that, uh, is similar to the evolved target in the plant. So, um, certainly again, you know, the Yew tree, uh, likely the selective pressure was not for cancer treatment. Um, however, it was for cells that are growing really fast. Um, likely pathogens, I mean, just think about like if, if you, uh, had a cut and you sort of buried it in dirt. You know how quickly you might get an infection. These plants are living for thousands of years in the soil, and they just don't get sick, right? That, um, they're able to persist. So these molecules have a really important role in, in dealing with that. My guess for something like Taxol, which actually binds to tubulins, that's like the skeleton of cells, the skeleton is super important when cells are dividing, especially when they're dividing fast, is that, um, it targets perhaps like a fungal pathogen that might be growing on the plant and it prevents growth, um, on the plant tissue.
[00:20:35] Russ Altman: This is The Future of Everything. I'm Russ Altman and we'll have more with Beth Sattely next. Welcome back to The Future of Everything. I'm Russ Altman and I'm speaking with Beth Sattely from Stanford University. In the last segment, we heard about how chemicals created by plants can be used and engineered to help them adapt to the climate or to resist diseases. We also heard that they might have applications in human health. In this segment, we're gonna learn a little bit more about how those human applications might go, and we'll also hear about how the field in general is moving towards engineering a better future for plants.
[00:21:19] So Beth, I'm amazed at the range of things that you do, the things I just mentioned, synthetic biology. You've, you've begun to look now at food allergies and plants as food. What are you thinking about doing next? I mean, I already suggested that you work on citrus greening, but other than that, um, what do you, what, what's the future hold and what do you, what, where are you seeing the best opportunities?
[00:21:40] Beth Sattely: Yeah, I think one of our, our biggest questions up until now has been how do plants make these molecules and what are these, what are the cornucopia of different molecular entities and plants? Going forward, I think we're really excited to better understand what do these molecules do. And there's sort of two arenas. One is, what do they do for plants? So how do they benefit plant health? And then the other side is, how does the chemistry of plants benefit human health?
[00:22:10] Russ Altman: Great. And so how do you, how, how do you reduce that to a research project in, in your lab? Um, who are the collaborators? How, how do you situate yourself in this, in some of these issues which are very complex? For example, anything having to do with health will involve, you know, clinical systems, regulatory folks, uh, industrial folks. Um, how do you, how do you think about that?
[00:22:31] Beth Sattely: Yeah, so I'll talk about it on the human side. Um, I'm really interested in how plant chemistry, you know, again, how it functions and how it can be valuable in a preventative context. So when it comes to human health, I think where my heart really lies is how do we prevent disease going forward. And so there I think that diet is a really exciting place to work. When you think about it, it's like our biggest exposure to the environment is what we put in our mouths at every meal. You know, you're, the, the area of your digestive track is like, you know, bigger than a tennis court. So, um, the, uh, that's where all our exposure is happening and so think we need to think a lot more critically about what is coming in and how does it influence, um, human health and the prevention of disease. One concrete place that we're starting to work is in the area of food allergy, because that's a very clear connection between diet and then your immune system.
[00:23:29] Russ Altman: Yeah. You know, that really rings true because we, we've heard ever since I've been a little kid, and that's a long time ago, you know, eat your vegetables, eat your fruits, it's good for you. But, um. I don't know the degree to which we've gotten, and, and then, and then of course it'll became, because there's fiber there. Okay, fine. Fiber. Check. But as you've just said, there are tons of other molecules. Many of them are probably beneficial, some of them might not be. Um, do we have a good understanding of the full range, it sounds like no. We don't have a good understanding of the full range of molecules, even in the foods that we are eating routinely, the fruits and vegetables that we get at the store. Um, and, and it's interesting to think about, from your perspective, these are all uncharacterized chemical systems that might have a lot of gold in there.
[00:24:12] Beth Sattely: Yeah. It's, what's even more interesting to think about is you've already sort of prescribed yourself with these molecules. You're taking, you know, drug, you're taking milligram quantities of drug-like molecules at every meal when you eat, and we don't really know how they affect your health. So it's, it's sort of the reverse of drug discovery. You're, you're already taking them. Now we have to ask about what exactly do they do?
[00:24:36] Russ Altman: Yes. And then, then for all the good ones, as you point out, every now and then there's an allergy. I've had food allergies, and it was a huge deal and I had to go through very high-tech treatments in order to be able to eat lobster rolls. We won't go through that, but, um, but like things like peanuts, peanuts come up all the time. So, um, when you look at allergens and allergies, what is the opportunity that you see for your group with your expertise?
[00:24:59] Beth Sattely: Yeah, so I think, um, the food allergy space is very new to us. We do not have immunology expertise. We've been collaborating with others that, you know, are seeped in the, the language of the immune system. And what I've come to understand is that there's a lot that we're starting to dissect, once you are sensitized to a food, how does an allergy progress? What is the response, the allergic response? What does that look like on a cell and molecular level? But there's this big open question about why do you develop allergies in the first place? The sensitization part. And so my lab's trying to contribute our understanding of the chemistry of plants. A peanut after all is a bunch of proteins and small molecules and lipids all bundled together. It's the, you know, the embryo of, of the peanut. So what about that is resulting in sensitization at much higher frequencies compared to other foods. That's where we are trying to make it some strides.
[00:25:53] Russ Altman: Yeah. And, and so I, I picked peanut as an example, but are you actually looking at that system or are there other allergy systems that have like caught your initial attention?
[00:26:02] Beth Sattely: Yeah, it's interesting. One of the places that we've actually started is to think about the other side of the coin when it comes to allergy. So not necessarily things that ultimately cause allergy, but your immune system is not just hanging around doing nothing when you normally eat food and you don't have an allergy. In fact, it's seeing all that food, and it's dampening the immune response. So we're thinking about tolerance. So in the, the more normal state that we like everyone to be in, what are the molecules from food that are recognized by immune cells, um, and interpreted as totally safe, no immune response needed. So we're thinking about that chemistry on that side.
[00:26:42] Russ Altman: Yeah, that, that makes sense because it is two sides of a coin. And, uh, understanding how the tolerance happens, obviously, I think, I think I can say obviously, will give you insights into the differences when there's not tolerance. And also how maybe to bring the tolerance. So I was gonna ask as a, as a chemical engineer looking at these systems, what is the, um, ideal, like what would you love to happen with respect to your relationship to this research? Would you like to figure out like, um, maybe, um, cocktails of small molecules or plants that you could give to try to help, uh, increase tolerance for things that are otherwise causing allergies?
[00:27:19] Beth Sattely: Yeah, so I think one of the fundamental questions we have also has a lot of, uh, translational aspects. So I would like to know when you eat a peanut, it's filled with proteins. There's tons of different molecules there. How much of that peanut, what percent is it 1%, 0.1% of the protein does your immune system have to recognize in order to determine that the whole thing is essentially safe? What are the signatures? And are those signatures that are valuable in the context of tolerance the same thing you become allergic to or are they different? 'Cause if they're different, then we might be able to just use those small portions of a peanut in order to get someone who is currently allergic back to a tolerant state.
[00:28:02] Russ Altman: Yeah. This is really interesting stuff. I, there was just a paper in Science Magazine about how birds have lost some ability to taste sourness. It's, you know, it's because you're always seeing these birds eating berries that we can't eat. Uh, and it turns out that they, they don't taste the, they don't taste the same to them. And so the, this is a little bit related in that, um, as we get exposure to these plants where tasting, tasting, I'm using tasting in quotes, these different small molecules. Um, what about for diet? I, so is there a sense that, um, you, you would start engineering plants to be more healthy or to provide, um, to provide nutrients that they don't normally provide. Is that a, a direction?
[00:28:42] Beth Sattely: I think that's a really cool line of research when there's like a micronutrient that's really, we know about it, we know the quantities that are required, it's something we can't make as humans that we have to, uh, acquire in our diet. And there's groups of people that are not receiving it. When it's really that targeted and we understand it enough, then I think engineering makes sense. But for the vast majority of the molecules that we encounter in food, we're still trying to figure out exactly what they do. And actually your bird example is, is super interesting, right? This takes me over to the plant health space. I think, you know, the role of these molecules and how plants interact with their environment, uh, also can, those same compounds can have an effect on humans when they're consumed, right? So we have taste receptors that are responding to those molecules. They actually, they're not just in our mouth, they line the entire gut. And those, uh, um, have a large role in how we respond to the food we eat.
[00:29:40] Russ Altman: Yeah, really good. Um, well, so, so to, to end up, I'm just wondering, um, how are you, uh, training the next generation? Like, what, what is the, uh, how does it look with respect to the future when you look at the, the young scientists in your lab, or even a undergraduate, I think you made a reference to some of your classes. Uh, how does the future look for the field of, uh, plant bioengineering and, and chemistry?
[00:30:02] Beth Sattely: Yeah, I mean, the, if you look at the students, that's, um, where all the inspiration and hope is. Um, I think that I'm excited, I, I'm just in awe of my students' critical thinking skills, of their excitement and enthusiasm for sustainability, um, and addressing problems in, you know, human and environmental health. Um, so I think the future is quite bright. I think chemistry and plants have, uh, a critical role and they're looking at it from all different angles. So follow them, and I think things are gonna be looking up for us.
[00:30:39] Russ Altman: Thanks to Beth Sattely. That was the future of plant chemistry. Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Future of Everything. Don't forget that we have a big catalog of back episodes on a wide variety of topics. And if you're enjoying this show, please remember to tell your friends, families, and colleagues. Word of mouth is a great way to spread news about The Future of Everything. You can connect with me on many social media platforms such as Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky @RBAltman, or @RussBAltman. You can also follow Stanford Engineering on social media @StanfordSchoolOfEngineering, or @StanfordENG.
