WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.737 My name is Stacy Weaver. 2 00:00:01.737 --> 00:00:05.691 line:15% I work for Dow AgroSciences in Discovery R&D 3 00:00:05.691 --> 00:00:10.039 line:15% and my role at Dow is basically I am a molecular biologist 4 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.075 line:15% and I work with a lot of team leaders 5 00:00:13.075 --> 00:00:15.320 line:15% and basically my role is to work with them 6 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.192 line:15% and help them understand different molecular analytics 7 00:00:18.192 --> 00:00:20.342 and molecular analytical tools to help them 8 00:00:20.342 --> 00:00:22.842 answer certain research questions. 9 00:00:22.842 --> 00:00:24.621 line:15% So, say if you're a project leader and you 10 00:00:24.621 --> 00:00:29.154 line:15% have any question at all resounding around DNA or RNA, 11 00:00:29.154 --> 00:00:31.076 line:15% you would come to me and say, "Hey can you develop 12 00:00:31.076 --> 00:00:33.524 line:15% an assay or a technique to help me answer 13 00:00:33.524 --> 00:00:35.180 line:15% my research question?" 14 00:00:35.180 --> 00:00:37.012 So then I go in the lab and develop these 15 00:00:37.012 --> 00:00:39.979 assays, techniques, and then if it's a huge project 16 00:00:39.979 --> 00:00:41.952 I work with a team of technicians and then 17 00:00:41.952 --> 00:00:45.328 we can deliver data to help answer their question. 18 00:00:45.328 --> 00:00:47.043 Every week I have three or four projects 19 00:00:47.043 --> 00:00:50.151 that need things to happen in the lab 20 00:00:50.151 --> 00:00:53.365 line:15% or assays need to be run or assays needed to 21 00:00:53.365 --> 00:00:55.459 line:15% be developed and validated. 22 00:00:55.459 --> 00:00:57.751 line:15% So I'll be doing all these things to prepare. 23 00:00:57.751 --> 00:00:59.576 line:15% And then, meanwhile, I might have some other 24 00:00:59.576 --> 00:01:01.217 line:15% projects that are farther along where 25 00:01:01.217 --> 00:01:03.445 line:15% there's technicians in the lab workin to 26 00:01:03.445 --> 00:01:05.831 generate data using assays that I developed, 27 00:01:05.831 --> 00:01:07.953 you know, months prior. 28 00:01:07.953 --> 00:01:11.873 So, in discovery R&D, well my area of discovery R&D 29 00:01:11.873 --> 00:01:15.040 is we work to identify or come up with 30 00:01:17.266 --> 00:01:19.365 these different ideas that could be a trait 31 00:01:19.365 --> 00:01:22.022 that would help the plant survive better 32 00:01:22.022 --> 00:01:25.316 line:15% without water, or less water, or utilize nitrogen 33 00:01:25.316 --> 00:01:27.283 line:15% better, or something that would help the plant 34 00:01:27.283 --> 00:01:29.465 line:15% a little bit, be more robust. 35 00:01:29.465 --> 00:01:32.231 line:15% So we synthesize all these genes and we put them 36 00:01:32.231 --> 00:01:34.302 line:15% into plants, and we have a whole pipeline 37 00:01:34.302 --> 00:01:37.316 line:15% where we're able to test them in like a rapid manner, 38 00:01:37.316 --> 00:01:39.075 or we can actually put them in the crop 39 00:01:39.075 --> 00:01:40.620 and we'll grow them in the greenhouse, 40 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:43.173 and we do all this early phase testing. 41 00:01:43.173 --> 00:01:46.643 And it's a lot of failure, some successes, 42 00:01:46.643 --> 00:01:47.981 and then it's... 43 00:01:47.981 --> 00:01:49.987 The things that fail always give you a lot of 44 00:01:49.987 --> 00:01:52.934 extra questions that you wanna, you know, find out. 45 00:01:52.934 --> 00:01:55.106 line:15% So that's the fun part about discovery 46 00:01:55.106 --> 00:01:58.088 line:15% is you are open to all of these, I would say 47 00:01:58.088 --> 00:01:59.836 line:15% failures, but they're not really failures 48 00:01:59.836 --> 00:02:02.167 line:15% they're just, oh okay mother nature is 49 00:02:02.167 --> 00:02:04.871 line:15% regulating this gene this way. 50 00:02:04.871 --> 00:02:05.870 Wonder why? 51 00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:07.512 Let me figure that out. 52 00:02:07.512 --> 00:02:09.645 So that's the joy is, you know, it's 53 00:02:09.645 --> 00:02:11.267 learning all these weird things where 54 00:02:11.267 --> 00:02:12.974 you think you can predict mother nature 55 00:02:12.974 --> 00:02:15.891 but she always throws a curve ball.