Management Team
 Project Director and Breeding Lead
Bruce Reisch, Professor, Cornell University Bruce Reisch is a project Co-Director for the VitisGen2 project. He leads the breeding and local phenotyping team, tests new VitisGen2 technology, and interacts with all team members.
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Project Co-Director and Powdery Mildew LeadLance Cadle-Davidson, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit Lance is a project Co-Director, leads the powdery mildew phenotyping team, and serves on the genetics and breeding teams. His role is to provide germplasm, strategies, protocols, and marker technology to make powdery mildew resistance breeding easy, efficient, and effective. |
Project Manager Ugochukwu “Ugo” Ikeogu, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
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Grape Breeding and Local Phenotyping
Team Leader
Bruce Reisch, Professor, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
reisch@cornell.edu
Bruce Reisch is a project Co-Director for the VitisGen2 project. He leads the breeding and local phenotyping team, tests new VitisGen2 technology, and interacts with all team members.
Lance Cadle-Davidson, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
lance.cadledavidson@ars.usda.gov
Lance is a project Co-Director, leads the powdery mildew phenotyping team, and serves on the genetics and breeding teams. His role is to provide germplasm, strategies, protocols, and marker technology to make powdery mildew resistance breeding easy, efficient, and effective.
Matthew Clark, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
1970 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108
clark776@umn.edu
Matthew is the leader for the Grape Breeding and Enology Project at the University of Minnesota. For VitisGen2, the Clark lab collects data on traits that can be measured locally, including cluster compactness, berry color, disease and pest resistance, and fruit quality.
Anne Fennell, Professor, South Dakota State University
254b Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory, Brookings, SD 57007 anne.fennell@sdstate.edu
Anne’s research focuses on grapevine bud dormancy. In particular, she works to identify the genes and pathways that affect cold hardiness, bud dormancy, and chilling requirements.
Chin-Feng Hwang, Professor, State Fruit Experiment Station, Missouri State University
9740 Red Spring Road, Mountain Grove, MO 65711 ChinFengHwang@missouristate.edu
Chin-Feng maintains the vineyard of the Norton x Cabernet Sauvignon and Jaeger 70/Munson x Vignoles populations, manages pests and diseases of the vineyards, collects samples for further genotyping and phenotyping at Cornell, and participates in relevant extension and outreach efforts.
Craig Ledbetter, Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS CDPG
9611 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Ledbetter@ars.usda.gov
Craig is a table grape and raisin breeder in central California. His focus is new variety development for fresh and dried fruit quality, as well as developing new cultivars with durable resistances to powdery mildew and Pierce’s disease.
Jason Londo, Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS GGRU
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
Jason.Londo@ars.usda.gov
Jason manages all the different aspects of genetics in this huge project. He oversees the use of amplicon sequencing to develop new markers, genome sequencing to discover new markers, and gene expression to learn how traits are controlled. All of this work is to put more tools in the hands of grapevine breeders so they can reduce the cost and time needed to release new varieties adapted to our changing world.
Rachel Naegele, Research Horticulturist, USDA-ARS CDPG
9611 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Naegele@ars.usda.gov
Rachel is a table/raisin grape horticulturalist with the USDA-ARS who joined the breeding and fruit quality teams in VitisGen2. In particular, her lab is working to develop a high-throughput imaging system to evaluate cluster architecture and identify molecular markers associated with cluster and fruit quality.
Harlene Hatterman-Valenti (collaborator), Professor, North Dakota State University
Loftsgard Hall 470E, Fargo, ND 58108 H.Hatterman.Valenti@ndsu.edu
Harlene’s objectives are to put into action the findings from the first VitisGen project. She and her team have created and planted a population of 98 descendants combining the Run1 and Ren2 genes into hardier backgrounds. They will start creating a second, larger population for marker-assisted back-crossing to pyramid the genes into more favorable backgrounds.
Andrew Walker (collaborator), Professor, University California-Davis
2152 RMI North Building, Davis, CA 95616
awalker@ucdavis.edu
The Walker lab is working to breed wine and table grapes that are resistant to Pierce’s disease and powdery mildew, among other diseases.
Grape Breeding and Local Phenotyping Team Postdocs
Ugochukwu “Ugo” Ikeogu, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
uni3@cornell.edu
Ugo has a dual role in VitisGen2 as Project Manager and as a Post-Doctoral Associate. As project manager, he facilitates communications between the teams, and keeps the project organized and running smoothly. In addition, he has vast experience with genetics and phenotyping.
Grape Genetics Team
Team Leader
Jason Londo, Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS GGRU
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
Jason.Londo@ars.usda.gov
Jason manages all the different aspects of genetics in this huge project. He oversees the use of amplicon sequencing to develop new markers, genome sequencing to discover new markers, and gene expression to learn how traits are controlled. All of this work is to put more tools in the hands of grapevine breeders so they can reduce the cost and time needed to release new varieties adapted to our changing world.
Lance Cadle-Davidson, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
lance.cadledavidson@ars.usda.gov
Lance is a project Co-Director, leads the powdery mildew phenotyping team, and serves on the genetics and breeding teams. His role is to provide germplasm, strategies, protocols, and marker technology to make powdery mildew resistance breeding easy, efficient, and effective.
Dario Cantu, Associate Professor, University of California-Davis
2146 RMI – North Building, Davis, CA 95616
dacantu@ucdavis.edu
Dario is Associate Professor and Louis P. Martini Endowed Chair in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. As member of the VitisGen2 Genetic team, Dario leads the genome assemblies and transcriptome analyses.
Anne Fennell, Professor, South Dakota State University
254b Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory, Brookings, SD 57007 anne.fennell@sdstate.edu
Anne Fennell’s research focuses on grapevine bud dormancy. In particular, she works to identify the genes and pathways that affect cord hardiness, bud dormancy, and chilling requirements.
Peter Schweitzer, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University
149 Biotechnology Bldg., Ithaca, NY 14853 pas48@cornell.edu
Peter is the director of the Genomics facility in the Institute of Biotechnology at Cornell University. His lab performs the genotyping/sequencing assays for the VitisGen2 project.
Qi Sun, Senior Research Associate, Cornell Bioinformatics Service Unit
618 Rhoades Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
QiSun@cornell.edu
Qi’s main responsibility is on the computational side, mostly in the development of haplotype references and low cost genotyping methodologies for marker discovery and breeding decisions. Qi’s group also manages databases and cloud computing infrastructure for this project.
Gan-Yuan Zhong (collaborator), Research Leader, USDA-ARS GGRU
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456 GanYuan.Zhong@ars.usda.gov
Gan-Yuan manages the grape genetic research unit of the USDA at Cornell Agritech, along with developing and using genetic tools to improve grape fruit quality and vine architecture.
Grape Genetics Team Postdocs
Ugochukwu “Ugo” Ikeogu, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
uni3@cornell.edu
Ugo has a dual role in VitisGen2 as Project Manager and as a Post-Doctoral Associate. As project manager, he facilitates communications between the teams, and keeps the project organized and running smoothly. In addition, he has vast experience with genetics and phenotyping.
Cheng Zou, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850
cz355@cornell.edu
Cheng is working on using bioinformatics tools to assist the grape breeding practice. For example: designing more efficient molecular markers using whole genome de novo assembly, pan-genome graph construction, etc. She is also performing an integrated data-mining of the genetic data that we have collected.
Melanie Massonet, Postdoctoral Associate, UC Davis
2105 Robert Mondavi Institute-North Building, Davis, CA, 95616
mmassonnet@ucdavis.edu
Melanie is a postdoctoral associate in Dario Cantu’s lab in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. Melanie is in charge of the genome-wide transcriptional analyses of the breeding populations for powdery mildew resistance gene stacking and wine grape quality.
Robert Richter, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
rtr43@cornell.edu
Robert Richter started working with VitisGen2 as a postdoctoral associate in September 2021 after completing his PhD at the Julius-Kühn Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof (JKI). His PhD thesis focused on the determination of key drivers of grapevine cluster architecture and the detection of genetic regions and candidate genes involved in cluster architecture.
Powdery Mildew Team
Team Leader: Lance Cadle-Davidson, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
lance.cadledavidson@ars.usda.gov
Lance is a project Co-Director, leads the powdery mildew phenotyping team, and serves on the genetics and breeding teams. His role is to provide germplasm, strategies, protocols, and marker technology to make powdery mildew resistance breeding easy, efficient, and effective.
David Gadoury, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
dmg4@cornell.edu
David is a senior research associate at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, and provides expertise in host ontogenic resistance, pathogen biology, ecology, and epidemiology, as well as microscopy and digital imaging.
Mark Rea, Professor and Director, Lighting Research Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
ream@rpi.edu
The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is developing an imaging system to automatically phenotype powdery mildew on grape leaf samples. Current methods use human visual assessment and are time consuming. Mark’s goal is to develop an imaging system with artificial intelligence that can automatically analyze 1600 samples per day.
Powdery Mildew Team Postdocs
Daniel Lacasa, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
dm676@cornell.edu
Dani is a postdoctoral associate in engineering and information technologies, with expertise in computer science, computer vision, and automation. He is involved in the development of VitisGen2 automatic phenotyping systems based on the integration of robot devices and computer vision procedures.
Surya Sapkota, Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
sds322@cornell.edu
Surya utilizes his background and interest in plant sciences to set up, inoculate, and process grape leaf tissue samples for powdery mildew resistance assessments. He works closely with experts in robotics, machine vision, optics, microscopy, and image analysis to facilitate high-throughput phenotyping.
Powdery Mildew Team Technician
Anna Underhill, Research Technician, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
anna.underhill@usda.gov
Anna is a research technician supporting investigations into powdery mildew phenotyping and resistance genetics. Her background in grapes, plant breeding, and image analysis helps her contribute to many aspects of the VitisGen2 program.
Fruit Quality Team
Team Leader: Gavin Sacks, Associate Professor, Cornell University
411 Tower Rd., Ithaca, NY 14853
gls9@cornell.edu
The Sacks lab oversees the Wine Grape Fruit Quality Phenotyping Center. The Center provides a centralized location for development and application of chemical analyses of grapes from breeding populations, with a particular focus on compounds responsible for undesirable properties of wild Vitis species.
Anna Katharine Mansfield, Associate Professor, Cornell University
107 Food Research Laboratory, Geneva, NY 14456 akm87@cornell.edu
Anna Katharine is associate professor of Enology at Cornell University, where her research focus is on hybrid wine phenolics and fermentation nutrition.
Rachel Naegele, Research Horticulturist, USDA-ARS CDPG
9611 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Naegele@ars.usda.gov
Rachel is a table/raisin grape horticulturalist with the USDA-ARS who joined the breeding and fruit quality teams in VitisGen2. In particular, her lab is working to develop a high-throughput imaging system to evaluate cluster architecture and identify molecular markers associated with cluster and fruit quality.
Amy Tabb (collaborator), Research Agricultural Engineer, USDA-ARS AFRS
2217 Wiltshire Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430 Amy.Tabb@ars.usda.gov
Amy is an agricultural engineer with the USDA-ARS who joined the fruit quality team as a collaborator in 2020. Her work is primarily focused on digital image analysis of table grape cluster and rachis architecture in conjunction with Rachel Naegele.
Trait Economics Team
Team Leader: Julian Alston, Distinguished Professor, University of California-Davis
2157 Social Sciences & Humanities, Davis, CA 95616
julian@primal.ucdavis.edu
Julian serves as leader of the Trait Economics Team, and within the team’s broader scope he will be focusing personally on the value of quality traits in table grapes—at least initially.
Rosa Karina Gallardo, Associate Professor, Washington State University
2606 West Pioneer, Puyallup, WA 98371
karina_gallardo@wsu.edu
The overall objective of the trait economics objective is to investigate the market value to the supply chain of the improvement in the levels of grape genetic traits. R. Karina Gallardo will co-lead the estimation of values and preferences – from growers and consumers – for horticultural and quality traits for different varieties of grape products.
Bradley Rickard, Associate Professor, Cornell University
450C Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
bjr83@cornell.edu
Brad is an agricultural economist from Cornell University that is part of the socioeconomic team within VitisGen2. As part of this team, he will contribute towards an evaluation of grower, retailer, and consumer demand for specific traits in wine and table grapes in an effort to identify cultivars that have the capacity to generate the greatest economic returns to stakeholders.
Extension and Outreach Team
Team Leader: Timothy Martinson, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
tem2@cornell.edu
Tim is the outreach team leader for VitisGen2. He serves as senior extension associate with the statewide viticulture extension program, based at Cornell Agritech in Geneva, NY.
Matthew Clark, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
1970 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108
clark776@umn.edu
Matthew is the leader for the Grape Breeding and Enology Project at the University of Minnesota. For VitisGen2, the Clark lab collects data on traits that can be measured locally, including cluster compactness, berry color, disease and pest resistance, and fruit quality.
Michelle Moyer, Associate Professor, Washington State University
24106 N. Bunn Road, Prosser, WA 99350
michelle.moyer@wsu.edu
Michelle assists with development of extension materials (articles, factsheets, newsletters, webinars, workshops) related to how to best adopt and use disease- resistant hybrid varieties in whole-farm pest management.
Michelle Podolec, Viticulture Extension Support Specialist, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
mls266@cornell.edu
Michelle provides web design and updates, write articles about team findings and publications, and generally helps the VitisGen2 program reach a broader audience.
Keith Striegler (collaborator), Grower Outreach Specialist, E.&J. Gallo Winery
21280 N. Kennefick Rd., Acampo, CA 95220
keith.striegler@ejgallo.com
Keith’s participation in the VitisGen2 Project will consist of assisting with publication of articles on the Project; publicizing Project webinars, publications, etc. to CA wine grape growers; distribution of Project publications to CA wine grape growers; and assist with scheduling, securing support, and logistics for Project meetings, field days, etc. in CA.
Alphabetical Listing of all Team Members
Julian Alston
Trait Economics Team Leader
Distinguished Professor, University of California-Davis
2157 Social Sciences & Humanities, Davis, CA 95616
julian@primal.ucdavis.edu
Lance Cadle-Davidson
Project Co-Director and Powdery Mildew Phenotyping Lead
Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
lance.cadledavidson@ars.usda.gov
Dario Cantu
Grape Genetics Team
Associate Professor, University of California-Davis
2146 RMI – North Building, Davis, CA 95616
dacantu@ucdavis.edu
Matthew Clark
Grape Breeding and Extension Teams
Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
1970 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108
clark776@umn.edu
Anne Fennell
Grape Breeding and Grape Genetics Teams
Professor, South Dakota State University
254b Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory, Brookings, SD 57007 anne.fennell@sdstate.edu
David Gadoury
Powdery Mildew Team
Senior Research Associate, Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
dmg4@cornell.edu
Rosa Karina Gallardo
Trait Economics Team
Associate Professor, Washington State University
2606 West Pioneer, Puyallup, WA 98371
karina_gallardo@wsu.edu
Harlene Hatterman-Valenti
Grape Breeding Collaborator
Professor, North Dakota State University
Loftsgard Hall 470E, Fargo, ND 58108 H.Hatterman.Valenti@ndsu.edu
Chin-Feng Hwang
Grape Breeding Team
Professor, State Fruit Experiment Station, Missouri State University
9740 Red Spring Road, Mountain Grove, MO 65711 ChinFengHwang@missouristate.edu
Ugochukwu “Ugo” Ikeogu
Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
uni3@cornell.edu
Daniel Lacasa
Postdoc
Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
dm676@cornell.edu
Craig Ledbetter
Grape Breeding Team
Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS CDPG
9611 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Ledbetter@ars.usda.gov
Jason Londo
Grape Genetics Team Lead and Grape Breeding Team
Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS GGRU
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY 14456
Jason.Londo@ars.usda.gov
Timothy Martinson
Extension and Outreach Team Leader
Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
tem2@cornell.edu
Melanie Massonet, Postdoctoral Associate, UC Davis
2105 Robert Mondavi Institute-North Building, Davis, CA, 95616
mmassonnet@ucdavis.edu
Michelle Moyer
Extension and Outreach Team
Associate Professor, Washington State University
24106 N. Bunn Road, Prosser, WA 99350
michelle.moyer@wsu.edu
Rachel Naegele
Grape Breeding and Fruit Quality Teams
Research Horticulturist, USDA-ARS CDPG
9611 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Naegele@ars.usda.gov
Mark Rea
Powdery Mildew Team
Professor and Director, Lighting Research Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
ream@rpi.edu
Bruce Reisch
Project Director, Breeding and Local Phenotyping Team Lead
Professor, Cornell University
635 W. North St., Geneva, NY 14456
reisch@cornell.edu
Bradley Rickard
Trait Economics Team
Associate Professor, Cornell University
450C Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
bjr83@cornell.edu
Gavin Sacks
Fruit Quality Team Leader
Associate Professor, Cornell University
411 Tower Rd., Ithaca, NY 14853
gls9@cornell.edu
Surya Sapkota
Postdoc
Cornell University
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
sds322@cornell.edu
Peter Schweitzer
Grape Genetics Team
Senior Research Associate, Cornell University
149 Biotechnology Bldg., Ithaca, NY 14853
pas48@cornell.edu
Keith Striegler
Extension and Outreach Collaborator
Grower Outreach Specialist, E.&J. Gallo Winery
21280 N. Kennefick Rd., Acampo, CA 95220
keith.striegler@ejgallo.com
Qi Sun
Grape Genetics Team
Senior Research Associate, Cornell Bioinformatics Service Unit
618 Rhoades Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
QiSun@cornell.edu
Amy Tabb
Fruit Quality Collaborator
Research Agricultural Engineer, USDA-ARS AFRS
2217 Wiltshire Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430 Amy.Tabb@ars.usda.gov
Anna Underhill, Research Technician, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit
738 Castle St., Geneva, NY, 14456
anna.underhill@usda.gov
Andrew Walker
Grape Breeding Collaborator
Professor, University California-Davis
2152 RMI North Building, Davis, CA 95616
awalker@ucdavis.edu
Lu Yin
PhD candidate, University on Minnesota
Cheng Zou
Postdoc
Cornell University
Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850
cz355@cornell.edu