The final guest speaker to visit Plant Science 167 was Dave Mayonado from Monsanto. Mr. Mayonado is responsible for developing products on the East Coast and marketing them to farmers while also directing research on the weeds in the Mid-Atlantic area. He talked about the new biotechnology that is being developed by Monsanto and their competitors. This includes GMOs and all the different types of seeds and chemicals that are being developed and marketed for different areas and applications. One of the newest and most exciting projects according to Mr. Mayonado is RNAi, or RNA interference. RNA interference cancels genes to help them fight disease compared to GMOs which add genes to the organism. RNAi is used in plants but is being researched on its benefits in the medical arena. Dave Mayonado’s take home message was always be flexible, his degree was in chemistry and had no knowledge of agriculture until he did a summer internship working with weeds on Virginia Tech’s research farm. He said the key to being successful in industry is being able to handle change and be responsible for your actions.