Working for years with colleagues at ARS, Dr. Diener was credited with identifying the infectious agent at the proverbial root of the problem. AdvertisementMost scientists also believed that a pathogen as minuscule as the one Dr. Diener discovered was incapable of invading an organism. After identifying the viroid, Dr. Diener helped develop a test to detect the one that causes potato spindle tuber disease. Dr. Diener studied biology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, receiving a doctoral degree in 1948. Like many scientific advances, Dr. Diener’s discovery of the viroid was the successful result of many earlier unsuccessful tries.

Source: Forbes April 14, 2023 03:46 UTC