A UMD Researcher Puts the Squeeze on the Disease Ravaging Citrus Groves

A disease that decimated Florida’s orange and grapefruit industries is now spreading worldwide, and a University of Maryland plant virologist is racing against time to stop it.

Anne Simon, a professor of cell biology and molecular genetics and a renowned plant virologist, has developed a virus vector that, when it infects a citrus tree, kills the bacteria carried by insects that is responsible for citrus greening.

Simon and her brother launched the company Silvec Biologics to develop therapeutics, and field tests this year have shown that young orange trees injected with the otherwise-harmless virus advanced in Simon's lab have stayed healthy after one and a half years. 

Her work is the subject of the 2026 “Beyond the Field” video, a partnership with Maryland Athletics that celebrates how UMD researchers are tackling the grand challenges of our time.