It is anticipated that development of genomic tools will facilitate isolation of genes that provide resistance in chestnut. This information is eagerly sought by the breeding programs, and is expected to dramatically improve the efficiency of backcross breeding both by reducing generation time (no need to inoculate) but also by concentrating on offspring with the best known genetic characteristics.

An exciting approach with great promise leverages American Chestnut's ability to be transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Once transformed, propagation using methods for plant regeneration from somatic embryos have been developed permitting the production of many individuals from single transformation events. Professor C.A. Maynard's and Professor W.A. Powell's labs at the State University of New York at Syracuse University have produced transgenic American chestnut trees demonstrating that all the steps have been developed to genetically engineer this species.

SUNY ESF provides a short TV segment that talks about the status of the SUNY project.