Jeremy Coate is studying the evolution of photosynthesis in polyploids in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Doyle. His selected group of plants include several members that are closely related to soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Fabaceae, and its wild relatives. Last year, Jeremy co-wrote a grant proposal with Jeff Doyle and Tom Owens titled "Physiology and molecular evolution of photoprotection in allopolyploids" that was funded by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems of NSF.
The evolution of photosynthesis in polyploids is an important area of research because polyploidy is ubiquitous in the evolutionary history of plants, and can have pronounced effects on phenotype and functional traits such as photosynthesis. In addition, soybean, which is a paleopolyploid, is the third largest crop plant in the United States. Jeremy is using chlorophyll fluorescence to compare photosynthetic phenotypes between neopolyploids and their diploid progenitors. At the same time, he is using next-generation sequencing technology, as well as more targeted expression analyses (qRT-PCR) to profile and compare diploid and polyploid transcriptomes under various light conditions.
Jeremy is originally from Oregon, where he earned a B.A. in biology from Reed College and a M.S. in forest science from Oregon State University. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia (West Africa) for two years, where he worked on agroforestry projects with local farmers.
Sarah Nell Davidson is pursuing a novel writing-focused PhD program that fuses her experience in plant biology research with science communication, under the guidance of Robert Turgeon. Her doctoral dissertation will consist of a collection of case studies, papers in peer-reviewed journals, and articles for mass media all of which stem from her in-depth research on the controversy around genetically modified papaya in developing countries.
Genetically engineered (GE), virus-resistant papaya was widely and rapidly adopted by Hawaiian growers in the late 1990s. Yet, other papaya-producing countries that are plagued with the virus, and that stand to benefit from this technology, have failed to approve it. This is despite the fact that GE papaya is close to an ideal ''pro-poor'' GE crop. Sarah spent extensive time researching this controversy in places such as Hawaii, Mexico, Bangladesh, and Thailand.
In an editorial published in the June issue of Plant Physiology, Sarah examines the political and social factors that have stymied the technology in Thailand. An understanding of these factors may help stakeholders devise better strategies for introducing the next generation of biotechnology crops. Read the article at: http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/147/2/487
Jimmy Ytterberg completed his BS and MSc degree in Chemistry at the University of Stockholm in 1999, including a six-month study as an exchange student in the Biochemistry department at Imperial College, London, England. In 2001, he came to Cornell where he developed his PhD thesis titled: Thylakoid proteome analysis of chloroplasts of Arabidopsis thaliana; Elucidation of thylakoid functions and its biogenesis machinery in the Lab of Prof. Klaas J. vanWijk . In order to carry out his dissertation work, he spent 4 months in Odense (Denmark) learning advanced mass spectrometry analysis of proteins. During his time at Cornell, Jimmy collaborated with many projects within and outside Cornell identifying proteins by mass spectrometry. His skills with this technique earned him an invitation to speak at the 52nd American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Conference in Nashville, TN in 2004. Today, as a post-doc, Jimmy continues his search for new methods for protein/proteome characterization by mass spectrometry and their application in answering biological questions at UCLA. Congratulations!!
Andrea Rudella graduated with a B.S. and M.S. degree in Agro-Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Verona, Italy, in March 1999. After the mandatory Italian Military Service, he entered the field of Plant Biology at Cornell in 2001. Andrea's thesis project in the vanWijk Lab concerned the functional role of Clp proteases in plant and chloroplast development and function. He extensively used reverse genetics, cell biology, confocal and TEM imaging, advanced biochemical analysis, comparative proteomics, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics for his dissertation research and for the many other projects in which he contributed. He was invited to speak at the XIII Conference on Arabidopsis, Sevilla, Spain (2002) and at the Plant Molecular Biology Meeting, Barcelona (2003). Andrea is today a Proteomics Specialist part of the Waters Support Team (Waters Corporation) where he assists scientists throughout Europe to implement the latest Waters technologies in proteomics, such as ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (UPLC) and Mass Spectrometry. Congratulations!!