Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry
Biochemistry, Cell & Molecular Biology, Genomics & Proteomics,
Research
To deal with relentless environmental pressures, plants produce an arsenal of structurally diverse defensive chemicals. These sometimes-complex compounds are derived from much simpler building blocks from core metabolic pathways. The expansion and alteration of core metabolism has given rise to the evolution of diverse plant specialized metabolites. However, the underlying mechanisms potentiating metabolic diversity and the connections linking core to specialized metabolism are not well known. These knowledge gaps create bottlenecks in synthetic biology platforms for production of high-value plant metabolites and increasing plant resilience. We take a multidisciplinary approach combing in vitro biochemistry, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, and functional genetics to study diverse plant metabolites including acylsugars across the tomato family and non-proteogenic amino acids.
Awards & Honors
- Eric E. Conn Young Investigator Award, American Society of Plant Biologists, 2019
- Publications Committee, American Society of Plant Biologists
- Treasurer, Early Career Plant Biologists Section American Society of Plant Biologists