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Latest News

Annabella Lyndon
November 4, 2024
Annabella Lyndon shares her non-traditional path to Michigan State and her passion for plant sciences.
Leaves against a dirt background
October 3, 2024
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faculty
Michigan State University has been awarded one of six Global Centers through the U.S. National Science Foundation and its partner agencies.
Six confocal images of tobacco, three showing expression of VAP27-1 and VAP27-3, three showing chloroplasts, and three showing those images merged.
September 5, 2024
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faculty
MPS researchers have discovered what bridges two important pieces of cellular machinery in plants.
Berkley Walker (right) shows Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz (left) around the lab.
August 26, 2024
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MPS researcher Berkley Walker, and Hiroshi Maeda, were awarded $1.9 million to study how plants make critical choices during photosynthesis.
Polly Hsu in her lab
August 26, 2024
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MPS faculty member Polly Hsu received $3.7 million in funding to expand genetic research that has applications for heartier crops and healthier lives
A computer rendering of bacterial microcompartment shell proteins. There are five round shells and a flat sheet.
August 19, 2024
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faculty
The organelle can arrange itself in a sheet or a shell — but that doesn’t change how it operates.
An illustration of the complex, diversly structured and multilayered organization of Aspergillus fungal cell wall. The inset shows the antifungal drug caspofungin inhibiting the biosynthesis of β-1,3-glucan.
August 7, 2024
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Researchers have found how fungi rebuild, reinforce their cell walls after exposure to antifungals, opening opportunities to improve current therapies
Lexi Heger
July 26, 2024
With new funding, graduate student Lexi Heger’s research takes an unexpected turn
Maxwell Harman
July 22, 2024
The fellowship provides opportunities for international exchange programs in drug discovery, agriculture and medicine.
A large green poplar leaf speckled with water droplets
July 8, 2024
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Spartan researchers have developed a way to get poplar trees to produce valuable molecules usually derived from shark livers
A colorful molecular model. Green and purple ribbons depicting the heterodimeric cisprenyltransferase complex floating above gray, red and blue dots depicting a cell membrane.
July 1, 2024
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The nearly $1.8 million award will support work in drug discovery through molecular dynamics research in plants
Maxwell Harman
June 11, 2024
Maxwell Harman shares his insights on his acceptance to the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
A petri dish with green spots on it.
May 9, 2024
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faculty
Björn Hamberger, MPS faculty member, is the winner of the 2024 nnovation of the Year award from the Innovation Center.
A group of 11 people
May 7, 2024
A group of graduate and undergraduate students participated in the 2024 EnergyTech University Prize, making it to the regionals portion of the competition. The contest is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions and challenges students to create and present a business plan in the energy sector.
Shinhan Shiu, Gina Leinninger and Elise Zipkin
April 19, 2024
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faculty
The College of Natural Science has three newly minted Red Cedar Distinguished Professors, including MPS faculty member Shinhan Shiu.
A scientific instrument clamps onto a green leaf and a screen shows measurements
April 18, 2024
Researchers from across the Michigan State University plant science community, including several MPS students, participated in this year’s Science Festival on campus.
Xiaotong Jiang and Bailey Kleven
April 16, 2024
Graduate students Xiaotong Jiang and Bailey Kleven are the 2024 recipients of the Keegstra and Thomashow Travel Awards.
A computer graphic of molecules in a crystal
April 10, 2024
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Using molecular dynamics, researchers from David Kramer and Josh Vermaas's labs, both MPS faculty members, showed how electrons move through a crystal, jumping from heme to heme.
Cheryl Kerfeld
April 5, 2024
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MPS faculty member Cheryl Kerfeld was a panelist at an event in Washington, DC commemorating US innovation at the nanoscale.
Shell protein coatings glow red around encapsulated blue droplets made of RNA in this microscope image
April 1, 2024
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Spartan researchers, including MPS faculty member Cheryl Kerfeld, join a nationwide team to create a new way to design cell-sized microfactories that could help make medicines, biofuels and more.
Max Harman
March 28, 2024
Max Harman, MPS graduate student, was awarded a 2024 Michigan Soybean Association Scholarship.
Four green plants
March 25, 2024
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faculty
In a recent study in Plant Physiology, researchers from MPS faculty member Christoph Benning's lab revealed a misconception that had been growing in plant science about one of the fundamental puzzle pieces of photosynthesis.
Grass
February 28, 2024
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The program is a partnership among MSU, the Plant Coalition and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. This includes work from MPS faculty members Courtney Hollender and Robert VanBuren.
Jiming Jiang and David Douches
February 21, 2024
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In a breakthrough for the snack food industry, a team of scientists led by Professor and MPS faculty member Jiming Jiang and Professor David Douches has discovered a key mechanism behind the darkening and potential health concerns associated with cold-stored potatoes.
Cyanobacteria as seen under a microscope
February 7, 2024
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From Danny Ducat's lab, a recent publication in Metabolic Engineering looks at how cyanobacteria balance cellular energy between “source and sink,” which may have downstream applications in bioproduction. 
Lucas Reist
January 30, 2024
Lucas Reist, a graduate student in the Cell & Molecular Biology and Molecular Plant Science, or MPS, programs attended the 2023 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, or ABRCMS, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Gregg Howe and Leah Johnson
December 13, 2023
MPS alum Leah Johnson is the 2023 recipient of the Kende Award, which acknowledges the best doctoral dissertation in plant sciences at Michigan State University over the last two years.
Duncan Boren
November 30, 2023
For a small field like computational biology, joining an international workshop is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from, collaborate with and talk to professionals and students from around the world. This is how MPS student Duncan Boren of the Vermaas Lab felt when he learned about the CompBioAsia program.
Three people pose with a sign that says S A C N A S
November 30, 2023
This fall, Molecular Plant Sciences graduate student Cathy Mercado alongside other MSU students attended the 50th National Diversity in STEM Conference in Portland, Oregon. The conference is hosted annually by SACNAS, or the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
Luke Gregory in a corn field
November 8, 2023
Food security is an important area of study to Walker lab MPS graduate student Luke Gregory. That’s why when he found an internship for Bayer on LinkedIn, he knew it was the one for him. Bayer’s vision “Health for all, hunger for none,” interested Luke.
Five people in covid masks look down at the camera, standing in a circle
November 6, 2023
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faculty
Four MSU plant biologists, including MPS faculty member David Lowry, excavated and genetically tested 144 year old seeds, discovering a hybrid plant was accidentally included among the seeds in the bottle.
Tom Sharkey talks to a woman in the lab
November 2, 2023
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faculty
New research from MPS faculty member Thomas Sharkey shows how plants have adapted to deal with losing daylight.
Berkley Walker
October 24, 2023
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Berkley Walker didn’t plan on becoming a scientist; he wanted to be an entrepreneur. And he got started early on that goal: In high school in Portland, Ore., he started a granola bar company, which helped pay for his bachelor’s degree in microbiology.
Leah Johnson
September 14, 2023
In plants, the jasmonate signaling pathway helps plants control their defense responses to environmental stresses. Like the human body, plants respond differently to individual threats. Just as people wouldn’t get a fever due to a sprained ankle, plants deal with harmful elements in particular ways. A study from the Howe lab looks at how plants respond to environmental threats in the correct way.
MacKenzie Jacobs
August 31, 2023
MPS graduate student MacKenzie Jacobs writes about her experience in Switzerland in summer 2023, attending Polyploid Summer School at the University of Fribourg.
A photo of a walkway in a garden
August 10, 2023
Five Molecular Plant Sciences graduate students have been accepted to the Plant Biotechnology for Health and Sustainability Graduate Training Program. This two-year program provides training and career opportunities for students who are interested in research areas related to plant biotechnology.