Latest News

Spartan researchers have developed a way to get poplar trees to produce valuable molecules usually derived from shark livers

The nearly $1.8 million award will support work in drug discovery through molecular dynamics research in plants

Maxwell Harman shares his insights on his acceptance to the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Björn Hamberger, MPS faculty member, is the winner of the 2024 nnovation of the Year award from the Innovation Center.

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.

The College of Natural Science has three newly minted Red Cedar Distinguished Professors, including MPS faculty member Shinhan Shiu.

Researchers from across the Michigan State University plant science community, including several MPS students, participated in this year’s Science Festival on campus.

Graduate students Xiaotong Jiang and Bailey Kleven are the 2024 recipients of the Keegstra and Thomashow Travel Awards.

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.

MPS faculty member Cheryl Kerfeld was a panelist at an event in Washington, DC commemorating US innovation at the nanoscale.

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, MPS graduate student, was awarded a 2024 Michigan Soybean Association Scholarship.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New research from MPS faculty member Thomas Sharkey shows how plants have adapted to deal with losing daylight.

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.

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.

MPS graduate student MacKenzie Jacobs writes about her experience in Switzerland in summer 2023, attending Polyploid Summer School at the University of Fribourg.

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.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology features MPS graduate stuent Angel McKay Whiteman as a Graduate Student Spotlight.

MPS faculty member David Lowry participates in a collaboration between plant and education researchers at MSU working to transform the relationship students have with science.

Two MPS faulty members, Josh Vermaas and Tom Sharkey, teamed up to investigate how isoprene levels and temperature affect the thylakoid membrane of plants at the nanoscale.

This scientific connection led to a unique collaboration between Robert Quinn and MPS faculty member Christoph Benning, who teamed up and received a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the role that betaine lipids from a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with algae play in coral bleaching.

Kadeem J. Gilbert, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station faculty member and assistant professor in the Michigan State University College of Natural Science’s Department of Plant Biology, has received a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding young plant scientists.

Since Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, Michigan State University researchers, including MPS faculty member Courtney Hollender, were searching for the genes associated with tart cherry trees that bloom later in the season to meet the needs of a changing climate.

Graduate student Hannah Parks and postdoctoral researcher María Santos Merino have been awarded the 2023 Anton Lang Memorial Awards at a ceremony which took place on Monday, April 24, 2023. This year’s lecture was given by University Distinguished Professor Thomas D. Sharkey from Michigan State University.

The interview is with Joanne Thomson about her role and contributions to the recent NASA experiment provided by the Brandizzi lab.