Latest News

Michigan State University has been awarded one of six Global Centers through the U.S. National Science Foundation and its partner agencies.

MPS researchers have discovered what bridges two important pieces of cellular machinery in plants.

MPS researcher Berkley Walker, and Hiroshi Maeda, were awarded $1.9 million to study how plants make critical choices during photosynthesis.

MPS faculty member Polly Hsu received $3.7 million in funding to expand genetic research that has applications for heartier crops and healthier lives

The organelle can arrange itself in a sheet or a shell — but that doesn’t change how it operates.

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

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Michigan State University’s renowned plant researchers are collaborating on solutions to grow more abundant, nutritious and resilient plants that will feed a growing population.

MPS faculty member Federica Brandizzi discusses agricultural innovation. The world’s population is growing, and climate change is continuing to impact the crops we need to feed that growing population.

The moon holds answers, and a MPS faculty member Federica Brandizzi and graduate student Joanne Thomson are bringing those answers within reach. Patience, creativity and a cheerful fearlessness are turning insights buried in plant seeds into pathways to the very survival of the human race.

Michigan State University researchers including MPS faculty member Hatem Rouached have discovered a molecular mechanism that connects plant root growth to phosphorus availability.

Michigan State University researcher Acer VanWallendael understands the public’s fascination with fungus. It is, after all, a fungus that kicks off the zombie apocalypse in the hit HBO series “The Last of Us.”

Complicated sets of biological data can be challenging to extrapolate meaningful information from. Wanting to find a better way to look at this data led Berkley Walker, assistant professor at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL) and the Department of Plant Biology, to team up with statistician and Assistant Professor Chih-Li Sung from the Department of Statistics and Probability.

A new study from researchers at Michigan State University underscores that we still have much to learn regarding how plants will function — and how nutritious they will be — as more carbon enters our atmosphere.

Researchers at Michigan State University are working to clear the runway for a new source of cleaner, more sustainable biodiesel and jet fuels derived from a relative of cabbage and cauliflower.

The Brandizzi Lab at MSU is sending seeds to space aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission to explore how humanity can sustain itself outside of Earth.

Michigan State University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University, are working to build new microscopes that allow scientists to peer into plant cells like never before.

MSU and Purdue researchers team up to create a new type of strong, sustainable, self-healing timber infused with microbes.

MSU researchers are studying plants that can survive extreme drought and what they can teach us about life without water.