Latest News

MPS student Lexi Heger reflects on her experience organizing and attending the Financial Wellness workshop for plant science graduate students and postdocs.

This October, two students in the Molecular Plant Sciences graduate program were awarded the inaugural MPS Outstanding Paper Award.

Annabella Lyndon shares her non-traditional path to Michigan State and her passion for plant sciences.

With new funding, graduate student Lexi Heger’s research takes an unexpected turn

The fellowship provides opportunities for international exchange programs in drug discovery, agriculture and medicine.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic microorganisms which have widespread uses in the production of pigments, antioxidants and supplements and potential ones in biofuels and plastics, have a new way to communicate with one another to control their population, researchers, including MPS graduate student Rees Rillema, show.

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.

Found in acidic volcanic hot springs, the extremophilic alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae contains a unique process that allows them to survive in extreme environments. Researchers, led by graduate student Anne Steensma from the Molecular Plant Sciences Graduate Program, are looking at this process and its potential to change how we understand the ways photosynthetic organisms adapt to environmental challenges like high temperatures.

Harman is a first year Ph.D. student in the MPS program. He wants to pursue a career in agriculture research to improve food and our food system using novel gene-editing techniques to discover and implement novel traits that benefit both producers and consumers.

Scopolamine and hyoscyamine are medicinally important compounds that are produced in some solanaceous species. MPS student Hannah Parks is interested in understanding the metabolism in this family of plants.

MSU researchers, including MPS students Emily Lanier and Abigail Bryson, have traced the evolution of mint genomes for potential future applications that range from medicines to pesticides to antimicrobials.

Bianca Serda is a second-year graduate student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Molecular Plant Sciences programs here at Michigan State University. "I have learned that there are many resources available to help move my research forward, all I need to do is ask what is available for me and somehow, I find what I need."

Berkley Walker's lab - including MPS graduate students Luke Gregory, Kalia Smith and Anne Steensma - was acknowledged by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety as a part of their inaugural Laboratory Safety Recognition Awards this year.

MPS faculty member Federica Brandizzi and graduate student Joanne Thomson send seeds to space in the Artemis 1 spacecraft.

Third-year graduate student Bianca Serda attended two scientific conferences this summer: The Gordon Research Conference on Biogenic Hydrocarbons and the Atmosphere in June, and the American Society of Plant Biologists Plant Biology Conference in July.

Graduate student Philip Engelgau and postdoc Peipei Wang have been awarded the 2022 Anton Lang Memorial Award at a ceremony which took place on Monday, April 25, 2022. This year’s lecture was given by Professor Emeritus Govindjee from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

MPS graduate student Philip Engelgau was interviewed about his research for The Sci-Files, a science podcast from Impact 89FM.

MPS graduate student Serena Lotreck was interviewed about her research for The Sci-Files, a science podcast from Impact 89FM.