The Iowa Stater
February 2002
Eclectic group digs plants
Nicola Pohl likes to paint. Coralie Lashbrook collects antiques. Diane Bassham pilots airplanes. Adam Bogdanove speaks fluent Japanese. Hui-Hsien Chou is an accomplished photographer.There's one thing they have in common, however: plants.
These five are among the nine young faculty hired through the Plant Sciences Institute since its inception in 1999. The others are Xun Gu, Xiaoqiu Huang, Ron Mittler and Steve Whitham ('90 AgBio).
"We're extremely proud of our new faculty," said institute director Stephen Howell. "They will make an enormous impact on the status and scientific life of the university."
These new Iowa Staters have studied and worked in some of the nation's leading research universities and labs, from Cornell to Stanford, from Celera Genomics Corp. to Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute. Some already hold patents and several can claim research discovery firsts.
"They will mold the future of plant sciences," Howell said.
Their nascent research programs promise to help reveal the basic mechanisms of plant behavior. Eventually, their work will enable plant scientists to engineer crops with more stress tolerance and plants that are better suited for use in products. The bioinformaticists' research will lead to greater accuracy and speed in analyzing massive amounts of plant genetic data.
Bassham wants to understand how plant cells perceive nutrient stress. Mittler is interested in drought stress, as well as combinations of stresses in plants. Lashbrook is studying stress-induced abscission -- a process in which plants shed leaves, flowers or fruit. Whitham's research focuses on plant-virus interactions, while Bogdanove is interested in molecular mechanisms of plant responses to pathogens.
Pohl -- an organic chemist affiliated with the Center for Crops Utilization Research -- is studying how proteins make carbohydrate polymers, such as starch. Computer scientist Huang creates software used to determine the sequence of long segments of DNA. Chou designs computer software that mimics life-like behaviors in nature.
The first Plant Sciences Institute faculty member hired was bioinformaticist Gu. If his accomplishments are any indication, there is much to look forward to in plant science research and teaching at Iowa State.
In less than three years on the job, Gu secured a $560,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health, developed software that's being licensed by the university, received a prestigious DuPont Young Professor Award, served as major adviser to Iowa State's first Ph.D. in bioinformatics and published 10 research articles.
-- Teddi Barron
News Service
 Steve Whitham is researching plant-virus interactions. Photo by Bob Elbert. |