We study epigenetics using plants as model systems. Our goals are to understand how the epigenome contributes to basic cellular mechanisms like DNA replication and gene silencing, and also complex processes like developmental transitions, trans-generational inheritance and aging. We are also interested in exploring how the epigenome can be modulated to improve current genome engineering...
Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Moriah Szpara: Taking stock: the impacts of genetic diversity for herpes simplex virus (HSV)
A variety of viruses infect the human nervous system, often with severe consequences. While vaccines have largely defeated the paralysis caused by polio, other viruses such as rabies, West Nile virus, and herpes simplex virus (HSV) continue to cause neurological infections that require clinical intervention. More than 70% of adults in the United States carry HSV, whether they know it or not. HSV...
Isaac Marck: East Bay Science Cafe - The Science of the Superbloom
The California Floristic Province, with a Mediterranean climate and diverse habitats, is home to numerous endemic plant species and is one of the world’s important botanical hotspots. Isaac Marck will discuss the diverse groups, geographical oddities, and ongoing botanical exploration in the California Floristic Province.
Dr. Michael Shapira: Microbiomes in Health and Disease
What do we know about our internal microbial communities – their roles in healthy living and disease? Michael Shapira will explore some intriguing ideas about the contribution of our internal flora and fauna to evolution.
Christine Queitsch: Plant gene regulation and complex traits genetics
Our research focuses on two related fields: the genetic architecture of complex traits and the role of gene regulation and protein folding in generating heritable phenotypic variation. We advance complex trait genetics by ascertaining uncharacterized sequence variation and by resolving the relative importance of additive variation and epistasis in complex traits. Lastly, to improve the genotype-...
Jen Sheen: Probing Hidden Genetics in Dynamic Signaling Networks
We are probing plant life by developing simple and powerful tools and strategies to unravel plant signal transduction pathways extending from sensors/receptors to signaling cascades and target genes and proteins that are central to energy and metabolic homeostasis, innate immunity, stress adaptation, cell fate specification, plant shape and architecture determination. Our investigations are...
Diversified Farming Systems Roundtable with Matt Liebman
The development of modern, industrial agriculture has been characterized by large reductions in biological diversity, both across landscapes and within farming systems. Loss of biodiversity is particularly evident in the U.S. Corn Belt.
Christina Warinner: The ancestral human microbiome: the evolution and ecology of our microbial self
I am interested in evolutionary medicine and how understanding the ways in which humans have co-evolved with environments, diets, and pathogens allows us to better understand health and disease. My research draws on the methods and theoretical frameworks of several fields, including: molecular biology, archaeology, archaeogenetics (ancient DNA), stable isotope-based paleodietary and...