News
March 27, 2023
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 MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, are looking at this process and its potential to change how we understand the ways photosynthetic organisms adapt to environmental challenges like high temperatures.
March 20, 2023
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, or GLBRC, another five years of funding to develop sustainable alternatives to gasoline, diesel and other hydrocarbon fuels as well as products currently made from petroleum. The center will receive $27.5 million for 2023 research.
February 10, 2023
Michigan State University has again been named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars — establishing MSU as the only research institution in the nation to achieve this status in the last nine consecutive years. With nine scholars, including the PRL's Gregg Howe, MSU is also notably among the top five-highest-producing institutions this year.
January 25, 2023
By explaining a photosynthetic peculiarity in switchgrass, MSU researchers from the Walker lab may have unlocked even more of the plant’s potential.
January 18, 2023
Researchers from the Vermaas lab created a more efficient tool to solve the problem of ring piercings in molecular simulations. This work is published in Biomolecules.
January 9, 2023
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, to team up with statistician and Assistant Professor Chih-Li Sung from the Department of Statistics and Probability.
January 3, 2023
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.
December 26, 2022
For research, plants are frequently grown under stable lighting, which does not reflect natural conditions. In a series of experiments with changing light conditions, simulating the natural interplay of light and shadow, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm and the College of Natural Science at MSU reveal the importance of two key proteins for the dynamic control of photosynthesis.
December 22, 2022
Donghee Hoh is the 2022 recipient of the Kende Award, which acknowledges the best doctoral dissertation in plant sciences at Michigan State University over the last two years.
December 15, 2022
With nearly $11M from DOE, MSU is leading a collaboration to usher the US into new frontiers of clean energy with inspiration from microbes.
