Federica Brandizzi, MSU Foundation Professor of plant biology, is the recipient of the MSU Innovation Center’s 2020 Innovator of the Year Award in recognition of her research on increasing plant size to maximize the space needed for more crops.

New research is refining our understanding of how light wavelengths impact how plants develop their chloroplasts.

Beronda Montgomery, MSU Foundation Professor, was listed as one of the 100 inspiring black scientists in America by CrossTalk, the official blog of Cell Press, a leading publisher of cutting-edge biomedical and physical science research and reviews.

The protein, peroxiredoxin Q, is known to maintain a healthy balance of chemicals and energy levels in chloroplasts. The new research shows the protein also impacts the system that produces chloroplast membranes.

Anne will primarily write In Brief articles that highlight recently published papers in the journal. The In Briefs are targeted at scientists who browse the journal and want to read a summarized version of a study.

The CAMTA system - which is known to protect plants from cold weather - plays a newly discovered role: when bacteria invade a leaf, CAMTA warns neighboring, unaffected leaves to prepare for invasion.

When algae get stressed, they hibernate and store energy in forms that we can use to make biofuels. Understanding how stress impacts algal hibernation could help scientists lower the cost of biofuels production.

Recent models are telling us that, as our climate warms up, pests will cause more damage to crops. But these models do not factor how infested plants react to rising temperatures. If we do, plants may suffer a worse fate.

When electrons move, they are the electricity that powers life. But they are hard to pin down. The newly engineered system could guide electron transfer over long distances, powering future applications in medicine or 'green' fuel production.

The article revolves around an exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on our food supply’s vulnerability to plant disease, using an unconventional conduit: early 20th-century glass models of rotting fruit.

Berkley Walker's DNA synthesis proposal has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, to study how high temperatures impact plant enzymes that support photosynthesis.

For decades, scientists have unsuccessfully tried to dial up amino acid production in crops. One roadblock might be the target of rapamycin (TOR) protein, which detects nutrient availability in plant cells in order to control cell growth and metabolism.

Chase Lindeboom and Hainite Tuitupou will earn stipends in support of their education and will officially receive their awards at banquet which will take place in April 2020.

A protein from cyanobacteria has been redesigned into a homing beacon to attract molecular payloads. The long-term goal: to organize resources inside living cells for medical or industrial applications.

The honor, bestowed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, recognizes members for extraordinary achievements in advancing science.

The Highly Cited Researchers list, compiled by Clarivate Analytics, includes scientists who have been most cited by peers over the past decade. In 2019, fewer than 0.1% of the world's researchers have earned this exclusive distinction.

Cheryl Kerfeld will lead a team of five research groups in a $3.4 million NSF Understanding the Rules of Life grant to engineer a synthetic cell. The aim is to tackle two key science and engineering research areas: building a synthetic cell and epigenetics.

The award recognizes the best doctoral dissertation in the plant sciences at Michigan State University over the last two years.